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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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#43 ·
I love reading this thread, when you set up your tank it inspired me to make my own shrimp only tank :) So thanks!
Aren't there supposed to be 0 nitrite and ammonia and then just nitrate readings? plus kh/gh/ph

Hope everything is doing well.
 
#46 ·
Placed two teaspoons of crushed coral in my hob filter to increase GH, KH and PH last night it has been 16 hours. Currently am away from tank but seneye reports 7.38 it was 7.01 before I placed the coral.

I also decreased the light duration to 3 hours due to the presence of hair algae.

When I get back home I will check the GH and KH.
:)
 
#50 · (Edited)
From my experience the GH And kh will peak at some point and won't go much higher. As you do water changes it will remove some of the waters hardness and it sort of balances out.

The only downside to crushed coral is it raises the pH of the water. The kh has direct correlation to the pH and is also a representation of the GH value.

I found that its an easy way to keep neocardinas because they will acclimate to higher pH values and do well with the added GH. You only run into issues if you are keeping fish that thrive at a lower pH, like tetra species or other tropical fish. Although they will live in higher pH you will have reduced breeding/ coloration & also opens them up to disease and shortens their lifespan a bit.

If you have hair algae most people will tell you its due to high phosphates and excess nutrients or lighting. Best way I've found to combat it is manual removal and dosing liquid co2. Excel and similar products have been invert safe in my experience but I recommend half the dosage just to be safe. Also use with caution, I see you mostly just have moss in your tank so it may not be fully absorbed and may lead to more algae issues.

Another note: most fish will eat anything that fits in their mouth. Some are more aggressive than others.

I've also found that moss grows and resists algae much better with some water flow on it.

Also with 10 or less shrimp feeding should be very sparse. With moss and algae in the tank they will always have something to graze on. Overfeeding will lead to molting issues. Molting issues leads to dead shrimp :x

My advice would be limit factors that could cause them to die. Feed less, get a stable pH and definitely more plants if you want your tank to benefit from co2 injection. Shrimp are sensitive and even the stress of water changes can cause them to die. Striping means they are ready to breed and they should have yellowish saddles in their upper back behind their head. Once that happens the eggs will move down to their legs and are ready to be fertilized. Once fertilized you will be able to see black spots on the eggs which are their eyes. Wait about 3 weeks and you will have shrimplets. Once you can see shrimplets in the tank make sure to be vary careful with water changes so you don't suck them up, they are pretty tiny for the first few weeks.

From my experience the shrimplets tend to be a little more hardy because they are more used to the water conditions you have provided. And their exoskeletons will grow in a more linear pace compared to the adults or sub adults that you received which could have came from random water conditions.

Once you get past all that you can think about adding more cherry shrimp to diversify your gene pool and then you will be on to your next project, maybe even the harder to keep cardina species.

As far as snails go, some find them an eyesore but I find them beneficial and interesting. If you ever feel they are out of hand you could pick up some assassin snails, but beware they will decimate the population of your snails. And you should always have a cleanup crew in there, otos are awesome but can be very sensitive. In my shrimp tank I decided to go with nerite snails because they are peaceful and don't breed if you just have one.

Please excuse the wall of text :) This site is great and you can find plenty of information on here.

I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences which may differ from mine, its all a learning process and can be very rewarding!

Good luck!
 
#51 ·
Not at all I appreciate people taking time to share their knowledge.




The part that I hate about manual removal is that it is firmly stuck on the hair grass and when I lift it, the hair grass is lifted with it and its runners. I did try yesterday excel spot treatment. Am facing hair algae and green spot algae and am just hoping that it is hair algae and not cladophora as I have faced cladophora and the price of success is not expensive but tiring.
Actually half of the tank is planted. The strange part about the algae is that it is only appearing in the middle section of tank.

Most say SAE don't eat shrimp, but I believe that fish tend to bite anything that fits their mouths. What bothers me most is rough movements they move fast and sometimes almost bump into shrimps.

Noticed a spur of growth when I reduced the light duration to 3 hours.



 
#52 ·
At least the tank is looking good minus the hair algae ;). I have a bit I've been battling also and as soon as it entwines in your plants its such a pain. Probably going to pick up a sae or american flag fish today. Although I hear flag fish can be aggressive toward shrimp. So far with excel dosing I have seen a lot of the algae turning a whitish color. There is hope :p

I have seen first hand how a flagfish can control hair algae but it also ate some shrimp I'm that tank :x
 
#53 ·
American flag fish are omnivores, I guess you know that. In the ADA, Tropica and Oliver videos they showed SAe as an hard working elegant fish but they don't show their rough movements and other behaviors that I find annoying (can't think of them right now). Trying to get one of them out of the tank but they are too fast. I remember someone warning me that I put sae it will be permanent but I didn't think it would be this hard.
 
#54 ·
It turns out the cladophora that had infested in my 135l tank has also infested my shrimp tank. I was able to eradicate the cladophora in the 125l tank. I a shortcut of I did to the 125l tank and hopefully it will be fine.

I noticed it when I got some on my hand the awful smell got to my nose.
 
#55 ·
I have some bad news. :(

After a while of only seeing only one or two shrimps only I decided to trim the java moss where it seems all the shrimp were hiding. When I moved the java moss a lot of dirt came out making the water cloudy. So I decided to fill a bucket half of aquarium water and place the Java moss on it and clean the java moss. I was able to find only 3 red cherries. I tore the Java moss to piece but found none. I found half of Yamato (Amano) shrimp next to the driftwood. I did a 60% water change and added 6 red cherry shrimps and one oto.
Unlike before otos used to die in a few days but due to the crushed coral the PH only fluctuates from 7.72 to 7.52. The GH is 6 and KH is 2. Its been a week and the shrimp seem to be fine.

If anyone who has bred neocaridina with fluval shrimp stratum what are the water parameters and temperature did your shrimp breed at?

I had cladophora in the tank and it has been eliminated but I still have glass algae which seems to be making the oto busy and happy for now.

This is the second attempt I guess. Any advice?
 
#56 ·
I woke up today to see that one of my shrimp was torn to bits with a SAE and a red cherry shrimp munching on it.

I decided that I will completely empty the tank to be able to catch the SAE and place them in my other tank. The shrimp and onto will be placed in a bucket until I clean and fix the aquascape of the tank. Hopefully better results.
 
#57 ·
I did 95% water change removed water until it was barely visible. Placed the red cherry shrimp and Otis in a bucket with aquarium water and placed the sae in another tank. Fixed the landscape, scraped the algae then filled the tank. Waited a few hours for the water temp. and parameters to stabilize before placing the shrimp and Otis back in. Used seachem prime and ocean free pure liquid before placing shrimp.

I also installed a second eheim filter to help keep the water cleaner.

I am thinking of cleaning the gravel, I placed a filter media bag on my siphon tube to stop it from sucking in gravel. Should help remove any dirt under the gravel.
 
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