Red Rili Shrimp Sex Identification

[snazy]

I like it simple too
Yes, from what I've red they use amazonia aqua soil exactly to lower the Ph and keep it this way for particular species of shrimp(caridina) and with this one specifically it seems to work according to most sources.
I've never used purigen but it gets good reviews all around and I can see how it could be beneficial for shrimp.
For my shrimp, so far I have not used aged water at all, fresh from the tap temperature matched and dechlorinated and there's just a sponge filter but the neocaridina shrimp are hardy I guess. The two cherry shrimp that I found in the platy tank were getting 50% water change a week with the water poured straight from the tap and dechlorinator added directly into the tank, sometimes a few minutes after I didn't even know they were there.
I've been using fertilizer in 3 out of my 4 tanks for the last couple of months or so and the shrimp tank is also dosed with liquid carbon as well, so we'll see how this goes but they are surviving it to say the least.
Honestly, my Amazon swords were struggling with no ferts and CO2. I don't know why but it could be anything, the fish food not good enough(although I've got the best brands available but I guess it depends on the contents), the tap water not containing something vital, too many fish, or not enough fish to produce ferts. How big water changes do you do weekly if not dosing anything? I always do 50% water changes, maybe I was removing too much of the natural ferts this way?
I am trying to bring one of my swords from near death and only recently I saw tiny leaves emerging from the sand. The plant was almost gone to nothing and never ever grew in the 10 months I had it. The other type of sword stayed the same, just got a bit uglier They've been growing quite fast now, although mostly sideways(bushier) rather than getting tall I moved a couple of baby ones to my other tanks to see how they'll get on with different light.

 

[Baccus]

Usually with cherry shrimp you can get away with just filling straight from the tap and adding dechlorinator as you go or once you have finished , but for some of the species of shrimp I have this is not advised by the people who have caught and in some cases managed to raise these other shrimp in their tanks. So I am tending to err on the side of caution with these hard to get and keep alive (breeding of some of them is nigh impossible in standard aquariums) types of shrimp and am doing probably only 25% water changes once a week and limiting tank top ups. On other tanks depending on what other maintenance needs to be done eg catching and removing BN fry or 100+ shrimp then I will do a 50% water change or less, it really depends on what is needed.
Are you swards planted in pure sand? Mine are in a sand gravel mix, mainly to stop my corys digging them out all the time, but also because the gravel allows the roots to more easily spread through the substrate since sand alone can get very compacted.
Just another thought with your plants did they come bare rooted or in little pots? Did you remove the pots? Also alot of plant nursery's grow Amazon swards emersed rather than submerged. So if you purchased emersed plants without knowing they can almost die totally back until the new submerged leaves emerge.

Growing sideways and leggy sounds like a lighting issue, I am running tropical T8 lights on my tanks but they dont run the full length of the tanks, that way the Anubis which prefers lower lighting gets a chance to thrive.

Here is a picture of my Amazon Sward I think its called marble queen, the leaves have reached the surface and this photo was taken looking down from the top of the tank

Below is the same sward but from the side of the tank, sorry about the crappy quality had a car in the way and glare coming in from outside the shed

Another Amazon in a different tank I think its called Felix

And a tiger lotus also growing without ferts or Co2 just fish, shrimp and snail waste.

The bit of dead leaf you can see to the left is an Indian Almond leaf, I also sometimes put in Mulberry leaves for the shrimp as well.

I have been tempted a few times to use ferts but knowing that they contian even traces of copper over time this can build up and copper is bad news for shrimp. If anything the only fertilzers I will add to my tanks if for some reason the fish, snails and shrimp aren't providing enough nutrients then I will look at adding rabbit (yes rabbit ) pellets/ droppings. They can be pushed into the substrate at the plants root zone and are a handy pick me up for plants.

Most people I have heard of running into problems with Co2 is with crystal red/ black shrimp and at night when the Co2 is turned off and the plants are no longer photosynthesising thus creating a pH imbalance.

