# Red cherry shrimp maturity



## rolexbene (28 Mar 2012)

Just bought 12 cherry shrimp from ebay but am under the impression that they are currently quite small, they are described as young adults. Any ideas how long shrimps take to grow up from babys to full breading maturity, do they change in colour?


----------



## Iain Sutherland (28 Mar 2012)

I would guess from my colony that they will start be breed at about 3-4 months old and colours are best at about a year on.  Once they start they are like rabbits mate.  Your group of 12 could easily be 100 with 6 months - 1 year.


----------



## rolexbene (28 Mar 2012)

Good to know I'm not the most patient of souls, regarding shrimp numbers I guessing that depends on how many predators are hunting them. What is the procedure for young hatchlings, do you put them in a hatchery or do they get by in a well planted tank?


----------



## Iain Sutherland (28 Mar 2012)

just let them be...


----------



## basil (28 Mar 2012)

Get some hiding places for em! I got a couple of shrimp shelters covered in moss off eBay for mine


----------



## Viv (29 Mar 2012)

Colour can be very dependant on environment in my experience. I had some shrimp on play sand and they were extremely pale:




The same shrimp got better colour after I changed the substrate to dark, grey gravel 



And some of those original shrimp went deep red when I put them in another tank on black gravel. Heres a few from June 2011, not long after they went in:



I've had young shrimp that got better colour as they aged but I've also had very small deeply coloured shrimplets, so I'm not 100% about the effect of maturing on colour but a dark substrate will definitely bring out their best!

I got my first lot of 20 shrimp in early March 2011. They were no more than 1 cm in length but by June/July that year I had so many I had to sell some - so you really won't be waiting too long for them to start breeding! 

Viv


----------



## rolexbene (29 Mar 2012)

Thats interesting, so when they can they adapt their colour to suite, but when the would otherwise stand out against the black gravel, they make themselves red to presumably look dangerous towards predators. Thanks for all the info guys


----------



## rolexbene (30 Mar 2012)

Got my shrimp today and they are looking good, got about 15 for the price of 10 (80p each) very impressed. I did have a Hydor Nano powerhead running in the tank but I have switched it off incase any shrimp get sucked in to it and blended, now I am to scared to turn it on. Does anyone have any experience with shrimp and powerheads, do they Mix? No pun intended


----------



## Iain Sutherland (30 Mar 2012)

I run powerhads on all tanks and never lost a shrimp to my knowledge.... unlike filter inlets, watched 2 CRS get sucked into it the other day   RCS seem more sensible, they even clean the powerheads so you should be fine.  Worth making your inlets shrimp safe though if you can.


----------



## Viv (30 Mar 2012)

Have you checked your filter to see if they made it through alive? I know it may sound dumb but when I first put an exernal on my 180l I didn't think about covering the inlet. The first time I changed the white pad in it I had rcs jumping up out of the filter from where they'd got sucked in and passed through!

Viv


----------



## Iain Sutherland (31 Mar 2012)

they might be in there, ill leave it to the gods and see what happens when i do a filter clean.  Its a new tank so wont be for a while....


----------



## rolexbene (1 Apr 2012)

Just a quick shot of one of my new shrimp, cheers.


CSD_1408.jpg by rolex.bene, on Flickr


----------



## Sentral (5 Apr 2012)

Lovely shot!


----------



## rolexbene (17 Apr 2012)

easerthegeezer said:
			
		

> I would guess from my colony that they will start be breed at about 3-4 months old and colours are best at about a year on.  Once they start they are like rabbits mate.  Your group of 12 could easily be 100 with 6 months - 1 year.



Didn't take long  

Shrimp by rolex.bene, on Flickr


----------



## AAB (19 Apr 2012)

Result in less than a month?


----------



## rolexbene (20 Apr 2012)

AAB said:
			
		

> Result in less than a month?


And just noticed another one with eggs, and strangely a 3rd with only 1 egg, can't work out if she has stolen one or just dropped them all. any how, I imagine I will have have to start selling them soon


----------



## AAB (20 Apr 2012)

I bought mine couple of months ago, and in last couple days notice few with the saddle. It is all exciting stuff this, isn't it.


----------

