# Raising baby red cherry shrimp in a bowl?



## Hidden Walrus (Oct 2, 2012)

Several large adult cherry shrimp in my betta tank are berried and I'd like to save the shrimplets but know they won't last long in the main tank between the hungry fish and the power filter. I was wondering if I could isolate a few of the females with eggs and have them hatch out in a 2 gallon fishbowl I have on hand, and then keep the babies in there until big enough to put in the main tanks. I could do a daily 50% water change but don't know whether it is just too variable in conditions for the them, the bowl being uncycled and what not. Can the little shrimplets be fed crushed fish food or do they need the stuff that grows naturally in an established tank?


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## phoenixkiller (May 13, 2012)

I... wouldn't think it will work, especially since the fact that they would probably not survive the stress of 50% water changes every day, much less be sucked up by whatever device you are using to replace water.

Shrimp really do need a filter, it provides biological filtration and oxygenation.

Also, have you seen the size of the shrimplets? 2 mm at birth. Being able to even SEE them, much less try to avoid sucking them up, would be next to impossible.

So my vote is, I don't think it's the best idea. I'm an advocate of a species-only tank for shrimp breeding operation myself.


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## Elppan (Aug 21, 2012)

It'll work fine of you set up a Walstad bowl. Many on this forum have set them up and raise tons of shrimps in them!


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

I'm not touching this with a 20 ft pole


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## Hidden Walrus (Oct 2, 2012)

AVN said:


> I'm not touching this with a 20 ft pole



Why? Is it that unimaginably horrible of a thought?


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

No was just trying to be funny, but it's not a great idea either.


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## DerekFF (May 24, 2011)

I have a 3g cyclinder, no filter, blasting sand and lots of anacharis. Cherries grow, breed and breed some more like rabbits in there.

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## mistahoo (Apr 25, 2012)

You'll be fine. Don't do large water changes. Maybe 10-25%?

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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

DerekFF said:


> I have a 3g cyclinder, no filter, blasting sand and lots of anacharis. Cherries grow, breed and breed some more like rabbits in there.


3 gallons wouldn't house more than 30 shrimp.

The smallest I've ever used was 2.5g for a colony for Tangerine Tigers. It was so densely planted I never saw more than a handful of them at a time, except at feedings. Had a small sponge filter, but I still had occasional die-offs due to the poor stability of such a small volume of water. It's also harder to control temperature in small tanks, and warmer temperatures are almost REQUIRED for the health and quick growth of your shrimplets.

The colony is growing, but still has more deaths and lower numbers than my RCS colony that is in a 10g.

You need to densely plant if you're going without a filter.

Anarcharis are great nitrogen sinks. So is Elodea Densa.
Mosses don't use as much, but they are relatively maintenance free. 

Shrimplets eat what you feed the adults, but smaller portions. Crush it to a powder and put it on your food dish, assuming you have one to keep the water quality as clean as possible in your tiny tiny tiny breeding jar. Veggies don't add waste as quickly as processed foods. The shrimplets will mainly feed on algae, biofilm, and bacteria on your plants and in the sand.



mistahoo said:


> You'll be fine. Don't do large water changes. Maybe 10-25%?


I would do daily 5-7% changes with aged water for anything smaller than a 5g. Also, if you don't have a filter you might be boned if there's an ammonia spike.


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## Hidden Walrus (Oct 2, 2012)

DerekFF said:


> I have a 3g cyclinder, no filter, blasting sand and lots of anacharis. Cherries grow, breed and breed some more like rabbits in there.


How often do you do water changes?


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

You'll absolutely be fine doing this. It would be ideal for you to get a small sponge filter, though. So spend a couple bucks to get one.

3 gallons can hold way more than 30 shrimp. Try hundreds. Though, that's not ideal. Since you said this was temporary, it'll be perfect for your situation.

Temperature won't matter much with Neos, so don't worry about a heater. It is absolutely not required for the growth of young shrimp. 

