Breeding Cherry shrimp

[Monkeypoint]

Can you pros out there point me towards tutorials, videos, guides in how to breed Neocaridinas? Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. I bought a breeding box and have an empty 10 gallon I could set up.

Many thanks in advance!

[RadMax8]

Main thing is to keep them fed and away from other fish. If you set up the 10 gal (and let it season for a few months) you’ll have a shrimp explosion!

[Monkeypoint]

On 2/19/2023 at 12:45 PM, RadMax8 said:

If you set up the 10 gal (and let it season for a few months) you’ll have a shrimp explosion!

By seasoned, I'm assuming you mean fully cycled. Do I need to add substrate or would they be good with just plants? Thanks for the help!

[ScottieB]

Sounds like your off to a great start! 
if your an Aquarium Coop member there is at least one video by Mike Coleman, specifically  about breeding shrimp. It’s not a typical you tube video, instead an expert speaker giving a more academic lecture about the subject. 
There’s another shrimp talk by the “shrimp king” himself too! 
It’s like 5$/month but well worth it, even for just a month. 
Hope that helps! Happy Shrimping! 

 

[Monkeypoint]

On 2/19/2023 at 12:54 PM, ScottieB said:

f your an Aquarium Coop member

I am! I will check out the videos. I'm amazed at how much I've learned from the Aquarium Coop video library.

Thank you!

[RadMax8]

On 2/19/2023 at 12:52 PM, Monkeypoint said:

By seasoned, I'm assuming you mean fully cycled. Do I need to add substrate or would they be good with just plants? Thanks for the help!

Cycled and given enough time to grow some biofilm. Shrimp don’t do well in “young” tanks typically. 

Just plants should work ok, even better if you’ve had them growing submersed, again so they’ve had time to grow algae and biofilm. 

[Monkeypoint]

On 2/19/2023 at 1:06 PM, RadMax8 said:

Cycled and given enough time to grow some biofilm. Shrimp don’t do well in “young” tanks typically. 

Just plants should work ok, even better if you’ve had them growing submersed, again so they’ve had time to grow algae and biofilm. 

That sounds good. 🙏 

[Ryan S.]

I will say after keeping Neos for a couple of years now.  It took me finally keeping them on their own with zero fish to finally have that shrimp explosion.  I could def get babies with some fish in the tank (rock pile and some heavy cover spots allow for this, but you don't realize how many are likely getting picked off until you try them in their own tank.  I will second the comment above about having a mature aquarium.  That is very important as well.  The third and final thing I'll mention is when I had them in a tank with a substantial snail population, they never did as well as I thought they would.  They would reproduce and expand, but never quite thrived.  I once saw someone say that while they can easily co-exist, its tough for both populations to thrive together.  In the breeding set up I have now, they are many snails, but I would say the shrimp are thriving and the snails are just kind of getting by.  I don't know if there is anything to it or not, but I think my ideal setup now if possible would be only with nerites or mystery snails where I could easily control the snail population.  Good luck!

[tolstoy21]

Cherry shrimp should just breed on their own without you doing anything at all.  But, as others have said, keeping them with fish will pose a challenge.

I would put them in the 10 gallon and not use a breeder box, as you could have problems with the adults outcompeting the babies for food in that small a space.

I have put shrimp in 'unseasoned' tanks and they do fine as long as you feed them appropriately. A food like Bacter AE from Glasgarten really helps as it creates a biofilm pretty quickly.  Also, adding oak or indian almond leaves helps with an 'unseasoned' tank as these will quickly soften and begin to develop a film and provide a constant, non-tank-polluting source of food for the shrimp.

 

Edited February 21 by tolstoy21

[Monkeypoint]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:54 PM, tolstoy21 said:

Also, adding oak or indian almond leaves helps with an 'unseasoned' tank as these will quickly soften and begin to develop a film and provide a constant, non-tank-polluting source of food for the shrimp.

Thank you - I am using the almond leaves. I also have tons of plants, driftwood, rocks, and java moss that they're always grazing on. The substrate is from the tank I started back in October that included some of the Ember Tetras. When I reset the tank in mid-January, (I switched from the 10g to the 15g rimless) I used the substrate and about 1/3rd of the water. I kept the filter from the HOB and the sponge filter as well. I added plants but some of them were from the original setup. I'm not sure if that speeds up the cycling process.

[tolstoy21]

On 2/21/2023 at 6:27 AM, Monkeypoint said:

Thank you - I am using the almond leaves.

If you have oak trees in your neck of the woods, save yourself some money and go collect the fallen leaves. They work about as well as indian almond leaves in my experience.  I save a big bunch for myself every fall when I rake the yard. I don't boil them or anything like that. I just drop a few in the tank and in a day or so they sink.

[JettsPapa]

Here's some stuff I wrote up for another discussion a while ago:

 

[Scapexghost]

Shrimp feeding

[Monkeypoint]

On 2/21/2023 at 2:32 PM, tolstoy21 said:

f you have oak trees in your neck of the woods,

We do, but honestly, I don't trust anything in the DC area enough to drop it into my tank once it's hit the ground.

[Scapexghost]

On 2/21/2023 at 4:20 PM, Monkeypoint said:

We do, but honestly, I don't trust anything in the DC area enough to drop it into my tank once it's hit the ground.

Tank them b4 they hit the ground. Ones about to fall off.

[Monkeypoint]

That, I can do!