# Keeping the babies alive



## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

In the past, my tank was excessively grown over with moss. I did a big rescape about a month back, pulling all the java moss out and spreading the flame moss onto the wood in it's place. I also added a little bit of taiwan moss. Both of these grow much slower than java for me and as a result, I am seeing less baby RCS make it to large enough sizes. Between the filter intake and my greedy celestial pearl danios (I got them cause they were supposed to be small enough to not eat them - and I swear they live off of RCS babies alone) I think many are disappearing.

I just hatched a new idea and I'm testing the waters on how it works. I have a floating breeder in my tank, I covered the ends where the slots are with nylon stockings so the babies are stuck inside, they'd fit through the slots newborn.

I put a tiny amount of flourite substrate on the bottom, I found RCS in there with no bottom lost all of their color. I also added some mini water lettuce and taiwan moss for the babies to cling to.

Then I netted out all the berried RCS I could find, which was 10 and popped them inside. After the first night, 2 nights back, one had had her babies. I gently scooped her out and put her back inside the tank, taking care not to scoop up any of the nearly microscopic babies she left.

I plan to just do this with this batch of 10 females to see how it works. My only fear is that that many baby RCS in one place will create alot of waste and pollute themselves. I have been squirting about 10 turkey basters full of fresher tank water inside daily to try and prevent this. There is still water exchange though so I probably shouldn't worry.

It also made me wonder, how many eggs do an RCS produce per brood? Am I looking at 20-30 babies per shrimp? Or will it be less? Once the babies are large enough I will release them into the tank and do this again if it works.

Thoughts, suggestions?


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Or right, another reason for my madness was my CRS are finally berried. I don't mind losing a few RCS to feed my fish, but I'd hate to lose CRS babies to them or the filter.

I've since got a Filter Max III sponge system to prevent any from getting sucked up into my filter too.


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Hmm, no thoughts?

Here I will add some photos to the fray to see if anyone has comments about my idea. 

Nursery from afar.









Closeup of expectant mothers and you can see a baby in the moss at the top right corner, I counted 10 today.









I still have 9 berried RCS in there, and tonight I finally caught my berried CRS and put her in. She moved around a lot so I couldn't get a clear image of her. But I think I may have caught her just in time, her eggs are almost double the size of the RCS eggs and they are very dark, almost black.

I noticed 3 more berried RCS in my tank, but I decided to leave them, if my calculations are correct, each female can hold up to 40 eggs. They don't all hold max capacity, but even at 20 each that will make for a full house soon.

I am target feeding them a little of what goes into the main tank. Mostly flake food with some crab cuisine nuggets and algae wafers. Not all at once and only in small portions. I have also set the water flow to hit the open side as much as possible and I am continuing to use the turkey baster to squirt in fresh water along with slowly lifting it out all but an inch and lowering it back in to clear out the water they are in a couple times a day. I added more moss too so I think with all that fussing, the water inside is just as good as the water outside. At least that is what I hope.


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## DBL TAP (Apr 21, 2008)

By your own observation, it appears to be working. That would be a great idea if you want to keep several shrimp species together in the same tank -- but without the risk of cross breeding.

One thing I would consider is the stress put on the berried shrimp.

Wouldn't it be easier to remove the Danios? Without a predator in the tank shrimp will breed like roaches.

I hope that helped. Good luck


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Hmm, I've created a mini roof with floating mini water lettuce and added loads of moss. Much more than you see in the photo above. They seem rather calm and normal, they eat well etc. Though I have noticed as I mentioned a little less movement in there than in the tank. I'm not sure they are stressed, but I think the best indicator will be the CRS. If she gives birth without hitch then I think this will work.

I don't have anywhere I could move the danios, and I'd hate to have a big old shrimp only tank.  I'm planning a possible 20 gallon tank in the near future and if that happens I may use it as more of a shrimp only tank with plants. Until then, I'm hoping this will get some more RCS and CRS into the main tank without them getting picked off.

I'll keep you all updated with my progress.


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## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

any updates? the only difference between yours and mine is mines a net breeder so theres always circulation i guess. hope it works


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Mine actually has decent circulation, it's just slowed down by the stocking sized holes. I was all worried about it but then I noticed pieces of food moving in the current. So far I have had 3 of the 11 total females give birth and I expect the others to do so shortly. None have dropped their eggs or anything.

They are about 15% less active than the ones in the tank though. But I watch them eat and everything just fine.

Is the net tight enough mesh to keep the tiniest of babies in? Have you noticed that yours are losing coloration without a substrate?


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## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

idk if the net is small enought or not i guess well see soon. the two that i have in have not lost any coloration and theyre less active also, i guess just bc theres not as much room. they have plenty of food and stuff in there though and they eat just fine. 

what does a shrimp dropping its eggs signal?


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Dropping the eggs? That signals stress or bad water conditions normally. Or that the eggs were unfertilized. Did they just dump them all?

I know that when my yellow shrimp got berried for the first time, they dropped about half of the eggs they were carrying but have carried the remaining ones to term. When I looked it up I read that many times the first few batches aren't kept or only some eggs are.


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## dgphelps (Jan 1, 2008)

Also, an update. I checked tonight and was able to remove 3 more RCS since they no longer had eggs. The amount of babies in the nursery is very high. When I tried to scoop out the no longer pregnant females it was like a dust cloud with all the babies moving about. I just wish the CRS would drop her babies. I can't wait to see how many she had in her first batch.


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## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

thats awesome lucky you. i have three berried rcs in my net breeder right now but none have hatched their eggs yet. and i was just watching a berried female one time and she clinging to a leaf on a corkscrew val and facing the ground. she was fanning her eggs and suddenly one fell out and slowly drifted to the bottom. im not sure if it was an accident or what bc thats the only time ive seen that


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