Just monitor your parameters. 50% water changes likely won't be necessary even without a filter. Most shrimpers have had instances where they discover Neos living in buckets in their basement, in random cups of water and even in frozen over container ponds.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I agree with Somewhat, I used to have a 2.5gal tank that I put some of my nicest PFR's in, didn't change water much, sponge filter and had about 100 in there when I pulled them out and moved them to a bigger tank. Moss and some floaters will help suck up anything bad in the water, and give the babies food, etc to live on. I would get setup on the bowl asap though, run the sponge filter in your bigger tank to get some bacteria on it, take some gravel and/or moss, plants, decorations, rocks, whatever from the main tank that will have some nice biofilm on it, don't change much water and they should be ok.


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

I have a huge population in 3 gallon. I do 20% changes once every week. I have 20 adults and about 100 babies in there with a sponge filter. Everyone will have different experiences so figure out what works best for you.


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

yes like people said it can work, but you'll need to have the bowl already setup, cycled (you can load it up with lost of plants and bathe it with mad light and hope for the best to avoid major cycling issues. since youre out of time). the bowl does need to be densely planted, and the Walstad method works very well for that. treat it like a tank, dont let ammonia, nitrite and nitrate get in the way. temperature shouldnt be too low or too high because you'll lose a good number of your baby shrimp.
since its a newly setup vessel with very little biofilm going on, its a good idea to use a small pinch of baby shrimp powder to get things going and make food for the babies. that is if you have any lying around.
the filter wont be necessary if you plant a lot.
dont forget moss!


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

It's settled then, everyone agrees! Just remember our words young padawan and you will rise above all obstacles.

- Bigger is better
- Planting sparsely is not an option
- Filter pretty much required (I found a perfect one for small bowls here)
- Consistent low amount water changes
- Vigilance in maintaining optimal water parameters



somewhatshocked said:


> 3 gallons can hold way more than 30 shrimp. Try hundreds. Though, that's not ideal.


I have a 3 gallon bucket that I use to house culls, I still never let it get bigger than 50.

I would like to note that if you have hundreds of shrimp in a 3 gallon, you should do your shrimp a favor and house them in something bigger, just because I can fit 100 Tetra fry in a 5g doesn't mean I should. Granted shrimp have a similar if not slightly smaller bioload, that doesn't mean they'll be happy cramped in a bucket. It's fine to house culls or whatever in small volumes of water, but like I said, unless you're diligent about controlling an unstable environment, your overall shrimp health will decline.

As Somewhat said, you have small numbers so you will be ok, as for everyone else, get yourselves some 10g tanks, especially if you have hundreds of breeding shrimp. Just do the math, a hundred shrimp with even 30% females birthing shrimplets every other month is a horror story in anything smaller than a 5 gallon. If you're willing to pick out dozens of culls in a tiny heavily planted tank, then I say you're just making it harder on yourself.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

ya, 90% of my 100 shrimp I had in my 2.5 were babies. I had 2 females and 1 male in there for breeding and as they got a bit bigger and colored up, they went to either the fire red tank or the cherry tank, so I didn't have 100 full grown shrimp, just 3 adults and the rest babies that go separated at a few months old.


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

That's totally different than keeping 100 adult shrimp in a 3g tank! If he gets a 2.5g (or higher) bowl then he can isolate his berried females and raise his shrimplets safely before transferring them to other tanks, but like I said, anything that small is a gamble unless you work hard and do it right. You have a very tiny window of error in small volumes of water.

Personally now when I isolate females I always have a nice 10g set up for them, in fact, I have a row of 10g's set up for nothing other than isolation, it's like the maternity ward. I've had too many random deaths in small containers and once I switched to something more stable I stopped having deaths at all.

You can fine tune the pH, kH, gH, and temperature of your little bowl all the time if you want, but I say that you get a small tank instead and don't worry about it fluctuating. 

Another point I might add, that temperature has been recorded again and again to have a large affect on both berried shrimp and baby shrimp, it affects their growth rates and metabolism. Unless you want to constantly boil water in bottles to float in your bowl, or you get a $20 compact mini heater, it will not be optimal for your babies. Another reason I say this is because it's winter soon in NA, depending on where you are, the temperature is dropping and fast, I live in Southern California, where it's supposedly warmer than most places in the country, but the temperature here is around 60F at night, and lately it has been dropping. Shrimp cannot survive such low temperatures, they need it 70~80F.

