From the shrimp cutter, I had received a high-carrying female of the sand shrimp.

Since the shrimps are almost always buried, the release of the larvae lasted almost a full day. The sand shrimp rose slightly every 30-60min from the sand and the next swing larvae swam in the aquarium.

The sand prawns carry thousands of larvae.

I fished only a fraction of the tiny larvae.

There were 2 rearing methods used.

Once a small 6-liter aquarium with North Sea water, by raising the Zooplanktongehalt and had introduced about 2mm thick Wattboden.

On the other hand, a 1-liter glass with zooplankton-free North Sea water, to which I admitted daily fresh Artemianauplien. The glass was slightly ventilated.

Day 1

What strikes, the larvae swim head up and legs down.
Day 2

Photos from the small aquarium. The small larvae are very lively.

Day 5

Photo 3 shows a freshly skinned larva, still with the skin next to it.

Approach 1 in the small aquarium is over, no larva is visible.

Approach 2 in the glass continues to run well.

Day 10

Day 11

The pleopods (swimming legs) develop slowly, yet there are only small bumps on the bottom.
Day 12

Day 15

On the right photo, the Pleopods are already well developed.
Day 17

Almost finished small shrimp, another skinning missing.
Day 19

.... and the little sand shrimp is ready.

The small sand prawns were then placed in an aquarium with chinchilla sand (grain size 0.1-0.2mm), this sand is extremely fine and looks compared to the small shrimp like gravel.

Sand pruning shears under the microscope (Exuvie)

Text und Pictures: Steffi Müller