phew, cherry shrimp hatched (and a snaily update)

[Ian Turkstra]

well a month ago I lost most of my cherry shrimp.  I was left with all but 4 or 5 at the most.  One was carrying eggs and they survived and hatched.  I now have probably 30 little babies swimming around in my snail tank with the thickest mat of java moss I've ever seen/grown! 

My snails are perhaps a month old and already almost dime-sized.  It's the fastest continual growth I've had with a snail clutch (doesn't take much since it's only my second ever set of clutches to hatch   They seem to be mostly purple!

[bettasandbeads]

Great Ian.
I have about 8 large purple stripped snails and they seem to be the only ones breeding right now.
  Everyone seem to be getting purple snails lately.
Catherine

[hyperfin]

Grats on the cherry shrimp hatching!!! Wish i could have gotten mine to do their thing before i lost my tank of shrimp to some unknown illness

[amtowell]

Good to hear about your shrimp and snails. It sucks to lose a fish, shrimp, etc when it's a line you want to keep going. The snails I got from you and Cat are doing well but no clutches yet. I do have plenty of assassin snail eggs so hopefully they'll hatch. (I do keep them separate as the assassins will eat the other snails)

[amtowell]

So I get up this morning and there's one of the snails on the floor, dried out. I did sense some feline assistance in this. Put the snail back in the shrimp tank and he's motoring around now, yeah!!!

[Ian Turkstra]

Hey AM,

I am not surprised by the snail leaving the tank.  I have had a bunch of them do it in a row.  Probably due to worse than ideal water quality.  But they definitely do it on their own sometimes!

[hyperfin]

hey Ian any pointers on breeding cherries??? just got a new batch in from my boss who found a guy selling 100 cherry shrimp for $25

[Ian Turkstra]

Just put them in a tank on their own with lots of java moss and other plants to make them feel comfortable.  Mine breed prolifically and they basically get fed any flake food I have lying around   Give them fresh water too!

[Ian Turkstra]

wow that's a great deal for cherries.  Around here they sell for $1 each!

Looking now, I can't believe I was nervous about losing them all.  I now see TONS and it appears there is a new batch in there already.  I guess I had two females holding batches of eggs because normally it takes almost a month for new shrimplets to be released

[hyperfin]

Ian, do you use a filter in the tank or just do large water changes... i ask cause i had my last back of cerries and amano shrimp in a 15 gallon planted tank with a Fluval 105 filter on it set to low flow... although i saw many of the females carying eggs i never ever noticed more shrimp in the tank? Could the shrimplets havebeen sucked up by the filter???

[bettasandbeads]

You may want to put a fine cloth or panty hose over the end of your filter in take. The baby shrimp can be sucked up. Sometimes if you check your filter you will find baby shrimp collected on it.
All the best.
Catherine

[Ian Turkstra]

To be honest, I don't have a filter OR do large water changes.  I have a big air stone though and fill up the water once in awhile! I kind of neglect those shrimp and they seem to appreciate it (besides regular feedings though).  I would do what Catherine suggested with the filter intake.

How long have you had them?  The babies only hatch every 4 weeks or so and they are about 1/4" long when they are born

[hyperfin]

mine are still tiny...just trying to get the tank cleaned out so its just them in there... right now i have a tiny ablino longfin bushy nose placo in there with some amano shrimp as well

[Ian Turkstra]

Ahh okay yeah I would take out anything that isn't a shrimp or a snail   Let them get to full size (an inch or so) and they'll be prolific for ya!