What is your Selective Breeding Protocol?

[emaratilicious]

Hi,

 

I'm wondering if any has his/her own protocol or techniques of Selective breeding?

 

Like do you start randomly hoping to find unique off-spring? or you start with specific Variants?

Male to Female Ratio?

Specific food?

How do you handle saddle or berried shrimp?

Do you isolate the juveniles?

any specific water chemistry you follow?

How to strength the strain?

[wego21]

Hello, this is also what I would like to know. I would like to add additional questions:

- Do you guys keep the saddled shrimp together with the male in the separate tank until the female molds and is fertilized or until it is berried?

- What do you put into the breeding isolation box (for example in tank acrylic box)? (probably some moss, anything else?)

- When do you scoop the saddled female into the breeding box?

- What if you can't see the saddle for example in CRS or CBS where the color makes it difficult to see the saddle?

 

To answer question of emaratilicious about the water chemistry, I would keep it the same as in your main tank as if the shrimp are breeding there it means the parameters are acceptable for them. The food as well, I would stick to the original diet that you put into the tank. 

[chan011]

bringing this topic back up to the top to see if anyone has any input? i am curious myself what ratios and methods successful breeders are using.

[DevinB]

I am pretty much a noob( about 1 and a half years into breeding Taiwan bees) but I personally keep 2 10 gallon tanks with 2 hob breeder boxes on each tank for selective breeding. One houses my reds and red bolts the other houses blacks and blue bolts. I do selective breeding in the boxes until babies are spawned then remove the parents and let the babies grow out enough that I can take pictures and identify them to their parents (about 1/4" usually) and then will do my next project in the second breeder box while the first grow out. The rest of the shrimp in the mean time breed naturally in the main body of the tank. It works pretty good for me at the time being, I can continually selectively breed while also letting nature take its course and lead to some diferent patterns and more diverse genetics. I also add new stock to each tank every 6 months to make sure there is genetic diversity.

 

Edit for clarity: I only selectively breed from previous breeding projects that I have the pictures and info to know their genetics, or twice a year I will buy new shrimp and  add them into my selective breeding program.