Breeding Sakura Orange Neocaridina Shrimp

[Minanora]

Micro update:

I just watched a female setting up her eggs in her swimmerets! It takes a long time... It was worth watching though! The number of berried females is increasing in the sanctuary. 😄

And also, it's terrifying to watch them eat stuff outside of the water. I had a mini heart attack today watching them feast on stuff above the water line.

[Minanora]

Oh. My. Goodness!!!!!!!

Another update. Those eggs I saved from big Mama... Some have hatched!!!!! I saw three tiny tiny tiny shrimp this evening!

It blew my mind. I took them off of the air stone yesterday. I couldn't let them go yet though so I put them, still in the net in a taco bell cup with their tank water in it.... I have been swishing it around maybe twice today... I kept looking in there at those little black eyeballs and just said, "there's still hope". Sure enough!

 Soo... Now there's shrimp in my bathroom again. 🤣

Curse you sideways photo.... Curse you!

[Lizzyduff]

So... something that I probably should have thought of sooner...what happens when they have so many babies they outgrow the tank? Buy more tanks? 😳 I only have 2 nano tanks and never intended to breed these things but they're in there humping like rabbits and now I've got 4 berried ... ((face palm))

[Minanora]

Well, @Lizzyduff you can do a super tedious thing and separate the males and females. Males in one tank, females in the other. This is how a lot of people have skittle tanks without making brown shrimp.

Or you could sell your excess to your local shop. Or give them away to other keepers.

I will eventually be selling my excess to my local shop. After I seed my 75G with a healthy chunk of mature shrimps.

Local bred shrimp are very desirable in shops. They're generally hardier than imports/wholesale.

I would buy more tanks if I could ... Lol you can also put them in jars and vases! True story!

 

Or, you know, in taco bell cups. 🤣

Edited March 17, 2022 by Minanora

[Guppysnail]

On 3/17/2022 at 12:22 AM, Minanora said:

This is how a lot of people have skittle tanks without making brown shrimp.

I noticed a very neat thing with mine. At first I only got a few wild type colored. Then I got a lot of them. As time went on the new wild type colors being produced dwindled and now I get mostly different colors and some random rillincolored ones with the clear stripes. I’ve also started getting some darker red with red legs and really dark brilliant orange. I’ve also gotten a green and a few black. I started with all red, orange, blue, yellow(none of the yellow survived to have babies) and snowball. Fun stuff.  I love watching new ones. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Minanora]

@GuppysnailThat is a really cool observation! I don't recall seeing these oddities in your journal. I may have skipped a few pages at some point on accident. >.<

What was the timeframe that you saw these patterns arise? How many generations of observation? Were there still solid colored shrimp at the same time as the wild coloration were matured? I wonder if those "brown" shrimps bred back to other solid colored ones to make that happen. Shrimp are so fascinating!

Breeding everything is interesting!

[Guppysnail]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:22 AM, Minanora said:

@GuppysnailThat is a really cool observation! I don't recall seeing these oddities in your journal. I may have skipped a few pages at some point on accident. >.<

What was the timeframe that you saw these patterns arise? How many generations of observation? Were there still solid colored shrimp at the same time as the wild coloration were matured? I wonder if those "brown" shrimps bred back to other solid colored ones to make that happen. Shrimp are so fascinating!

Breeding everything is interesting!

It is not in my journal.  This happened prior to my coming to the forum. I’m not certain of time frames either. It’s just something one day I remember thinking I was going to end up with all wild types.  Then one day notice few wild types but colored ones of a higher color quality Thani started with.  One day while dispersing shrimp to other tanks I tried to put mostly the same colored ones in each different tank and wilds in a tank. I by no means made it to the only stage just tried to get mostly same colored. The same end result in the tanks was fewer wild and better colored than original colors including in th mostly wild colored tank. 

[Minanora]

More and more females are fanning eggs in the Shrimp Sanctuary. I wonder how many will actually carry them to hatching. I have only seen one molt off her eggs.

