Help. My neocaridina shrimp aren't breeding :(

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ElissaBee

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I have about 12 assorted neocaridina. Some cherries, a few red rilis, 2 or 3 jades, and some RCS culls I bought from a breeder. The only time I've had a berried shrimp in my tank was when I bought one already berried at the LFS. Lately I've been watching my red rili shrimp--she had a nice big yellow saddle. I could even see the eggs in her back. Today the saddle is gone but she is not berried. This has been the story for months now with my shrimp. They show a saddle and I think great, she'll be berried soon, but no shrimp in my tank has ever been berried. I have plenty of females and males. What am I doing wrong? A dozen or so years ago I had a 29g with shrimp and some nano fish and my shrimp had babies all the time. I was living in NJ at the time on town water which was probably ideal for the shrimp because I didn't do anything to adjust water parameters other than the usual dechlorinator. Now I live in New York state and have well water which has a Ph of 7.4, dH and kH both around 10-15. TDS is around 300-350.

I recently ordered a breeding formula shrimp food but it hasn't arrived yet. Hoping that will help? I have also heard of Salty Shrimp but won't that raise hardness and TDS even more?

I also seem to have more shrimp deaths than I would like. A few mornings every month I find a dead one. The other day I even found one of my Amanos dead, which had been one of my longest living inhabitants (got a pair of them in early December). The babies that were born to the cherry shrimp that was bought berried were doing great and nearing juvenile size and then one day I couldn't find them anymore. I'm beginning to wonder if my fish are inhibiting the shrimp from breeding or if they are attacking them at night?. I have 11 Galaxy Rasboras (CPD), 2 lampeye killies, and one male guppy. This tank is 9.7 gallon, heavily planted, liquid ferts (dosed sparingly) and CO2, been running for almost a year. My water parameters really don't fluctuate very much and I do a 10% water change weekly. Can anyone offer advice?
 
Hello.
First of all interbreeding, your shrimp is kinda a bad choice you might get Random Coloured Shrimp & Weak Shrimp that might not adapt to their current Body and died while @ Shrimplet stages.
Shrimp breeding only when The female and male is 3 - 4 month old and you have to wait the female to molt and release a pheromone to attract the male shrimp. While female release the pheromone the male shrimp will darting around and look for the female to breed. And I doubt your fish attacking shrimp at night.
Shrimp are nocturnal and more active at night some case you need a balanced diet for them to breed try to feed them veggie & Frozen Bloodworms make sure you take out the leftover. And make sure you have consistent water parameter, neocaridina and Caridina shrimp need different Water parameter to breed.
Here's a guide for breeding shrimp that will help you a lot https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...BMAB6BAgEEAE&usg=AOvVaw2_MW4BqTrv5P0gkDz1K-tS
 
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As @KevinZ says mixing neos is not a good idea. You will end up with a tank full of dull brown shrimp. That is the wild type.
How often do you change your water? I do 75% per week and my original group of 7 (I bought 10 but 3 died) has turned into hundreds (possibly more) of shrimps in my 15G. 25-50% is fine if you only have shrimp in the tank. Mine just get good quality fish food.

Your hardness is slightly higher than ideal but should not be a problem. Your TDS is also high but I would not expect this to be a problem either.
You could try mixing your tap water 50/50 with RO which would give you close to ideal hardness (6dGH) and halve your TDS
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Don't add salty shrimp. You are correct that it will raise your GH & KH and this is not needed. I use it for my red rillis but that is because I use RO water. The only reason I do this is my tap water has 50ppm nitrates and is no good for shrimp or fish. Before I got my own RO unit I used to buy it and mix 50/50 with tap water. They were breeding fine then too and my water is a lot harder than yours.
 

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