[Ezatnova]

I have a Fluval Spec 3 that has house my shrimp colony for a couple of years. Ever since removing my beta and then my neons, the shrimp got prolific. Always 3-7 of them with eggs over the last year.

Because I didn’t cull any, my blues, yellows, oranges and reds now have a fair amount of brown decedents, along with some nice black and super dark purple ones, amongst those that kept their true blue and red.

Couple of questions regarding my tank that probably has 30 shrimp including small ones about a month or two old.

- In the last month or two, any berried shrimp occurrences have abruptly stopped. Not one. No change in parameters or feeding or temp or anything.

- as a sub-question tho this, my temps are 75-77. And I’ve noticed the VAST majority of the shrimp are female. I read that there could be a correlation between temps on the warmer side and females being the result of most eggs hatched in these temps. Still though, I’m pretty sure there’s at least a male or two so I’m not sure they’re ALL female and that’s a reason they’ve stopped.

- I have had my plants explode a bit and even though I trim them back once in a while, can a tank really be OVER planted and maybe cause the shrimp to feel squished and know they shouldn’t breed? I hesitate to cut or remove the plants when I see the small shrimp happily hiding in them and picking away at the roots and leaves.

 

[Ezatnova]

Decedents or descendants? Not being a jerk here, as it does matter a lot in this case.

Hmm lol. I mean the shrimplets and the shrimplets’ shrimplets

Remove any heater you have. Shrimp are cool water species. I turn on fans in my shrimp tanks when temperatures get near 70ish.

interesting. I thought I’ve read they thrive from 70-80? The house gets around 64-65 at times.

No. Not really for our purposes. But your tank is only moderately planted. Shrimp do best in tanks where there are plenty of plants and hiding places.

They do have that for sure.

That's a lot of shrimp for a small tank. Their population is likely hitting a sort of stasis.

That’s what I was hoping. Just seemed odd that it slammed to a stop

What are your specific parameters? Include kH and gH in degrees.

Nitrates 20
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Chlorine 0
pH 7.2
alkalinity 40 ppm
Hardness 150 ppm
KH 4
gH 9

What do you dose? How much and how frequently do you change water?

Never dosed anything except I use prime on my water change water to kill the chlorine. Plants go nuts as it is and water has always been solid.

water change 30-40% per week

What do you feed? How much? How frequently?

omnivore shrimp tabs. Only about 1/4 of a tab per day and I usually skip a day or two per week.

 

[Ezatnova]

At first it cracked me up. But then wanted to make sure just to be on the safe side.



They'll be okay in those warmer temperatures. But they'll be exposed to more pathogens that thrive in warmer temperatures - some of them we can't even easily identify, their life cycle is sped up by as much as 50%, incubation period is impacted, etc.

They'll thrive at 64-65. I consider that my temperature goal in all of my shrimp tanks. You can definitely remove your heater. Your moss should also do better in cooler temps.



Are you measuring with a liquid test kit or strips? Because based on PPM, you have about 2.2 kH and 8.3 gH, which is fine for Neocaridina regardless. But strips are are unfortunately unreliable for hardness testing, for the most part, because they expire way too quickly. Your total alkalinity and kH should be the same reading. Close enough, however. Hardness and gH are ~the same, as it'd probably take 9 drops to notice a change.



That's likely very protein-heavy or protein-forward. I'd add the following to your feeding rotation: organic spinach, kale, zucchini, stinging nettle, that sort of thing. Feed a different food each time you feed. Even in my most heavily-populated shrimp tanks, I feed every 2-3 days (almost never daily) and only what they can finish within an hour or so, removing any leftovers. That's especially important in small tanks.



Seasonal changes also come into play. Abrupt barometric pressure changes also seem to impact them. As spring approaches, you'll probably see more reproductive activity. My tanks usually experience substantial population grown in April and May.

If you don't see new shrimp by the end of spring or early summer, you may want to consider thinning the herd a bit. I usually like to add new blood to my colonies when I thin them, as well. That almost always encourages new breeding.

thanks. I use liquid tests for gh Kh, nitrites and ammonia. I also have 6:1 test strips for the other stuff, some of which overlaps.

as far as thinning…I thought I had a plan but it’s failed so far (well, not in the thinning part…that’s working). My daughter got a 15g Fluval Flex as a glow tank. Figured I would toss my big brown females, of which I had a ton, into that tank to clean up the food and waste a of the fish and pick at algae. Well, the tank looked good with three long fin tetras, four pristella tetras, and four celestial Pearl danios. But the shrimp hid like the fish were all great whites. Then I realized I was wrong and the tank wasn’t cycled and it’s at the point of the nitrite spike off the charts (5.0+). All the fish are fine with daily 50% changes and high dose Prime and QuickStart bacteria, but all but one shrimp out of 10 or so has died. One big female lives on. I’m “hoping“ they died because of the nitrites and not the stress from tetras. Will try introducing them again once the cycle ever finishes (been two weeks of nitrites now, slowly getting better). FWIW I also tossed in 3 Amano and I think they’re all gone too.

 

[Ezatnova]

Ugh, that just sucks. But you're obviously getting through it and know what to do. That's light years ahead of most people who start out with shrimp.



The ammonia and nitrite are the obvious culprit there.

One thing you can do to increase shrimp success in your tank with fish is to provide tons of cover, lots of moss and other hidey holes. Look for ornaments that have openings shrimp can get into that fish can't. That's one of the silver linings of having kids who like glow tanks and the kind of setups we typically don't enjoy on the planted side of the hobby - tons of ornaments for shrimp.

Great, thanks! Plenty of areas to hide. Even their own personal Shrimp Castle 😂. Put some Java Fern, moss clumps, and an Amazon sword in amongst all the glowy bits to help with the health of the tank, too.

 

[Ezatnova]

Two females have eggs now! Of course it’s the two very brown wild ones, and none of the bunch of fancy ones lol