Cherry shrimps not multiplying?

[Jinx_]

Hi,

I have had mine for a while, not to mention the honorary berried females (it's how they came from the shop) that hatched their eggs a while back now.

I haven't seen them breed at all. They don't seem to be thinking of commiting mitosis. Why?
They get a good diet, temp is 26 Celsius, tank is well established.

I had over 50 of them, but it feels like the population dipped a bit. I've seen only two dead ones being consumed. I mainly see the rest of them while I'm dropping down some algae wafers.

I'm honestly stumped.

 

[gwand]

Hi,

I have had mine for a while, not to mention the honorary berried females (it's how they came from the shop) that hatched their eggs a while back now.

I haven't seen them breed at all. They don't seem to be thinking of commiting mitosis. Why?
They get a good diet, temp is 26 Celsius, tank is well established.

I had over 50 of them, but it feels like the population dipped a bit. I've seen only two dead ones being consumed. I mainly see the rest of them while I'm dropping down some algae wafers.

I'm honestly stumped.

Do you have a pre-filter sponge on the filter intake? Without it babies can be sucked up the intake.

 

[Colin_T]

How often do you feed them and what do you feed them?
If you want lots of babies, the adults need several good meals each day.

You need to do lots of water changes to keep the tank clean and to simulate rainfall, which can stimulate fish/ shrimp and get them breeding.

A change in water temperature can help. Normally you increase it a couple of degrees but since your already at 26C, you could drop it to 22C for a month or two and then raise it up to 24C.

 

[Jinx_]

Do you have a pre-filter sponge on the filter intake? Without it babies can be sucked up the intake.

I use a sponge filter.

How often do you feed them and what do you feed them?
If you want lots of babies, the adults need several good meals each day.

You need to do lots of water changes to keep the tank clean and to simulate rainfall, which can stimulate fish/ shrimp and get them breeding.

A change in water temperature can help. Normally you increase it a couple of degrees but since your already at 26C, you could drop it to 22C for a month or two and then raise it up to 24C.

I do these things already

 

[MaloK]

How old is the colony ?

 

[Essjay]

I keep my shrimps at 23 deg C and there are always babies in the tank. Maybe try dropping the temp a bit?

 

[Jinx_]

How old is the colony ?

I got them August 26th. They're soon a good couple months old.

I keep my shrimps at 23 deg C and there are always babies in the tank. Maybe try dropping the temp a bit?

I'll try. But don't guppies need 25 Celsius?
I thought that cooler temperatures slow down metabolism.

 

[Essjay]

No guppies can be kept at a lower temperature than that, down as low as 20 deg C with no problem.


You didn't mention guppies being in the same tank earlier and that could be your answer. Any baby shrimps being born in the tank could well be eaten by the guppies. Do you ever see berried females apart from the ones that came that way when you bought them?
At least with the number you bought there should be a mix of males and females. If you'd only got 3 or 4, they could all have been the same gender, but that's not likely with 50.

 

[MaloK]

I got them August 26th. They're soon a good couple months old.

Do you have your water parameters ? Light period ? Are there fishes in the tank ?

My little colony was started with a dozen of shrimps, and a little like you, I had a berried mommy that gave birth in my tank with the batch.

It still took more than 100 days before something else moves on, and very few of the shrimps from the initial colony made it to reproduce, those that did, did it at their life cost. Most of them never molted and slowly died off.

But the subsequent generations are in marvelous shape and are looking beautiful.

My gross amateur evaluation is that around 100 days minimum is required to have the wheel do a whole turn. Since they reach maturity in 2-4 months, But will still reproduce as soon as possible.

If your water parameter are between range for them to have proper shell development. Their food varied and plentiful. And nothing is predating on the babies.

You can expect the current colony setback to turn into an explosion in the next few months.

 

[Jinx_]

No guppies can be kept at a lower temperature than that, down as low as 20 deg C with no problem.


