Shrimp Not Breeding

[connor31556]

Hello,
I have a 5g tank that has been up and fully cycled for a couple of years now. Just recently, I switched it from a betta tank to a shrimp tank. (picture below). A few months ago, I bought 9 shrinp 3 blood reds, 3 blue ones (forgot real name), and 3 gold backs. Since then, they have been slowly dropping off 1 or 2 every few weeks. A week ago, I picked up a 2nd batch of them same mixture (I know this will mess up their colorations). The problem is that after all this time, there have been no babies. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, ph 7.5ish, tts about 260. From researching, the possible problems that I have been facilitating is that I do water changes that are too large (50% weekly) but nothing else I could see until today. When looking at them closely I realized one of the blues had something on it, picture below, my question is can anyone confirm what it is (I'm leaning towards Holtodrilus Truncates but realize it might also be Scutariella Japonica even though it's not on its head.) I currently have around 14 shrimp in there and only 1 is showing deformities, pictured below. Does anyone know for certain what the disease/parasite is and how I should go about treating it? Thank you

 

[Andy Sager]

When it comes to breeding aquatic animals, the first thing to always confirm is that you have males and females. ( Sounds like a " No Duh!!!" thing but both genders of some animals are not always available for purchase. )

The next is the water. Water parameters play the second most important part of breeding aquatic animals. You say you converted the tank from a betta tank to shrimp but did you start fresh or just removed the betta and added the shrimp?
Also, if you keep water at parameters that are in the extremes of " acceptable", this may not be acceptable to your animals to breed but acceptable for them to live in. You always want to stay close to the middle of the "acceptable" ranges for breeding. Some shrimps do better at neutral to slightly alkaline water Ph but others breed better at more acidic ranges while capable of living in the alkaline ranges. TDS is also important. Since our test kits can only test for the presence of hardness making elements, it doesn't differentiate what those elements are and they may not be to your shrimps liking for breeding. This is why it's better to use RO water that is re-mineralized so that acceptable minerals are what are added back to the water.
With shrimps, you are correct that they do not like major changes in their water chemistry but if this is a major issue, it usually kills the shrimps but since yours survive the change, it may still be part of the cause why they are not breeding as they are too stressed from the major changes. ( Shrimps are not like fish so they need to be treated differently.) The key thing to do is match the water parameters from the place you got the shrimp from ( assuming they are the breeders) or determine the correct names of the shrimps then research the proper water parameters for that shrimp specie and match that. With some fish species, it's the drastic drop in temperature that causes the fish to spawn. With shrimps, temperature plays a key role as well. The problem is in order to get shrimps to spawn frequently, higher temps seem to work but tend to shorten the lifespan of the shrimp. Cooler temps keep the shrimps alive longer but tend to reduce the breeding cycles. The " happy medium" seems to be a dream. You just need to figure out which you want more and work towards those parameters.

The next thing is diet. Conditioning the shrimp for spawning takes good foods and a varied diet. Make sure you are giving your shrimp a diet that is best for conditioning them for breeding. If you are feeding a single food type, this can also be part of your problem.

Sadly, I am not familiar with shrimp parasites so I'll have to leave that part for others here.

 

[Autumnsky]

You might try some Fenbendozole liquid goat dewormer called Safe-Guard Goat Dewormer.

Do a series of dips.

You can do a mixture and then use it to do dips, I'd guess maybe a double amount and dip for 15 min time. Use same temp of water and could mix med using the tank water.

Remove the shrimp, dip in the separate cup of tank water leave it for awhile maybe another 10-15 min this gives it time to have the things fall off. You can also use a little tweezer if you are able to remove any left over parts. Maybe Ellobiopsidae.

Let me check for a video from Rachel O'Leary regarding treatment of the parasites
article
Parasites in Freshwater Shrimp - AMAZONAS Magazine

I would do what Rachel says. But I would try Goat dewormer since I have Safeguard.

You can review the info of this thread about Goat dewormer, it is primarily regarding Planaria and Hydra, but they are worms and I have used the treatment for parasite worms on my crayfish.
https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f129/planaria-and-hydra-liquid-treatment-243568.html

 

[connor31556]

Thank you both. I've started testing kh and gh for and am currently in a middle ground of ideal ranges for all 3 species. As for the one shrimp that I could identify a deformity on: he's dead. I took him out and did a salt dip as its kinda hard to find information on shrimp diseases and the possible diseases I thought it could be both recommended that as the known treatment. He was still alive after the dips, but I think the parasite and the shock did him in.

I used to watch racheal all the time she was great but I had never seen that video (nor the suggested disease until you gave me the name of it) and I feel almost certain that said shrimp had Ellobiopsidae as even though its hard to see in the pictures alot more of his underbelly was yellow. Unfortunately, that's a hard disease to kick, so I will keep a very close eye on the other shrimp for the coming weeks and refer back to that video if need be.

Thank you both again for the help. I never really realized how niche of a subject shrimp disease remedies were

 

[Autumnsky]

You are welcome. It IS very specific at times, and other times just anyone can throw in some shrimp and they are over populating with very little specific care. Getting locally bred shrimp from ones own local water supply using people (not RO and remineralized) is going to get you a more stable group for just happily enjoying them as a fun creature to watch.

When you get into breeding for specific types and move to Caridina, the more specially bred the more difficult they are to care for and manage. Not necessarily hard, but more delicate, and parameters can be critical to life.

Dwarf shrimp are pretty amazing. I LOVE them.