Cherry Shrimp...how many?

[Kaosu]

ok so...i have 1 cherry shrimp in a 3 gallon heavily planted hex.

it has 3 otto cats, that are moving to my 20 gallon guppy tank, and one displaced glass cat.

Im heading out today to pick up 8 young cherrys

how many can i safely put in this tank? i do 40% water changes every few days to a week.

the pics are a few weeks old..the plants have all grown up and nearly reaching the top ^_^ i might have to trim, also adding a few small peaces of drift wood.
This tank has been up and cycles for about 6 months.

 

[pbmax]

I wouldn't get any more than 20 to start. Once your colony starts breeding it will pretty much stabilize itself based on the availability of food (bio film). 8 is just about perfect, I think; that way you can watch the colony slowly expand. It's no fun if you stock all your shrimp by buying them.

 

[pbmax]

Forgot to add - great looking tank! Your shrimp should be quite pleased.

 

[Kaosu]

^_^ thank you, its my little jungle like i said the plants have grown allot sens i got pics the parrot feather is nearly to the top all the way around the tank..i think my vail grass got burred in the back.

im getting these guys pretty young..they are just starting to show color....how big are they before they breed and how long does it take to get there.

i have a marbled cray ( in another tank) i have had for just over a month..she has molted 4 times and has gone from 1/2 inch to nearly an inch and a half.....how fast do cherrys grow?


..im really starting to get addicted to inverts.

 

[pbmax]

Oh geez, not sure if I remember I've seen berried RCS females at 2/3 - 3/4" I think. They generally max out at about 1", maybe slightly bigger.

As for growth speed....hrmmm. They're generally full grown in about 6 months maybe? 2 or 3 months to breeding size? These are mostly guesses since I never really tracked that sort of data.

I'm a big fan of jungle tanks, mostly because I'm a big slacker Shrimp LOVE over-planted tanks!

 

[Kaosu]

ok^_^ got some updates shots,

i didn't get 8..i got closer to 18^_^, i traded for a bunch of my plant trimmings
While i was there i was checking out the guys tank and noticed his guppies had Camallanus, i had a run in with these nasty worms and had some left over meds...gave me extra shrimp for it!! yay!
here they are acclimating, and some of them in the tank...they are small and allot of the females already have saddles!
Its hard to see them in the tank at the moment but they have some coloring up to do.

 

[XanAvaloni]

They look terrific kaosu, congrats on a great deal.

Most likely they are pale right now from stress of relocation, new water etc. Even if yours is better than what they came out of, they will go through a period of adjustment. Give it at least a week for them to resume whatever their "normal", ie genetically based, coloration is.

Looks like you have a good range of ages there, from some at or close to breeding age down to pretty itty bitty babies. This is good; the little ones are the most adaptable. You will, sadly, probably have a few deaths, most likely among the larger ones. But you got a good number, you can afford to lose a few during acclimation and still come out of it with a viable breeding colony. I started in shrimp buying 10 at a time and had the first three batches die off on me over a period of a few weeks. I think your odds are quite a bit better.

Oh, and females have saddles almost from birth, it isn't really a sign of age or readiness for breeding. The saddle is just the ovary,nothing happens until they are old enough for the ol' hormones to kick in and start development. You could have anywhere from days to a couple of months before you see any of them holding eggs in the undercarriage. This will, trust me, give you a great thrill. Best of luck with your new kiddos.

 

[Kaosu]

Thank you for the Info^_^ i am very happy with them.

the larger ones were born about 2 months ago so not even quite old enough to color up fully.
No losses yet, though like i said its hard to see them in the parrot feather that is filling the tank.

They are little piggies i fed the glass cat that is in the tank some flakes this morning and allot of them were jumping around catching flakes and eating them^_^ i put a peace of green bean in the tank and they swarmed it and are still happily munching away on it.
Hope fully i don't have many losses i took 2 hours to acclimate them very slowly..so i hope that will help there chances.

 

[XanAvaloni]

glad you mentioned feeding kaosu, that reminds me of the most important thing it took me the longest to learn...

DON'T!

Don't feed I mean. Or at least feed the tiniest possible bit, and as infrequently as possible. That number of shrimp are perfectly capable of subsisting themselves off biofilm from the plants in that lovely tank indefinitely. Read over at plantinverts.com or other shrimp-specializing websites, they will all tell you that the commonest cause of shrimp death is overfeeding. Shrimp are opportunitic feeders, meaning that if they see food they eat it. No instinct has ever taught them the virtues of self-restraint. They will kill themselves eating in a horrifyingly short time. When they "swarm" over a bean or whatever it is not because they are hungry, it's just because it is there.

do not feed them any more for at least a couple of days. And follow the rule about removing any food that isn't consumed within an hour, even if they are still swarming over it. They will go back to grazing on the parrotfeather in perfect contentment.

 

[Kaosu]

hmm ill read up on it,
at the moment there is a glass cat in the tank that need to be fed every few days it ranged from blood worms, and brine shrimp to flakes, there are bladder snails in the tank and allot of black worms in the substrate, its a tiny peace of bean that is being swarmed by the black worms and snails as well,

I normally only feed the tank a bean every so often to keep my black worms populating ( i feed them to my guppies as treats)
^_^ thank you for being so helpful!

Im trying to think of where i can place my glass cat so i don't have to worry about over feeding the shrimp as much.
Im thinking my guppy tank is the best bet but they might horas him....hmm not sure yet.^_^ ill keep updating