# Plez help cant get shrimps to breed



## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

Hello everyone!
I've had my 10g planted tank for over a year now, And i cant get my shrimp to breed . I bought 50shrimps total from 3 diff people a few month back when i first got them about 1 month and i started to see eggs now its been 2 months and havent seen any female with eggs all the big shrimps have the saddle on the back, but no eggs. When i got home a few hours ago i seen 2 young shrimps dead checked the water and its good. Iam i doing somthing wrong?
Here are the tank specs:
10g tank
501 zoo med filter sponge on intake
5in heater
DIY Hood-CF Bulbs, 60watt
Paint ball Co2 system
Eco complete
I dose: 2ml Seachem's Flourish, 1ml iron, 2ml potassium every other week, 2ml excel, 2ml Nitrogen every water changer weekly.
Flora: Anubias nana still no flowers, downoi, Ludwigia repens, Xmas Moss and weeping moss, Cyperus Helferi, Rotala Rotundifolia
Have about 35-50 Cherries 
Ammonia:0
No2:0
Nh3/Nh4:0
pH:6.8
kh:9
gh:12-13
co2:22ppm
temp 72-75
Is it better to use really hard water or very soft? In vegas the water is very very hard, I have a water softener so i can use very hard or very soft, What i been doin is 1g of very hard and 4g soft.


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## BigRed27 (Mar 11, 2004)

NVM.... I messed up... I asked a question that you answered in your post... Sorry


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Mine seem to thrive in soft water, temps in the low 70's F, pH just a tad lower than yours. I do not dose nitrogen at all; they are incredibly sensitive to nitrogen, and will not berry in the presence of it. I would double check your water temp, and make sure you are feeding them every other day a pinch of pellets. Also, you may need to soften the water a bit more to around 6kH. No worries, man. Sometimes, it just takes a little tweaking here and there. You'll get your shrimplets!

Big Red--Yes he did. He has cherries.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

They are Cherries shrimp fresh water.


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

BigRed-- Happens all the time to all of us! LOL!


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

thaxs DonaldmBoyer my tank is about 74f i guess i'll stop dosing nitrogen and ill use just the soft water on the next water change. I also feed them shrimp biscuit every other day or somtimes every 3 to 4 days.


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## BigRed27 (Mar 11, 2004)

DonaldmBoyer said:


> BigRed-- Happens all the time to all of us! LOL!


Yeah.. I searched twice to... Then I clicked post... Then saw it...

I wish I could be of more help. I have gotten cherries to breed but I was a bad boy (I never checked anything). I had the temp set to about 75, and left them alone. Had some small vals growing, chucked in a few algae wafers from time to time and bammmm cherries. I never got a change to put them in a real planted tank. My planted tank at the time was full of cichlids and that wouldnt have worked out.

The funny thing is now I am trying to breed them again in a nicer tank. I just got them 2 days ago. Im fertilizing and they should (knock on wood) be in heaven. With my luck, watch I probably cant get them to breed now that Im actually trying to. LOL


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

No prob! Try getting it to about 72F. It seemed to be the "magical" temp for me, although 74F is well within their comfort range. Yeah, quit dosing nitrogen and see if that helps. It should, and if possible, try doing small water changes every other day....maybe 1 gallon or so. Make sure that the water is soft. It seems to cause them to berry more often if you do it that way.

I am a little confused.....it doesn't look like you dose a lot of N2, and your levels are at 0ppm. I would think that cherries would berry in those conditions anyhow. Interesting. Make sure the Flourish doesn't contain a high N2 content either........and NEVER ADD COPPER IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM!!!! It will kill all inverts, even in small amounts. I can't remember what is in Flourish off-hand, so be careful!

BTW, you can dose iron more often if you wanted to and Excel. Phosphorus, too, is ok. It will certainly help with your plants in there, and is harmless to the cherries (within reason of course).

BigRed--me too! It seemed that once I unplugged my heater and took it out, my cherries just started going crazy with having eggs. I had tons of shrimplets running around in there! Then, I accidently EI dosed Plantex which contains 0.1% Copper, and they all died within a day. Very depressing!


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## BigRed27 (Mar 11, 2004)

> BigRed--me too! It seemed that once I unplugged my heater and took it out, my cherries just started going crazy with having eggs. I had tons of shrimplets running around in there! Then, I accidently EI dosed Plantex which contains 0.1% Copper, and they all died within a day. Very depressing!


HMMM I just started doing PPS PRO today and there is a small amount of copper in the micro (Plantex). I know copper is bad for inverts but some people have reported being ok following the instructions. Hopefully I will be ok, after a few days we will see. I was worried about it but I like most people HATE algae and I want nice looking plants.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

ok i just did a water change and added all soft water now the kg is 8 and the gh is 8. the temp is around 77 so i left the fan on to knocked down the temp should take a few hours to get to 72. And didnt add any ferts hope this will help.


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

ok thaxs for the info guys, iam setting up a 5.5g tall to test if the shrimp will reproduce faster with no co2 and only dose with excel. New tank will have 15watt, Whisper PowerFilter 5-15 , eco, moss and cherrys. Ill post new pics tomorrow.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

I have a tank at my dads house that has cherrys reproducing like crazy in it. Its a 29gal with a cannister filter, CO2, 65w light, and EI dosing. We do large waterchanges (up to 50%) every week or two. Only use good old arizona water (quite hard). Do you have any fish in the tank that may be eating the babies or picking on the adults?


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## heineken357 (May 25, 2006)

I had 4 endless i think thats the name of them very small but i took them out and put in my 55g tank, guess ill wait and see what happends with no fish in the 10g. I also put 3 saddling females and 3 males in my 6g tank shrimp only hope somthing happends .


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