Cherry Shrimp Not Multiplying

[Mikaila31]

I bought roughly 20 cherry shrimp about a year ago. When I count them I still come up with about 20, they are in a 20 gal tank with 2 corys, 1 swordtail, 1 female betta, and 5 boeseami rainbow fry. The tank is moderately planted with CO2 and ferts, and I feed them hermit crab pellets every once and a while for calcium. Any idea why my population isn't growing?

 

[frozenbarb]

The best Reason would be the fishes eating them..

do you see the shrimps carry any eggs? any shrimps that are saddled?

 

[Arantis]

if your shrimps carry eggs sometimes your fishes have fun with your young shrimps.

I got no multiplying from my crystal red and my cherry shrimp until i put my "red from rio" to another tank.

Now my tank is exploding

Do you have some dosh in your tank? then look into it. It can be that there are some little shrimps.
With a hand full of dosh you could have luck and your little shrimp could survive.

 

[Invader Xan]

What's your water quality like? If I remember rightly, cherries don't like to breed if your water's too acidic. Assuming your fish can handle it (I don't know enough to say, so you should ask someone else's advice on that) f this is the case, try dropping a small seashell or two into the water. They help harden the water/increase the pH a little.

Baby cherry shrimp don't swim about as larvae either -- they hatch with legs and immediately start to walk around. Try putting plenty of hiding places at substrate level to give them a good chance. Java moss and driftwood would both be good places for baby shrimp to roam.


EDIT-- by the way, can anyone say how old/how large cherries get before they start to produce eggs? I bought some young cherries a few weeks ago, and I was wondering when they might start breeding.

 

[Maximus]

I was going to ask the same question InvaderXan

I have 15 cherrys in my tank, hard water, and covered in java moss. Yet since the day I added them (about a month ago),
I can never see more then 3-4 at the same time, it's annoying.

The only fish in there are 3 pitbull plecs (max at 2-3"), so no-ones eating them.

Saying that, all this week I have been finding empty molts, a good thing I suppose.

I bought one that was already carrying eggs, but haven't seen it since!

 

[iSnail]

The newborn shrimp babies are soooooo tiny only about 2mm long. It's very difficult to spot them in a planted tank. Make sure your filter inlet is covered with mesh or pre-filter foam. Also, your fish are likely to make a meal of most of them when they first emerge. You can put a big clump of java moss and/or some holey bogwood in there for the babies to hide in and to find food.

There is another possibility that your shrimps are all of the same sex. I had that problem when I had my first cherry shrimps. I had all females about 10 of them

 

[eschaton]

honestly, filters are a safer place for baby cherries to "grow out." I almost always find a few in there. Once, I found upwards of 50 living in a single filter, but I think that a pregnant female was sucked in and had her young inside the filter.

 

[Mikaila31]

I do see shrimp carrying eggs, at the moment I think there is only one female with eggs. I do sometimes see the baby shrimp and I check watch for any babies when I am doing water changes. So do you think the fish might be eating them? any idea witch ones are?

I did move two pregnant shrimp to my bettas tank and I know one of them recently released all her eggs, cuz I have seen a few babies in there. I think I might start moving the females that are close to releasing their eggs to the betta tank to see if it works better. My bettas tank is 2.5 gal and at about 76F, while my 20 gal is like 82F could this cause problems?

thanks,
Mikaila31

 

[iSnail]

Any fish that eat live feed like daphnia will likely eat your shrimp babies too. Just put a big clump of java moss in there for the baby shrimps.

Although cherry shrimps can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, 82ºF is on the upper end of the scale. They do better in a slightly lower temperature.

Here's a link to the species profile
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=199872

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I have had my Cherry shrimp for about 2 months and have seen a couple of them carrying eggs over the last 3-4 weeks. Until tonight though I had not seen any baby shrimp at all. Just large adults which I bought and smaller adults which seemed to appear out of nowhere. I did see a 3mm baby tonight though so some at least must be surving

 

[shroob]

About 1 month ago I bought 10 RCS from an auction site, said they were home bred so I'm pretty sure I got a mix of the sexes(as imported ones can all be one sex - dont know why, but I read it on a well known shrimp site). My two biggest shrimp, both females have both saddled, then lost the eggs. Probably due to them not being fertilised, as the males maybe arnt ready.

I couldn't get over the size of the shrimp when they first came, so tiny. I struggled to see them. Spent quite a while counting them to make sure I had 10, I gave up after a while as it soon became clear it was pretty much impossible. No young yet, but I'm hoping for some in the next month or so.

 

[fatboy]

... by the way, can anyone say how old/how large cherries get before they start to produce eggs? I bought some young cherries a few weeks ago, and I was wondering when they might start breeding.

Females can become pregnant by about 6 weeks old. I suspect males take a little longer to mature. When I've kept young males & females they bred at around 8 weeks, a few weeks after the young female/old male tank.

6 weeks to maturity and a 4 week pregnancy = a plague of shrimp. In my experience, which seems average, around 80% of newborns are female. Start with 1 female and you'll have around 20 4 weeks later. 10 weeks later those 20 will have another 20 females each.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I couldn't get over the size of the shrimp when they first came, so tiny. I struggled to see them. Spent quite a while counting them to make sure I had 10, I gave up after a while as it soon became clear it was pretty much impossible. No young yet, but I'm hoping for some in the next month or so.

Yeah, I take it now that for every 1 shrimp I can see there are 5 others I cant I only started with 12 so cant wait for them to multiple a lot more. Might actually get to see more then 1 or 2 a day then

 

[Invader Xan]

6 weeks to maturity and a 4 week pregnancy = a plague of shrimp. In my experience, which seems average, around 80% of newborns are female. Start with 1 female and you'll have around 20 4 weeks later. 10 weeks later those 20 will have another 20 females each.

I have a feeling the rasboras might help with population control. Probably the lanchesteri too.
Thanks for the info, man!

 

[Maximus]

Mini-Bumping this to say that I have just seen one of my cherrys loaded with yellow eggs

Any ideas on how long it takes them to hatch?

Also, the only other tankmates are 3 pitbull plecs (max out at 2-3")...will these eat them?

And the tank is planted with LOADS of java-moss...I.e Plenty of places to hide


Cheers