Re: gohst shrimp
Yes, eggs are a good & healthy sign. It usually signals that your water conditions and other environmental factors are too a shrimp's liking.
As for baby shrimplets surviving, it is not out of the question. Part of the confusion on this matter is the fact that there are several (many?) different species of shrimps that are marketed by pet stores as "ghost shrimp." However, most of them--including the two most common ones in US pet stores (The American Freshwater Glass Shrimp, Palaemonetes paludosus, and the Amazon Glass Shrimp, Palaemonetes sp.)--do not need brackish water for shrimplet survival. However, the babies are born as free-swimming larvae and thus require lots of microoganisms in the water column in order to having a fighting chance, making successful fry survival in most aquariums pretty rare. In very aged tanks with lots of decaying plants, detritus, etc., combined with a lack of anything else in the tank that would eat the larvae, you might indeed see successful breeding.
EDIT: the shrimp most commonly seen in the hobby that does require brackish water for fry survival is the Amano shrimp (also called the Yamato shrimp or Japonica shrimp), Caridina japonica.
Yes, eggs are a good & healthy sign. It usually signals that your water conditions and other environmental factors are too a shrimp's liking.
As for baby shrimplets surviving, it is not out of the question. Part of the confusion on this matter is the fact that there are several (many?) different species of shrimps that are marketed by pet stores as "ghost shrimp." However, most of them--including the two most common ones in US pet stores (The American Freshwater Glass Shrimp, Palaemonetes paludosus, and the Amazon Glass Shrimp, Palaemonetes sp.)--do not need brackish water for shrimplet survival. However, the babies are born as free-swimming larvae and thus require lots of microoganisms in the water column in order to having a fighting chance, making successful fry survival in most aquariums pretty rare. In very aged tanks with lots of decaying plants, detritus, etc., combined with a lack of anything else in the tank that would eat the larvae, you might indeed see successful breeding.
EDIT: the shrimp most commonly seen in the hobby that does require brackish water for fry survival is the Amano shrimp (also called the Yamato shrimp or Japonica shrimp), Caridina japonica.
