Got shrimp?

We have had some red cherry shrimps for a couple of months - 3 batches of 6 (£10) so far. The last batch have been very good at surviving compared to the previous ones but we can't get them to breed. They always lose their eggs. At first we thought it was because of lower temperatures but even now in a tank heated to 24 degrees celsius no luck. My brother says his shrimps breed well at 16 degrees.
I can't find enough information about how they breed but I understand they carry the eggs until they hatch? Is that right? And what do the "new-borns" look like?

Apart from that, they might be good at cleaning algae but the produce an incredible amount of poo :happy:
 
evut said:
We have had some red cherry shrimps for a couple of months - 3 batches of 6 (£10) so far. The last batch have been very good at surviving compared to the previous ones but we can't get them to breed. They always lose their eggs. At first we thought it was because of lower temperatures but even now in a tank heated to 24 degrees celsius no luck. My brother says his shrimps breed well at 16 degrees.
I can't find enough information about how they breed but I understand they carry the eggs until they hatch? Is that right? And what do the "new-borns" look like?

Apart from that, they might be good at cleaning algae but the produce an incredible amount of poo :happy:
Click to expand...


Here is a link to a pretty good page on breeding cherry shrimp.

Cherry Shrimp Breeding and Care - The Planted Tank

You may want to provide them with a mass of java moss for the babies to hide in, at least that is what made the population in my tank explode.

Also you may want to cover your filter intakes with sponge pre-filters so the baby shrimp don't get sucked up into filters.

The newly hatched shrimp look like little white specs to me. Once they are big enough to really "see" they look just like the adults only super tiny.
 
Cynth, thanks for your help. I'll put some java moss in their tank.
About the pre-filters - do you buy or make those? I tried putting a nylon sock over the filter but it got terribly loud so I thought the filter might overheat.
I'm not sure that any shrimps ever hatched, though - we always saw the egg just lying on the floor of the tank.
 
When i was reading about cherry shrimp to learn how to care for them, almost every caresheet said that the only adequate filter for a shrimp tank is a sponge filter.

I actually used no filter, just a good amount of java moss and other plants, substrate, and a heater set at 25ºC.
 
evut said:
Cynth, thanks for your help. I'll put some java moss in their tank.
About the pre-filters - do you buy or make those? I tried putting a nylon sock over the filter but it got terribly loud so I thought the filter might overheat.
I'm not sure that any shrimps ever hatched, though - we always saw the egg just lying on the floor of the tank.
Click to expand...

For a long time I didn't cover my filter intakes. I found a LOT of shrimp in my canister filter when I changed it, adults and babies.They are fine in there so I just dump them back in the tank. I'm sure my over the back penguin filters chopped up a few shrimp because with those filters they would have to go through the impeller. But I still found live shrimp in those filters too.

I do however have tons of plants in my tank and the population of shrimp is so high that sucking some up in the filters doesn't really dent the population that much.

I did buy some of these sponge pre-filters from someone on Aquabid.

AquaBid.com - Your Aquatic Auction Website

He has them in 2 different sizes 7/8 and 5/8 depending on what size your filter intake tube is. You can send him a message and ask him if he has other sizes if those 2 sizes wont work for you. I think he is making these but I'm not sure.

After adding the sponges to all my filters on my community and shrimp tank the water is crystal clear.
 
I checked out the link...and now I understand that you've been talking about external filters. I have my shrimps in a 60l tank with a Fluval Mini. http://http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=107&PROD_ID=01004600030401
Just noticed today that one of the shrimp has loads of eggs. Nothing has really changed in the tank so I'm expecting her to lose them again. I haven't got a lot of moss so the bits I put in must grow first.
One thing I wonder about is whether they mind not having any substrate - the tank will house newt when he's big enough so there are only pieces of slate on the bottom.
 
A slate bottom should be fine i guess. They do need a substrate and lots of places to hang around.
What are you feeding them?

Try to get your hands on a good amount of java moss, someone is bound to have an excess.
 
I give them a little fish food (protein or vegetable type) every couple of days. I have to say I never paid much attention because they were with my 4 Cynops pyrrhogaster before and we couldn't really feed the shrimps as the greedy newts ate everything.

I found this on a website: "It is important that the shrimp are fed very sparingly. Otherwise, the water quality will suffer, in mostly immeasurable ways, which will adversely affect the shrimp. Any fish food in flake or pellet form will do and no special "invertebrate" food is needed. Feeding your shrimp once a day, or every few days, with small amounts of food should keep them happy."
Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp
This website says pretty much the same: Introduction to Freshwater Shrimp II | That Fish Blog

In the tank they have a piece of wood and a couple of java ferns and a small piece of moss.

With the substrate..I don't really want to put anything in because when the newt moves in I'd be too paranoid about him eating it.
 
