Breeding Red Cherry Shrimp Do's And Don't

[xtreme2100]

So far in my research I have learned that when breeding red cherry shrimp it is not good to keep them with most fish since the babies will be eaten. I have java moss in my aquarium to keep nitrates down and for my cherry shrimp to grave on. I also have lots of plants and lava rock for cover so the cherry shrimp are not stressed and feed algae wafers to them aswel as small amount s of flake food. I still however have a dwarf gourami in my tank and two small plecos i know the dwarf gourami may be a pain but I love looking at him and it's a 150l tank but I am stil thinking of moving him due to his appetite for cherry shrimp babies when they come.

Will the two small plecos also be a problem?

I have been doing water changes and cleaning tank but nitrates are still high java moss was added yesterday but it's a large clump. I have been adding bits of seachem prime to detoxify nitrates until I hopr the java moss gets them down.

Am i waiting for smething that will never come?

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

What plecos do you have? I know some are vegetarians whilst some will eat meat (i.e. baby shrimps).

 

[iffles]

I haven't and don't keep RCS, but I've read that they are really easy to breed and will breed even when you don't want them to. As long as there are sufficient hiding places and sufficient cover, the fish should be ok with them unless you would like to breed them on an industrial scale. But, I'm no expert with RCS and would do abit more research on them before moving the fish.

 

[ashemely]

How high are your nitrates? My nitrates are around 20-30 ppm from the tap. And I do about 20% water changes once or twice a week.

My shrimplets hatched about a month ago, and I've done nothing special for them, and they're growing really nicely. The moss is nice for the adults and babies. You might want to try and tie it down to something like one of your lava rocks, here's an idea on what to do http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...101806&st=0

I believe your plecos will be alright with the shrimplets. I read somewhere before that the shape of the mouth of the pleco makes it hard for them to actually eat/chew on anything solid. I could be totally wrong, seeing as how I've never had plecos and cherries in the same tank.

 

[iffles]

Here are some sites on breeding and caring for RCS:
[URL="http/www.plantedtank.net/articles/Cherry...ng-and-Care/23/"]http/www.plantedtank.net/articles/Cherry...ng-and-Care/23/[/URL]
[URL="http/www.wikihow.com/Breed-Red-Cherry-Shrimp"]http/www.wikihow.com/Breed-Red-Cherry-Shrimp[/URL]
[URL="http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile104.html"]http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile104.html[/URL]
[URL="http/www.theshrimpfarm.com/cherry_shrimp_breeding.shtml"]http/www.theshrimpfarm.com/cherry_shrimp_breeding.shtml[/URL]
[URL="http/www.petshrimp.com/redcherryshrimp.html"]http/www.petshrimp.com/redcherryshrimp.html[/URL]

You've probably come across these already, but here they are anyway

 

[xtreme2100]

What plecos do you have? I know some are vegetarians whilst some will eat meat (i.e. baby shrimps).

Thanks for the reply. Right i can't find the name of them but they are the second picture down on this site http/aqualandpetsplus.com/Catfish,%20Plecoctomus.htm
and were the cheapest ones at the store. I think there a very common one. In the pet store they were labelled sailfin plec but I'm not sure if they were right but it's definately that picture.

 

[xtreme2100]

Thanks a lot guys i think I'm gona keep the plecos in there. I'm not sure about that solid food thing because in my little brothers tank they eat tubifex, flake food and algae wafers anything really lol nut hopefully they can't handle shrimp and aren't to bothered. Great idea with the java moss they love it at the moment aswell it just sunk right into the corner I've put a few clumps in the holes inthelava rocks to spread across them hopefuly. The nitrate levels are between 20 and 40 ppm can't really tell on my chart. Going to have to do another water change.

 

[xtreme2100]

I'm not sure about taking my dwarf gourami out either he never goes anywhere near where any of the shrimp hang out just swims around full speed at the top happy as anything never seen a more active fish loves the current of the filter. I have some decisions to make breeding red cherrys and giving fish to my brother or having a better tank to look at.

 

[iffles]

I would leave the fish in there if i were you, and just grow more java moss and get more things for them to hide in. But the plecos might compete for food which you intend for the RCS. Also, I would work on reducing the nitrAtes because when I was reading up on breeding RCS it said somewhere that they prefer water low in nitrAtes so water changes were a must or sometink like that.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Thanks a lot guys i think I'm gona keep the plecos in there. I'm not sure about that solid food thing because in my little brothers tank they eat tubifex, flake food and algae wafers anything really lol nut hopefully they can't handle shrimp and aren't to bothered. Great idea with the java moss they love it at the moment aswell it just sunk right into the corner I've put a few clumps in the holes inthelava rocks to spread across them hopefuly. The nitrate levels are between 20 and 40 ppm can't really tell on my chart. Going to have to do another water change.

I guess the only thing to do it actually see if the plecos eat the shrimp.

I ahve a similar looking pleco; mine is a common pleco and he looks like the picture; the common and sailfin look similar except for their fins lol. The common plec is a vegetarian but I don't know about the other ones; I did find a great site telling you about them but for the life of me I can't find it again.

 

[xtreme2100]

yeh bettas deffinately coming out and going in my brothers tank luckily he doesn't have one. I think i'll se ho things go with the dwarf gourami and plecs (probably common) i bet they are vegetarians and don't bat an eyelid at the cherry shrimp adults. A little more java moss in places and the shrimp will never have t see daylight if they don't want already got four rocks with holes all over a huge plastic plant that covers a large area and java moss.

Just as a matter of interest has anyone here had red cherry breeding success with other fish in the tank if so what did your shrimp number go to in what scale of time and what were the shrimps tank mates.

 

[xtreme2100]

also will my rcs babies do their best to avoid my dwarf gourami if he did come across them or are they slow with bad survival instincts. There are no videos of any moving on youtube if you go anywhere near the adults they move so fast and just appear in another spot with cover i don't see many fish getting to them.

 

[ashemely]

I have a few larger snails in my tank with the cherries. When the adults and even when the babies would get freaked out by the snails, cuz the snails try to eat anything and everything, they would do this jumping spring-back type action. It was really quick and would put them a good distance away from where they were. I'm sure your babies will try and stay out of the sight of the gourami as much as possible. But the moss will help out a lot, that's where all my babies would hang out until they got comfortable enough to go out into the open. Plus the babies can forage on the micro organisms that grow on the moss.

 

[xtreme2100]

I have a few larger snails in my tank with the cherries. When the adults and even when the babies would get freaked out by the snails, cuz the snails try to eat anything and everything, they would do this jumping spring-back type action. It was really quick and would put them a good distance away from where they were. I'm sure your babies will try and stay out of the sight of the gourami as much as possible. But the moss will help out a lot, that's where all my babies would hang out until they got comfortable enough to go out into the open. Plus the babies can forage on the micro organisms that grow on the moss.

Thanks a lot that really puts my mind at ease I've searched forums and videos and theres no information about how red cherry shrimp babies behave so ashemely you may just be the first to put this information on the web lol. Lets hope it eases the mind of other people reading the forums.

 

[xtreme2100]

JUST TO CHECK! lol cherry shrimp exoskelotons when they shed do have legs and antenna messing round with the gravel and it just shot up into the water i would say it was definately a moulted shell but the legs and antenna through me. I hope old gouramis nbot already killed one lol.