Breeding cherries

[ellena]

I got 4 cherries from a friend, they all turned out to be females! So just after christmas, he gave me 3 more, carefully selected for their likelihood of being males. So 7 total. I’ve never seen the behaviour my amanos used to do, the males whizzing around the tank like mad things, but I have seen a smaller male riding on the back of a female which google suggests is mating behaviour? Pic attached.
I found a skin, but it was red rather than the usual transparent, and I only saw 6 after that, so it must’ve been dead. Today I’ve found one dead too. No sign of any babies.
I use flourish, 3-4ml a week and I have some root tabs. If there was a copper problem, would any have survived this long?
Also attached 2 pics of the ones I can see at the moment, one of the larger, original females, and one the second batch of, hopefully, males.
Tank stocking as in sig. Should they have bred by now? In friend’s tank, they went from 5 to 20 in a few months.

 

[NickAu]

7 praecox rainbows (3 males, 4 females),
11 neons
male guppies

All these will eat baby shrimp.

Juwel vision 180

Thats a huge tank for 6 shrimp, When a female molts she hides and sends out pheromones and if a male finds her they mate and you have baby shrimp, In a tank that size with only 6 shrimp greatly increases the chances of the male not finding her.

 

[ellena]

Thank you, I hadn’t thought of either of those things. Against the odds though, I saw a baby yesterday, decent size, about 1cm long, quite transparent still.
One of the older females has a 2 tone look about her, feeding and moving about normally though. Like her back is more opaque.
Is this a sign of trouble?

 

[Baccus]

You may be seeing the "saddle" on the back of the female which is actually her eggs and getting ready to mate. If its a solid stripe of red from her head to her tail this is nothing to worry about just a colouration that is quite normal. I would have to have a hunt around to see if I have any pictures of my shrimp showing both the egg saddle and the back stripe.

 

[Toney]

I had good luck with guppies until the other night when I woke up and seen one of my fat girls slaughtering shrimp... she killed them all... was body parts every where...

 

[NickAu]

Heres a comprehensive list of shrimp friendly fish.

1. Otto's