The tiny shrimp are cruising around in their net still. I think there's 4 in there. I know there's 3. I think they're done hatching so I'm going to release them into the sanctuary today.

[Minanora]

So just for reference, I started with 14 shrimp at the beginning of December.

Babies, babies babies...

In February I moved 9 into the cube. Berried Shrimp in there. I should see those babies in two ish weeks.

No major dent in main colony.

Today I moved 38 culls into the 75 gallon. I maybe removed <1/3 of the population from the main colony in doing so.

I have at least 70 more young adult shrimp plus many more youth. Several more berried females.... My husband pointed out that I turned $30 into over $400 of shrimp. I don't plan to sell them, so long as I don't get overrun. The 75 will be the true test.

Am I going to put shrimp into my son's 20? If the ones in the 75 live for over two weeks, you bet!

Also today I saw one of the tiny shrimp I hatched on the glass! 🧡🦐

 

[PineSong]

Wow, we need a bug eyes emoji. Those numbers are amazing (to me, who was very excited by shrimp population growing by three, lol!). They must be very happy!

[Minanora]

On 3/23/2022 at 4:10 PM, PineSong said:

Wow, we need a bug eyes emoji. Those numbers are amazing (to me, who was very excited by shrimp population growing by three, lol!). They must be very happy!

I attribute it to being a shrimp only tank and being able to see them because they're orange. 

There's another berried female in the rasbora ruins.

There are at least 6 berried females in the sanctuary now.

I see between 4 and 11 shrimp at a time in the 75. If I ever see a berried female in there I'll be amazed.

[PineSong]

On 3/24/2022 at 9:07 AM, Minanora said:

I attribute it to being a shrimp only tank and being able to see them because they're orange. 

I *could* have a shrimp-only tank if my guppy fry would actually grow up and move out! 

Actually, that's not even true because I have a trio of fancy guppies in QT that will need to be alone in a tank....it's just a jigsaw puzzle at this point.

[SJ fishing]

It is fun with the shrimp.  I started with 15 in a 29gal platy tank

noticed a few babies at some point

couple months later “oh wow there’s around 300 of them now” lol

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:22 AM, Minanora said:

@GuppysnailThat is a really cool observation! I don't recall seeing these oddities in your journal. I may have skipped a few pages at some point on accident. >.<

What was the timeframe that you saw these patterns arise? How many generations of observation? Were there still solid colored shrimp at the same time as the wild coloration were matured? I wonder if those "brown" shrimps bred back to other solid colored ones to make that happen. Shrimp are so fascinating!

Breeding everything is interesting!

I've been trying to document that in my journal. I got some wild types right away, likely because I had 10 davidii and 1 palmata - and that was a female. A prolific female. What's interesting now is that some of those wild types (some with a back stripe!) are having babies that include bright red, yellow, blue and orange.

I got a couple I would classify as chocolate - a deep, almost metallic brown - and their offspring include dark blue, light blue "jelly", and red/orange! I had at least one blue dream female that I suspect was the parent there. One of the few things I have not seen is my snowball producing any like herself at all in 4 or 5 clutches over 8 months. Perhaps if she mated with one of her male WT offspring it might be more likely. Some of the wild ones have really amazing patterns and I am enjoying them as well as our "skittles". 

[Minanora]

On 3/24/2022 at 6:35 AM, PineSong said:

I *could* have a shrimp-only tank if my guppy fry would actually grow up and move out! 

Actually, that's not even true because I have a trio of fancy guppies in QT that will need to be alone in a tank....it's just a jigsaw puzzle at this point.

I mean you could build out another tank.... or a vase or two! 😛

[Minanora]

Saw the first dead shrimp in the 75G. I saw a bunch of molts today. The dead one I saw had the white ring of death. Failed molt. That tank has like the highest GH/KH in the lot. So that's out. He must have just been too shocked. Bummer.

