Why no babies yet?

[Hailey]

I have had my 5 cherry shrimp in thier own 5.5 gallon tank now for I think over a month and a half now, and no babies, or eggs, yet. I did have 8, but a couple died when they got sucked up the filter in the big tank, most survived in there though.

Im pretty sure I have 2 females and 3 males, but sometimes, they seem to change a bit and I cant tell. I've been looking on the reddest ones for the eggs to appear under the tail, but havent seen it yet.

I keep the tank clean of course, and do weekly water changes, I can tell they love the new water in the tank. I have lots of hiding places in there, plants, and a heater. I keep the temp around 78.

I feed them every 3 to 4 days small pieces of a sinking pellet. There is algae in there for them, and I will hopefully be getting some java moss soon.

So what am I doing wrong? I want babies!
Thanks, Hailey

[korith]

Have you seen the molting yet? That's the time when they the shrimp get jiggy with it.:p Also remember no copper in foods or in the tank!

[Wild Turkey]

My advice would be increase feeding schedule and variety. I feed mine mostly red flake, 1 large flake per day is enough for those guys though.

[Hailey]

Alright, I will feed them more, and yes I have seen them molt a few times.

[Eileen]

My red cherry shrimp had babies but I have not seen any lately. I looked at the food that I was feeding them and almost all had Copper in it. I threw that away today and bought some TetraMin flakes and TetraMin Algae chrisps. They both do not have any copper in it. I'm so glad that I looked at the food. The Algae wafers I bought from Walmart had copper in it. I had some catfish sinking pellets and that had copper in it also. I'm so glad that the red cherry shrimp are ok. Maybe the food did not have that much copper but I did not want to take a chance. I read that if Copper is in the food They might not have any eggs or babies and might die.

[Hailey]

Here are the ingredients for the sinking food

Ingredients: Fish Meal, Wheat Flour,pre-digested plankton, Soy Protein Concentrate, Corn Flour, Oat Meal, Squid Meal, Soy Flour, Wheat Gluten Meal, Krill, Dried Yeast, Squid Liver Meal, Shrimp Meal, Fish Oil, Laver Aquatic Plant, Amino Acids, Wheat Germ Meal, Lecithin, Vanillin, Chlorophyll, Citric Acid, Vitamin A, E3, E, B1, B2, B6, B12, Folic Acid, Vit. D-Pantothenic Acid, Vit C, Inositol, Biotin, Niacin, Ethoxyquin (as a preservative).
Guaranteed Analysis: Min Crude Protein 44% Min Crude Fat 5% Max Crude Fiber 2% max Moisture 8% Max Ash 9% Min Phosphorus 0.6% Max Phosphorus 0.9%

and now I'm going to feed them the flakes, here are those ingredients

Fish meal, wheat flour, PDP, soy protein concentrate, corn flour, oat meal, squid meal, fish liver meal, soy flour, wheat gluten meal, krill, dried yeast, squid liver meal, shrimp meal, fish oil, laver aquatic plant, amino acids, wheat germ meal, lecithin, vanillin, chlorophyll, citric acid, vitamins A, D3, E, B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid, vitamin D-pantothenic acid, vitamin C (l-ascorbyl-2-phosphate), inositol, biotin, niacin, ethoxyquin (as a preservative), Guaranteed Analysis Crude protein (min.) 44%, crude fat (min.) 5%, crude fiber (max.) 2%, moisture (max.) 8%, ash (max.) 9%, phosphorus (min.) 0.6%, phosphorus (max.) 0.9%

So I dont see any copper in them

[thezookeeper]

My experience with shrimp has been with crystal red bee shrimp. I feed them just like regular fish. They are scavengers and will eat just about anything. I run my tanks around 75 degress and have great success with breeding. Most of your shrimps do better in cooler temps and will live longer. I also don't have a very high opinion of any foods made by tetra as a lot of them do contain copper. I mix a combination of brine shrimp flakes, eathworm flakes, spirulina flakes, freeze dried daphnia and bloodworms. I feed this to all my fish and shrimp. The water here has a ph around 7.2 and is pretty hard and the shrimp do fine.