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Red Cherry Shrimp Tank

15K views 57 replies 10 participants last post by  sub-80 
#1 · (Edited)
Finished setting up the aquarium on the 12th of Jan of 2013. I've added 6 Red cherry and 2 Otos. Its a 63 liter tank that I've build. It's the first tank I've built and my first shrimp breeding tank.



Updates:
  1. Light Duration: (9AM-9PM; 12hrs). Aquatrade Green Element 16x 3W @ 6500K.
  2. Increased Temp. from 24C (75F) to 26C (78.8F). Fluval E 100W
  3. Connect Seneye Reef to Shrimp Tank
    When preparing the slide I soaked wrong side up and according to seneye support that it will give me an inaccurate PH reading for a few hours to a day then it will correct itself.
    Parameter ranges placed:
    • PH: 6.5-7.5
    • Temp: 24-25C
    • Ammonia (NH3): 0.001ppm
    Placed a pic of mobile and desktop interface of my tank.
  4. Poured some Mineral powder "Mironekuton" meant to condition aquarium parameters to appropriate value for shrimp. Only poured half dosage since Fluval Stratum is meant also to condition the aquarium parameters.
  5. Increased Temp to 27C, reason was when the temp was set 26C Fluval heater only dispalyed 24.5-25C and Seneye displayed 24.3C.
  6. Poured 3 more spoons of Mineral powder (Making the correct amount of dosage.)
  7. Replace 25% of water.
  8. Connected an air intake to sponge filter.
  9. One spoon of Mineral powder increased PH from 6.70 to 7.40. (Strangely yesturday I poured 3 spoons and the ph only increased from 6.4 to 6.56.)
    This sudden increase could be a reaction from the air bubles to the mineral powder. More powder is sinking than before.
  10. Removed one of the Otos. (Seems about to die)


Objective: Red Cherry Shrimp Breeding.

[STRIKE]Question 1: Should I add Bamboo shrimp? Will they interbreed?[/STRIKE] Answered

1. Bamboo shrimp are filter feeders and need a pretty swift current to properly feed, and they won't interbreed, 'cause they're different species :]
[STRIKE]Question 2: Should I add an air stone?
The only source of air is the Dwarf Hair Grass?
[/STRIKE] Answered
I personally won't worry about the bubbles, I don't think you have enough cherries to worry about it.
  • With the Seneye Reef it shows there is enough dissolved oxygen.


Question 3: Should I use liquid fertilizer if only using excel?

I would add the ferts with how high your lights are, but hopefully someone else will chime in soon!
As far as carbon, excel I've used with shrimp tanks and not had any major noticible problems however I dose much lower than recommended dosage.
Question 4: Proper Light duration, 12 hrs or 9 hrs?

As far as light and algae, I think you will wanna lower the time on with that kind of lighting if you take your ph up, as you'll likely start algae production with higher ph, if you havent already.

[STRIKE]Question 5:
What is the optimal breeding temp. for Red Cherry Shrimp?
Some sites said 25-27C (77-80.6F), some sites said 21-24C (69.8-75F) and one site said Ideal Temp is 24C (75C).[/STRIKE] Answered

For cherry reds you don't need to get too specific as far as hitting exact numbers, it's more about keeping consistent numbers as with most freshwater tanks. They will thrive and breed in a number of conditions, it's fluctuation that will cause problems. Your temp will be good from the 78-82 range, but again keep it consistent. Also that ph range you showed on the first post, if its going back and forth that's a problem. Again go for stability, but for RCS I would try to keep it up closer to 7.0 -7.2 (this works for me), but your a little low at 6.4.
[STRIKE]Question 6: Added an air intake to my sponge filter, due to one of the otos looking like its about to die. Did a few things Updates 6-9. Relocated dying oto to another planted tank. The some of the shrimps (used to be 2 now just one) started going against the strong current, where its basically carrying them to the glass wall and frequently it keeps going up to the surface then back down. Should I worry?[/STRIKE] Answered

The intake only increase the oxygen levels by 0.2. Been a few weeks and shrimps are okay.

[STRIKE]Question 7: From the pics below can anyone recognize a male CRS?
Because a majority of people that saw previous pics I took said they're all female, but with time will make the features more apparent.[/STRIKE] Answered

Majority are female but there are male RCS.

This one looks male to me. Dunno about the guys swimming against the flow.
Question 8: Duration between mating?
Read that a RCS mates every 6 months, so when should start worrying about my RCS not reproducing?


Second Continuation is on the 2nd Page.
 

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#2 ·
1. Bamboo shrimp are filter feeders and need a pretty swift current to properly feed, and they won't interbreed, 'cause they're different species :]

2. Is your tank filtered? Is it planted only with Hair Grass?

3. How high is the light? Pics!!!
 
#3 ·
2. reply: Yes, currently with a sponge filter as can be seen in the photo in the first entery. Its only Dwarf Hairgrass in the substrate and Java Moss on a log at the corner as seen in the corner.

3. Am using Aquatrader 24" Green Element 16x 3W 6500K Led light fixture.
 
#5 ·
I personally won't worry about the bubbles, I don't think you have enough cherries to worry about it.
And I would add the ferts with how high your lights are, but hopefully someone else will chime in soon!

