Red Cherry Shrimp Dropping Eggs? - Shrimp & other Invertebrates

sleepy.nadia · 02-09-2012, 03:45 PM

Hello,

I bought some baby cherries a while back that I have noticed have started some mating behavior. Today I noticed a bunch of eggs layed in the java moss. I assume that means a shrimp lost her eggs. I have some rather small green fire tetras in there (the smallest one is smaller than my largest shrimp) and some rainbow featherfins that I stuck in the same tank. One of the tetras just gobbled up all of the eggs. I have a few questions to ask:

1) Dropped eggs will not develop, correct?

2) Is there something I can do to prevent eggs dropping? Could she have dropped her eggs because I added some water and Seachem Equilibrium to the tank yesterday?

3) Is it possible that the green fire tetras are harassing my shrimp? I have never noticed any such behavior, and just assumed they weren't. I HAVE been seeing a lot fewer shrimp lately, but attributed that to mating season. The females are definitely hiding out in the moss a lot more and the males swim around all the time now.

Any advice that you could give would be great! I would definitely love to see some babies in the java moss sometime soon.

Nadia

Big_Fish · 02-13-2012, 06:37 AM

Hi, Nadia...
1) correct.
2) it's not uncommon for RCS to drop some or all of her eggs the first time, so I have heard. (I've NOT personally seen that, but I have seen it reported) they can drop them if they are stressed (big changes in water chemistry/ big swings in PH)
I'd think it would depend on how much equilibrium and water were added.
3) I'd have to say it's not a possibility but rather a certainty... shrimp are pretty close to the bottom of the food chain, I've attempted to keep RCS in a 29 gallon heavily planted tank (with the biggest/ most aggressive fish being small neon tetras... not exactly pirhana!) lots of moss. I never observed the fish harassing the shrimp, but nonetheless the shrimps numbers would decline and not increase...
(I've since moved all my RCS and CRS to their own nano tanks.... those tanks are now absolutely CRAWLING with shrimp... water parameters are essentially the same. the pic shows them after having been in their own tank for 45 days.. I put 12 RCS in this tank... 45 days later this is the result.. the photo shows MAYBE HALF the number of babies in that tank

)
once shrimp have reached adulthood, they are baby making machines... mating season = 24/7.
I DO know it's at least possible to keep adult shrimp in a planted tank with fish, but I've not had much success in breeding them under such conditions... but when I give them their own environment, I couldn't get them to stop if I wanted to

hope that helps!

kimcadmus · 02-13-2012, 08:09 AM

+1 on big fish's comments.

Neons are great hunters of shrimp!

TarantulaGuy · 02-13-2012, 04:39 PM

While it will probably help to not have fish in a shrimp tank, it's entirely possible to do so successfully. I keep a school of CPD's in a 10 gallon with a couple hundred cherry shrimp, and my shrimp flourish. Would I probably have more shrimp if I didn't have fish? Most likely, but to be honest, the shrimp population is incredibly healthy and wouldn't benefit from increasing even more.

sleepy.nadia · 02-14-2012, 09:28 AM

Thanks for all of the responses guys. I had another berried female but she no longer seems to be berried. I guess I will see if next go around they can hold on to their eggs. I plan to take the fish out of the tank at some point, but I have mollies in the other tank (I have learned that I really hate mollies) and they harass everything and I was worried about putting juvenile fish in with them. Soon I should be able to transfer them over (I might get rid of the mollies). We will see!