Help me get babies please

A forum for discussing everything about the Supershrimp (Halocaridina rubra, Opae ula).

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Re: Help me get babies please

Post by Mustafa »

sabbylina wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 9:33 pm The tank sits on a small bedside cabinet. The water does move when I walk around the room or if I get something form the cabinet but then it just gently sloshes inside the tank; the salt creep is outside the tank. Would that maybe be from capillary action of the water touching the lid?
I think we may have just identified the actual problem. If the shrimp get disturbed too much and so vehemently that the water is sloshing and forming a salt creep outside the tank, then they are feeling stressed frequently. Stressed shrimp won't breed. The lid wouldn't by itself cause the salt creek if the sloshing water wasn't getting on the lid frequently. I'd move the tank to a location where the shrimp won't be disturbed anymore. The light should be enough, but LEDs are always more efficient.
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Re: Help me get babies please

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Could the salt creep be because I fill the tank too high rather than the water moving? About half the time it touches parts of the lid after I've filled it. Even though I try to fill it below the lid line, I keep failing. I wonder if the capillary action of salt water stronger than fresh, because it always climbs higher than I expect it to. I feel like an idiot for not having thought of this sooner D:

I feel like vehemently is the wrong word for the water movement though :cry: The water is pretty darn close to the top but it's never been disturbed enough to spill. It just jiggles slightly. Or is that way too much for the shrimps? Also the shrimp stay red, so wouldn't that mean they don't care too much? Or is that not an accurate judge? But I will try a different location if you think it sounds like too much. They probably don't like when the drawers open and close.


Also sorry for all the extra questions! :oops: I studied Marine Biology but this is my first experience with a fish tank, so I'm still learning and want all the details. :-D Thanks for being so helpful!
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Re: Help me get babies please

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sabbylina wrote: Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:32 am
Also sorry for all the extra questions! :oops: I studied Marine Biology but this is my first experience with a fish tank, so I'm still learning and want all the details. :-D Thanks for being so helpful!
No problem at all! :) That's what this forum is for! Not sure if the lid touching the water causes the salt creep. In my experience, there has to be some type of water movement for salt creep to happen. You have quite a bit of salt creep there! But in any case, just lower the water level and see what happens. The shrimp staying red or not isn't the only indicator of their well-being. If your shrimp suddenly start swimming around actively because you bumped against whatever their tank stands on, then they aren't feeling all that great about it either. I would still move them somewhere where there is less action.
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Re: Help me get babies please

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Mustafa wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 1:53 pm I would still move them somewhere where there is less action.
As soon as I can figure out what place that would be, I will :D

In the meantime, I was still thinking of adding more shrimpies. I have at least 12 shrimps with an (unlikely) max of 20. How many would you recommend purchasing for my 1 gallon tank- another ten? Also, does the algae ball ever have to be discarded and replaced? It looks like a sadder yellow than it used to. It's still growing but is no longer a vibrant green.
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Re: Help me get babies please

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It doesn't sound like you need to add more shrimp, but if you want it to look a bit more "active", I'd say 10 more should be enough. I assume by "algae ball" you mean the supershrimp macroalgae in your tank as I don't see any mossballs in your picture. No need to discard and "renew". If you want to trimp it, that's fine. If you do have a mossball in there somewhere, also no...these things live for decades it seems (I have some about a decade old). Don't ever discard them. They'll be fine once your tank conditions get better.
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Re: Help me get babies please

Post by sabbylina »

Nearly 2 years later, I HAVE A BERRIED SHRIMP! I'm super excited!

I did end up moving the tank to a more stable location and that has helped with the salt creep for sure. I've long had a sneaking suspicion that I actually only had one gender of shrimp in there before I ordered more, but we'll never know for sure. Either way, I'm looking forward to my 6 new shrimpies and hope its a sign of more breeding to come!
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Re: Help me get babies please

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I thought I would come to give an update on my old post and the baby status of my babies! I no longer have breeding problems with my shrimp. In fact, my last set had 3 berried at once and one had 12+ eggs! Sadly they like to be pregnant RIGHT when I have to move and end up dropping the bigger clutches. Such is life. The current moving count was 69 shrimp!

It turns out the problem most likely WAS the nerite snails because the first shrimp had eggs within weeks of the last snail dying. But I don't know if it was food-related or not because I never saw a visible change of biofilm on any surfaces, and the snails died slowly over the course of the two years. They were replaced with Mustafa's snails eventually - which successfully live bred for a while - but I don't think I had enough to sustain it and I'm down to two. I think between the two species they bred themselves down to 1 gender each. I did also have to order more shrimp when I was having breeding problems because I'm pretty sure I was down to 1 gender as well.

I still get a little salt creep even with a different tank/lid style and keeping water lower. Overall it's much better, even though none of my furniture is stable enough to prevent the water from jiggling. The shrimps don't seem to mind too much though.

All in all, I have red and fertile shrimpies now and all is well. Now if I can just figure out how the hair algae got in my tank...
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