How Long For Cherry Shrimp To Breed ?

[Rooster]

Hello,
Had about a dozen cherry shrimp in a tank with only endlers, for about 3 months now - but no sign of young ones ! Are the endlers snacking ? Are they all the same sex ? How do you tell ?

Running air/foam filters, plants, sand and lots of hiding places ! Food is flake, crisps and "crab cuisine"
The majority seem to enjoy the freedom of the tank and are very red... the odd one lacks colour.

Any advice most welcome.

 

[iSnail]

They should be mature by now. Males are normally smaller and slimmer and in general less red. Mature females (if not solid red) should show "saddles" - a yellowish saddle shape patch in the back neck area of the shrimp which are basically eggs in the making.

The newly hatched shrimps are extremely tiny and are very good at hiding. Your guppies might have snacked on some too. Good luck finding them

 

[crazie.eddie]

The endler's could be snacking on them. Endler's, as do most livebearers, will swim throughout the tank, from surface to substrate. Newly hatched shrimp are very small and could provide a nice meal for the endler's. I know I raised platy fry in the same tank with RCS. Even though the platies were no bigger than the RCS adults, I never saw any shrimp babies for a long time. But the platies were getting fat fast.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

It could be that it will take just a little longer. It took about 3 months for my cherry shrimp to get going but now they have it has only taken a few weeks to become infested with them I have mine in with about 30 tetras a pair of rams and half a dozen corys and quite a few manage to survive. Although they are very much "snack" size for most fish I found that they are very good at hiding and also extremly quick to move if anything gets to close (much quicker then most fish).

You might find that some of the small colourless ones are not actually the orginal ones you bought but are babies that you just hadn't seen previously. The first batch or two of eggs that hatched I didnt see any "baby" sized shrimp at all, just smaller adult ones with less colour appearing from nowhere Give it another month or two and you will start seeing them everywhere.

 

[iSnail]

Put some holey twisty bogwood and big clumps of mosses in there so the babies can hide and feed until they get too big for your fishes mouth