New member- Riffly

[Riffly]

Hi everyone, I am a biologist who is breeding glass shrimps, riffle shrimps (one of my favourites), red claw, micro algae, zooplankton and a local endangered fish species (honey blue eye rainbows). I am doing private research into using algae/zooplankton as a sustainable food source for aquaculture and a food source for developing countries. 

My main focus right now is to breed riffle shrimps in large numbers as they are filter feeders and work well with my plankton systems. I look forward to contributing and learning from you all. 
 

cheers

[sdlTBfanUK]

Welcome, and I hope you find your time on here as useful and pleasurable! 

[jayc]

Welcome @Riffly,

your project there sounds very interesting. Where are you from?

It will be interesting to know how you cultivate zooplankton, as a number of shrimp species depend on that during their larvae phase (ie right after coming out of the egg).

Would you mind sharing your experiences with obtaining enough plankton to raise shrimplets that depend on it? Amano shrimp and a couple of Australian natives (Darwin Algae shrimp) that could be bred in captivity if people have a reliable source of food for those early weeks in the shrimp's life.

 

I have tried using chlorella : spirulina 50:50 mix to create a diy green water, but that has mixed results. Plankton + the green water would be more successful.

Edited January 15 by jayc

[Riffly]

Hi Jayc, I am from Sunshine Coast, and am happy to share my experience with algae. I am working on a concept which I call algae aquaponics. Algae drives nutrient and energy cycles for my aquaponics. 

I have a 1000l ibc  which I harvest algae daily, which feeds:  3 by 200l drums (2 honey blue eyes fry, one riffle shrimps) , a 1000l ibc breeder tank for honey blue eyes, 300l glass shrimp container, ibc for red claws, and aquaponics.

Riffles are amazing I throw in 10l of concentrated algae mix daily and it goes clear within 1hr. Glass shrimp breed like crazy with constant algae. 

Growing algae is easy, the hard bit is managing boom and bust cycles. Algae is so productive it kills itself with its own success. Below is a summary of how I manage algae: 

1) constantly harvest the algae to thin it out;

2) feed it to your shrimp; then collect solids. I have a bioreactor in with shrimps to convert ammonia to nitrates. 

3) mineralise  the solid waste from the shrimp, converting it to cation/ anion nutrient. 

3) return  the mineralised nutrients (cations/anions/nitrates)  back to the algae.

4) algae/zooplankton goes crazy. Rinse and repeat above process. 

It’s a circular economy that keeps on giving. 

Im in the process of developing a training course (and eventually a web site) on how to build the systems which I can let people know when finished. 
 

cheers

[jayc]

@Riffly that would be great! 

Feel free to create a new article or post and I will make sure it is highly visible to all.