Again, larger volumes of water maintain parameters better, I don't know how much I need to stress this, if you must get a bowl, at least get a largish one. And if you were, you might as well just get a cheap $10 5g.

EDIT: Forgot to add that this is a broad statement for most shrimp, the Neo. genus is pretty hardy compared to more fragile members of the Card or Sera genus. Although it isn't necessary for growth, warmer temperatures (75F) do your shrimp better.


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

AVN, I think you are missing the point. The OP specifically was talking about shrimplets. Not adults. Bioload will be next to nothing so no need to do water changes daily.

Regardless, 10 per gallon is just a guideline...not a hard and fast rule.

You might have had random deaths in small containers but not everyone has. I've had more deaths in my 12 gallon than I've had in my 3 gallon and that's with neos (I've had VERY few deaths in a year in that 3 gallon). Everyone is going to have different experiences. Sure, bigger is better but this is a specific situation and temporary at that.


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

I know this. I think you are misinterpreting my purpose, I'm not discouraging OP from doing what he's doing, I'm just saying he could do it better. 

I mentioned adult shrimp in the hundreds because others brought it up. It was a tangent about the capacity of certain volumes of water.

Please don't start giving me anecdotes about how people bred shrimp in a Styrofoam cup, I've seen tank surfaces covered in hair algae, the water so green (ammonia) you can't see past the surface with large fish living inside, I don't need a reminder about how badly you can treat your stock and have it still breed prolifically, I know first-hand how tolerant most species are after adapting to horrible conditions.

I am only giving OP more information about keeping them and what I think is the optimal method, we already told him what he needed to do, (I even sent him the cheapest sponge filter I could find), I'm just telling him what he could do in the long run to improve if he wanted to. If he wanted to keep more expensive shrimp, such as CRS or OEBT, they can't tolerate as much punishment, they'd die.

Of course this is unrelated, OP asked for advice on RCS Shrimplets, we already answered his dealio, it's more now about what he could be doing instead if he wanted an optimal set up for his babies.

I would like to note that I sound very hostile in my speech, rest assured I am not arguing or trying to disprove anyone, it's just the way I speak, the way I was taught. I am just trying to come off as strictly informational, and as far as I can see, I have not let my personal feelings affect what I have said to OP, I have only given him the information that has worked best for me.


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

Go back and read the op. this is temporary til they go in the main tank. I didn't see anyone mention styrofoam cups or water you can't see through. Must have missed a post.


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

> living in buckets in their basement, in random cups of water and even in frozen over container ponds.


I did acknowledge we went off topic, but only after we answered the topic.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Re-read what we all wrote. Keeping hundreds in a three-gallong tank is not ideal and I believe that was mentioned (by me).

That said, shrimp keeping is subjective for the most part and there's not a reason to get defensive or freak out when someone with experience disagrees with you. What you think is a requirement is usually just a generality. Like 75 degrees being ideal. I'd argue that's not ideal for most. Shrimp absolutely can live in low 60s. And lower. Thrive? Maybe not. Live and be healthy? Absolutely.

The OP will be fine.


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## AVN (Oct 3, 2012)

Agreed, because of their remarkable ability to adapt to the conditions they've been put into, they will do well in almost every case.

Everyone has different experiences with different species of shrimp, it's almost impossible to say which is the optimal range because every colony has adapted to different conditions. I presented my experiences along with that of others, no where did I claim that there is one right way of keeping them. (I in fact noted that it was a broad statement)

That being said, I believe keeping it simple and stable would be your best bet for the highest chance of survival.


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## Hidden Walrus (Oct 2, 2012)

Thank you everyone for your replies. I guess I'll try it, because the babies won't survive in the main tank anyway. The house is always 72 degrees F even now so it shouldn't be too cold. I only have two berried females and no males anymore (last one vanished, probably eaten by the fish after moulting because it was pretty small) so if I don't try to get some babies that's the end of my self-sustaining population after the last few die off.


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