The 3 clear/gray ones are a few of the amanos I raised myself in saltwater. They're still babies but they're already fighting with cherry shrimp over algae wafers 😂 usually the amanos win, even at that size, but it looks like I caught someone losing this time
This my unnamed adult female bamboo, I've had her about 3-4 months and she's been pregnant 44 days now. I've heard they don't release their larvae all at once, she's looking slightly less berried than usual and I spotted a single zoea in the tank today. Moved her to my amano breeding tank where it should be safer for the zoea. Now we wait and pray she doesn't do the bamboo shrimp thing and crawl out of her new tank
Planning to run the bamboos with my amanos in the saltwater grow out tank, so I won't know for sure which are the bamboos until the amanos all morph out first
Edit: she wouldn't eat or move in the amano tank so I moved her back to her 30 gallon with her friends. The other berried female immediately zoomed over to greet her, which I have never seen lol.
Less optimistic about catching the occasional zoea in the 30 gallon with high flow, but I'll try my best to keep an eye out
You guys are going to love this one, we've got a DIY automatic zoea trap in the works. Here's a little sneak peek! Takes 10-15 minutes to catch a whole batch of zoea in my 20 gallon long.
Beta files and US sales should be available and posted in the near future. All credit goes to moderator and founder u/IntrovertedInverts, I'll let him take over the posting about it as soon as the files are up!
Hey everyone, thanks again for joining and helping to get this started! I just wanted to let you all know I just added post and user flair :)
It is not mandatory at this time but it would be helpful to use going forward. If you have any suggestions for flair I should add, please leave a comment below!
(Announcement flair is public right now but intended for moderators, please ask for permission prior to using it)
We also just changed the rules regarding sales, it is no longer no sales allowed, however if you intend to sell or advertise, please contact me/ mods for approval first.
I am currently refining the details of this method so this is just the basic setup for now but I will make a video in the future. I currently have other people trying this method but it is a success sample size of two at the moment. If you can try it and verify success it would be very helpful. This is also not the only way to do it, just the most successful and low effort way that has worked for me. All the effort really goes into water changes and catching the larvae when they're ready.
Anyway here's what's I've had success with so far (not mine but see avatar aquatics YT series for much more background info, I find it very important prior to trying my method):
•5-10 gallon tank filled with 17-35ppt marine saltwater mixed in RO (I use 8 gallon and 25ppt instant ocean sea salt)
•Tank lid (preferably glass)
•Tank sterilized and cycled 10 days or less
•Heater in the 70s (I use 79°F)
•Dose live tetraselmis phytoplankton for food every 3-4 days (just enough to keep the water green and cloudy, not enough to culture. Do not add F2 fertilizer to grow out tank, it will kill your larvae.)
•Water changes aligned with feeding schedule (every 3-4 days)
•Adjustable air pump, bare air tubing, no air stone (adjusted just strong enough to keep all zoea suspended)
•Water siphon with coffee filter affixed for water changes (keep extra saltwater on hand)
•Full spectrum light at 16-24 hours
•Turkey baster and coffee filter for larvae transfer
•Good focused beam flashlight
•RO water for evaporation top offs and chalk or dry erase marker to mark water level
I simplified and changed a couple steps for my method but once again, please watch the Avatar Aquatics series for background information, it's long but you can find it here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ2BHWmuCi5anDSCkPJWCdD4AGF5x5Wih&si=lZRJHojdOwGV1Pvf
I suggest this video specifically because I find it to have the most relevant information: https://youtu.be/T3g6mf9acHo?is=B5YqzM5fVURQ9Nl0
In my last post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/AmanoShrimps/s/X5VPnVOGcN ) I described a potential emergency and it appears I was right, I have lost about half the zoea I had and I am down to about 200. My live phytoplankton arrives tomorrow and I should be able to fix the issue immediately but the damage has already been done sadly. Hoping the rest have good survival rates. Will keep updating for this batch. (Subsequent runs will not be posted unless I learn something big, in an attempt not to spam the subreddit.)
Here's my notes on my success so far: Batches introduced 8/11-8/21 At the beginning of the morphs (8/28 - 9/6) there were 9-15 total post larvae
As of 9/7 there are about 500 zoea still alive.
Immediately lost track of total post larvae, will be counting the ones I actually caught and moved to freshwater going forward
(9/7) 12 total PL caught and moved directly to freshwater beginning 8/31. 3 PL in 10 gallon tank, 9 PL in 30 gallon tank
(9/8) Ran out of phyto, began substituting with expired phytofeast and golden pearls 5-50 micron. Began 15-20% water changes about once a day
(9/9-9/10) Down to maybe 400-450 zoea. 24 total PL caught. 10 PL in 10 gallon, 14 PL in 30 gallon
(9/11-9/12) 46 total PL caught. 10 PL in 10 gallon, 36 PL in 30 gallon
(9/13-9/14) 52 total PL caught. 10 PL in 10 gallon, 42 PL in 30 gallon. Had a die off, down to 150-200 zoea.
