Problem in breeding red cherry shrimps! HELP!!

[Kenshin]

I have a 20L gallon tank, heavily planted. I bought a couple of batches of red cherry shrimps from petshrimp.com and the shrimps were great when I received them. My friend bought one of the fresh batch from me and I kept the other batch. I only have 4 cories, 3 otocinclus and 1 golden beard algae eating fish, in addition to the 4 amano shrimp (and of course red cherry shrimps). My pH is around 7.2, nitrate = 0, ammonia = 0, nitrite = 0, kH = 3, GH = 3. I have placed a cuttlebone inside the water filter every week, and change 30% of the water once every 2 weeks. I feed them everyday, crushed fish flakes, algae wafers, shrimp pellets, and bloodworms every once in a while (feed only a decent amount everyday and always no leftovers). In the past, my water's kH and GH was only 0, but the cuttlebone helped a little bit. I bought some calcium supplements (Reef - complete - Raises calcium; maintains magnesium and strontium) from Pets'mart just today and I have added a dose of that to my tank. I bought the shrimps in April and one more batch in May. My shrimps have not even breed yet, even though they are mostly bright red in color, with yellow strip on their back or neck. However, my friend that bought the other batch of shrimps from me through Mustafa have bred them in about 2 months or less. And he place them in a fish breeding net inside his 55 gallon tank since he has tons of guppies. His shrimps are not red in color, but after he sold his shrimps along with the baby shrimps to me, I placed them inside my tank along with my other red cherry shrimps and most of them turned bright red in color also. The only thing different is he uses RO water and I used tap water and treated with Prime from Seachem. But even after I have his post pregnant shrimps along with my other shrimps, they are not even breeding yet. I do not use fertilizer except for the ones placed under the gravel which I only use once a month (2 or 3 pieces only). So please someone give me advice to trigger them to breed? I would really appreciate it since I love this shrimps and I want to breed them. The baby shrimps are already growing to small adult shrimps in my tank so I do not think it is my water, but maybe my supplements available in the tank? Again, I would really appreciate for any help or advice including from Mustafa. Thank you.

[Erirku]

IMHO, if you want to breed cherries succesfully, get rid all your fish and just make it an all shrimp tank. I too am having difficulties in breeding my cherries, after I put 2x the amount of crystals. I only have a small amount of baby crystals, since they are difficult for me. I'm thinking about transferring the crystals to the 15g and le t the cherries have 10g. But I also love my fishies. So who knows. Maybe thats the problem! The Amanos or other fishes are bothering them? Have your Amano's ever bred previously? If not, then thats your answer. Something in tank is disturbing the shrimps. Hopes this helps.

[vinnymac]

It must be something with your water chemistry or temperature.

I ordered two batches of cherries a few months ago from two separate sources and kept them in my 65gal display tank. I moved 10 of them to a 10 gallon plant grow out tank and the population just took off. I have nearly 150 now...less than 90 days later.

I speculate my display tank's 81-82F temp was too high for the cherries and they prefered 78F in my grow out tank.

Now I have a 20gal and 10gal shrimp only tank that seems to produce new cherries every week. I can't seem to get rid of them fast enough.

i also had a few cherries in my 5gal tank along with a batch of crystal reds. The cherries did not do well at all and were pale all the time until I moved them into my 20gal. I speculate the PH has something to do with it since my tap water is naturally very high (8.1) and my other tanks have C02 for the plants...which brings the PH down to 7.5 or so.


What temp do you keep your tank at and what temp was your friend's tank maintained at?

[edinjapan]

I only have 4 cories, 3 otocinclus and 1 golden beard algae eating fish, in addition to the 4 amano shrimp (and of course red cherry shrimps).

I can see your problem right there! The cory cats and the otos will leave the shrimp alone for the most part but, the algae eater(CAE) and the amanos are competitors and predators on the RCS. Remove those 2 species and add more plants and you should have some babies soon.

[Kenshin]

An update on my RCS. They are all doing great finally. I have removed the amano shrimps (4), but the other 2 amano are still in my 20L gallon tank. It is so hard to catch them, especially they know I am after them, so they keep on creeping back into the back where all the plants and driftwood are. Hopefully, I would be able to get them out in the next day or so. I have given my amano shrimp to my friend who just have a guppy tank (55G) - he is also the one who successfully bred the RCS before it was sold to me. I also removed the golden beard algae eating fish, and that was so hard to catch . It took more than 30 min. just to catch that little creep. I have seen a lot of my RCS are having yellow patches again and actually munching on food. I threw in some crab cuisine yesterday and observed them munching on it until they were all gone yesterday. WOW, and that so fun and entertaining. So for everyone that have given me advice here, I would like to thank you for your advice. I think the 2 animals were part of the cause along with the low kH and GH, not allowing the RCS to really develop and grow. Now I see them molt and grew bigger in size (which I have not ever witnessed in the past). I guess my city water is very soft especially I have a CO2 injector for my plants. I have been putting some calcium solutions and that also made the differences. I will let you guys know when they are carrying eggs and having baby shrimps again. I will also post a picture of my tank and my RCS when I find the time to do so. Thank you once again.