# Trouble Breeding Red Cherry Shrimps



## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I've had red cherry shrimps for about a month and a half, and I bought them as babies. The females keep dropping their eggs. I have not had any baby shrimp yet. I do not know about my other water parameters, but my pH is around 7.5 or 7.6. And at what age are red cherry shrimp able to breed? I bought them because I hear that they are fun to watch and I wanted to breed them, but I am not having ANY luck.


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## trev (Mar 2, 2008)

*hmm*

seems to me your PH is too high, i was under the influence CRS like a PH more around 6.0-6.8


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## Sarkazmo (Jun 22, 2009)

How many do you have? Is it possible that you have no males? Males are usually only tinged with red so they're mostly transparent.

When the female's eggs are ready she releases a pheromone into the water that signals to the males that it's time to get busy.

PH should be fine. Here's a planted tank article about breeding RCS

Sark


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

I'm pretty sure that I have some males. Sometimes I see them swimming around. But I have not had even one pregnant shrimp yet  . My luck. Once I get my DIY CO2 started up when my diffuser arrives, I'll be able to adjust the pH. Are they able to breed at their current age?


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## dj2005 (Apr 23, 2009)

trev said:


> seems to me your PH is too high, i was under the influence CRS like a PH more around 6.0-6.8


This is RCS, not CRS. RCS are fine in a tank with a pH of 7.5-7.6.


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## funkyfish (Mar 16, 2009)

From what I read your PH is fine. I would give them more time. I also know they like to have a lot of hiding spots and they love moss. I am sure they will breed as long as you got males and females. I just got a couple of shrimp 2 females and a male + some blue shrimp that I am trying to identify... I'm hoping mine will breed also and I would love to know if you had any success  Good luck!


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## RandomKayos (Oct 3, 2008)

Are the shrimp in your 10 Gallon Iwagumi Aquarium?

A few things I've learned about shrimp. There are always more in a tank than you think. Females that have eggs and drop them, unless you see the eggs sitting there, most likely hatched them and the babies are so small and stay so well hidden you don't even know they are there for a month or more.

If this is the 10 Gallon Iwagumi Aquarium you may not have enough biofilm built up yet for the new hatched to feed on. Even if you try to suppliment with a specially designed shrimplet food, they need the biofilm to survive.

Oh, and your PH should be fine. Even my CRSs like the water harder than they used to. When CRSs first hit in the US they were imported from breeders who had the acidic water but I have noticed a trend the last year or so for them to actually do better over here in the 7.0+ range instead of the 6.4-6.5 they used to do so well in. My CRS, RCS, BP's, Yellow and wild types are all breeding well in 7.4-7.5 ph water, in aged tanks and feedings 3-4 times a week.

The only times I see new hatched is if I'm redecorating or in a couple tanks I have very large gravel and I see them down in that gravel. Other wise I only see them once they reach the 1/8th inch size or so. At first I even thought they were not breeding until I realized I was always seeing 1/8th inchers and there was no way they were not growing. At that point I did some moving around of the decor in the tank and realized I had almost twice the number of adults I started with and I did stir up several shrimplets in the 1/16th inch or smaller size.

Also, don't keep the tanks to warm they seem to be much happier in the mid to high 70's same as I like it.

Hope some of this helps. Any thing else I can help with let me know.


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## BottomFeeder (Jul 26, 2008)

They can be sensitive to water issues, so be sure to monitor water quality and do regular water changes. 

I setup a colony about a year ago with a mix of ages. About a month later I could tell the population was up, but then I added some sword plants that carried with them some pond snails. I had a snail outbreak and water quality deteriorated. They stopped reproducing and the colony shrunk. After the water quality issues were resolved it took about 3 months before the colony was noticeably bigger. When the shrimp hatch they are tiny, so it does take a few weeks before they are noticeable. Even with just a few you can establish a colony under good conditions.


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## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

You couldn't keep red cherries from breeding if you wanted to. How many do you have? Are you sure that none of your females are berried? Berried girls can be very shy sometimes; mine only come out into the open to eat. And yes, they can lose their eggs if they're startled or stressed. Did you have berried females at one point?