I have no idea where this guy came from but he's about 1/3 the size of the other amanos and I'm 100% sure I didn't have a leucistic one when I added them. I've missed a few larvae and left them in the freshwater but it should be scientifically impossible for them to develop without saltwater. I'm not going to speculate about where he came from because I have no idea but he's definitely an amano and I am confused lol
This run has 3 batches of larvae, introduced from 8/11 to 8/21 (refer to my previous posts for more info)
As of 9/10/2026 this run is still going quite well barring a potential emergency that I will mention in a second. Current numbers are: 50-75 total morphed post larvae (23 of which have been caught and returned to freshwater), and about 400-450 zoea still alive. I've had a few die off from what looks like molting issues but numbers appear minimal.
The potential emergency I'm having is that I have used a total of 1.25 gallons of (lightly cultured) phytoplankton in the past 30 days and I finally ran out completely about 2 days ago. I put in an order for a gallon of phyto, it was supposed to be here today but I haven't received any updates or notifications that it's even shipped yet. Currently all I have to supplement is expired reef nutrition phytofeast blend and golden pearls 5-50 micron, I am using a mix of the two and carrying out water changes 1-2 times a day to ensure larval survival until phyto arrives. I have had failure with both these foods before so I am quite worried but haven't noticed any problems yet.
Either way I started with a breeding stock of 20-22 amanos and now I have at least double what I started with so that's awesome!
Why do they insist on carrying so many eggs they can't walk? (Also I know the shrimp on the left is on its way out, GH/KH+ on the way)
Hey everyone, glad to see you here! This is intended to be a niche sub for only filter feeding shrimp, with a slight focus on breeding. Essentially this is a filter feeder specific version of r/AmanoShrimps (one of my favorite subs!). You may post almost anything about filter feeder shrimp but please read this whole post first.
I know this is mostly uncharted territory in the area of breeding and there are bound to be disagreements, all I ask is that you keep it civil. Sources for claims are helpful too when possible.
Tank/ shrimp pics or vids, questions, breeding projects and more are all welcome :)
The only things explicitly prohibited in this sub are sales activity and shrimp that do not filter feed.
Here's a Russian bamboo shrimp breeding report I found with auto dubbing, not sure how exact the translation is but it seems like there's some good information. I believe these to be atyopsis mollucensis.
https://youtu.be/uUUdJkF0d\\\_c?is=RWWPtwQH6wBFaVx8
I will say there is a few questionable things in there such as culturing the phytoplankton using honey rather than f2 fertilizer, as well as not mixing the salt with RO water.
As I understand this process, it should be carried out in a similar fashion to amano shrimp breeding, with the caveat that the salinity should not exceed 25.5ppt. Another big issue with bamboo shrimp as compared to amanos seems to be that bamboos release their eggs over much longer periods of time, meaning you would need to do daily checks and turn the filter every night to ensure larval survival. Even if you have no fish and a sponge on your filter intake, the adult bamboo shrimp will filter feed on their own larvae.
This community will be taken down in about a week and we will be moving over to r/FilterFeederShrimp, please join the new community :)
I intended for r/BambooShrimp to be geared towards all filter feeder shrimp but I don't believe I made the sub name broad enough. So before this community has the chance to take off I would like to move traffic toward the new sub to fix the naming issue. Thank you all for joining this one and I hope to see you over there!
Hey guys I'm back once again to update on my amano breeding project. As of right now I have finally had success, albeit small; so far I have had 9-12 zoea morph into shrimp and 3 have been transferred back to freshwater and placed in my neo tank. There are about 450-500 zoea still alive and well.
The majority of these are day 15 larvae so we've got maybe a week before I find out the numbers from the whole batch. You can see they're bigger, faster, and more shrimp shaped than my previous posts. If you look close near the bottom around the 23 second mark you can see a post larvae make a cameo. Super excited! Unless I have a major die off, my next post on this should be the final results :)
I have answered a lot of questions on this so feel free to refer to my posts and comments sections. I am glad to answer specific questions but, for the basics, please refer to the Avatar Aquatics YouTube video series on the topic.
When I turned on the tank light she was not in her usually fanning spot. I sat and watched for about a half hour because I just had a feeling she was going to moult based on her behaviour. So I stayed still and then grabbed my camera as she began to jerk. The recording was actually like 15 min long but I only showed you guys the main action, although all the other pre moult behaviours I found extremely
interesting!! This is her first time since being with me. I feel so grateful to share this with you all and to have witnessed this myself. Enjoy
I figured this would be helpful so here's my notes from my attempts at breeding amano shrimp over the years and documentation of my rookie mistakes. Take the 'failure points' sections with a grain of salt, there is a billion things that can go wrong and it is quite hard to figure out which variables caused the failure.
