Preparing For Shrimp Babies

I have wanted to start a cherry shrimp colony for a long time now, and I finally took the plunge and bought a few beautiful blue dream shrimp for my 10 gallon. One of the females is carrying eggs and I was lucky enough that she didn't throw them.

My tank has 4 endler's guppies sharing space with the shrimp. They show complete disinterest with the shrimp, but I'm sure they'll snap at any babies that drift by. I've been adding plants and hiding spots, but will what I have right now be enough for some babies to survive?

 

Should be enough for a lot of the babies to luvd

 

Live*

 

Well your giving them a good start even putting sponge over your intake, the female endler I think will be more of a problem due to the size it grows but if you keep the endlers well fed without over feeding you should do ok, hope it works for you

 

I've heard of shrimp throwing/ditching their eggs, but never seen it personally, even with large water changes etc. To be honest, I think a lot of the time shrimp are suddenly seen not carrying eggs, and no babies can be found, because the babies are often so super tiny, almost microscopic, they often get sucked up into the filter (sometimes even with an intake sponge if it's not extra fine, like stocking material etc), or simply thrown out with a water change (hence why people might think the female ditched the eggs / didn't end up with any babies).

I have quite a few babies in my newest tank at the moment, and lately I've been noticing they like to live in the overhead filter, crawling through the sponge. I find them sitting on top of it (again, almost impossible to see without a torch and looking very, very closely). I keep putting them back in the tank, but a few can always be found in the filter, so I just make sure to check it carefully before squeezing out the sponge when doing water changes.

Only reason I don't have a sponge or stocking material on my intake is because my filter has a really low flow rate (150L/h) and would probably barely flow if I did, it isn't even strong enough to suck up new born livebearer fry, so technically the shrimp should be fine too, but I think maybe they don't swim against the current like fish do, they're happy to just get sucked up lol, which isn't always such a problem depending on what filter you have, as I've recently found out

I agree the endlers could be a problem, but then again, they may not even see them until they're bigger anyway, and they usually hide when they're tiny. Probably the main thing you want to watch out for is accidentally ditching them with water changes, believe me, it's very easy to do without ever knowing. I'd like to say I've never done it, but honestly I probably have numerous times.

 

nice to hear someone thinks on the same lines as me your right in everything you say, I do have shrimp finding their way into filters especially young I tend to leave them there until I need to do work on the filter,no harm comes to them, what ive found to be a big bonus is when I do a wc I use a white bucket leave it settle the get a torch and go on the hunt and always find microscopic shrimp so easy to miss if you don't know or understand how small baby shrimp are, as yo say baby shrimp will hide until ready to come out, again I think this is down to shrimp not having eyelids so tend to stay in the under growth away from bright light. like you in the early years I must of thrown out hundres not knowing even now i'am bound to miss some

 

nice to hear someone thinks on the same lines as me your right in everything you say, I do have shrimp finding their way into filters especially young I tend to leave them there until I need to do work on the filter,no harm comes to them, what ive found to be a big bonus is when I do a wc I use a white bucket leave it settle the get a torch and go on the hunt and always find microscopic shrimp so easy to miss if you don't know or understand how small baby shrimp are, as yo say baby shrimp will hide until ready to come out, again I think this is down to shrimp not having eyelids so tend to stay in the under growth away from bright light. like you in the early years I must of thrown out hundres not knowing even now i'am bound to miss some

Yeah I always try to look for them in a bucket with a torch too, but I often forget to before squeezing out the filter sponge, which makes it kind of impossible when they're mixed in with the filter debris and are so tiny. I see a lot of people on here posting photos of their 'just hatched' baby shrimp, which are pretty much always older juveniles -that goes to show how long they can go unseen or be in hiding

 

I had my only ghost shrimp in a 1 gallon jar die after giving birth and I assumed they all died, then like basically an entire month later I saw the baby shrimp that survived. Even a month later he was STILL super small.

 

Looks great! If you can find a piece of cholla wood the babies will love it!

 

Have you thought about using a sponge like this one not even the smallest get through, you would have to open up the hole a little to fit over your tube

 

Your right shrimplets are almost impossible to see with the naked eye especially as they've no colour, with small tanks you can put an air stone on the drain tube that stops young getting through, it can be s slow process about 45 minutes for 10ltr I use this method in my danio breeding tank

 

Hmm I've been using an airline with a piece of cotton shoved inside, but I like the airstone way better. More surface area

 

It works great in my danio tank,I think you'll get a better output, cotton wool is great but it could be a little more dense, worth a try

 

Thanks for the replies! I am aware that endlers (any fish for that matter) will try to eat the babies. That's precisely why I want to have enough hiding spots for them. At present I have no place to put the endlers and I would prefer to not just give them up at a fish store.

I figured the sponge wouldn't keep them from getting into the filter since duckweed leaves have worked their way into the fibers. I'll just take care to fish out any I see in the filter, unless I can find a denser sponge.

 

Thanks for the replies! I am aware that endlers (any fish for that matter) will try to eat the babies. That's precisely why I want to have enough hiding spots for them. At present I have no place to put the endlers and I would prefer to not just give them up at a fish store.

I figured the sponge wouldn't keep them from getting into the filter since duckweed leaves have worked their way into the fibers. I'll just take care to fish out any I see in the filter, unless I can find a denser sponge.

I've got some of those artificial driftwood ornaments that originally had plastic plants glued to them through drilled holes, I removed all the plastic plants as I have real plants in my tanks, but the little holes are rather useful for the baby shrimp -they can hide on the inside, away from fish etc.