Red Cherry Shrimp Breeding journal.

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CoryWM

CoryWM

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2008
368
11
48
Everett, Washington
www.tankgeek.com
Week 1: Got in my order of 12 baby RCS(red cherry shrimp).

Stock: 12 RCS, 4 Otos, random snails
Tank: 10 Gallon
Light: Exo Terra Compact top(reptile light) With 2 26 watt compact 6500k bulbs.
Filtration: 1 Small quiet whisper filter, and Sponge filter. Sponge also installed on quiet whisper filter to prevent shrimp casualties.

Food: HBH Crab & Lobster Bites - Doing more research on this, it has some copper sulfate in it... have heard people use these and have flourishing RCS. Also heard that copper will kill them?!

Size: 1/4 inch

Decor: Small piece of boglog. Two holed tuffa rock with java moss on it.(upgraded lighting, because standard 10g light, was turning into brown java moss)

I'm hoping the sides of the tank clear up by next week. The otos and shrimp have been going to town on the algae. A single baby goldfish was living in here, growing out, he moved on, opening the way for this project. :)

Week one pic.. Only one, due to algae. I really want to clean the tank. However I do want to see if the livestock will take care of it completely :)

shrimp1.jpg
 
Good luck with them.Mine breed like crazy in any tank that the fish dont eat them all.Hardest part is cleaning the tank without them going up the vac.
 
Yup,but then you end up with a layer of mulm on the bottom.I stir it up and try to vac most of it out of the water column.Lil shrimpies want to get into whatever youre doing.
 
best of luck! if you're like me soon you'll have the 'bug' and be setting up a bunch more tanks for colonies of different types of shrimp.

On the food, I also feed mine HBH crab and lobster bites and have had no ill effects. my understanding is that copper in a compound is not that big a deal (I still wouldnt dump a bunch in or anything though) but plain copper like from some fertilizers and of course snail killer does affect them.

Another comment on the food, I'd give them more variety. I feed mine all different kinds of food. they sure will eat anything, but they definitely have their favorites and before long you will have a feel for what they like and dont like. I still feed them a variety and not just their favorites, but they get the favorites more often. As far as what mine like as favorites, stuff you might try, shrimp pellets, blanched zucchini, and spirulina flakes (for whatever reason mostly they like the spirulina flakes more than the wafers). to be honest the HBH bites seem to be one of their less favorite foods. They eat them sure enough, but not with the zeal that they do some of the others, I give them the HBH pellets only once a week.

another thing I do is fill used glass jars with dechlorinated water and rubber band a stocking around the top to keep bugs out and set them in the window sill. Once the water is greenish I dump it in. I guess they eat the microscopic stuff, though you cant really see. if nothing else it doesnt seem to do any harm.
 
Week 2.

My shrimps are growing up!

Some of my shrimp have developed the yellow saddle back. Gettin ready to breed!

My black algae on my tuffa rock is pearling! I think the algae that is attached to the java moss is pearling too lol.

I got some plants in the mail today. I may add some more plants to this tank tomorrow.

Will cherry shrimp eat black algae?

Heres some pictures :)

Tank shot
week2.jpg


Pearling algae
week2pearl.jpg


Zoomed in shot of a shrimp- blurry from zoom :(
week2shrimp.jpg
 
great start! I do not think that teh cherry shrimp will eat that algae, not enough to make a dent in it anyway.

For the siphon, i have found sticking an aquaclear sponge in the siphon tube keeps shrimp out but lets the mulm through. Best of luck, its looking good.
 
ok so the aquaclear sponge keep them out... what about the act of digging syphon into the gravel... wont it crush the little shrimp?
 
I go slow and they move for the most part. I haven't seen a crushed shrimp yet and I have 10 invert specific tanks or thereabouts running.
 
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