[Minanora]

Alright, time for an update!

The shrimp sanctuary is booming. Lots of tiny babies, lots of berried females. I haven't done a water change on this tank in a long while. I think I'll do that tonight. My allergies are keeping me from doing anything else.

The shrimp I moved into the Chili Ruins had their first hatch of babies! So far there are at least 10 babies that have survived with little cover from the Chilis. Another female is still berried and I expect more babies will follow. I haven't changed water on the Ruins tank since December. I just top it off and add small amounts of minerals every few weeks. This mini colony of shrimp has had 0 deaths.

The most surprising update: The shrimp in the 75 are breeding! I have seen two berried females today. At this rate I'll be overrun with shrimp and will have to offload them to the shop. Hooray! I was worried that the water parameters would be too high on GH/KH for them to breed. Currently the shrimp are breeding in there at 77 degrees, 8.0 pH, 14GH, 12KH, <10ppm Nitrate.

Mama shrimp feasting on algae. (another mama on the back wall, but she's blurry)

 

Still a bit cloudy but better. Tiny shrimp all over the glass.

[Minanora]

Micro update: the shrimp population in the sanctuary is booming. Last night I noted many tiny shrimp and juvenile shrimp. I also noted 11 berried females. I'm sure there are more. It's hard to see everyone at the right angle. Most of the 11 I saw had large broods. I have noticed that the younger females tend to have small broods at first. Usually yielding 8-15 shrimplettes. At this point I consider the tank at critical mass. I am going to need to sell/give away shrimp. I am glad I only bought 10 instead of 30. Mind you, I started keeping orange shrimp on December 8th. 14 with losses over three weeks to total 7 adults. Now there's well over 100.

The shrimp in the 75 are doing great. I saw 5 berried females last night. I added a lot of plants last week and started CO2 injection. Things are thriving.

The shrimp in the, so named, chili ruins, are thriving. 9 growing shrimplettes I saw last night and many more on the way. It's rather amazing.

Going to put more shrimp in the 75.

I wonder if shrimp would do okay in a summer guppy pond....🤔🤣

Going to groom plants in the sanctuary today. I'll be sure to post before and after photos.

[Minanora]

Alright. So I actually did a 50% water change today. Finally. I can hardly believe how long it's been since I changed water in there. SO this is where the story is going to get very interesting in terms of breeding and overall shrimp keeping.

I checked the parameters of the water I took out of the tank so I could make sure I wasn't going way off with my new water.

The water they were in:

pH: 8.0
KH: 9 degrees
GH: 18 degrees
Temp: 73 degrees F

I hadn't changed water in several months. I had been topping off with RO water. Even when I moved them from the bathroom, I returned the water I took out to the tank when I finished.

So somehow the pH was going up. And the KH/GH. I've only had 3 deaths in the tank in the last month. Anyway. I think the "Mineral Junkie" food helps buffer pH,KH,GH.

I had been testing the water with the easy test strips but I thought mine were bunked because of how high the pH was showing on this tank. Guess they're fine! I used the API master test to do the tests today. I always use this and their GH/KH test kit when I do the shrimp because I like the accuracy. 

Moving on. It's no wonder that the shrimp are thriving and breeding in the 75... The water parameters were almost the same! I acclimated them for pretty much no reason. lol.

 

This just goes to prove that they are very adaptable and will proliferate in high pH, hard water. And it's probably why my Rotala Bossii is dying lol. I was wondering!

On Wednesday I added two Crypt Patchii, some S. Repens and a Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'. All seem to be doing very well.

Also the water wasn't cloudy! The glass was! NOW the water is cloudy. Haha.

I added a black background today. Here are the before and afters of the trimming and water change + new background.

 Before:

 

After:

I love these little buggers. They're just so cool.

Here's two mamas basking before the pruning.

[Minanora]

OH YEAH! I ALMOST forgot!

