Help with pregnant cherry shrimp

[AdeenaT]

Hello, I was hoping I could get some advice on chery shrimp. This is the first time breeding anything as my family has only been in the aquarium hobby for a few months. I have a think 2 pregnant cherry shrimp and I'm wondering if I should put them in a breeder box until they have there babies? My concern is that these shrimp are in a community tank with glofish tetras, snails and some corydoras so I don't want any little ones getting gobbled up. I'm also scared of gravel vaccuming them up as well once they hatch. I've also noticed today that a lot of my shrimp have been swimming more than usual instead of their normal grazing and was wondering if this is normal or if something could be wrong.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[ElTigre]

I've never had experience taking shrimp out to lay their eggs but instead kept them with some white clouds. In order to give the babies a better chance i put in a couple clumps of java moss. The tank it self is also heavily planted and has a lot of dragon stone hardscape. Lastly the shrimp swimming more is a good sign it mean the female has molted and is ready to breed and the male will begin to chase her and swim around to find her. 

[AdeenaT]

36 minutes ago, ElTigre said:

I've never had experience taking shrimp out to lay their eggs but instead kept them with some white clouds. In order to give the babies a better chance i put in a couple clumps of java moss. The tank it self is also heavily planted and has a lot of dragon stone hardscape. Lastly the shrimp swimming more is a good sign it mean the female has molted and is ready to breed and the male will begin to chase her and swim around to find her. 

I don't have the most densely planted tank unfortunately. I have a java fern, vallisanaria, java moss on mopani wood, and some small anubias plants but nothing is huge. I do have a couple of decorations that the shrimp seem to like (spongebob's house, squidward house and a half coconut shell). I'm probably overreacting haha I'm just worried I'm going to do something wrong.

[Yanni]

I don't know if putting them in a breeder box would really be all that great. I'm sure that it would save most of the babies but I've noticed that if the shrimp are stressed, they won't have babies. Separating them into a breeder box would probably give them stress. If I were you, I would either leave the shrimp in there or put them in a big plastic container with a sponge filter and let them breed in there. If you left the shrimp in the community tank, I am pretty sure the tetras would gobble them up really quick. You could try the breeder box out, it might work and it might not. Just make sure that you are feeding them well and keeping up with water changes. 

[JettsPapa]

I wouldn't separate the berried females.  If you don't have any dense plants to provide hiding places I'd suggest a pile of rocks, about the size of a child's fist or a little larger, with the rocks sized so that the shrimp can get inside but the fish can't.

[Bru]

Unknown to me, I had baby cherry shrimp growing up in a tank with a pretty big fancy goldfish. I lifted up a piece of slate that was flat against the gravel and there was a group of about 10 medium sized cherry shrimp. I quickly scooped them out so they could live a better life in a small-fish community tank. While a lot of the babies may be eaten, I think there will be a few from each batch that will find a way to survive and the population should slowly increase. They're pretty resilient.

[tolstoy21]

I think they'd be fine in a breeder box if they have plants to feel safe, like a nice clump of java moss or any other floating plant that provides cover and grazing places for the shrimplets. Also, make sure there is food available for the babies who tend to spend their initial days hiding in the plants and will either need bio film there to graze on, or food to make it to them via water flow.

As @JettsPapasuggested, in the tank itself, loose rock piles are great hiding places for baby shrimp if you don't have thick plant cover.

The 'swimming more than usual' might be what's known as the 'happy dance'. This is when the females are ready to breed and the males go crazy and swim around like love struck nuts looking for a date. Shrimp breeding activity tends to ramp up as the winter turns to spring. Could be that you're just witnessing that.

Edited March 4, 2021 by tolstoy21

[CT_]

Cholla wood is supposed to be good too ( and cheap if you buy it on line. the big box stores rob you on cholla), baby shrimp can live in there a long time and the tetra can't really get in.  I'm in the same boat with cardinals and guppies though mine aren't bedding yet.

[joseph lambeth]

I believe you could get some java moss and a shrimp cave from the website. place the shrimp cave on top of the java moss so the shrimp have the java moss to pick through and the cave for protection I believe that would work pretty good for shrimp fry.