I don't know what a marine mud shrimp is, but it sounds interesting
To tell you the truth, I personally wouldn't pay for these cultures unless I had NO other resource. Many hobbyists will help provide a baggie of sand or macro that has some of these life forms in them already.
Here's a simple project for you that will result in a swarm of lil' buggies for feeding, breeding, trading, and your amusement:
Get a 10 gallon tank, cheapo..doesn't have to look pretty at all. A cover of some sorts to help with evaporation and preclude dust and other airborne problems is recommended. I use plexiglass for my covers, but a standard AGA plastic cover will do. No need for the lightbulb.
Get a sponge filter. NOT a power filter/cascading etc....a chunk o' sponge and a lenght of flexible airline. Get a small length (6 inches or so) of rigid airline too.
Get a small air pump for connection to the sponge filter. I've also used a "T" to run one length of airline to the sponge filter and another for a rigid airline, free standing bubbler on the other side of the tank. This helps to ensure good flow.
Get a few pounds of mature
live rock from a reputable
LFS. You may pay more per pound because you are buying very little, but you need just a few pounds...and at least you can tell if it is truly cured.
You could also use a very thin layer of sand, but I don't. I like to siphon the bottom of my "reactors" to keep the sludge levels down. NOT ELIMINATED... remember, one man's sludge is another beasts bonanza!!
Put the rock into prepared salt water in the 10 gallon tank. Connect the airline to the pump. If using the "T", connect the airline to the rigid tubing as well and position in the far corner (from the filter). Power the sucker up.....
Wait.... wait...wait.. after a day or two, put in some pulverized, powdered flake (just a pinch) and like 1 tsp of phyto or 1/2 cup
DIY greenwater (remember Rob's podcast...
DIY=thin culture...Store bought=dense culture.... ....wait...wait...wait... a few days later, if the water is clear again, put in more greenwater and pulverized flake food...wait..wait again...and repeat as needed whenever you see the water go from light green to clear.
There is no need for light during this process... you are growing copepods, isopods, mysid shrimp...anything that came with your rock. They do not need any more than the ambient light from the room..and, if your tank can be kept in an area that is "room temperature", you do not need a heater.
Within a couple of weeks, you will see the small Munnidae Isopods & Harpacticoid Copepods on the glass proper. You will also see a lot of gammarus amphipods scuttling amongst the rocks. If you are lucky, you may see some opossum shrimp (Marine Mysid) scooting around as well. They are easier to see in the dark, with a flashlight. Their eyes (I think..may be part of the carapace) will reflect in the light.
I have two such "Dark Reactors" going in my home. I couldn't even begin to count the numbers of pods within each. It takes just a month or so before you can start siphoning some out for food, or to repopulate your display tank.
Keep in mind....the gammarus amphipods are "king of the hill". They will devour the copepods and isopods and will eventually become the sole proprietor of the reactor. I've siphoned them out of one system as I find them, and put them into the second. I now have one that grows nothing but amphipods and another that has copepods, isopods and mysid.
Finally, Marine Mysid are cannibalistic. They WILL eat their own. If you do not feed that reactor properly, you will find that your population gets to a "threshold" and just maintains itself. In my system, when I see the young shrimp schooling (they stay to a low flow corner and look like little swarms of sperm), I siphon them out to another system (5 gallon) to ensure I don't lose my culture.
There are a TON of reactor plans out there. Some involve tubes, media etc. I prefer the "au naturale" process that I'm using. I will add that from time to time, I'll put in some filter media in the reactor (I loosen the pad, decompressing it and making the pores/fibers looser and wider) so I can later move that media to my display tank or fry tanks. Otherwise, it's just
live rock condos.
Dave
