# Yellow shrimp



## Majsa (2 May 2018)

I bought 10 yellow shrimp 1,5 years ago for my 40L and they started breeding immediately (funny to watch, the race of the males and the tiny babies). The population grew to perhaps 60 shrimp in just a few months. During that time, I added CPD's and some time later the breeding stopped. I didn't see shrimplets for months and I think the population has now shrunk to maybe 30-40 (just an estimation, no way to count them). 

So, considering a life span of a shrimp and the fact they are not reproducing, I decided to select the nicest ones and move them to my 45L QT, now called "project tank", hoping they would breed. While there we still fish in this tank, a couple of females berried, but seemed to lose their eggs (only one survived to adulthood). The fish moved more than a month ago and since then there are only shrimp (±12) in the tank, but still no eggs nor shrimplets. Some of the females have HUGE saddles for while now...they molt well and seem to grow much better than they did with the CPD's, so I don't think they are very unhappy there.

What are your experiences on these shrimp? Any ideas? I read conflicting stories in the internet, they should breed well but there are people with issues too...PH is around 8, the temperature is ± 22C. GH 8. No CO2, quite some plants on decor and floating and a thin layer of black gravel. I fertilise well (EI macro's + Easy Life Profito) mainly to keep the limnobium healthy. I just don't know what the shrimps are missing. Maybe I have been too enthusiastic when selecting on colour and ended up with more females than males, but I am sure there are a few in there...


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## alto (2 May 2018)

I'd try removing any fertilizers, keep these at low level if you feel you must add something 

Use Salvinia auriculata if you want an easy to maintain floating plant - shrimp love this once it's grown in - just remember to keep the layer thinned out, though some deteriorating lower layers seem to feed baby shrimp nicely 
I find this does well even without any water column fertilizers - Tropica Aquarium Soil substrate


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## PBM3000 (3 May 2018)

My Cherries didn't breed for well over eight months and I couldn't work it out.  I'd been keeping them at 21-22C in order to lengthen their lifespan a little.  I raised that to 24-25 and off they went again.


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## rebel (3 May 2018)

No easy answers I'm afraid. I've had similar experiences (not with yellow however - my yellows never bred). Try moving them to a larger tank and keep conditions stable if possible.


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## sciencefiction (3 May 2018)

I've been seeing this "shrimp" issue reported fairly often around and I've been wondering why people have issues....

If you're following the regular advise around about not doing large water changes on shrimp tanks, then I'd advise forget about it, and do the opposite, do as many weekly large water changes as you have time for,,,minimum one large over 50% a week.

Neocaridina shrimp prefer highly oxygenated tanks with oversized filtration and lots of surface movement, i.e. water quality has to be spotless. They also quite like high flow and will eat without problem hanging on a string of moss in the flow of a spraybar for example.. They seem to prefer high flow areas....Temperature could be anything between 20 and 25C but they'll survive in lower and higher than that.

There is another thing with water quality and shrimp. In my opinion shrimp like stable water without TDS/conductivity swings.
If you have a TDS meter, keep your tank and tap's water reading almost the same via large weekly water changes avoiding any accumulation. This way your large water change will bring stability and not TDS swings. This is especially important when the months/years start rolling, because in irregularly water changed tanks or tanks that get only small weekly water changes, the water quality/stats will swing wildly to that of the source/tap water.

 If you add ferts, you could be causing accumulation of ferts over time which means you could be shocking the shrimp at every water change with a TDS/conductivity swing. Apart from that, they'll tolerate ferts but in my tanks, for example, I dose irregularly on per need basis when I see deficiencies. As a result, and because of the large water changes, I don't get a TDS/conductivity accumulation.

Shrimp need to be fed in order to breed. With food also come large water changes. The food is best to be in the form of small pellets so each shrimp can grab its share. Think of shrimp as snails, the more the food, the bigger their population...That's how it works with them. They won't breed for the sake of breeding. Providing all other water parameters are fine, food is the only variable left...



Majsa said:


> I bought 10 yellow shrimp 1,5 years ago for my 40L and they started breeding immediately (funny to watch, the race of the males and the tiny babies). The population grew to perhaps 60 shrimp in just a few months. During that time, I added CPD's and some time later the breeding stopped. I didn't see shrimplets for months and I think the population has now shrunk to maybe 30-40 (just an estimation, no way to count them).



As your tank got older, and water quality deteriorated, perhaps they could not tolerate the changing water parameters and swings at water changes.  Hence me mentioning keeping the TDS stable above. I am not saying you didn't maintain the tank. I am saying that the outputs were less than the inputs and in time that can cause the tank's water stats to differ from your tap. This happens slowly but one day, "big water changes" become an issue because tank and tap water stats have shifted from each other, hence the myth about doing small water changes on shrimp tanks. This myth also comes from tanks where one is using enriched RO water and can never quite get the new water the same as the one in the tank, again causing water stats shift at water changes...However good quality, stable water is essential for shrimp, whatever that takes...


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## Majsa (3 May 2018)

sciencefiction said:


> If you're following the regular advise around about not doing large water changes on shrimp tanks, then I'd advise forget about it, and do the opposite, do as many weekly large water changes as you have time for,,,minimum one large over 50% a week.



What I've learned on this forum that one shouldn't be afraid of large water changes  I change 50-60% of this tank every week, although probably that isn't enough at the moment. 

I think you're right and I am probably overdosing ferts. We talked about conductivity meters before and I just ordered one last week, it arrived on Monday. I measured the conductivity (the meter also has a TDS option but it's basically just a calculation, right?) before and after WC on Tuesday. Before was 780 microsiemens and after (but after adding ferts) it was 680. Tap is 450-500. That sounds like a huge swing to me...

