Optimum water conditions for cherry shrimp?

[Pyramid_Party]

Hi, what are really good conditions for breeding these shrimp? Currently my water is:

Temp: 79
Ammonia: 0
NitrIte : 0
NitrAte: 10
Hardness: Hard
PH: around 7.8


Reason I ask is, although the shrimp are active and seem happy, they are growing etc, they dont seem to be actively breeding. I have about 6 big females, and only 1 of them is saddled. Shes been this way for over a week. I also have about 5 big males and it seems they havent found her yet. I got a ton of smaller shrimp also. But it seems like breeding is moving along slowly.

 

[Yabbadoo]

Don't know anything about breeding shrimp but have you tried this.....

~ Lowering the temp (Winter conditions for the species) & number of hrs light they receive. Slowly raise it back up to Spring time temps & daylight hrs

~ Take all the females out. Let the males stay put for a few weeks to establish their territory. Then re-introduce the females 1 at a time, 2 or 3 days apart. In the wild, crays don't normally live with other crays and only bump into each other now and then. It may stimulate a breeding response......

Anyways.....just a thought....

 

[Pyramid_Party]

bump

 

[Bderick67]

Not sure I can help, but my water params are near to yours with the exception of a 6.5 ph level.

Last october I picked up 14~16 of these guys at an auction,threw them in a 10g planted tank. Well this morning I moved about 70 of them to my 55g planted, plus there is still quite a few in the 10g

 

[msjinkzd]

Your parameters are perfect. They are typically saddled for around 21 days before the eggs are transferred to their swimmerettes and they are berried. At that point, its another 2-3 weeks until the eggs hatch.