kenwilson

i have four cherry shrimp in my tank that i hoped would breed after about a month now but nothing has happened. 2 of them have the coloration of males but appear to have saddles, i got them all from the same place and im not sure if i got all females or they just need more time. also no other fish in the tank are aggressive, just some corys and neons. this is really annoying me please help!!

sirdarksol

They likely have bred. Do they have a place for some of the larvae to hide in (Java moss works really well)? The cories may be eating them in their search for debris.
It took me several months to see the results of breeding. The babies are really, really tiny, and they stay hidden until they're big enough to survive "going out into the world."

So it may just be that you've got shrimp babies, but they don't want to be seen yet.

kenwilson

i have seen any yet but i hope they are there, im concerned because i havent seen any carrying eggs which i would probably notice

sirdarksol

I dunno. I don't have that much of an eye for detail (I sometimes have problems seeing the difference between male and female livebearers), so I definitely never notice if one of my cherries is carrying eggs. They've also got a veritable forest of driftwood, Java fern, and Java moss to hide in, so I usually only see about a quarter of my colony, if that, at any given time.

kenwilson

ur right I have a lot of plant so I probably just can't see them thanks for the help

musicman4567

I would be careful breeding them with the neons in there. While the neons aren't aggressive fish, they will eat the babies if they see them swimming. They are about the same size as freshly hatched brine shrimp. Just make sure and have plenty of cover for them. If you really want to get it going and have a good shot at it, I would recommend starting with ~10 shrimp to make sure you have a good gender diversity.