I watched shrimp mating for the very first time. It was not as fast as people say. She was there, minding her own business; then a male came up to her (a dull, less pretty one of course)... He got on her back, then she jumped, he latched onto her abdomen right below her face and they stayed like that for probably 30 seconds. Then away he swam. It looked like he had her trapped. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was aggression.

[Minanora]

On 3/23/2022 at 4:10 PM, PineSong said:

Wow, we need a bug eyes emoji. Those numbers are amazing (to me, who was very excited by shrimp population growing by three, lol!). They must be very happy!

I just re-read this and it made me laugh because of your most recent shrimp development. 🙂

I'm excited to see your colony really take off!

[Minanora]

On 3/15/2022 at 12:13 PM, Lizzyduff said:

Mine just hatched too! I'm curious how long until they get color... right now they're still clear, look like commas lol.

I wanted to follow up with this since I had said I was going to track the time it takes for them to color up. I've had enough time now!

From what I've seen now, of course, it varies! I've had some start to color up in as little as two weeks, and some take at least a month. I've even had a few that I swear were only a week old before they started looking a little orange; but those are the shrimp in the chili ruins so they eat krill flake, which may have something to do with their color developing more quickly.

[Minanora]

I started seeing random deaths recently. Today I realized that I probably wasn't feeding them enough. *Facepalm* poor things. It's hard to gauge feeding when you go from 10 to 200. With so many babies... Sheesh. I feel awful because I was feeding very lightly to try to combat the haze in the water. I wonder if feeding them more will actually fix it. All the parameters are good. So I can't explain the haze. But I know I need to feed more. That's the only thing I can think of for the deaths.

[Minanora]

I did groom the plants on Sunday. I felt bad cutting down the shrimps favorite "trees" but they'll grow back soon enough. I'm going on a two week vacation so I assume I'll come home to a jungle.

Before: 

After:

 

No deaths this morning in any of the tanks. Shrimp dinner tabs about half gone. I put in 3, plus 3 snowflakes, a bit of shrimp fit+, 4 small mineral junky bits, and a bit of shrimp baby. It sounds like a lot of food.... but it's not. I don't add whole scoops of anything. Just a fraction of a scoop. The snowflakes pieces spread out a bit but it's almost half gone! Everyone is busy eating in various places of the tank. Hoping that the snowflakes and dinner pads will keep the adults occupied so the babies can eat off of the flora.

[Minanora]

I must say, this has been the most interesting breeding project that I've done yet. When I look back on how this tank started and where it is today I'm a bit blown away. I will be moving a bunch of shrimp into my sons 20G when I get back from vacation. I want to get the sanctuary numbers back down to around 15-20 adults.

The shrimp in the Chili Ruins: I lost all but one of the females and two of the adult males due to a lack of feeding.... However there are about 15 total juvenile shrimp and maybe 10 babies. I didn't think to put the cream of the crop shrimp into this tank because I was sure their babies would be eaten. Hindsight I should have just put my best shrimp in there. The shrimp in the sanctuary are producing very nice orange shrimp. Many are opaque and some are painted. Almost all of the ones that aren't that way still have solid orange bodies and legs so I'm happy with them. I do get some rili's. I put those in the 75. Same with shrimp that are too reddish orange, or too pale. I love the rili in the 75, they really pop against the scape in that tank. They're becoming a favorite.

Shrimp are not like fish. If you're doing a water change in a large tank, be sure to watch above the water line... I had a group hanging out on the space between the blade and body of the magfloat that almost died because they didn't move when the water level started going down. Then another that was grazing on the algae on the back wall and didn't want to move. That one didn't make it. Shrimp don't live very long outside of the water. Even though I put him back in, he lived for about 20 minutes after that. I would say they can live maybe 5 minutes outside of the water; maybe. I haven't attempted to actually find out, nor do I want to. I hate it when they die! Doesn't matter how many more I have. Lol.