Dark space needed for breeding?
Moderator: Mustafa
Dark space needed for breeding?
Do people that have had berried/breeding shrimp have dark places for them to hide in their setups? There's nowhere in my bowl that the shrimp can get away from the light, and I wonder if that will demotivate them to breed. Or do people with no hidden crevices/nooks/etc. still see their shrimp berrying?
Re: Dark space needed for breeding?
In most of my tanks I left the sponge filters inside that I had put in in the very beginning, before I realized that they completely unnecessary (and counterproductive actually). The sponges are elevated from the bottom, so some shrimp hang out there all the time. I'm in the (slow) process of removing the sponge filters and replacing them with one or two short pvc pipes. Obviously, being breeder tanks, I don't care about aesthetics. 
The shrimp don't seem to care and continue breeding. The berried females don't always hide, either, but tend to be all over the place. I have never had piles of rock, like some people have, and I know for a fact that's not necessary for breeding (but looks pretty good!). I have also never tried just a flat substrate with nothing on it, so it's hard to say if that would keep shrimp from breeding. Most people put some kind of decoration in their tanks and those provide plenty of hiding spaces usually. The shrimp don't need to be "invisible" in total darkness...after all. I may experiment with a tank without any hiding spaces at all and see if any breeding takes place. Would be interesting to find out.
The shrimp don't seem to care and continue breeding. The berried females don't always hide, either, but tend to be all over the place. I have never had piles of rock, like some people have, and I know for a fact that's not necessary for breeding (but looks pretty good!). I have also never tried just a flat substrate with nothing on it, so it's hard to say if that would keep shrimp from breeding. Most people put some kind of decoration in their tanks and those provide plenty of hiding spaces usually. The shrimp don't need to be "invisible" in total darkness...after all. I may experiment with a tank without any hiding spaces at all and see if any breeding takes place. Would be interesting to find out.Re: Dark space needed for breeding?
At the very least, it would let you identify the exhibitionist shrimp in your breeding tanks. 
Re: Dark space needed for breeding?
You mean the ones running around in a long trenchcoat exposing themselves once in a while? They're already pretty obvious....Syscrush wrote:At the very least, it would let you identify the exhibitionist shrimp in your breeding tanks.
