breeder box for berried cherries?

[bananafish]

i have a small group of neos in a 10gal heavily planted tank, with a male betta. he is completely uninterested in the adults, but i’ve got a feeling he’ll take out any shrimplets he could fit in his mouth. he’s constantly poking around in the plants, so despite having lots of hiding spots, i fear no shrimplet would be safe.

none are berried yet (i just watched a couple mate though ), but i was thinking about setting up a breeder box and let it grow plenty of biofilm so it’ll be ready for momma and babies. i was thinking of adding substrate, lots of moss, cholla wood, alder cones, the whole shebang. and i’ll cover the holes with tight mesh to make sure everyone stays in.

so if that sounds good so far, i have a couple questions.

1 - what’s the minimum size box i should use?

2 - where in the tank should i place the box? i was thinking near the outlet of the filter, so there would be high water exchange.

3 - how long after mom gives birth should i take her out of the box?

4 - how long can the babies stay in the box safely?

5 - i have a 1 gallon and a 1.5 gallon planted jars with shrimp already in them, with a sponge filter and no heater (room temp 70°F). 10 gallon is kept at 79°F. i read i shouldn’t move a berried shrimp to water of different temp, but could i acclimate the baby shrimps to the colder tanks and keep them there until they’re big enough to go back to the 10g?

 

[Autumnsky]

The reason I do not like this option is that the transfer of water in a regular breeder box or net "box"
like this or similar
https://www.petsmart.com/fish/maint...NcJv1DIDndyKSdcUqeOODyoXOzsrMY1BoCZQoQAvD_BwE

Is very much lower than usual.

I have lost several groups of tiny fry in using these. When feeding in this type container ammonia can spike because the water flow, I eventually put mine in front of the outflow to get as much movement as I could. That definitely helped.

Also Adding new pwc water into the basket to keep that water cleaner/ fresher.

If you were to try it I would use the net type and get it into the tank asap to start growing algae, etc. I would throw some moss in there too so it can get growing onto the net.