I've been breeding RCS for over 6 months without any problems, but recently I've notice that my shrimps weren't carrying any eggs anymore, I've just counted and I have about 30 shrimps in a 10g and none of them have the yellow saddle. I'm at lost to why they stop breeding and was wondering if anybody's encounter the same situation. I try searching the forum and couldn't find anything about this.
Water parameters:
Nitrate 10 (Nutrafin Test Kit)
PH 7 (Tetra Test Kit)
Temp 76F
Thanks for the reply. I'm not adding anything to the water. I use Prime to condition the water, when I do a water change. I use Aquaclear mini for filtration, with a sponge on the intake. It's a shrimp only tank, with Java Fern and Java Moss, I do have pond snails & trumpet snails in the tank, too.
The only time I've noticed my RCS stop breeding is when the tank has become crowded. After removing a couple hundred juveniles, the adults start producing again.
Are your shrimp actively scavaging/searching for food? You may want to add more food during feeding time and see if it is all eaten after a couple of hours. Also check to see if the snails are competing for the food. As wood said, try to get the nitrates lower/cleaner water.
After removing a couple hundred juveniles, the adults start producing again.
10 gallon, slowly becoming overgrown with java moss. Air-driven sponge filter and a small hob that clogs quickly , hundreds of ramshorns and MTS, and one dwarf puffer to eat excess snails. The puffer isn't winning the battle...
ToddnBecka: I use to have over 50 when they were breeding a lot of babies but now no babies only adults
Neonshrimp: Probably 1/4 of them actively scavage for food the rest just sits on the sponge or java moss.
Newjohn: I feed every other day, either with 1 shrimp pellet or 1/4 piece Hikari algae wafer. I do water changes probably every 3 weeks about 10-15%.
Thanks everyone for the suggestion, I'll try to get the nitrate down to 0, I also added a natural sponge for Walmart, which I learn from the Natural Sponge thread
Test for phosphates. Something is going on with your tap water if you do not dose ferts, change water 50% per week with just 30 shrimp. Phosphates over 5 ppm shut my cherries right down.
If you have bad tap water only an R/O unit will fix it. Then you'll need to harden it up.
Thanks Badflash, I never thought about phosphates in the tap water being the problem. I'm located in Vancouver, BC, I wonder if anybody else in my region is experiencing the problem. I'll have to get a phosphate tester. If I got a RO unit, what would your recommendation or steps in hardening the water. My co-worker has a saltwater tank and he uses a calc reactor to harden the water.
Are you located in an agricultural area? This warm snap causes run-off to enter the water supply from the fields. The ferts used on crops are loaded with phosphates.
Phosphates are also the main component of many pH buffers and those can be a real problem.
I agree that you need to lower the nitrates with more frequent and higher % water changes.
If I got a RO unit, what would your recommendation or steps in hardening the water. My co-worker has a saltwater tank and he uses a calc reactor to harden the water.
You want to use some electrolite replacement such as electro right or R/O right. What your co-worker uses is for saltwater tanks and will only add what is needed for that type of tank.
Thanks everyone for the suggestion, I'll try to get the nitrate down to 0, I also added a natural sponge for Walmart, which I learn from the Natural Sponge thread
Great, please keep us updated on how it turns out with the nitrates and the use of the sponge, thanks
No, I'm actually located in a major city, at least in Canadian standard Now that you mentioned run-off, a couple of months ago, we experienced some major rainstorms that caused our water supply to increase in turbidity (cloudiness), we were advise to boil our water before cooking with it. I wonder if that would of caused this problem, but it was a couple months ago and I didn't do any water changes until the water cleared up.
Most cities get their water from reservoirs located in the country. Run-off from farms could still be an issue, especially if you got that sort of warning.
It's hard to say, I didn't really notice that they weren't breeding until about a month and half ago, when my wife notice that none of the female shrimps are carrying eggs. On a side note, she's convinced that should could tell the male and female shrimps apart, but to me it looks all the same . I think I might have to get an RO unit, since I can use it for drinking water, hate carrying all the heavy jugs from the grocery store.
Hopefully I not breaking any rules, but I just did a quick search on the Canadian Costco site and found the following system "Watts Premier
5-Stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System", would this be good enough?
, hundreds of ramshorns and MTS, and one dwarf puffer to eat excess snails. The puffer isn't winning the battle... 
