# Red Cherry Shrimp repeating dropping eggs



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Current shouldn't matter. I've kept my cherries in my tank with my rena filter before and now they are in a divided tank with an aquaclear right and a big sponge filter.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> Current shouldn't matter. I've kept my cherries in my tank with my rena filter before and now they are in a divided tank with an aquaclear right and a big sponge filter.


Would you happen to know what could be causing them to repeatedly drop eggs :X?


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Not sure why they are dropping their eggs, never experienced that with any of my shrimp, so I can't comment. As for the feeder, don't worry about doing that again for only a weekend. Shrimp can go a long time without feeding pellets. They can find a million things to eat in substrate or the plants. I routinely "starve" mine for a day or two without feeding pellets or anything else just to let them eat some natural stuff from the tank instead of pellets all the time.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> Not sure why they are dropping their eggs, never experienced that with any of my shrimp, so I can't comment. As for the feeder, don't worry about doing that again for only a weekend. Shrimp can go a long time without feeding pellets. They can find a million things to eat in substrate or the plants. I routinely "starve" mine for a day or two without feeding pellets or anything else just to let them eat some natural stuff from the tank instead of pellets all the time.


Thanks for the help. I will generally not feed them one day a week to let them flush out their systems. I thought doing so for 2 days would starve them , thanks for that clarification! I guess the one problem would be since its a bare bottom tank there isn't a substrate for them to look for stuffs in


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Thanks for the help. I will generally not feed them one day a week to let them flush out their systems. I thought doing so for 2 days would starve them , thanks for that clarification! I guess the one problem would be since its a bare bottom tank there isn't a substrate for them to look for stuffs in


You do have plants in the tank though right? Get some mosses, all kinds of little things will make the moss home and the shrimp will feed on that. I have lots of mosses for my babies to hide in and they spend their first week or so hiding in there eating little things they find.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> You do have plants in the tank though right? Get some mosses, all kinds of little things will make the moss home and the shrimp will feed on that. I have lots of mosses for my babies to hide in and they spend their first week or so hiding in there eating little things they find.


Yes, I have mosses. I suppose I should get more to create more cover for the babies (if the females ever decide to actually go through with the birth)


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## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

My shrimp have dropped their eggs usually twice before they keep them. They are also brand new adults so maybe it's a learning curve they have to learn. I have noticed that the first time my shrimp carry they seem to have more eggs than they can fit under their underside. (learning curve also...not sure)


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

jmowbray said:


> My shrimp have dropped their eggs usually twice before they keep them. They are also brand new adults so maybe it's a learning curve they have to learn. I have noticed that the first time my shrimp carry they seem to have more eggs than they can fit under their underside. (learning curve also...not sure)


That too. read that sometimes first time moms will drop their eggs until they learn how to take care of them and what not. And yes, after each batch, they can seem to carry more and more eggs, more make it to term, etc.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

jmowbray said:


> My shrimp have dropped their eggs usually twice before they keep them. They are also brand new adults so maybe it's a learning curve they have to learn. I have noticed that the first time my shrimp carry they seem to have more eggs than they can fit under their underside. (learning curve also...not sure)


I have heard that newer mothers will drop their eggs. I guess my main concern is that ALL the shrimps have been dropping eggs, including this HUGE one (~1.5") that is most definitely not a new mom (unless... it really is or something). I have had the shrimps for about 3 weeks now so it might be very possible it has only been their first or second pregnancy.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

They're usually pretty adaptable to new environments, and if they are berrying (rather than having arrived berried) then you're good. They'll start holding onto the eggs in the next month and by christmas you should have tiny shrimp swimming around. It often takes them a couple of months to settle in and start reproducing in earnest. 

The current shouldn't be a problem, but if it is, you'll see shrimp being washed around by it or all of the shrimp huddled in one tiny spot in the tank where there is low flow. I've got 2 or 3 culled cherry shrimp that I threw into my native river tank that are living just fine in a 55 gallon tank with 600 gph flow in one direction. They've managed to avoid being eaten somehow so far (it's been a month) though they have not yet reproduced.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

jasonpatterson said:


> They're usually pretty adaptable to new environments, and if they are berrying (rather than having arrived berried) then you're good. They'll start holding onto the eggs in the next month and by christmas you should have tiny shrimp swimming around. It often takes them a couple of months to settle in and start reproducing in earnest.
> 
> The current shouldn't be a problem, but if it is, you'll see shrimp being washed around by it or all of the shrimp huddled in one tiny spot in the tank where there is low flow. I've got 2 or 3 culled cherry shrimp that I threw into my native river tank that are living just fine in a 55 gallon tank with 600 gph flow in one direction. They've managed to avoid being eaten somehow so far (it's been a month) though they have not yet reproduced.



