MyFishkies

Sorry for posting so much the last week but I just got my tank back, my fish in it, my Molly had babies and now my shrimp arrived today!

I put the shrimp in their very own planted 5G and they are going nuts! Running and jumping around, chasing each other around the tank. I acclimated them over an hour or so, scooped them up and dropped them in. I added 2 algae wafers broken into about 8 pieces. I only got 15 but I swear it's like there's double that in there. They either move really fast or someone had babies already. I counted 12 in one corner of the tank. Is it possible (or likely) that there are already babies? I didn't see one with eggs but I was so darn excited I didn't look that closely.

But they are the funniest things I have ever seen!

MeGustaUnaPez926

Thats cool. I really want some cherry shrimp. Any pictures? I doubt that any one had babies, though.

uprightandlocked

I am really looking forward to setting up a RCS tank. I have one empty 10g and a 5g with my betta Eos in it.

Would it be a waste to use the 10g for the shrimp? I like my betta in the 5. I was thinking of putting some cory cats in with the shrimp if they go in the 10g ... is this a good or bad combination?

How did you plant your tank? natural or fake? heavily or sparsely planted?

thanks for the help!

Gouramiguy17

i would go with a heavily planted tank that is species only. Just w8 until u c lil baby rcs. they r so cute! i saw 1 in my tank and it was less than 1cm long. i have about 5 rcs carrying eggs right now!

MyFishkies

No pics yet. I just moved and need to find my camera. I have pics of both tanks on my iPhone but can't figure out how to upload.

As to the 10G bs 5G, I think a 10 would be huge for RCSs. Like I said, I put 15 in my 5, and I'm hoping for more soon to fill it up a bit. But I don't know that I'd put any in with the betta...I don't agree with some posters who say shrimp are safe in a community tank. Most of my first batch disappeared in a community tank, and they hid immediately.
Where's the fun I'm having them if they hide?

My tank is planted with rooted plants, I have...8 3-4 inch plants in my 5G and I just ordered a moss ball, java fern and Christmas moss to add. All real. I also have one ornament, a log looking thing with caves. In my 10G I have a huge tree stump ornament and maybe 6 plants. I ordered the mosses for that tank too, for fry cover.

I love that I set up a shrimp-only tank.

Now I want to set up my spare 10G. Hadn't planned to, but is this fish-keeping thing addictive or is it just me?

Tony G.

They sure sound fun

cant wait to see the pics!

[quote=Gouramiguy17;660605]Just w8 until u c lil baby rcs. they r so cute!QUOTE]

remember not all members know text speak

uprightandlocked

Okay, I will definitely set up the 10g as a species only tank. I was looking on Aquabid and also noticed yellow and blue and orange shrimp of equal size. What are these? If I get RCS and also some yellows how will they breed? RCS with RCS and Yellow with Yellow, or will the intermix? if they do intermix what color do they come out? will it be pretty?

Thanks for all of the help!

Also, are these guys easy to move? I want to set up my tank ASAP but I might be moving in the next couple of months. How do I transport them to a new home?

MyFishkies

Just so happens I recently became an expert in how not to move fish! I would recommend that the last thing you do at your old place is move your aquarium and the first thing you do at your new place is set it up. With shrimp, I would say transfer them, a plant or two, and a gallon of their water to something you can transport, with air in it (buy a gallon pitcher or a bucket). Then at your new place, if it's only shrimp you could probably add them back with the water, then gradually add water to fill it. I'm a beginner so there's probably someone around who's done this the right way.

uprightandlocked

okay, thanks for the advice!

enthusiast

if you have 15 shrimp it would've been possible for babies so quickly, but you would've noticed the eggs- not the babies. the babies are soooooooooo tiny! the closest thing i can relate them to is a sea monkey! seriously! they look just like the adults, only mini-me's lol, the size of sea monkeys!



uprightandlocked,
funny i just replied to one of your threads just before this one! but i, too, am hearing your desire to add all these blues, greens, and oranges to your rcs tank. what beautiful mixes of colors they could create, right? but DONT do it!!!!

your rcs were bred through many generations to bring out the red gene that mostly gives them their color, the same with the greens, blues, yellows/oranges. these very same neocardinia species of shrimp are obviously out in the wild- but not with these vibrant colors, that only was possibly through generations of breeding them for the colors. If you mix these different colored shrimp up they would reproduce and make more babies of their same species, but the colors wont be the beautiful vibrance that you see in your bred shrimp now. They will come out BROWN. not so pretty-soundin now, huh?

sirdarksol

The shrimp won't necessarily be brown. Their colors will be muted, for sure, but I have reds and naturals that I allowed to breed together, and the result is that I have natural colors, blues (the original color of the shrimp the reds came from, oddly enough) and reds. The tank is very pretty.
There's no health reason not to do it, so "DON'T do it!" is kind of excessive. It's good for members to know what can happen when cross-breeding occurs, but in the end, it's uprightandlocked's choice.

enthusiast

I had been interested in mixing the dif. colored shrimps together myself but read onilne that they'd come out a brown-looking color, because they had been selectively bred over a course of years to bring out the natural solid colors. You know from experience so must've been some misinformation?