My fish/ shrimp get a fairly varied diet and I guess that would also be helping my plants, basically my fish get tropical Tetramin flakes, Tetramin algea flakes, sinking catfish pellets, shrimp and crayfish pellets as well as Hikari micro pellets. And then every so often they get defrosted bloodworms and cyclops and when I have them live mozzie wrigglers. Oh and I have been adding live blackworms to my tanks, not only do my loaches and catfish love to eat them but the blackworms also help break down food wastes.

 

[snazy]

Those swords are massive
My swords came in pots(removed of course) but even if they were grown emersed, they should have melted and grown in 10 months time I would think. I have two types: Echinodorus grisebachii 'Amazonicus' and Echinodorus cordifolius. I have sand in the tank, but it's not the finest type of sand and other plants like hydrophila really grow a massive root system and are growing mad. As for food, the fish get 4 different types new life spectrum, 3 different types hikari wafers, including the microwafers, JBL one type , tetra two types, also frozen bloodworms, mosquito larvae and brine shrimp.
I've read the swords need extra iron, so that could be one reason and the fertiliser now contains extra iron. Light could be an issue, I only got about 1.5W per gallon.

Just wondering because you said gravel, sand mix. I've got some river type gravel in one of my tanks and I wanted to change it to sand for the corys there, but if I leave some gravel at the bottom and then top up with sand, can it be done and will the gravel eventually emerge on top or will it say on the bottom layer?

 

[Baccus]

I wasn't sure about the pot situation, a lot of people are scared to remove the pots and that just stops the plant from being able to spread its roots and grow well. I would have thought that 10 months would have been enough for a plant to turn around but it can also depend on lighting and water temps. To me it sounds mostly like a lighting issue.

I have some Echindorus as well in the tanks but slacko me can't remember their exact names, but they are also powering along.

The other problem people have with swords and Echindorus is that they end up covering the crown of the plant with substrate, this too will cause the plant to struggle and often melt away. I don't know if you have ever planted strawberries but the same is true for them keep the crown of the plant (the centre growth area where the leaves/ stems emerge from) above the substrate and you will have a happy plant, bury it and the plant will suffer.

Is the hydrophila (which is a fast growing and hungry type of plant) over shadowing the swords? Just asking becuase I know how insanely my hygrophila grows and I am for ever trimming it and adding it to other tanks or to my goldfish pond. I was thinking if the hyrophila is blocking the limited amount of light to the swords then that could also be what is stunting the swords growth.


If you are going to change the tank to sand but still want to grow plants in it then I would suggest making a mound out of the gravel were you want the plants, plant them into the gravel and then cover with sand. With time if the sand is too shallow it will work its way into the gravel. I sort of solved the problem of my cory's shifting all of my sand away from the plants by making a slightly raised and thus deeper bedding area for the plants. I used some nice flat stones (not tumbled and not sandstone) that I was able to lay on the base of the tank like the first course of a dry rock wall and section of an area of the tank with this low wall, each rock is probably only 5-8cm wide on their side. Behind this I put my gravel and sand mix and then planted into it. The corys are always up in the jungle rooting around but they have not been able to disturb the plants and knock them out.

The first pic is of one of my 4ft tanks, I am thinking about totally removing the parrots feather since it is obscuring the swords etc too much, but the various shrimp and endler fry do like hiding in the fine leaves of the parrots feather .

The second picture is of my other 4ft tank and you can just see one of the flat rocks I used to make the "wall"

Java moss has also gone crazy in my tanks, and its a royal pain with the corys constantly rummaging through it and freeing bits off only for it to end up wrapped around my filter intake . Makes the shrimp happy though they then safely clamber all of the intake nozzle covered in moss with no fear of going for a ride.

 

[snazy]

Yeah, it could be the light. The hydrophila wasn't blocking them but I did move one of the swords to a more "sunny" place And I did use to have the base covered, only a couple of months ago I pulled them out slightly as that was when I read about how to plant them

I think the idea with the stones for planting area may work out. I'll try that.