I am going to decrease / remove the ferts (if necessary the limnobium can go to another tank) and try to do more WC's to see if I can get the TDS closer to the tap value. There isn't much flow in there I'm afraid...maybe adding an air stone will help?

As for the food, I am now feeding small amounts of pellets or half a stick every other day. I have amano's in another tank and all the females have huge bellies full of eggs. At least food wise that tank is better, more leftovers from fish, and the amano's share pieces of pepper and courgette with the oto's. Just thinking aloud what's in there that the yellow's don't have.

It would be nice to see change within a few weeks, let's see...


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## rebel (3 May 2018)

Give the shrimp some mulberry leaves pr similar also.


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## tam (4 May 2018)

I would guess that it's just built up over time where you aren't changing quite enough water to balance out the ferts. I'd do a few extra and bigger changes over the next week or two and bring it down back closer to your tap, then start dosing as needed but just monitor the TDS so it stays more steady and doesn't creep up slowly again. If you want to, you can even do the maths to work out how much you need to change each week to keep it steady with the amount of ferts you want to use.


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## sciencefiction (4 May 2018)

Majsa said:


> I think you're right and I am probably overdosing ferts. We talked about conductivity meters before and I just ordered one last week, it arrived on Monday. I measured the conductivity (the meter also has a TDS option but it's basically just a calculation, right?) before and after WC on Tuesday. Before was 780 microsiemens and after (but after adding ferts) it was 680. Tap is 450-500. That sounds like a huge swing to me...



Yes, that was my point all along. You should not have any build up that can cause eventual swings in water chemistry.  Critters are sensitive to the swings, regardless of what contributes to the final value of the TDS build up...And critters love clean water...so no escape from water changes...



Majsa said:


> the meter also has a TDS option but it's basically just a calculation, right?



Yes, pretty much doesn't matter which option you use. Just stick to one so you get accustomed to the number fluctuations.



Majsa said:


> I change 50-60% of this tank every week, although probably that isn't enough at the moment.



It is a fine for most sensibly stocked tanks and its more than a lot of people do.  Just bring the TDS build up down via several water changes and start over. It's easy with a TDS meter to take action and see what's happening long term.


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## Majsa (4 May 2018)

Thank you all  To start the "reset", I did another 50% WC today, without adding any fertilisers. Moved most of the floaters to another tank to be on the safe side and will see what the remaining floaters will do. I don't think the other (easy) plants really mind.

Just getting into TDS, measured also the CPD tank where the shrimp came from (and there is still a group in there too), and the readings were better (680 ms/cm before and 650 ms/cm after WC and adding the weekly fertilisers). But wat is considered as a reasonable swing? Curious about measurements over time.


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## sciencefiction (4 May 2018)

Majsa said:


> But wat is considered as a reasonable swing?



I'd stick to about 70-sh in the measure you're using. Your tap water can fluctuate a bit so test it from time to time to give you an idea of base measure. A 100-sh max is ok-ish also as you'll have fert accumulation. Learn to go with dosing by the look of the plants. Search for Darrel's advise on plant floating index. He's a a very knowledgeable and helpful member here.


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## Majsa (7 May 2018)

I'm happy with your advise (thank you!), and the shrimp must be grateful too, since one female has already berried! 

I'd done only one extra WC without fertilisers, the "weekly" WC is due tomorrow. We're having a few warm days here now, so the tank temperature has risen with 1-2 degrees. I've also been given the shrimp some extra food. Quite forgiving little critters, to react so quickly! I will keep the ferts away for a while now, and be more careful when starting again.


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## a1Matt (8 May 2018)

IMHE regular WC and feeding make all the difference. TDS not so much. Either way you turned it around really quickly


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## Majsa (28 Aug 2018)

I meant to give an update on this earlier but kept on forgetting it. The lamp I had went to a new tank so took my 0.6W LED back in use and turned this into a very low-tech, no ferts breeding tank with at least one 50-60% WC a week. Fed them well. The shrimp loved it, the breeding kind of got out of hand  I already gave 10 shrimp to a friend before the holidays, and in the past weeks moved ±50 to a new 54L tank. There are still ±50 small shrimp in the breeding tank which will move to their original 40L before I close the breeding tank. 

Learned a lot from this exercise


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## tiger15 (29 Aug 2018)

Glad to hear your shrimp are doing well and breeding again.  

So what's your verdict on why your shrimp have returned to breeding.     Is it because you stop dosing fert and do weekly 50-60% WC.  What do you mean by taking away the old lamp and returning the tank to low tech.  Was it a high tech CO2 tank before?

I am trying to figure out why my low tech shrimp bowl has no breeding notwithstanding my shrimp are healthy, molting and apparently normal and healthy.


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (29 Aug 2018)

I suspect it will be the rise in temperature


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## Majsa (29 Aug 2018)

tiger15 said:


> So what's your verdict on why your shrimp have returned to breeding.



I think it was a combination of things, but the main problems were overdosing ferts and not enough food. I don't think the temperature was a crucial factor but have helped. 
Now that the in-tank TDS matches the tap, it doesn't matter if I change 50% or 80%, it's all clean water without considerable swings in parameters. I am not saying shrimp won't breed in a tank with CO2 and ferts, but they do like it without.



tiger15 said:


> Was it a high tech CO2 tank before?



It wasn't a high tech tank, just brighter link. Switching to lower light just helped the plants to cope without ferts and it has worked out, even the anubias is now free of algae. But it is a very easy tank now, most ferns didn't like it so now there's mostly only anubias, crypts (which have made an interesting transition) and vallisneria in pots. I was actually surprised to see how well vallis grows in this tank.


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## rebel (30 Aug 2018)

When you think about it, abundant food and a clean environment would be a trigger for breeding in many animals.

I might try this method with my CRS and see what happens.


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