(1st run, summer 2024)
2.5 gallon, (8-12hr?) bulb lights, rolling bubbles, room temperature, instant ocean mixed to 35ppt, no water changes. Fed reef nutrition phytofeast blend a couple drops a day.
Results: Complete failure by day 14-16
Failure points: evaporation top ups with treated tap water instead of RO water, dead rotting phyto, little to no water changes
Potential fixes: weekly water changes, larger vessel, live phyto rather than preserved, switch to full spectrum light and increase light duration, feed more.
(2nd run July 2026)
(Aquarium authority low tech method) 10 gallon, 24 hr bulb lights, air pump with air stone, 80° F, 25ppt, water changes every 4 days. Fed ciliates and golden pearls at half a tiny creamer scoop a day. Cycled tank and ghost fed for a month and a half.
Results: complete failure by day 5. Cilliate population 3/4 eaten by day 3, had to rely on powdered food only.
Failure points: started tank cycle by shaking out freshwater filter which introduced excess bacteria and mulm, overfed powdered food, 50% water change on day 4 stirred up rotting powdered food and excess bacteria during their first molt
Potential fixes: Do not introduce freshwater bacteria, feed pinprick amounts of food, water change every 1-3 days, switch to live phyto, 16 hour light, remove air stone and use rolling bubbles
(3rd run August 2026)
(Avatar Aquatics method minus rotifers) 10 gallon, 16 hr full spectrum light, glass lid, less powerful air pump with light rolling bubbles, 79° F, 25.5ppt, 1 ½ gallon water changes twice a week. Feeding fertilized tetraselmis. Evaporation sterilized tank and supplies for 48 hours. Isopropyl sterilized phyto culture vessel. Dry cycled tank starting 8/3 until phyto introduction on 8/13. Fed 180ml tetraselmis 8/13. Straggler larvae introduced 8/11, main batch introduced 8/21. Fed 48.8 oz of cultured tetraselmis 8/21. Fed 700ml 9/3.
Results: SUCCESS! 8/28-8/31 four zoea morphed to post larvae, removed one and put directly into freshwater on 8/31. As of 9/3 there are about 500 zoea still alive (more updates on the way for this specific run)
(4th run August 24th 2026)
(Avatar Aquatics method) Isopropyl and evaporation sterilized 2 gallon tank, 10 gallon air pump and rolling bubbles, full spectrum light 24 hours a day, no heater, 24-28 ppt. Cultured tetraselmis in the tank. Larvae introduced via k cup for sterility. Batch introduced 8/24, added 16 oz of phyto 8/26.
Results: down to 40-50 larvae by 8/30. Phyto seemed completely healthy
(Probable) Failure points: 24 hr lighting schedule, air pump too strong, culturing phyto in the tank (maybe?), potential contaminants due to no lid.
Potential fixes: add lid, dose phyto rather than culturing in tank, reduce air flow
Looking to rehome my mutt guppies as a package, about 30 available for $20. They are completely healthy and mostly medium sized juveniles, about 3/4 of them are female. Local pickup in Grand Rapids, Wyoming area only. You don't have to bring a bucket or anything, I have bags leftover from my time working at a pet store.
As for why I'm rehoming, my bamboo shrimp are pregnant and the fish will eat the larvae. I just had success breeding amano shrimp in saltwater and I want to take a swing at breeding bamboos.
Can't wait to take a swing at raising these babies!
Not the greatest video but I just wanted to show you guys how fast these things are. It took me 3 days to catch a single one. I'm going to have to just catch out the remaining phototaxic larvae and acclimate the fully morphed ones back to freshwater in their original tank. Also this guy is about half the size of a neo baby, after I put him back in freshwater he sat next to some neos that are under a week old so I could get a good size comparison.
(repost sorry but the pic on the last one wasn't great)
We're so close to success! Here's one of the first amano shrimp I've ever successfully raised past the larvae stage, there's 3 so far. 2 of 3 are still orange so they aren't ready to transfer to freshwater yet, but they are swimming forwards and hiding from light and are definitely fully morphed shrimp. The camera won't pick it up but I can also see it eating, and swimming with it's pleopods. I know it's just 3 but I can't believe I actually finally raised any to the juvenile stage at all. I've tried and failed twice before with different methods but 3rd time's the charm I guess!
Anyway, I don't know if I'll be able to transfer them to freshwater successfully or how many more will morph out but I will update and post better pictures soon!
Also I put parameters and method on most posts but I am using the Avatar Aquatics method (minus rotifers). This tank is a 10 gallon with 25ppt saltwater and an air pump, a full spectrum light, and a heater. Right now I feed purely tetraselmis, keep the light on 16 hours a day, and use a heater at 80° F (26.6° C) but that all may change in the future. Still thinking about supplementing powdered food or rotifers. I'm not recommending doing it how I do it just yet because I'm not sure how many will survive, it's just 3 right now, but I will answer questions about what I've done so far.