Red Cherry Shrimp Tank

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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.

Question 1: Should I add Bamboo shrimp? Will they interbreed? Answered

Originally Posted by theshadybird

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 :]

Question 2: Should I add an air stone?
The only source of air is the Dwarf Hair Grass?
Answered

Originally Posted by theshadybird

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?

Originally Posted by theshadybird

I would add the ferts with how high your lights are, but hopefully someone else will chime in soon!

Originally Posted by Duck5003

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?

Originally Posted by Duck5003

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.

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). Answered

Originally Posted by Duck5003

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.

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? Answered

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

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. Answered

Majority are female but there are male RCS.

Originally Posted by theshadybird

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.

[theshadybird]

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!!!

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Originally Posted by theshadybird

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!!!

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.

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Added A few pics in the first entry.

[theshadybird]

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!

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Originally Posted by theshadybird

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!

But would it be enough with just Seachem Excel as a Co2 source? Am not using a pressurized system since it said to be the number one killer of shrimp.

Thank You, I really hope it looks nice too.

[theshadybird]

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.

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yeah!!! Algae Bad.
I already have a clado problem in my other planted tank, don't need another.

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added some more info.

[Duck5003]

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

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one question and 4 updates

[theshadybird]

This one looks male to me. Dunno about the guys swimming against the flow.

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That's good to know I might go and buy two more male RCS

[theericafish]

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/sh...52#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.

[accordztech]

For your temps, I noticed that my cherry shrimps bred much more at lower temps below 77 degrees. I have them at 74 currently.

I like that data logger, is that all real time?