# Shrimp maturity time frame...?



## lowfi (Apr 18, 2007)

Hey everyone,

Ive had some cherry shrimp for a few weeks now and they are reproducing like crazy. I keep them in a 5.5 gallon tank with some small plants. I feed Hikari crab cuisine and am liking it. Here is my question....how long before the new babies will become mature? It's funny, I see all these little babies running around...and then they sort of disappear. I would have thought to see them really increase in size and abundance in the tank. I have had at least 4 hatches in these few weeks. How many shrimp should I expect and what do you think the carrying capacity of a 5.5 gallon tank is for RCS? I have no other fish in the tank...only ramshorns. The tank has been established for months. Thanks for any advice.

Sean


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## dekstr (Oct 30, 2007)

Hey lowfi,

From what I know, the cherry shrimp's life span is only 1-2 years.




> Once a female and male are sexual mature (4-6 months old) and the above-mentioned requirements are met, they will breed. Breeding occurs right after a female molts. She will then hide and release pheromones and the male will find her and breed with her. After breeding the female will carry the fertilized eggs under her tail until they hatch.




So they are ready to reproduce once 4-6 months old. But I've read threads where members have claimed they have cherry shrimp breed even when they were juveniles, given the right breeding conditions.

As for the maximum number in one tank, all I can say is they breed like invasive hares in Australia. I guess they will keep reproducing as long as there is food available and the tank is breeding appropriate, up to the point where it is no longer possible to sustain the bioload, which is when the filtration cannot possibly handle the amount of food that breaks down.

As for your disappearing baby shrimps, there are a lot of factors why they disappear. Here are some I've learned about from others.

1. Baby cherry shrimp look awfully like brine shrimp to fish. So if you keep fish, they will probably eat the baby shrimp. Adult cherry shrimps do not eat their own kind, even when they are babies, unless they are already dead.
2. Even if you keep fish with the shrimp, then the surviving babies will be hiding for protection--thus away from visibility--and you will not see them.
3. Your filter intake, if you run one with a motor impeller, is so powerful it sucks up the babies and kills them with the impeller.

Hope I helped!
Dexter


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## Grubs (Jul 4, 2007)

dekstr said:


> 3. Your filter intake, if you run one with a motor impeller, is so powerful it sucks up the babies and kills them with the impeller.


Actually many canisters have the filter media *before* the impeller so the shrimp are sucked into the filter and can live in there for quite some time depending on how harsh the conditions are. Whenever I clean my canisters I always rinse the ceramic pipes and recover 20-30 shrimp - some of which are too big to get through the fly-screen over my filter intake. This suggests they were sucked up when tiny and have grown in the filter!


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

Ya I actually had 5 Crystal shrimp (SS grade) that I found in my ehiem the other day when I cleaned it....sure glad I checked before dumping the water out.


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