Anyone else in the have issues breeding Yellows/cherries?

Turbosaurus

Turbosaurus

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Dec 26, 2008
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Yonkers, NY
I have a 10 gallon planted tank that's been set up for a while, 78 degrees, weekly water changes, no dosing for the plants at all, very soft water, pH around 6.8. I added 15 yellow shrimp in October. I still have 15 shrimp.

I feed them Ken's vegetable sticks with Ca. I can see the saddles develop, but I've never seen a berried female, I know I have males and females. What's up with that?

I've spoken to two other people in my area - one having the same issue with yellows, and one who's noticed a decrease in the expansion of their cherry shrimp colony- but hasn't been watching it carefully, so I'm not sure if that's at all related.

So here's my question- if you are having luck, what specifically are you doing differently? Food? temp? GH/KH/PH? Or are you having similar issues? I want to keep this thread on track, so please don't stop in to just say "mine breed like crazy in tap water but I'm not sure of my tank parameters"
 
I had major problems breeding red cherry shrimp in the past. My problem was was a lack of minerals (hardness) in the water. Old water parameters Temp -76, Ph - 8.2, Kh- 8, Gh- 0 with traces of salt too. I would get berried females even but they died soon afterwards. I changed over to carbon filtered well water (bypassed my home's water softener) and now I am drowning in babies! New water parameters Temp 76, Ph-8.2, Kh- 12, Gh - 9 & no salt traces. They need hard alkaline water to thrive & SOME calcium needs to be present for them to survive even.

I feed ken's veggie sticks with added calcium, ken's meat wafers with spirulina & shrimp pellets. I leave there molts in the tank so them can re-consume them as well.

It is all about the hard alkaline water with these guys. You can add some crushed coral to help with that. Good luck!
 
As myswtsins said, your water's PH is a bit low for Cherries. Crushed coral would be what I'd try first too.

I keep my RCS in my well water - PH in the high 7s to low 8s, GH 3, KH 4. They're breeding like crazy :)

My yellows seem to love this water too, though I ran through a bad patch with them that I think was caused by some gray PVC in the tank (only use white pvc!!). They're starting to saddle up again, though I haven't seen any berried females for a couple of months.
 
All my neocaridina species tanks use tap water. The ph is 7.4 and the tds is around 100. I wouldn't agree that they need hard water. You may want to raise you ph a little, but I'm not convinced anything you have listed is a real problem. Are you using tap water? I ask because I have never had any luck with straight RO/DI water.
We all run into periods where our shrimp don't reproduce, (once you have them long enough) but it sounds like yours never have, is that right?
Your on the right track, with shrimp it's almost always a water issue.
 
Nope- in six months- not a single indication of reproduction past the saddles. I just added about 3/4 cup of crushed coral (should increase Carbonate hardness and increase pH as well as Kh) I guess I'll wait a couple weeks and see if that makes a difference. All of the original shrimp have survived, but none are breeding

My tap is pretty close to RO- ph of 7, 0 degrees KH and GH and a tds at about 100 also although I've measured it as low as 80.
 
I use well water also and a Ph of 6.2-6.4 the rest (other than the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) I don't bother to measure as I have mineral deposits on all my equipment. Temp is about 78F and my cherries go in cycles from too many to no new ones.
 
excuzzzeme, have you ever noticed if your cycles correspond with any seasonal or weather related phenomenon?
 
My first batch of yellows bred quite well for me. Of late...nothing. I believe my TDS might be a tad on the high side for them. I haven't tested it of late to be sure but definately the only thing I can think of. On the other hand, my tigers and CRS appear to be doing well. Found quite a few berried between them...even though I did just loose quite a bit of tigers for unknown reasons.
 
James, do you know your Ph, GH, or KH? If not, do you think you water is hard or soft?
 
Yellows are much harder to breed than cherries.
I keep my tanks at a bout 78F

Gh is 13, Kh is about 6
Ph is over 8, but I think they will adapt to lower Ph as well.

Temperature is a key player when breeding all Dwarf shrimp. IME Noecaridina species prefer the water to be a bit warmer, around 78F while caridina specied prefer it lower around 72-74.

Hardness is a factor as well, medium hardness, gh 10-15 Kh 1-6 is preferred for most neos.

Despite what I have read, the yellw shrimp are much more delicate and require more care than RCS. IME if you drop a male and female RCS in a bucket of water eventually they will produce babies. Not the case with yellows. I have had my yellow shrimp for over 8 months and am just now seeing my forst babies. I have lost several adult shrimp without ever seeing any berried females.
 
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