 

[snazy]

So far absolutely no pregnant cherry females, wondering how long it takes if I indeed have 3 male rili shrimp.
Also, just a few moments ago I noticed one shrimp landing on top of the other. They were like that for a few seconds I thought nothing of it, but then again in a few minutes another shrimp went on top of the other and they were kind of hugging each other for a moment. These were the rili shrimp doing it to each other and I am certain none is saddled, not to mention none looks like a female because I should have been able to see eggs in the ovaries through the transparent body. The cherry shrimp are saddled but it seems no male is taking interest.

 

[snazy]

I've been watching them again and there's definately no saddled ones amongst the rilis so I have no idea what they are doing on top of each other. It's either their way of socializing or they are gay
Anyway, the 3 rilis are running around the tank at the moment. I can see one of the cherrys grazing on the wood and no one's approaching her. The other cherry is out of sight. It's either something annoying the rilis or they are looking for the other cherry female maybe? Is it normal for them to swim around like lunatics?

 

[Baccus]

Totally normal for the males to swim around like mad hatters as they search for the female that is ready to breed. The ready to breed female will be releasing pheromones into the water which attracts the males, filters etc tend to blow the scent all over the place thus confusing them males on the source of the smell.

 

[snazy]

So it must be the other cherry that is hiding because the rilis passed by the one on the wood several times with no interest Is it possible that they won't find the female if it's breeding behaviour because I think I saw them the other night doing the same running around but none of the cherrys got pregnant.

 

[twofish]

Just wondering, but what is the big orange stripe along the whole lenght on the back of one of my female cherrys? It starts from her nose and the line ends at the end of the tail in the middle? The rest of the body is red and this line is fairly visible.

And this is her with one of the two bigger rili shrimp:

 

[twofish]

Hi shrimp friends!
The question about the strip on the cherry shrimps back...is this the same answer for Bamboo shrimp? I have 8 Bamboo(wood or whatever people call them)shrimp, all have this white strip, very white strip, except when they mold, it dulls abit, then comes back very white again. My question? Is this normal? Also, I have 4 Skunk shrimp, so interesting, but they are mostly clear, except for the red nose thing. One more thing, I was told to keep the molted body in the tank for the bamboo shrimp to eat, which they do, but sometimes they dont eat it all and the snails start eating it. Should I take the molted body out after a few days, leave it or what should I do?? Thanks friends, twofish

 

[snazy]

I have no idea, but as far as I am aware the molted body should be left for the shrimp to eat to extract important minerals from it. I know nothing about bamboo shrimp myself. Maybe Baccus will pop up to advise hopefully.

 

[Baccus]

With Bamboo shrimp the stripe down the back is perfectly natural and part of their patterning, the dulling of the stripe that you are seeing close to when the shirmp moults is just the old skin begining to seperate away from the body for shedding to occur, just like in snakes, once the new skin is exposed and hardened up you get a nice new vibrant shell/ body covering . Even though the snails are eating the excoskelaton that has been shed, leave the shell in the tank for the shrimp to pick at. Not all of my shrimp always eat this shed skin but its best to give them the option.
When you say Skunk shrimp I am wondering if you are talking about a type of Red Nosed shrimp?

Like this?

And here is one of my Typhus shrimp (very similar to your bamboo) showing off her back stripe

 

[Baccus]

So it must be the other cherry that is hiding because the rilis passed by the one on the wood several times with no interest Is it possible that they won't find the female if it's breeding behaviour because I think I saw them the other night doing the same running around but none of the cherrys got pregnant.

Unfortunately I am not sure how long it takes from mating to occur to when the eggs get laid/ deposited into the swimmer legs of the female. It could occur a couple of days after mating or even longer. All I do know is that once the eggs are in the swimmer leg section it will take roughly a month (give or take a day or two depending on water temp) for the eggs to finally hatch. The shrimplets tend to then grow quicky for the first month and then seem to slow down to a more sedate growth rate.

 

[snazy]

I'd say no pregnant females today again . I'll wait and see, no hurry anyway with the corys in there.