shrimp breeding

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I want to try breeding shrimp but I don't have any experience with shrimp so I was hoping someone on here could give me some advice from there own experience breeding shrimp? I was wondering what plants should I get? is just java moss fine? do they need any other structure or is just plants fine? I have repashy, algae wafers and flake foods that I feed my other fish would that be fine for shrimp?

I want to do it in a 10g, Its already running, it has water, gravel, a sponge filter and a ton of algae all on the walls and a couple fish in it helping it stay cycled.

My tap water is 7.6ph, 12gh, 7kh and the tanks temperature is 60f because it doesn't have a lid yet

[tolstoy21]

What kind of shrimp? Caridina or Neocaridina? 

In general, shrimp are not fussy about the decor. Plants or small piles of rocks are helpful for the newborn shrimplets to seek shelter in.

As for food, shrimp will eat pretty much anything in my experience. It's best to have a more vegetable forward diet, but they do need some protein as well, and a source of calcium for shell development. Lot of vegetables will supply calcium. I feed mine french-cut, canned string beans. You'll also want some kind of powder food (you can pulverize flake food) for the shrimplets since they wait in their hiding places for things to float to them in their early days.

Given your listed parameters, I'm thinking you'll want to do neocardina. They will do fine in 60F, but ideally, I'd try to get them closer to 70F if you can. And, if you're tying to breed them, temps closer to 78F will increase their breeding. These higher temps are said to reduce the lifespan of the adults. Not sure the truth behind this, but it is something I read quite a bit.  I've kept shrimp colony at 78F for years without noticeable issues.

Edited May 3, 2023 by tolstoy21

[JettsPapa]

I agree with @tolstoy21 about neos being better suited to your water.  Here are some general guidelines I wrote up for someone else who was thinking of getting into shrimp if you'd like to take a look.  I've been raising and selling them for several years.