Jon's 5.5 gal shrimp tank

**korith** · 02-13-2013, 04:27 AM

Algae wafers is fine. Honestly I've gone away for weeks at a time and the shrimp and baby shrimp have just been fine scavenging in the tank, eating whatever they on the plants, on the glass, substrate. Shrimp will eat pretty much anything and everything. About the only thing you want to keep an eye on is the water quality.

**SomethingIsFishy** · 02-13-2013, 04:36 AM

Thanks! I do feed very sparingly... water quality has been perfect so far but I will continue to keep an eye on it.

I was mostly concerned that a tank that is only about 1 month old might still be to "clean" and the babies wouldn't get enough to eat...

**SomethingIsFishy** · 02-13-2013, 04:08 PM

And today I have 2 berried shrimp! The third female is still saddled right now... wonder how long it will be until she's berried too...

**SomethingIsFishy** · 02-14-2013, 07:32 PM

Pics:
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**korith** · 02-14-2013, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by SomethingIsFishy

Thanks! I do feed very sparingly... water quality has been perfect so far but I will continue to keep an eye on it.

I was mostly concerned that a tank that is only about 1 month old might still be to "clean" and the babies wouldn't get enough to eat...

It should be fine, you have plants in there as well, shrimp will scavenge the surface of plants, substrate, the algae on glass and other stuff. A lot of what they feed on may not even be visible to us. Really hard to underfeed a shrimp.

Should see baby shrimp in 3-4 weeks, varies a bit. Something I've always found interesting is if you look real close at the berried shrimp and at the eggs she is carrying, once they develop enough you can see a tiny black dot in the egg, that's the eye of the baby shrimp.

**SomethingIsFishy** · 02-15-2013, 04:54 PM

Thanks for the help! Can't wait til they hatch!!!

**~firefly~** · 02-15-2013, 05:03 PM

Blimey, you're doing better than me. I've lost a few shrimp in the past few weeks and the berried one I had disappeared. I've had them six months and not a baby yet (water tests don't raise suspicions) so I'm stumped. I have infertile shrimp perhaps

Well done!

**korith** · 02-15-2013, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by ~firefly~

Blimey, you're doing better than me. I've lost a few shrimp in the past few weeks and the berried one I had disappeared. I've had them six months and not a baby yet (water tests don't raise suspicions) so I'm stumped. I have infertile shrimp perhaps

Well done!

How many in the tank? It's possible you might have all female or all males. Open up a new thread and post pics of the tanks and some real closeups of the shrimps. If you look at the shapes of their bodies can tell if male or female. Other than water conditions, temperature plays a huge part as well. Red cherry shrimp have a wide temperature range they can live at, but the temperatures they readily breed at are not at the extreme temps.

**~firefly~** · 02-15-2013, 07:26 PM

I did have 25 (15 cherry, 10 rili) but Can only count about 12+ now. Since getting them I've probably pulled out 5 cherry bodies over six months. I'll try to get pics and post in a new thread. Ta.

Somethingisfishy - I'm looking forward to more pics of yours soon

**SomethingIsFishy** · 02-21-2013, 08:19 PM

A few more pics:
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One of the berried females is starting to form a new saddle. Must be close to egg hatching time!