Yup, even my cherries took about 4 months to start getting busy. A lot of that was me rescaping, doing too big of WC's, lots of other things. Now, that they are settled in, I have probably a 100 babies or so.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

jasonpatterson said:


> They're usually pretty adaptable to new environments, and if they are berrying (rather than having arrived berried) then you're good. They'll start holding onto the eggs in the next month and by christmas you should have tiny shrimp swimming around. It often takes them a couple of months to settle in and start reproducing in earnest.
> 
> The current shouldn't be a problem, but if it is, you'll see shrimp being washed around by it or all of the shrimp huddled in one tiny spot in the tank where there is low flow. I've got 2 or 3 culled cherry shrimp that I threw into my native river tank that are living just fine in a 55 gallon tank with 600 gph flow in one direction. They've managed to avoid being eaten somehow so far (it's been a month) though they have not yet reproduced.


That's good news :]. Yea the shrimp are happily swimming around even through the bubble curtain (no problems even going through it). Glad I don't have to turn that off to keep up the flow of water in the tank.


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## Martin_G (May 26, 2011)

My tank isn't a "barebottom" tank as I have substrate in it (black Eco-complete) with a number of plants & mosses.

The shrimp (cherries) forage around in the plants & substrate w/o a problem. When I first got them and the (new) adult females were berried over 85% of the fry were lost.

Could this have been from being NEW adults, NEW mothers, or just not settled in completely? I don't have a definite answer about these, however, since most of the females are now on their 3rd or 4th time being "berried", there are now much more fry in the tank.

Perhaps it was a combination of all three and not just one thing that caused problems in the beginning (new adults,mothers, & being settled).

My filter (Aquaclear #30 150gph) has a little bit of a current but the shrimp appear to "play" in the current rather than avoid it.


HTH,

Martin


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Martin_G said:


> My tank isn't a "barebottom" tank as I have substrate in it (black Eco-complete) with a number of plants & mosses.
> 
> The shrimp (cherries) forage around in the plants & substrate w/o a problem. When I first got them and the (new) adult females were berried over 85% of the fry were lost.
> 
> ...


I'm glad your shrimp were able to exponentially increase after their first few batches. Unfortunately for me so far not a single fry, heck, not a single egg that made it :[. I guess if I thought logically if the adults were swimming through the bubble curtain and around the tank it MUST not be that strong >.>

Thanks for the info


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## maux (Sep 26, 2013)

This is reassuring. I've got 20 yellow shrimp in a planted 5 gallon. There is only one female big enough to carry eggs yet. The first time she only laid about 5 to 6 eggs. I was happy to see them but wasn't surprised when she dropped them. This second time she laid 20 or 25 or so and dropped all but 3 last night. She still has 3 and seems to be carrying them well. I wouldn't be surprised if she dropped them though.
This female is probably about half the size of my larger RCS in my other tank. I think younger shrimp just don't quite have enough room under their pleopods and don't have good clearance from the soil.
Maybe I can expect her to keep the third clutch?


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## jileha (Jul 9, 2013)

I can't say that I am very experience with my few months of keeping shrimp, but since it hasn't been mentioned I thought I pipe in... . BTW, none of my females dropped their first (or second) batch of eggs, although I was almost expecting it.

Are there any factors that might stress your shrimp?
How often do you change the water? How much? How well do you match parameters? Since you didn't list TDS, I guess you don't measure that.

Fluctuations in water parameters might stress the shrimp too much and cause them to drop their eggs.


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## The_Shrimpress (Oct 31, 2013)

How often do you screw with the tank? The more you mess with it, the less likely they are to carry eggs through. When I first got started, I was constantly messing with my tanks...you know, cuz it had to be pretty. I was seeing dropped clutches ALL the time. I finally realized that, after leaving town for the week, and subsequently leaving the shrimp and tank to their own devices...EVERY female was berried when I got home. From then on, "mindful negligence" has been my approach to cherries.
Also, cherries tend to thrive in a range of pH, but 6.5 is a little low for most cherry's likings. Perhaps the acidity stresses them out? I had another tank where I was adamant about keeping at a sturdy 6.5 because I was co-housing with OEBT. After 6 months, I had NO successful hatches. I stopped caring about having exact numbers, and started do WC with treated tap. a few months later, my tank was holding steady @7.8, and I had babies everywhere. 
Definitely try to get some substrate in there, as shrimp tend to stress out with bare bottom setups because they cannot ground forage like they would in nature, and they also don't get any traction. That combined with a decent water flow will probably equal some pretty edgy shrimp. Substrate will also be helpful for babies, as there will be more surface area for biofilm to develop, and they need that to survive the first couple weeks of life. Above all, shrimp need to feel safe and secure in their environment, or you will never see a successful hatch.


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## bhavik (May 25, 2015)

Hi i currently have the same problem....my shrimps keep dropping their eggs and i dont know why and its really annoying :/

I had a newly berried shrimp about 2 days ago and it was carrying its eggs fine but then all of a sudden today it seem to drop them and i dont have a clue as to why....
What can i do to prevent them from dropping them?


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