# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Invertebrates >  Fairy Shrimp?

## stormhawk

Just a question for the fellas here:

Has anyone tried his/her hand at culturing live freshwater Fairy Shrimp from the nauplii to adult?

The reason I am asking this is that I came across an interesting tank full of adult freshwater Fairy Shrimp at the Betta Club Singapore (BCS) booth during Aquarama 2007, here in Singapore a few months ago.

The species in question is _Streptocephalus sirindhornae_, native to Thailand, and is beginning to be used in significant quantities to replace the use of Artemia in raising fish fry.

Right now I see the eggs available for sale on Thai betta sites, going by info on Arofanatics and BettaBite.com, and also Aquabid, via Thai suppliers.

Understandably, there are species of fairy shrimp native to the US and elsewhere, so if possible, a little input on their culture methods would be nice.  :Wink: 

I've tried trawling the web for some decent culturing information, but most of the stuff are very minor, lacking the necessary details pertaining to culture methods. The PDFs with culture methods in laboratory settings are subscription-required stuff, so I won't bother with those for now.

Image of _Streptocephalus sirindhornae_, found during my Google searches:


Male


Female

Originating website:
http://www.katomplakad.com/modules.p...=article&sid=4

I believe the images came from their original description papers.

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## nonamethefish

I currently have some "vernal pool dirt" I bought from a guy which collected it in Kansas. It yields all kinds of cool creatures...including fairy shrimp.

They should be fairly easy to raise. Especially if you've raise brine shrimp. I would just add some dilute organic matter(topsoil, coconut coir) or similar and maybe some greenwater/powdered food on the occasion.

Getting them to breed in large quantities is a different matter.

The cool thing about these is, unlike brineshrimp which become a bit disoriented in freshwater, fairy shrimp are alert and quick. The ones I were hard to catch even with a pipette. If they were alarmed they would start executing escape manuevers similar to those used by WWI fighter planes. Brine shrimp also do this, but no where near the speed of fairy shrimp. My killifish sometimes found fairy shrimp a challenge to catch...taking several tries and chases around the tank. I don't think brine shrimp have any aquatic natural predators, but fairy shrimp share their pools often with tadpole shrimp which will eat them if they can get their little legs on them!

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## whuntley

I would tend to question their nutritional value.

_Artemia sanfransiciana_ are scattered through several inland lakes between SF Bay and the Great Salt Lake. The only ones useful for fish foods are from the latter locations. [Gulls are the main reason we have only one species all over our huge SW desert area.]

Detailed study of the value of high-mountain-lake brine shrimp, using young killies as the test fish, have shown that there is no growth at all with the inland lake shrimp vs fast growth with the bay shrimp.

Fairy shrimp may be in that same category, and for the same reasons. They thrive in more barren pools than the Bay and GSL _Artemia_.

Wright

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## imported_lampeye

I would actually question the study...

Were newly-hatched nauplii used? What was the hatching method? What was the feeding method? Is there any difference in hatch time between the two types of _Artemia_? Was a nutritional analysis done on the two types of shrimp, to eliminate the possiblitity of experimental error due to one or more of the factors previously mentioned?

It would actually make more sense, from an evolutionary standpoint, for shrimp from more barren ponds to have more nutritional nauplii - they would need a better head start.

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## whuntley

> I would actually question the study...
> 
> Were newly-hatched nauplii used? What was the hatching method? What was the feeding method? Is there any difference in hatch time between the two types of _Artemia_? Was a nutritional analysis done on the two types of shrimp, to eliminate the possiblitity of experimental error due to one or more of the factors previously mentioned?
> 
> It would actually make more sense, from an evolutionary standpoint, for shrimp from more barren ponds to have more nutritional nauplii - they would need a better head start.


My memory of the study is sketchy, at best. [My memory is my second-shortest thing! :Opps:  ]

The _Artemia_ were only adults, not newly-hatched.The fish used were a killy species, but I have forgotten which one. The only test was for gain in body weight. There was none with lake _Artemia_, but substantial with Bay shrimp.

The primary complaint I have heard about Fairy Shrimp is their extremely low reproduction rate, as compared to brine shrimp. No one has raised enough here to be useful as food, and we have not had a source of viable cysts, in any quantity. 

Wright

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## mozaqua

Hi guys,

Just thought I would add my two cents on fairy shrimp.
Culturing the fairy shrimp from what I have seen is Not as easy as Brine shrimp!
I got some eggs of the Thai fairy shrimp, and they have a very poor hatch rate, while brine shrimp eggs hatch every time! Also there are countless different species of fairy shrimp, some of which are yet to be discovered. So their culturing method will most likely vary significantly. Having different temperature, PH, oxygen, mineral/food requirements. I have seen how they grow the fairy shrimp in Thailand, it is not a small scale project. There are a few species coming out of South America (Brazil) that are claimed to be the same size as brine shrimp, but the catch is you have to harvest and dry the eggs before they can be hatched. Brine shrimp cultures can be maintained continuously if kept at the proper salinity. (see the other thread I replied to on this).

Certainly it would be interesting to find a fairy shrimp species that can be cultured in small containers by hobbyist, if anyone has found one that works let me know  :Very Happy:  
As for the nutritional value, not sure, but probably just as good as any other food. You can always gut-load them with Spirulina or something before feeding your fish, although this is probably unnecessary if they get the right nutrients to begin with.

Regards,
Mosiah

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## zep_betta

where can you buy this vernal pool dirt? i am interested in buying.

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