Use sand then. Even if the future newt inhabitant ingests the sand, it won´t be a problem at all. The shrimp like it...mine spend quite some time in the bottom, exploring the surface of the sand in search for food scraps.
 
I've been thinking about that... I'll give it a go. How do you clean the sand by the way (if you clean it at all)?
 
Just rinse it VERY thoroughly in a bucket (then drain, rinse again, etc etc...). It´s a bit tiresome to clean it properly but if it´s a small amount it´s just a moment.
 
Actually, if I can jump in, I have a maintenance question for you guys: How do you perform water changes for your shrimp?

I have a red cherry shrimp colony that I started a little while ago (to be pretty decor and eventually go into my axolotl tank as snacks), and I've been performing water changes with a convenient gravel vac. It's difficult to clean the debris [read: shrimp poop, etc.] without hoovering up the adult shrimp. Now, it looks like my first few batches of eggs will be hatching soon, and I'm worried about clearing out the hatchlings by accident. What do you guys do to prevent this?
 
Azhael, I meant how do you clean the bottom of the tank when the sand is there?

Even though I don't have problems with the shrimps now - I just put a piece of net fabric over the hose I use for cleaning, attach it with a rubber band and then hoover carefully. Of course my tank has only slate at the bottom now and there are only 6 shrimps which makes it simple. On the other hand I can see how much poo 6 shrimps produce (incredible amounts!) which makes me wonder about cleaning the sand.
And how do you not hoover the babies...?
Thanks!
 
Oops, sorry Eva.
I did very little maintenance in my shrimp tank, and when i vacuumed the debris i simply moved my hand around a bit with the hose closed, to scare the shrimp and make them move, then vacuum that area.
If you use sand, you just have to vacuum the surface gently. Too much water pressure and you vacuum the sand out too, so just do it gently. I personally find sand very easy to clean, much more so than gravel.
 
Are these shrimp cold tolerant to 40 degrees farenheit?

I'm thinking about putting some in my 1000 gl goldfish pond in Miami so I can have an endless supply if they breed. I used to have ghost shrimp in my pond, but these freak cold snaps down here seemed to have killed them of (I think). I have a california newt and am looking to expand his diet.
 
jclee said:
Actually, if I can jump in, I have a maintenance question for you guys: How do you perform water changes for your shrimp?

I have a red cherry shrimp colony that I started a little while ago (to be pretty decor and eventually go into my axolotl tank as snacks), and I've been performing water changes with a convenient gravel vac. It's difficult to clean the debris [read: shrimp poop, etc.] without hoovering up the adult shrimp. Now, it looks like my first few batches of eggs will be hatching soon, and I'm worried about clearing out the hatchlings by accident. What do you guys do to prevent this?
Click to expand...

My tank is heavily planted and I have a wad of java moss that the babies tend to hide in. With all the plants the shrimp don't spend much time on the floor of the tank.

So when I am vacuuming the tank (it has gravel substrate) I really just watch for shrimp that are big enough that I can see and avoid them.
 
I've finally decided to try using freshwater shrimp as a food/algae cleaning resource. I didn't want to start out with cherry shrimp because of the expense and the high probability that my newts would eat them immediately. Our local fish shop sells 20 grass shrimp for a dollar so I started out with 5.

That didn't go so well. All were eaten in a matter of a few minutes. The shrimp seemed unusually sluggish - after reading, I think I added them too quickly and the shock of the temperature change did them in. After that, it was easy pickings for my newts.

So I tried again yesterday, this time with the full 20 - they're so cheap so why not? And it looks like this might be a success. I counted at least 20 shrimps this morning. The newts look slightly fatter than they did yesterday, but I didn't actually see any eating happening. The newts were stalking them last night, but appear less interested this morning. And the shrimp are picking at the algae and have little algae-filled bellies.

So that's good. I just hope I didn't overload my tank... I'll post pictures later today.
 
Erin,
Sometimes it's not easy to ID the shrimp... but most Freshwater Glass/Grass/Ghost Shrimp I've seen available locally here are forms of Paleomonetes. The do not eat algae (I guess they might if they got hungry enough) as they are itty bitty detritivores. They help with tank cleanup of food leftovers and maybe even some waste material.... but they don't do plants.
 
Also, if i´m not mistaken, they require brackish water for reproduction, so they probably are not the best choice.
I know cherry shrimp are more expensive, but since you only need a few to start a colony, i think of it as a small invest.
 
I'm not really worried about the long-term survival of these guys - they're just a test to see if a more expensive shrimp would be a good investment. If everyone got eaten immediately, I'd know that spending $1 per shrimp would probably not be worth it. Basically, expensive newt food.

The stuff they're primarily eating are the remains of dead anarchis and drifts of dying blue-green algae that are messing up the floor of my tank.
 
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