What to do? - Just my luck
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:10 pm
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
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