# Trying cherrys breeding again question about ph&Gh



## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

I have a tall 7gal tank that I want to try and breed cherry shrimps in. Its been 2years and the last time I had over 200 in a period of 5months and could never get them to breed. Tank had draftwood moss 501 can filter no heater Eco-Complete 2years old now light 24watt 5k cf.
ph from tap 8
Ph 8.4
kh-5-6
gh 21
temp 78
Does eco complete go bad after 2 years? And is the ph and gh to high for cherry's to breed in.


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## carlstreeter (Aug 26, 2009)

I can't comment on the chemistry, but you might want to consider ditching your canister filter for a sponge filter.

Juvies of most species aren't very good swimmers, and can't always get away from the inlet, and/or get pushed around by the outlet.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Well I have a sponge on the end of the inlet and its ziptied so don't think they got sucked up. Has any1 had any luck breeding cherry shrimp in high ph 8.3 and kh 5 83.3 ppm gh 18 340 ppm?


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## jczz1232 (May 8, 2008)

rcs are pretty easy to breed just food and good water and that will do


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

RCS are easy to bread.
They need: Plants to soak up shrimp poop
They need: Stable temperatures
They need: To not be eaten by fish.


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

they dont need plants. just a bunch of places to hide and stable pH, temperature, GH and KH will do the job.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

EC is the most defect prone substrate that I've ever used. I've gotten small marine shells and long-term pH increases more than once out of their product.

The KH does seem a bit on the high side for maxed out hatch rates. A gravel/EC capped peat bottom in a small tank would be perfect for them. I breed mine out in a 2.5 gal beta tank right now, though I'll probably be looking to something bigger/more tanks if they keep up like this.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

I like to use java moss in my cherry tanks. I hardly ever use ferts. I just give them wafers once in a while :^) IMO they are the easiest invert to raise. I started with 30 or so and I now have 300ish in 4 tanks.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Well I switched over to flourite and now my ph is down to 74-75 I just got 25 cherrys now its a waiting game. here are some pictures


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## tex627 (Nov 2, 2008)

looks good. soon enough, you'll have enough cherries to be fish food...haha


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

My blue rams snack on my cherries! 
Free food!


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## feiyang (Jan 27, 2007)

ph 8.4 is a bit of high to me. temp 78 is also on the high end, you may want to lower down a bit, nothing bad to have less $$ on electricity bill.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

ph of 8.4 is super high, lower to 6.0, keep water stable.
Don't over feed.

Temps around 72-73 degrees are fine.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Well since I added the flourite my ph is 7.4-7.5 I have 2 cherrys with eggs in the 7g. Also in my 55g with co2 and ph 6.7 got 2 big cherrys with a lot of eggs its to the point the eggs are hanging out of her can't wait hope I get babys this time around.


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

You'll get them, no worries. I have around 60-70 females in each of my breeder tanks. I get tons of babies now. 

They all go into my planted tank, not many survive.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Well the 2 female in my 55g that had a lot of eggs almost to the point where they were falling out. Today I looked and now she only has 2 eggs left in there whats the deal :/.


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Either they hatched, or she ate them.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

I agree PH is too high. 7.4-7.5 should be fine.

One thing I tried is to cut back lighting. I was using 23W CF over 10G tank, no RCS carry eggs for a while, after I change the CF to 13W, I have four female carry eggs.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

heineken357 said:


> Well the 2 female in my 55g that had a lot of eggs almost to the point where they were falling out. Today I looked and now she only has 2 eggs left in there whats the deal :/.


Waiting for few days, you may see the shrimplets.
Normally shrimplets will hide at beginning.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

don't think they had shrimplets it was only 5 or 6 days from the first time they had eggs. They say it takes 25+days to hatch eggs not 5-6 :/?



James He said:


> Waiting for few days, you may see the shrimplets.
> Normally shrimplets will hide at beginning.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

heineken357 said:


> don't think they had shrimplets it was only 5 or 6 days from the first time they had eggs. They say it takes 25+days to hatch eggs not 5-6 :/?


Yes, from the day that RCS starts to carry eggs under belly. it takes 25+ days to hatch depends on temperature.

After eggs hatched, the new shrimplets will hide, so it is a little bit hard to see them, after few days, they will come out from hidden place and I saw they are 2-3mm in size, so should be few days old already.

James


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

*I am a daddy *

Well guys I am a daddy lol yesterday I looked in my 7g tank and what do you know I seen around 10 little cherrys few on the glass and few on the moss mite be more but they are so hard to see hehe. So I guess the flourite fixed the problem with the ph and now I hope to have a few hundred cherrys one day . With my new luck I want something bigger how much bigger are crs?


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## Blitzhill (Sep 2, 2006)

I have this same problem in my RCS tank too. I've heard/read that they breed like crazy...but I got mine and their numbers have only slowly dwindled  My pH (the tapwater) is also around 8.0 , so that makes me think maybe it is the high pH.


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## James He (Aug 24, 2009)

Blitzhill said:


> I have this same problem in my RCS tank too. I've heard/read that they breed like crazy...but I got mine and their numbers have only slowly dwindled  My pH (the tapwater) is also around 8.0 , so that makes me think maybe it is the high pH.


8.0 should be fine. not sure about higher than 8.0.

I believe RCS doesn't like strong light. and you need provide lots of hide place. heavily planted tank will be good approach.

James


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Blitzhill said:


> I have this same problem in my RCS tank too. I've heard/read that they breed like crazy...but I got mine and their numbers have only slowly dwindled  My pH (the tapwater) is also around 8.0 , so that makes me think maybe it is the high pH.


Well today seen more babys around the tank. If your tap water is that high like mine get some Seachem Flourite and try again its been working for me. Like I said before I had over 200 cherry's with the high ph from tap even used Rowater and eco complete never had any baby's. Changed over to the Flourite and now I am getting baby's .


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