What to do? - Just my luck

[Shroob]

Hi there,

I'll start by explaining the history of this situation then you will understand my dilemma. About 1 year ago (or more), I got hooked on shrimp they seemed such interesting creatures, so I thought I would set up a tank to have a breeding colony of red cherry shrimp. The tank was 36"x12"x15" so a fairly big tank that I hoped would provide a good sized colony, it had plenty of java moss and I put in some dried oak leafs with a sponge filter to make sure any babies were safe. To cut a long story short the colony didn't emerge and there was no increase in the shrimp number.

I had this tank for a year atleast and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, so when the time came I needed the tank for fry of my other fish, I decided to move any shrimp I could find to my guppy tank (40"x16"x20"), they were all adult shrimp so I thought they would be safe with the guppies. Its a heavily planted tank with tons of elodea and other plants due to the natural sunlight it recieves through my window. I moved about 6 shrimp over (all I could find of the 10 I had bought), 2 females and 4 males. Now, after about a month or two in the guppy tank I saw for the first time 6 baby shrimp. I couldn't believe it. And now I'm stuck on what to do, I would still really like to have a shrimp colony, and realise that this won't be easy with the guppies in the tank, so I'm thinking of returning the guppies to the LFS, however at the same time I don't want to return the guppies and then not have the shrimp reproducing.

So now I basically have 2 options. 1) Return the guppies and hope that the shrimp will build up a colony OR 2) Leave them both in the tank and hopefully the RCS will breed enough to get a colony. Im fearful that with only 6 shrimp it might take a while to get a decent sized colony as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
Shroob

[Guba]

It's possible to raise cherries with livebearers, but you have to give the shrimp a place where they can retreat to once they molt. I currently have a tank with Hi-Fin Variatus that has had a cherry in with them for over a year now. As far as propagating a whole colony, I wish you the best of luck, but a lot of the young may end up as dinner. I hope you keep us posted on your progress, it's always intresting to find out what tankmates go well together.

[jeej]

Maybe it has something to do with the water parameters and the shrimp are happier in that Guppy tank?

[Neonshrimp]

Maybe it has something to do with the water parameters and the shrimp are happier in that Guppy tank?

That's what it is.

but a lot of the young may end up as dinner.

You will have little if any growth as long as the fish are there to feed on the babies. You can also opt to set up a new tank for the fish. As stated the shrimp like the water condiotions in the current tank that is why there were some young. Let us know if the babies make it to adult size.

[Shroob]

It must be because they prefer this tank, though its bugging me that they didn't like the old tank . At the moment I don't have a spare tank for the guppies to go into, the only one I can think of is my 260 litre fry tank, which has small honduran red point fry in, that I think might be small enough for the guppies to eat. I think the plan is for the HRP fry to grow on abit then I'll move the guppies into that tank, leaving the shrimp on their own. If I notice more shrimp babies and an increase in the colony then I'll be very happy and return the guppies. (EDIT, return the guppies to the LFS, not the shrimp tank.)

I may have mistaken the actual age of the shrimp babies, they are quite big (bigger than the originals when I bought them via eBay), and are about 3mm in lenght if I had to guess, some are already showing some red/pink colouration. I counted 9 yesterday, and added quite a bit more java moss. I noticed one of the shrimp babies moving openly across the sand, where I had only spotted them in java moss or under bogwood before, so this one must have been quite confident it was big enough not to be eaten (or foolish ).

Thanks for advice people,
Shroob

[Neonshrimp]

I hope it works out for you. You need to make a choice between the shrimp or fish and I think you are choosing the shrimp.

I counted 9 yesterday, and added quite a bit more java moss.

Moss is a very protective and nuturing plant for babies in my experience

[jeej]

You could start the original tank again and seed it with bacteria from the guppy tank, either from the filter media or substrate (or both!) and then take water from a large water change from the guppy tank and put it in the other one.

Or whatever method you choose, just attempt to match the parameters of the water.

Do you have a decent test kit?

[badflash]

Try a tank divider. Shrimp get one side to themselves.