You didn't mention guppies being in the same tank earlier and that could be your answer. Any baby shrimps being born in the tank could well be eaten by the guppies. Do you ever see berried females apart from the ones that came that way when you bought them?
At least with the number you bought there should be a mix of males and females. If you'd only got 3 or 4, they could all have been the same gender, but that's not likely with 50.

The guppies are tiny, and the females came already berries from the store. I also do have kuhli loaches, but after the shrimplets hatched my noodles didn't bother them whatsoever. Sheimplets were ignored.

Since then I just haven't seen a single female being berried.

 

[Jinx_]

Do you have your water parameters ? Light period ? Are there fishes in the tank ?

My little colony was started with a dozen of shrimps, and a little like you, I had a berried mommy that gave birth in my tank with the batch.

It still took more than 100 days before something else moves on, and very few of the shrimps from the initial colony made it to reproduce, those that did, did it at their life cost. Most of them never molted and slowly died off.

But the subsequent generations are in marvelous shape and are looking beautiful.

My gross amateur evaluation is that around 100 days minimum is required to have the wheel do a whole turn. Since they reach maturity in 2-4 months, But will still reproduce as soon as possible.

If your water parameter are between range for them to have proper shell development. Their food varied and plentiful. And nothing is predating on the babies.

You can expect the current colony setback to turn into an explosion in the next few months.

Total hardness is 255ppm, pH is over 7.0. More than perfect for shrimps. And yeah, I haven't really seen them molt. I've seen only one cherry molt, and that's about it.

I've also been seeing less of my amanos as well, not sure if they're hiding or something. I usually see them by feeding time.

 

[Essjay]

So it's the shrimps not breeding rather than baby shrimps being eaten.

I wonder if it's too hard for them? Mine are in half your level (117 ppm)

 

[MaloK]

I second that motion. Bring GH under 150 ppm.

If possible 100 ppm calcium and 50 ppm magnesium. or 2/1 ratio. between 120-170 ppm

Soft GH with consistent KH is required.

Aside of this, permanent under 20 ppm of nitrate and less is appreciated. And a photo period of 8-10 hours.

 

[Essjay]

In addition to 117 ppm GH my KH is 3.4 dKH/61 ppm according to my water company. Although this is quite low I do regular weekly water changes to keep it constant. I've had this shrimp colony since 2012 so my water is OK for them. My tank nitrate is so low it's unmeasurable (my water company gives my tap water average as 2.853).

 

[MaloK]

My KH is currently 50 ppm and my tap water has 0 nitrate, the tank level is always below 5 or nil. My PH is always incredibly high for the water conditions. but never moves. And it's been like that for decades.

I'm currently hosting more shrimps than I should. And they can become serious bioload if you want to keep them digestive tracks full. And if you relent to feed them too much, they become a plant liability in hours.

The worst part is, you have no idea whats going on behind that plant curtain...

For the moment, I always ran very small tanks, I overstocked them a lot. And in comparison to fish, they eat a lot. And are not wasting much.

Their principal activity is eating, until full. Every morning. Then they take a sun bath for the rest of the day.

They start to race all around the tank like frenetic vampires in distress. then you start to add food, slow down... After a while... Vampires comes out again... Add more food. Party is starting, but some are still asleep. Wait more, add little food... They are everywhere... playing like kids. Everyday if you want to.

I feed that tank up to 8 times a day. Not more that it would biologically handle. But. They are very good at finding every bits there is, I wait between feeding to make sure they are starting to prowl. I jump some days, sometimes.

The goal is to give them the idea, that food fall from the sky... Like Godsend... All the time. Not ruining the water chemistry.

Without this "feeling" they are going to run in "conservation mode" babies are going to hide even more than everything. The threshold level is really apparent in a shrimp only aquarium. And if maintained, babies are going to rain.

But in a tank with fish. you can only count on the conservative mode for the shrimps to survive. Anything too much more food, and you get bloated fish.

I think powdered food is the solution, But any overdose can result in serious water quality problems. After more than a year, I'm still playing with filtration.

"Finicky creatures, they are" - Yoda.