If you have both male and female ghost shrimps in your tank then it is normal that you will see the females carrying eggs in their belly every few weeks. And soon after that, they hatch the eggs in the water from which new offspring grow in the tank water. However, after the eggs are hatched many get ruined soon after the hatching and many get eaten by other big species.
The female ghost shrimps carry almost 20-30 pin-head sized eggs in their belly. But in the end, only 5-6 baby shrimps are seen in the tank because of not taking proper care of the eggs. People who want to breed ghost shrimps and increase the number of ghost shrimp need to know how to take care of the eggs else most of the eggs will get ruined.
So, today in this article I will explain everything related to how to take care of ghost shrimp’s eggs. If you are interested to know and want to increase the number of ghost shrimps in your tank then please continue reading the article!
Care Guide For Ghost Shrimp Eggs
Keep The Tank Environment Healthy:
In a healthy environment, the eggs get their proper development and turn into baby shrimps without facing any kind of problems. A healthy environment ensures the new baby shrimp’s good adulthood. So, the first step for taking care of the eggs is to maintain a healthy environment.
If you don’t maintain a healthy environment the eggs can get ruined soon after the ghost shrimp lays it in the water. Even, in an unhealthy environment, a female pregnant will not be able to concentrate on breeding. This can ruin the eggs in the female shrimp’s belly as well.
So, the environment needs to be healthy to make sure the eggs get proper development.
The whole time you have to make sure the water is clean and the oxygen level in the water is at the right level.
Things You Can Do To Keep The Environment Healthy:
- Change 30% water once a week and add the same amount of water in the tank as it helps to keep the water clean.
- Maintain the bioload because if it gets high the tank water will get dirty fast and make the environment unhealthy.
- Use a filter for the tank to keep the water purified and healthy.
- Plant live plants as it plays a great role in the ecosystem.
Maintain The Water Parameters
Maintaining the water parameters is also important because the eggs can not develop properly if the parameters are not maintained. Ghost shrimp’s eggs are very sensitive and the eggs do not survive if there is an imbalance in the water parameters.
Sometimes, soon after the eggs are laid in the water, those get ruined if the water parameters are not in the right range. So, I think you already understood that maintaining the water parameters is important if you want to keep the eggs alive. Maintaining the optimal range of the water parameters is highly recommended than maintaining the limit ranges.
Optimal and limit ranges of the water parameters for ghost shrimp are :
| Parameter | Optimal Range | Limits |
| Temperature | 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit | 62-82 degrees Fahrenheit |
| pH | 6.5- 7.5 | 7-8 |
| GH | 5-8 ppm | 3-15 ppm |
| KH | 5-8 ppm | 3-12 ppm |
| TDS | 150-200 ppm | 100-400 ppm |
Things To Do To Maintain The Water Parameter Ranges:
- Keep the water clean and never leave it dirty for too long.
- Test the parameters twice a week so that if you see them changing you can take actions earlier.
- Cycle the water once a week but do not change a large amount of water.
Separate The Pregnant Shrimp If Needed:
There have been many cases where the eggs after being laid into the water were eaten by the other tank species. So, if you want to avoid this you can simply separate the pregnant shrimp into a new tank.
When you see eggs in a female shrimp’s belly separate it into a new tank. Use a net and slowly pick the shrimp and take it out from the tank. Then put it and keep it into the new tank until it lays the eggs.
After the eggs are being laid you can now put the shrimp back into the previous tank. Then wait for the baby shrimps to get bigger and after that, you can put them back into the previous tank too.
And if you have space problems and cannot separate the pregnant shrimp into a new tank then there is another option to separate it from the tank mates. You can use a net divider in the tank and separate all the tank mates on one side and the pregnant shrimp on another side.
The divider will not allow the other tank mates to eat the eggs. After the baby shrimps become a little bit large in size then you can remove the divider from the tank.
How Long Do Ghost Shrimp Eggs Take To Hatch?
If you keep your ghost shrimps into a good and healthy environment they become pregnant every few weeks. After they get pregnant you will see green colored pinhead-sized eggs in their belly. As ghost shrimps are transparent the eggs are very visible.
It takes 21-30 days to hatch the eggs. Soon after the eggs get hatched, those can be barely seen in the tank because the eggs are very tiny in size. Until the eggs are hatched, you will see the ghost shrimp moving its belly continuously with its legs if you observe the shrimp properly.
Conclusion
Taking care of the eggs of ghost shrimps is very easy which you already came to know through my article. All you need to do is maintain the factors that I mentioned above. So, only a little maintenance and you will be able to easily take care of the ghost shrimp’s eggs.
If you don’t see any baby shrimps even though you took good care of the eggs, there is nothing to worry about because when they are small in size they hide themselves most of the time. So, you will barely see any roaming in the tank. Wait for some weeks and you will see your tank full of baby shrimps.
I tried to include all the necessary information regarding how you can take care of ghost shrimp’s eggs and I hope it will help you to take care of the eggs in a proper way.
Happy shrimp keeping!
