Shrimp Breeding

[Rorie]

I was just wondering how easy it is to breed shrimp? Just cherry shrimp...

I got a load through the mail the other day, but they arrived and they were tiny. Normally this would be fine, but i am worried they will vanish due to my discus.

I was thinking i could use one of my small tanks to breed them, grow them a bit, and then put some into my main tank. But how easy is it to get them to breed? Do they require specific water parameters, conditions, substrate?

 

[Westwood]

As far as I know there very easy to breed, in my shrimp tank I see little ones all the time!
With the water, I think it just has to be nice and stable.
I think they like moss balls, and is apparently where they lay there eggs, so one or two could be a good idea.

Westwood

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Yeah I agree, they are pretty easy, just stay on top pf water changes as they can be sensitive to nitrates. I got some about three weeks ago and all of my females are in the early pregnant stage.

They give birth to little shrimp so they dont lay eggs, but they do carry eggs

 

[Ben M]

If you feed them well they grow really quickly. There are tons of little skeletons in my tank that they have shed. All of my females are full of eggs, and they were about 5mm a few weeks ago.

cheers

 

[Caprichoso]

Very easy to keep. Not fussy about temp and can be kept at room temp as well. Will breed in most temps and often. Clean water is the only requirement. They also don't need a lot of food. I feed mine 3 times per week in small amounts. Very busy little creatures with interesting habits.

 

[Rorie]

Since putting about 30 into my main tank, i am yet to see a single one of them! I put the others into my smaller (90L) planted tank which has smaller fish - guppys and the like - so that if they were to get snapped up in my big tank, it wouldnt be a total waste of money. But even in my small tank i cant find them anywhere!!

 

[Ben M]

I found that mine hid for a couple of weeks after I put them in. But now they are always out, and the bigger ones even shoal with my Trigonostigma hengeli sometimes!

cheers

 

[welshfish1]

I second that they hide a lot at first Ive got about 50 now all different sizes (started with about 10) so they are definitely breeeding even though I dont see them often and they do love moss balls soemhow they have managed to create a hole in one of my largest ones (approx tennis ball size) and they go inside really fascinating to watch

 

[OldMan47]

I have had much the same experience as Rorie. Whenever I brought any home, they simply did not last very long. One of these days I will try them again but I cannot agree that they are in any way easy to care for. An adult cherry shrimp is far too small to survive very long in a discus tank. Like most other fish, I am sure discus would consider them not much more than fish food. I have also brought home the larger ghost shrimp on occasion. Those fared well in my tanks for several weeks and even for a few months. The end result was much the same though, after a few months there was no trace of them in my tanks.

 

[Rorie]

Well fingers crossed that they are just hiding! Like i say, they are 'MIA' in my small tank too, and thats where they had the best chance of surviving, so hopefully i'll see them soon. Not seen my discus hanging round where i put them in....so thats always promising!