RCS not breeding. Crazy, right?

[ArabTanker]

Hey guys, as the title says, my RCS stopped breeding. I always used to see at least 1 or 2 berried shrimp in my tank at once. Now, for about two months, I haven't seen any. I mean I haven't been paying much attention to the tank (i used to watch it for hours on end) because of finals and all. But still, its only a 10g, I think I would be able to see one if I had any.

I have done some research and read something about shrimp having an 'off season' where they don't really breed much. Is this true?

I have a strong filter system, a canister filter rated for a 75g tank. So I don't think my ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites are the cause.

I have one tank with fish and one tank without, so i'm not sure if its because of the fish.

I know I have relatively hard water, a bud of mine (jkan0228) suggested that hard water makes it hard for the shrimp to molt therefor limiting breeding.

To be honest, after 4-5 months of strong breeding, I never thought I would have this problem. What do you guys think it could be? Feel free to ask all questions you have to better your diagnoses.

Thanks for looking.
-Sherif

[ren]

What are your water parameters? Have you been keeping up with water changes? You mentioned you have a canister filter, are your shrimp being blown around?

[ArabTanker]

I rarely do water changes to be honest.
I will test water tomorrow as well as get a water hardness kit tomorrow.
They are not being blown around. I have big rocks in the tank that stops most flow.

[angelsword]

I'd pick up nitrate and ammonia test kits of I were you. Better yet would be a test kit like API's.

[ArabTanker]

Originally Posted by angelsword

I'd pick up nitrate and ammonia test kits of I were you. Better yet would be a test kit like API's.

I have it.

[diwu13]

Here's what it seems to me. You said they were breeding for 4-5 months with no problems right? But then you never did a water change? Seems your water might be out of minerals that help shrimp molt.

[randyl]

Nitrate can be an issue, temperature is another. If shrimps look happy then it could just be the off season. Another possibility is they feel the stress from being overcrowded. There is no set number for the maximum population as it greatly depends on the environment. I'll say if shrimps are not dying or showing bad colour (molting issue), they're fine. My PFR breeding also slows down due to high temperature, it gets as high as 27 and average at 25. No apparent death but breeding slows down.

[Kunsthure]

If your, say, original 10 did great and became 50 or 100, and you never increased the amount of food you feed, breeding will stop. I saw a huge increase in berried and saddled females once I started specifically feeding the shrimp instead of letting them forage most of the time. So maybe you need to feed more.

That, and do regular water changes.

-Lisa

[ArabTanker]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Here's what it seems to me. You said they were breeding for 4-5 months with no problems right? But then you never did a water change? Seems your water might be out of minerals that help shrimp molt.

I did do water changes, but only like once a month.
I did a 15-20% water change in the breeding tank (w/o fish) today, lets see what happens.

Originally Posted by randyl

Nitrate can be an issue, temperature is another. If shrimps look happy then it could just be the off season. Another possibility is they feel the stress from being overcrowded. There is no set number for the maximum population as it greatly depends on the environment. I'll say if shrimps are not dying or showing bad colour (molting issue), they're fine. My PFR breeding also slows down due to high temperature, it gets as high as 27 and average at 25. No apparent death but breeding slows down.

What is the 'off season'?
They are not overcrowded. Like I said, I have one 10g and one breeder tank that has a huge footprint (about 4 feet by 2.5 feet) with only about 15 rcs. Temps are high. 76-77 in my 10g and 78-80 in my breeding tank.
Can you give me more info on the 'bad color' molting issues? That might be it!

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

If your, say, original 10 did great and became 50 or 100, and you never increased the amount of food you feed, breeding will stop. I saw a huge increase in berried and saddled females once I started specifically feeding the shrimp instead of letting them forage most of the time. So maybe you need to feed more.

That, and do regular water changes.

-Lisa

I will try feeding them more and see what happens. Its kinda hard now that I have Neon Tetras. They pick on the shrimp when they are around food. Gready litter boogers (boogers wasn't the first word that came to mind).


Thanks for all your input guys. Ill keep you posted. Keep the ideas coming.

[anh]

are your shrimp seem a little dwarfer? deformed or dented shells? hard water is not good for CRS because it harden their shell too fast and they cant molt properly... however the opposite is true for cherries. In soft water cherry shrimp have a hard time growing their shell and have molting problems of their own. my guess is because cherries grow so much faster that they need the harder water to molt more often.

Anyway when i had my PFR shrimp in soft water ph < 7, i eccounter juvies death, deformed shells and molting problems. I raise it back up to 7.4, all of them started breeding again.

[ArabTanker]

Originally Posted by anh

are your shrimp seem a little dwarfer? deformed or dented shells? hard water is not good for CRS because it harden their shell too fast and they cant molt properly... however the opposite is true for cherries. In soft water cherry shrimp have a hard time growing their shell and have molting problems of their own. my guess is because cherries grow so much faster that they need the harder water to molt more often.

Anyway when i had my PFR shrimp in soft water ph < 7, i eccounter juvies death, deformed shells and molting problems. I raise it back up to 7.4, all of them started breeding again.

I am working on getting a water hardness test kit soon. Probably tomorrow.

Any other ideas?

How would i go about making the water softer?

[diwu13]

Until you test it don't bother trying to figure out how to make your water softer. Since neos are super hardy having 400ppm shouldn't be an issue.

But if you wanted to know.. softer water requires the use of RO/DI filters.

[Kunsthure]

They're probably stressed to death by the neons. All tetras are shrimp destroyers.

-Lisa

[ArabTanker]

Originally Posted by Kunsthure

They're probably stressed to death by the neons. All tetras are shrimp destroyers.

-Lisa

I have a breeding tank with only RCS and a main tank that has tetras. No breeding in any of the 2 tanks.

[ArabTanker]

Went to two different stores looking for non test strip water hardness testers and couldn't find anything.

These results are via AIP 5 in 1 test strips.
GH is 180 ppm(chart doesn't go higher than that) and KH is around 60 ppm

So.... now what. haha.