To encourage breeding, do a 50% water change. Trust me - it's like Barry White music to shrimp. The water change induces molting, and when a mature female molts she releases pheromones into the water that signal to the males that she's ready to mate. The males "fly" around the tank looking for her and whoever gets there first wins. She'll start dropping eggs within the hour.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

My tank isn't very heavily planted yet, as my plants haven't fully grown in, so if there were any berried shrimp, they would stick out like a sore thumb. The shrimp are in my 10 gallon iwagumi tank. I have 16 in there so far, from the original 18 that I bought. I noticed really really tiny tadpole-shaped thingies swimming around very fast on the glass near the substrate. They are like half the size of the period at the end of this sentence. I will carry out a water change, as suggested. Two shrimp molts appeared overnight. Out of the sixteen shrimp in the tank, only four appear to be males.


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## Sarkazmo (Jun 22, 2009)

Everyone's saying to do a water change... a large one at that. How do you keep from sucking up the fry if they are present? I have a hard enough time keeping the adults away from the siphon and they're easily seen and bright red! I'm assuming that you have a sponge over the intake of your filter so maybe draw the water from the filter itself? I guess a 'filter' could be fashioned for the end of your siphon... Filter floss and a rubber band maybe?

Sark


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## ranger (Jan 26, 2007)

If your tank is not fully established, the adults may not be comfortable enough to start breeding. It took about 6 months for my 10 gallon tank to reach that point. There needs to be enough bio film to sustain breeding. The water changes do encourage molting but suspect that they also stress out the shrimp so it may be a matter of degree. In my experience, it is not necessary to do more than 10% water change per week on that tank.

Also in my experience this doesn't mean you have to always wait 6 months. I recently obtained an 2 gallon glass bowl that the shrimp started breeding in within a week or two. That has no substrate or filter, just some moss and a couple dried oak leaves. So there must be other factors in what makes the shrimp comfortable enough to start breeding. I have had RCS breed in 1 gallon pickle jars as well. 

On water changes, yes the baby shrimp are very small. When I clean the shrimp tanks each week, I first siphon the water into a 1 quart container and then, under a bright light, I use a magnifying glass and turkey baster to "save the babies" and place them back in the tank. Then the "dirty water" goes into a large 5 gallon bucket because I know I missed some. I swirl the water in the bucket to draw all the debris to the center. Over the course of the next days, I periodically check the water in the bucket under a bright light. Again using the magnifying glass and turkey baster, I always find more baby shrimp to save. Once your colony is firmly established, you probably won't go to all this trouble but I hate to harm any.

There, that is about as chatty as I ever get. Good luck


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## amcoffeegirl (May 26, 2009)

Hey mr chatty ranger thanks for the tips. this will help me alot. i do not have a cover over the intake of my hob filter. should i do this? i dont think my tank gets clean enough when i had it covered.


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## XMX (Jan 5, 2011)

@amcoffeegirl. Yes, you should cover the intake of your hob filter. I onced cleaned my hob filter and found at least 5 shrimplets living in there.


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## mentolis (Aug 23, 2012)

my red cheeeding like carzy when i got them and then stopped after about 6 months. they just didnt breed anymore! couldnt understand why. then i bought some indian almond leaves and dropped them in the tank. and what do you know after about a week i see female carrying eggs! so if anyone else got these problems try almond leaves!
they work


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

mentolis said:


> my red cheeeding like carzy when i got them and then stopped after about 6 months. they just didnt breed anymore! couldnt understand why. then i bought some indian almond leaves and dropped them in the tank. and what do you know after about a week i see female carrying eggs! so if anyone else got these problems try almond leaves!
> they work


This was very interesting . I always assumed the almond leaves were a gimmick .

They eat the leaves or the leaves put out something in the water ?


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Sarkazmo said:


> Everyone's saying to do a water change... a large one at that. How do you keep from sucking up the fry if they are present? I have a hard enough time keeping the adults away from the siphon and they're easily seen and bright red! I'm assuming that you have a sponge over the intake of your filter so maybe draw the water from the filter itself? I guess a 'filter' could be fashioned for the end of your siphon... Filter floss and a rubber band maybe?
> 
> Sark


Mesh netting,pantyhose,and rubberband.


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