Stocking suggestions

[MOsborne05]

I'm getting more into the breeding aspects of fishkeeping, and am having a hard time deciding where to put everything.
This is what I have right now:
12 CRS shrimp
5 Cherry shrimp
5 small Spixi snails
6 guppies (2m/4f)
9 ember tetras
2 galaxy rasboras

I also have 10-15 more cherry shrimp on the way, I should have them by Friday. I would like to focus mainly on breeding the shrimp & snails. If the embers & rasboras happen to breed, then that would be great but it seems that they are pretty hard to breed.

The tanks that I have are:
5.5 gallon -currently housing the guppies & spixi snails
7 gallon - currently housing the shrimp
10 gallon - currently housing the embers & rasboras
10 gallon - empty
38 gallon - empty

All of the tanks have moss & guppy grass, and the 7 gallon is a heavily planted show tank.

[neilfishguy]

CRS-10 gallon
RCS-The other 10 gallon.
GUPPS-7 gallon
Tetra and rasbora in the 38, and the snails in the shrimp tanks.
A lot of moss in all the tanks for fry!

[@marko@]

um 2 galaxies isnt good. they like schools.

as to where you want to put what, they are all compatible so any combination would work except the galaxies shouldnt be with shrimp.

[MOsborne05]

The lfs only had two of them left, that is why I only have two. And they haven't gotten any more since then.

[lauraleellbp]

CRS need very specialized (read- EXPENSE REQUIRED) setups and usually around 20gal for successful breeding- check out the sticky in the shrimp forum for more info. I'd recommend the 38gal out of all your tanks.

RCS you could stick in any of those tanks and expect to breed. If you want a colony where the young survive, though, don't mix any of the shrimp with fish.

I don't know anything about spixi snails, including if it's even possible to breed them in FW? They should probably go in one of the shrimp tanks, though, if you want to try and breed them, unless they require special conditions? Another question for the shrimp forum...

Guppies are livebearers and will breed like... well... guppies. Put them wherever you want, just give them room to grow and placed for the fry to hide (your java moss and guppy grass are perfect)

The other two (tetras and danios) are egglayers that I have no personal experience with, but probably require some special care in regards to pH, hardness, temperature, etc. You'll need to do some more research on those. I know CPDs (celestial pearl danio is now the preferred name over galaxy rasbora) have some of their own forums going- I'd check out one of those. I doubt that they will be able to be kept in the same tank to breed, though. CPD prefer cooler temps whereas ember tetras are more tropical.

[MOsborne05]

I might end up giving my 2 CPDs to a friend of mine who already has 6 of them, and possible selling the ember tetras to a friend who has been looking for them but can't find them in her area.

I understand that the CRS are difficult to keep, and I did a lot of research on them before I purchased them. I had been breeding RCS shrimp for awhile, and sold off most of my stock about a year ago. I decided to get back into RCS because there is a high demand for them around here, and I love keeping inverts.

I'm thinking that I should keep the CRS and some cherry shrimp in the 38 gallon, with any guppy fry that I get. I normally use sponge filters on my shrimp tank, but wouldn't 38 gallons be too large to use a sponge filter? I have a large bio-wheel hob filter as well, that I could cover the intake so that I don't suck up any baby shrimp, would that work? I also have an RO/DI unit so I would be using mostly RO/DI water for the tanks. Other than that, what makes a CRS tank more expensive to keep?

I would definitely like to keep my shrimp spread out amongst a few tanks though, just in case I have a tank crash or heater malfunction. I don't want to lose my entire batch.

[lauraleellbp]

I think it's very wise to spread out your colony.

If you already have the RO unit then that's a major expense/barrier for most people. Maintaining the proper pH and hardness for CRS can get tricky otherwise.

There are some really good sponge filters on the market these days that would be well-equipped to handle a 38gal tank; check them out before you decide. I personally really do like HOB, but there's always that risk of the shrimplets being lost, even with sponge prefilters...

Guppy fry will definitely eat shrimplets. I wouldn't keep any fish at all in your shrimp tank if your goal is to breed and sell them. Why not use one of your 10gal as a guppy grow-out tank?

[MOsborne05]

Yeah, I can do that. I really didn't plan on keeping guppies, I just saw some really nice females at the lfs, so I got them in the hopes that I could breed them with some nice males.

I've looked at the larger sponge-filters on Drs Foster & Smith, so maybe I will get one. It just doesn't seem like one sponge-filter would be able to keep up in a 38 gallon tank. Do other people use powerheads or anything else to circulate the water?

If I get the CRS breeding well, I can and will purchase some more tanks, probably 20 longs. But for now, I would like to try and use what I have. The 38 gallon tank is scratched up pretty badly, and was replaced by the 45 gallon tank, but the shrimp don't care if its scratched!

[lauraleellbp]

Powerheads with a sponge prefilter would probably be a good way to go.

[MOsborne05]

Well I sold my CPD's & ember tetras, and gave the guppies to a friend. I now have cherry shrimp, yellow shrimp, spixi snails and 6 endlers. I scored a 29 gallon for a great deal, but the lighting is not good at all and I think the tank is too big. I found someone that will trade me a 20 gallon long, so that is what I am going to do. I am going to move the yellow shrimp from the 7 gallon to the 20 gallon long. I also plan on buying another 20 gallon long to house a pair of dwarf orange crays, and my endlers. Right now I've got:

10 gallon - cherry shrimp
7 gallon - yellow shrimp
5.5 gallon - 6 endlers