Red Cherry Shrimp

[Alba Cory]

Absolutely love these little guys but for whatever reason I can't get them to breed. Is the shrimp on the left a weird colour or pretty normal? Also is she carrying eggs at all?





This next picture is my phone background I love it that much.







Any advice would be great!

 

[dragonfisher33]

aquatic species that are farm raised or massively produced either by breeders or vendors usually suffer from the lack of genetic diversity as the result of inbreeding. in this case: 1 your shrimp could be sick; or 2 if you have had it in this color for very long time, it's an indication of the lack of genetic diversity. you will notice that the further down you breed from the original batch of shrimps (whether it be RCS, RCs, or any others), the less colorful the offsprings become due to inbreed

 

[giffmastaflex]

I read online that to keep the temp at 80F and to make sure that you have food for them and they should breed I'm in the second week of trying to breed them

 

[Autumnsky]

What is your pH?

Are you able to check your gh/kh (general hardness and carbonate hardness)

Also TDS (total dissolved solids)
lfs will sometimes be able to check if you don't have the tests, sometimes will charge you.

Temp?

Cherry Shrimp usually breed pretty easily, so maybe something is out of the ordinary in there.

How often do you do pwc? Shrimp like not to be disturbed that much, but have clean water. lol

How many shrimp do you have in there? Do you have both sexes?

One thing I understand to get them saddled, is to do a pwc, large one and put in a degree or 2 cooler water to stimulate reproduction.

Same with more acidic water, that would depend on your pH. I am not sure how to do that other than with steeping some peat moss, driftwood or dried Oak or Indian Almond leaves. Maybe someone can chime in with their experience on it.

 

[aluka]

If your shrimp is sick, she would likely be dead. Generally, fading of the red color for any grade of the red variation of the neo strand indicates that they stressed out.

What you have are cherry grade neocardina shrimps. They are one of the most common dwarf shrimps kept in the hobby, they are also the hardiest.

Things that would stress out a cherry shrimp:

1. Rapid temperature fluctuation - like if your tank is 78 in the day and 70 at night.
2. Presence of ammonia, nitrite, or too high level of nitrate. Cherries are one of the few dwarf shrimps that "can" survive in a non cycled tank, but it will stress them out and they will not breed in a non cycled tank. Even if they do, most of the shrimplets will die.
3. Water change - One of the most important part of keeping shrimps is maintaining stable water conditions. If you water change too often, or too much at once, it will stress them. As well as if you water change with water with parameters too different from their current parameters.
4. Shrimps needs a gh of 4-14 to molt correctly, if you do not maintain a gh within that limit, they will die from molting problems eventually.

To get them to breed to must be able to maintain a stable water parameter of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, minimal nitrate. ph 7-8 (Neos are one of the few that enjoys higher ph), gh 4+. There also needs to be lots of biofilm for them to pick on. If you can maintain that, they should start breeding within a month if they are at breeding age and you have both genders.

 

[aluka]

Also, Shrimps are one of the only aquatic species that look better with inbreeding. Inbreeding causes them to be weaker and more sensitive, but does not effect their coloration. Because shrimps like cherries are selectively bred for the red coloration. Their wild type relatives are relatively clear with brown spots. The more genetically varied a cherry is the more often they will throw other colors/lower grades in their offsprings.

Alot of times breeders will add shrimps from other strains of cherries to their colony to add genetic diversity, not to improve their colors, but to make them more hardy.