# Cherry shrimp not breeding



## DavidC

Has anyone ever had a problem breeding their cherry shrimp? I read everywhere how easy it is and you have to do is leave them to it but I'm having real trouble. The things I read that will stop them breeding are extreme temperature or brand new tanks. The tank has been set up for a few years, they are in treated London tap water and they are alone except for a small Pleco. I feed them algae wafers and cucumber every so often and they feed fine, I have had them about 8 months and none have died off, they just don't breed (or even get berried). I don't have my exact water parameters but it is regular London tap water so its nothing too crazy. 

Would appreciate any help as everyone else can't seem to stop them breeding.

Cheers,

Dave


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## BigTom

OK, this is probably going to sound stupid but - how many have you got? If its very few then there's always the chance they might all be male!


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## DavidC

nah it's not stupid but I don't think that's it. There are about 20 in there definitely a mix of sexes


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## Westyggx

DavidC said:
			
		

> nah it's not stupid but I don't think that's it. There are about 20 in there definitely a mix of sexes



David,

I have some shrimp in my downstairs tank with a pleco in it, i had about 10 shrimp. They bred, and now i have only about 2 shrimp, i am starting to think the pleco has eaten them when he gets hungry...


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## mlgt

Do you have enough hiding spaces? Mosses for the shrimps? I bought 6 sakura shrimp last year and have had over 100 shrimp in the space of 6 months. 

My tank was only for sakuras, but it could be the plec is hoovering up the shrimp fry possibly. How big is the plec? 

Cherrys are pretty hardy and breed quite easily.You can help us a little bit by telling us your tank set up.


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## BigTom

DavidC said:
			
		

> nah it's not stupid but I don't think that's it. There are about 20 in there definitely a mix of sexes



Heh, OK.

Failling any better advice, I'd probably try removing the plec for a while and see if it makes a difference.


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## DavidC

plec is tiny, maybe an inch. Definitely not eating them as mentioned none of the shrimp are berried so it looks like they don't want to breed. There are plenty or hiding places big chunk of moss in a 40 litre tank with wood and anubais. normal gravel, small filter that came with the tank. I recently put tights over the inlet of the filter as that would take the babies but as there have never been any berried shrimp it seems unlikely to be hoovering the babies. 

Dave


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## mlgt

That is very weird then. No reason why they wouldnt breed. Possibly having so many might be the downfall. I had 6 sakura in a 60l tank and as I said I had over 100 at one point.

Perhaps swop or sell the ones you have to thin out the colony to 10 and see what happens?


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## Brenmuk

When I was browsing my LFS one of the assistants told me they try to induce breeding in RCS by doing water changes will cool water every few weeks.
There's further discussion on temp in this thread.
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14431&start=10


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## mlgt

As the topic shows that cherrys can live in a range of environments. 

Ive tried various methods in my 3 tanks. I have a nano with few plants and no heater, a 180l tank planted community tank with discus with a tempreture of 28-29c and a standalone tank for sakura shrimps at 23-24c with slates of moss and duckweed only. 

The most effective was the standalone tank, but in the 180l even with so many community fish I still had alot of fry.


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## LondonDragon

Other than Sulawesi shrimp I would aim for around 24C in a shrimp tank, Sulawesi need a stable 27C, but other shrimp do better in lower temps. Specially Crystals and they will struggle above 24C. I have had cherries breed at temps closer to 30C but they did much better when at around 23-25C.


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## Brenmuk

I have had this problem up until recently.

I set up a low tech shrimp tank beginning of Feb. 
And bought a few shrimp here and there till i had about 10.
I wanted to ensure a bit of genetic diversity. Some of the shrimp grew into what appeared to be females in that they were large, solid red and had curved underbellies. 
Others stayed medium sized, fairly colourless with straight bellies and were more active. So it looked like I had a good mix of male and female.

However none of them produced eggs not even a saddle after almost 3 months in the tank   - they did seem to grow well and colour up though :? . 
I thought maybe they were infact all one sex, or maybe the tank was too new or even though they had reached what appeared to be adult size they were not sexually mature.

I then bought another 25 shrimp from ebay. They arrived most were 2 - 8 mm in size, and fairly colourless. Within a few days I noticed some of the new shrimp had eggs even though they were alot smaller and appeared more juvenile than the original shrimp.
Then within a week and half some of the original shrimp I bought that I thought were female had eggs   .

Maybe it was coincidence but it seems introducing shrimp from an already breeding colony seems to have triggered
the original non breeding shrimp into action.

Other than introducing more shrimp nothing in tank set up or maintenance changed.


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## bigmatt

have you tried a specialist shrimp food? I fed mind algae wafers so i didn't have to feed separate things to my tiny corys, then got a sample pack of specialist shrimp food and they've gone mental! Constantly berried and loads of juveniles! M


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## Westyggx

Matt,

Funny you should say that because since changing to Shikura shrimp food i havent seen one of my cherries with eggs for the last two months! and i have about 50-60 shrimp in the tank. There possibly hiding in my moss though


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## spyder

Brenmuk said:
			
		

> I then bought another 25 shrimp from ebay. They arrived most were 2 - 8 mm in size, and fairly colourless. Within a few days I noticed some of the new shrimp had eggs even though they were alot smaller and appeared more juvenile than the original shrimp.



I'm having the same sort of thing and 1st time shrimper.   

Started with 6 from LFS then added around 20 little ones from a local breeder. One month later one of the originals is berried with a lot of younger new shrimp saddled. The 1st 6 were terrified of the CPD's but since the other 20 went in the CPD's keep away from them.   

On the cold water change side. I never preheat water just slowly siphon back through airline tucked in by heater. I've noticed increased moltings after WC's.


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