Baby RCS

[Tifta]

I think i got babies. I was watching my snail and noticed these tiny little specks jumping around on the glass. I think they are baby RCS. Do they only eat algae and moss? Or do I need to put something else in there with them? I hope that is what they are. Now I am to scared to do a water change! How does one go about doing this without killing the babies?

 

[bs6749]

I think i got babies. I was watching my snail and noticed these tiny little specks jumping around on the glass. I think they are baby RCS. Do they only eat algae and moss? Or do I need to put something else in there with them? I hope that is what they are. Now I am to scared to do a water change! How does one go about doing this without killing the babies?

You probably do have some new babies. One or more of the berried females I sent you very well could have released the babies. They are miniature forms of adults and will eat what larger RCS eat. You don't need to do a water change very often in a shrimp tank. I change a little of mine every couple of weeks or so. When I DO change my water I use a white 5 gallon buket. I siphon the old tank water into the bucket. Then I get another 5 gallon bucket and I put a net laying over the top. I pour the water from one bucket into the other. Then I try to pick out any tiny RCS that may be in the net. Sometimes I put the net back into the tank and let the little ones swim out without moving the net much. This allows all of the plant debris and whatnot to remain in the net while the shrimp escape. Another thing you could do is pick out anything that isn't a shrimp and toss it in the trash. Then, once you are down to the very last part where you can't pick through anymore put the net into a smaller container that has already been filled with water. Use a turkey baster and suck out the babies. They should all be at the bottom after a minute or so which allows you to drain off any water that you can making it easier to get the babies out and back into your tank. Hope that helped. -Bryan

 

[Tifta]

Oh yeah there are a lot of them too

 

[Tifta]

Thanks for the info, I will do that once i need to change water.. I can't tell if they are minute size, there are so freakin small, just tiny little specks hopping around the tank. I hope that is shrimp and nothing else. I can't believe how small they are.

 

[Tifta]

there are a lot of them too, how many eggs does a RCS release

 

[bs6749]

They may be microorganisms if they aren't shrimp. Don't worry though, baby shrimp love them. I'm not sure how many they release at a time. If I had to guess I'd say 20-25 would be average.

 

[Purrbox]

Sound like you may be seeing ostracods (seed shrimp) and not RCS babies. They are pretty common in shrimp aquariums without fish to feed on them. Completely harmless to the shrimp. Baby shrimp really don't hop around, they swim and move just like the adults in miniture. I generally don't spot the baby shrimp until they are at least 2-3mm long.

 

[new2betas]

Amy,
What I use when I do a water change in my shrimp tank is my gravel vacuum with stocking (hose) over the end of it attached tightly with a rubberband and I watch very closely to make sure no shrimp get too close. It's worked great so far!

 

[Tifta]

I think you are right joy. I was gonna say I didn't think shrimp looked like that. And there isn't a few, there is a bunch!! I have a guppy in there right now, so he has been snacking on them. there are some small white worms on the glass too. Very crazy stuff.

I'll try the hose Dottie, that is a great idea!

 

[bs6749]

Siphoning with that gravel vac setup doesn't seem very effective to me. Granted, you will not suck up any baby RCS but you will also not suck up any waste material that will contribute to ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels in the tankwhich is essentially what you are trying to remove when doing a PWC. At that point all you are doing is changing out water and it'd be faster to suck from the top of the tank with no hose over the hose.

 

[new2betas]

Siphoning with that gravel vac setup doesn't seem very effective to me. Granted, you will not suck up any baby RCS but you will also not suck up any waste material that will contribute to ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels in the tankwhich is essentially what you are trying to remove when doing a PWC. At that point all you are doing is changing out water and it'd be faster to suck from the top of the tank with no hose over the hose.

Bryan,
The reason I put the hose on my gravel vac was to keep from accidentally sucking up any shrimp. They are very curious and get very close to the vacuum, even at the top of the tank. I just wanted to be safe and not sorry. I am way too nervous to completely vacuum the substrate because I see teeny baby shrimp down there all of the time, I would have to vacuum them up if I stuck it in the substrate.

 

[bs6749]

You'll constantly have baby RCS though and you'll need to eventually need to do a PWC and suck out the gravel. That's why I use the procedure that I use with the buckets and net etc. So far, not one has got away from me...at least that's what I like to think LOL. I'm sure I've lost some but I think my way minimizes the number lost.

 

[new2betas]

You probably do have some new babies. One or more of the berried females I sent you very well could have released the babies. They are miniature forms of adults and will eat what larger RCS eat. You don't need to do a water change very often in a shrimp tank. I change a little of mine every couple of weeks or so. When I DO change my water I use a white 5 gallon buket. I siphon the old tank water into the bucket. Then I get another 5 gallon bucket and I put a net laying over the top. I pour the water from one bucket into the other. Then I try to pick out any tiny RCS that may be in the net. Sometimes I put the net back into the tank and let the little ones swim out without moving the net much. This allows all of the plant debris and whatnot to remain in the net while the shrimp escape. Another thing you could do is pick out anything that isn't a shrimp and toss it in the trash. Then, once you are down to the very last part where you can't pick through anymore put the net into a smaller container that has already been filled with water. Use a turkey baster and suck out the babies. They should all be at the bottom after a minute or so which allows you to drain off any water that you can making it easier to get the babies out and back into your tank. Hope that helped. -Bryan

Bryan,
I would love to see an example of this (like on youtube or something). I am having trouble picturing in my mind exactly how you do this without loosing too many shrimp. I am a visual learner, I guess , that's why I just use the hose over the syphon thing. I didn't think shrimp created too much waste material that would spike up the ammonia/nitrites. Obviously, in my tank there isn't any since I have those awful hydra hanging around still.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Just to add to this. Yesterday I noticed a small clear spec in my tank, I was watching closely and it was near the filter but was going back and forth. So then it got closer and I saw that it was a baby RCS(finally!). Then it got sucked into the filter, lol.

So I turned the filter off( I got a new AC20 for my 10G). Opened it up and guess what was in there? 8 RCS and an adult Endler!! They were all alive and well.

So I'm using a pantyhose prefilter for now. Looking at getting this:
Filter-Max Pre-Filter


Anyway its the same as using a gravel vac regularly and just check the bucket for live creatures(if you use a python then it would be different). Then he uses a strainer to find them as I'm sure it would be very hard to spot baby RCS in a bucket b/c I can barely see them in my tank, lol.

 

[Tifta]

well that sucks. I was all excited about some babies.