Does killing off snails and shrimp=more fry?

[Corbidorbidoodle]

I have a couple species tanks with little things like Blue Eyes and CPDs that are def hooking up in there. I figure there's at least some potential for babies.

But I have various snails (like ramshorns) and some handfuls of culled shrimp hanging out in there with them. The inverts are probably eating the eggs, right?

I'm not looking to start a farm or anything, but I wouldn't say no to a sweet little CPD colony.

If I use some Copper Power or something to clean out the inverts, will that help with babies? Is it best to keep breeding tanks invert free? Or do they help in some way?

[AnimalNerd98]

Some people actually keep Neos with their spawning mops because the shrimp will clean the eggs and eat any eggs that have gone bad. I actually like to keep shrimp and snails with my fry to eat up any leftover fry food. I think snails will most likely eat eggs if given the chance. If you want to maximize the number of fry you get, then yes, you should totally keep them away from any possible predators (this includes the parents). You would put them in a spawning tank and remove the eggs to incubate separately. You can try colony breeding them, but at that point, you might as well just leave the snails and shrimp in there. 

Here’s how I got my CPD colony of 20+ individuals from 5. I had them in a bowl pond set up with a floating pond basket at the very top with some floating plants. The adults were shy and stayed near the bottom of the pond and spawned like crazy. The fry would swim up and into the pond basket where I would just scoop them out every day. I have gotten sizable batches of fry each time, and I had snails in the pond. 

[Cinnebuns]

I agree with @AnimalNerd98 here. I actually pull my eggs and intentionally put them into a tank with neo shrimp to hatch. The neos "nanny" the eggs. They will clean the fertile ones making them more likely to hatch and eat the infertile ones so they are less likely to spread fungus to the healthy ones. My yield rates have gone way up since using them. 

Now, the ramshorns I'm pretty sure would eat eggs. They even eat their own eggs and young if there isn't enough food around. I actually just changed a tank from a ramshorn cull tank to a breeding tank for hillstream loaches and otos and the FIRST thing I did was complete rid the tank of the ramshorns. I don't trust those buggers around my eggs!

[Beardedbillygoat1975]