I just got a couple RCS the other day and one of em is already extremely swollen and pregnant with what looks like a hugh clutch. I have her and a few others in a 42 gallon 75P with an xP3. I also have 4 ottos and 2 SAE's, all of which right now are RAVENOUS because they completely cleared the tank of algae and I have nothing to feed them (bumping up ferts and photoperiod to induce a bit of green algae for them to eat) will they eat the baby shrimp? What should I do with the female, leave her be or put her in a quarantine tank? Should I do anything with the water chemistry or temperature? And should I find a way to cover the intake lily pipe? and if so, how?

Thanks guys, I really need help on this, it looks like she could let them loose any minute now, and I have absolutely no experience in this kind of thing.

Just sit back and enjoy the show. Otos won't eat the baby shrimp. I don't know about SAEs, but I assume if they are young, they probably won't either.

Nothing needs to be done except to cover your intake with something fine enough to keep the babies from being sucked into the filter. Other than that, you should see a lot of babies in a few weeks.

What should I cover it with? I have no idea

Use a dense prefilter sponge. I've heard some people using pantyhose too.

Get a prefilter sponge, or you can get one of the foam inserts for an aquaclear, cut a slit in it, and cover the intake with that. Do you have moss in the tank? If not, go get some java moss. I hope the tank is well planted, because pretty much everything likes shrimp. Otos won't eat them, but SAEs definitely will. You will probably see an increase in your shrimp population anyway. Don't worry too much about feeding them, I don't feed my shrimp most of the time. They will dig through your substrate picking up pieces of sand and clean them off. RCS are like cockroaches.

I wouldn't move the mother, though. Changes in the environment can cause shrimp to molt, and in this case, the eggs would go with the shell.

I have cartridges from my no longer used penguin biowheel, i can just take the blue foam off of that right? See, I never would have thought of something like that if I didnt have this forum, lol, Thanks fishscale!

I have one of these


http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...eederfinesmall

should I put the female in it because of the SAE's?

no need. I have a dwarf puffer and a guppy in with my cherries. I also have my tank heavily planted with lots of moss (clump of xmas moss and a java moss wall). With all these great hiding places, the baby shrimp were able to hide and survive even with the keen eyes of a puffer fish!

If moss is not your thing, don't worry about it. From the looks of your tank, there seem to be plenty of hiding places for the shrimp. They won't all survive for sure, but a good many will. Your population just won't go up as quickly with the SAEs enjoying a snack or two.

Also, everything is a lot denser now. The two SAE's are little, but ravenous, they're very hungry. I'm going to cover the intake pipe and call it a day.

After some sort of pre-filter sponge, you can sell them for money, as RCS breed faster than bunnies.

I hopped on that train a little late; by the time mine were popping out enough babies to sell, my LFS figured out they were really easy to breed, and stopped taking them