That tank is going to look really nice when it grows in though!
 
#7 ·
Light, CO2, and Ferts are the holy trinity of plant growth. More of one, means more of the others is necessary for good growth. You have high light and CO2, but without ferts or the fish that would otherwise provide the rudimentary fertilization, you're not going to get the growth you want, and with the light, will probably get a whole bunch of algae instead, especially with how few nutrient suckers you have in there.
 
#10 ·
For cherry reds you don't need to get too specific as far as hitting exact numbers, it's more about keeping consistent numbers as with most freshwater tanks. They will thrive and breed in a number of conditions, it's fluctuation that will cause problems. Your temp will be good from the 78-82 range, but again keep it consistent. Also that ph range you showed on the first post, if its going back and forth that's a problem. Again go for stability, but for RCS I would try to keep it up closer to 7.0 -7.2 (this works for me), but your a little low at 6.4. Another big factor as far as breeding and just overall health of the shrimp is your Tds and gh/kh, which I haven't seen mention of. That will play a large role in molting, and ultimately breeding. There's a lot of good info on this forum to dive deeper into that. As far as light and algae, I think you will wanna lower the time on with that kind of lighting if you take your ph up, as you'll likely start algae production with higher ph, if you havent already. As far as carbon, excel I've used with shrimp tanks and not had any major noticible problems however I dose much lower than recommended dosage. Actual CO2 systems I don't know much about. As I said before, this forum has a lot of info, I may also recommend planetinverts.com. Good info that is pretty well organized. Hope this at least helps point you in A direction lol
 
#14 · (Edited)
Females will have a saddle. It looks like an orange saddle right behind their head on their upper back.

Be careful with fluctuating ph, it can kill the shrimp.

GH and KH are pretty important also, I learned the hard way.

I ended up putting coral bones in my filter to solve that issue, it raises the ph, kh, and gh.

Anyway, heres how I learned=
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1971652#post1971652

Oh yeah, most algae wafers are pretty high in protein and if your gh/kh is low(low amounts of minerals in the water) you can actually kill your shrimp by overfeeding because they wont have enough minerals to generate a new shell before they bust out of their old one. In your pictures you can see the shrimp having a line in the center of their body, that seemed to be what was happening before mine had started dying. With moss in the tank they wont starve, I usually feed mine algae wafers twice a week and they get some flakes that the fish miss.

Not trying to be scary or anything, rcs are pretty easy to keep, shrimp in general are still less hardy than fish in my experience though.
 
#16 · (Edited)
The PH reached 7.4 then lowered to 7.12 and stabilized at that value. The mineral powder states if you dlose correctly, the parameters will be the following: GH 4, KH 1-2, pH 7.4, conductance 75 µS.

I drop one Shirakura Ebi Dama Special pellet and I won't drop another until its finished.
 
#28 ·
My Ph swings from 7.5 to 6.4 almost every day but I only have 3 cherries in a fish / planted tank with pressurized CO2 & my shrimp are doing really well. Although I am not sure if they are too old to breed. I have been told that 2 or 3 shrimp in a heavy planted tank are not going to breed. I also read that that the stripe down the middle actually means the shrimp are getting older NOT dying. My RCS shrimp have had a stripe down the middle now for 5 months & they are still doing well. If they died in the next few months I doubt it was because the stripe appeared but more because they died of old age. The stripe means they are old shrimp. Young cherry reds do not get the stripe until they are at least a year old or more.
If my shrimp were more plentiful & younger they probably would have breed by now. I doubt the ph swings are really that bad because in nature the ph swings a lot. It is probably a myth the ph thing. If your shrimp are breeding with a steady ph than it is probably because all else is good.
1 last thing. I do not always consider breeding the only indication that a species is doing well. All it takes is 1 thing that can turn the corner for breeding but the species can still be doing well. My 2 cents
 
#30 · (Edited)
Second Continuation

Updates:
  1. Replaced the Sponge filter with Eheim HOB (2042) with Fluval prefilter; The oxygen dissolved was reduced from 8.4 to 8.0.
  2. Bought some more shrimp; Currently have 10 RCS and 4 Amano/Yamato Shrimp.
  3. Placed a Fluval Ceramics Shrimp Tube. To enhance the chances of breeding.
  4. Installed a pressurized Co2 syste; 4Kg aluminum cylinder, Miluawkee Regulator set at 1 bubble every 4 seconds and Aquili 3cm corner Co2 diffuser.
  5. Increased Temperature to 27C (80.6F) ; the corner where the Java Moss is gets an average of 25C (77F)
  6. Installed a Dupla drop checker. Light green.


Objective: Red Cherry Breeding and Nicely planted tank.

Question 9: Have a huge number of snails, should I get rid of them or should I keep them, since I don't pick up remaining food? Will they affect the shrimp breeding?
 

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#34 ·
Did a Water test via Tetra Water test kit and Got these values:

KH:1-2dH
GH:3-4dH
PH:6.5
Nitrite: Less than 0.3mg/l

The mineral powder is doing its job, am getting the GH and KH values except PH since it starts at 7.4 but goes down along the days but the process increased due to CO2 injection. But I'd rather have a greater GH value so PH fluctuation would be less drastic.
 
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