Tank maturity and Shrimp breeding discussion

[Autumnsky]

One of the members shrimp was heavily berried - near term (hopefully we will see that pic here). Which made me think of my experiences and many others I have seen who set up brand new shrimp tanks and how long they wait to get a good amount of breeding.

Questions on that note... please chime in about the kinds of shrimp you have, and more, below are some questions to help get you thinking about this.

Was your tank brand new / cleaned up used, or already running where there had been a Betta or other fish in the tank so it was a mature tank? How long had it been cycled?

Were the shrimp mixed ages, pee wee, juvi, adolescent, young adult, adult?

How long before they had saddles, and after seeing saddles, were they berried or did you see them with saddles again later before actually getting eggs.

How long has it taken for them to start producing eggs, babies?





type of cleaning schedule also how much cleaning you do (scrub the glass on all sides each week, occassionally never, vac weekly / ever,

I keep seeing shrimp take about 3-6 months to start producing in a newly set up tank. Which makes me think that they need the biofilm to get extra things nutritionally to succeed, that food only cannot supply.

 

[TMaier]

Here she is!

A local fish friend gave me some of her culls. I didn't even count them. They were pretty small. 10/28 was the date.
I had tried shrimp before in my main fish tank and everyone was eaten.

These new ones went into my nursery tank that has been set up for several months for baby mystery snails and plant growing. No fish live in the tank but I did QT some very small Khuli's for a month.

I noticed a light patch on a few of their backs a while back.

I spotted this 12/23.

So 2 weeks from eggs to berries.

Here is the 10g you can see all the plants.
I only cleaned the glass on the front of the tank so the shrimp and snail had goodies on the glass to pick at. The PWC and vacuum was done biweekly about 40%.

Now this weekend I moved the 10 to a 20 and I hope the shrimp weren't stressed in the move. They have all of their old plants and deco and new ones as well.



I have covered the canister filter intake with 2 layers of sponge to keep the young shrimp from getting sucked in when they hatch.

How big are they when hatched? Will I be able to see them?

 

[Autumnsky]

The tiny shrimp will be around the head of a metal type pin but in the shape of a shrimp Get a great magnifying glass to see them. Sometimes you do not even see them for quite a while. Then all of a sudden there is a pee wee shrimp walking around!!!

~~
I would only clean the glass on the tank if I had too. Only occassionally the front so I can see them!!!

If there is a new tank set up I always try to transfer over something that is mature, like stones, plants and gravel if possible.

On the times I haven't, the period of time for the shrimp to become berried is longer and I could see saddled females but then no babies. Or very few saddled females.

Keeping dwarf shrimp has been one of the most fun experiences, (and expensive too). You can spend $.50 -1.00 a piece for cull Cherry shrimp and $10-20 (or thousands) for a shrimp for new color morphs or rarer varieties.

Even though the expensive shrimp are usually challenging and can set a tank apart from other tanks, the shrimp's character and behavior is really the same whether they are culls or bank busting rarities.

So almost anyone with any budget can raise and enjoy them. This is one thing I love about them. I started with some interesting multicolored shrimp and it was not too long about 3 months (I can't exactly recall atm) before I started seeing babies, and there were tiny little shrimp which look nearly like the parent, not as much color often.

 

[TMaier]

Is this the saddle?

 

[flchamp89]

Looks like it yes

 

[Autumnsky]

Looks like it, the front part seems to be covered by the shell. Like a saddle for a horse.

Have you seen any males feverently swimming in every direction, zig zagging everywhere?

The F shrimp will molt and then a few days later you will see the saddle and usually then see the males going crazy with the pheromones in the tank. Buzzing around like bees to a hive!

 

[TMaier]

Males are buzzing. But they always seem to be! I have a few females and unless their on the same schedule the boys are always buzzing.

 

[Autumnsky]

Maybe babies everywhere soon!!!

 

[Fresh2o]

Males are buzzing. But they always seem to be! I have a few females and unless their on the same schedule the boys are always buzzing.

I think a recent molting female triggers this, though I did see this after a recent water change.
Early in 2016 I changed things up drastically in my shrimp tank and there were no berried females for MONTHS. I was getting concerned. Once things became settled in it was business as usual.

 

[Caliban07]

My Amanos were all over the place in the 46. Having no real experience with shrimp I thought something was off with the water. Some time after the female was berried. No babies from what I can remember although I could have swore I counted 5 once even though I only bought 4.

 

[flchamp89]

Less talk wc and shrimp. What kind of frequency and percentages.

 

[Caliban07]

Sorry I didn't see the full nature of this thread. The app is all over the place sometimes. Pictures disappear if I go back a page, people have other people's avatars and in this case this thread was titled 'what did you do with your tank today'

I was changing about 30-40% a week. The tank was matured and there was lots of vegetation. I never fed them. I've never fed any of my shrimps I kept specifically. I had red cherry doing very well in a nano then I put them in with an angelfish and the rest was history.

TDS around 160ppm
Temp 25 degrees C
Dosing EI
Crushed coral in substrate
PH would drop in to the 5s daily from the 7s



I don't know if you can tell anything from this picture? I know very little about shrimp. I have two of the 4 left in my aquaopti that we're hiding all the time. I though it was co2 causing issues but since I've added the plants they have been out all the time. I think these are both males. The berried female was huge. I honestly don't know if the females are normally larger then the males. Close up they look pretty awesome the Amanos. Hoping to get some red cherries in there soon.

 

[flchamp89]

Was curious. I come across alot of breeders saying they have either cut percentage down or have gone to every other week or monthly.

 

[Caliban07]

There were periods of neglect where I could have gone two weeks without a water change. I was never religious. Everything was doing so well at that point. As long as I kept looking after the plants things were pretty great.