Frustrating Problem Breeding RCS!!!

[OUShrimpGuy]

I got my 20G aquarium set up in the beginning of August. It is moderately planted, and is thriving very well.

However. 
For some reason my Red Cherry Shrimp females refuse to carry their eggs. I've even gone as far as watching them mate, and then the next morning there are about 20 eggs all over my plants and gravel. It's as if they drop them as soon as they move from their ovaries...

 

Tank:

Temp: 74 degrees

pH: 7.6

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 3ppm

KH: 9

GH: 10

 

Tap:

pH: 7.7

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 0ppm

KH: 12

GH: 9

 

I have had about 4 female shrimps breed and then not carry their eggs!! Anyone know why this keeps happening to me?

[ohmiko]

do you know if they're like first time mothers because that usually happens the first time they carry eggs. 

[Euryth]

I haven't kept shrimp in a few years before recently starting back up again, but I do remember having this same problem when I first got started with RCS I purchased. I bought mine young, and when the females would mature, all my first time mothers would drop their eggs. No matter what I did, they always would lol. On top of that, they would make entirely too many to hold in their swimmerets. It got to the point that I automatically expected it as a right of passage lol. 

 

How old are your female shrimp in question? Are they repeat egg droppers? 

[OUShrimpGuy]

4 minutes ago, Euryth said:

I haven't kept shrimp in a few years before recently starting back up again, but I do remember having this same problem when I first got started with RCS I purchased. I bought mine young, and when the females would mature, all my first time mothers would drop their eggs. No matter what I did, they always would lol. On top of that, they would make entirely too many to hold in their swimmerets. It got to the point that I automatically expected it as a right of passage lol. 

 

How old are your female shrimp in question? Are they repeat egg droppers? 

 

They are fairly young, but I've had a few of my fully adult females drop their eggs too. I have another question too. Right now I have roughly 25 rcs in a 20 gal long tank. They have a TON of places to hide. I've seen a couple females molt, then hide somewhere, and when the males go crazy searching for her they can't find her. Is there anything I can do about this?

[ohmiko]

if do want to breed them you could catch the female and male and put them in a breeder box until they mate. As for shrimps dropping eggs ,they do that sometimes when there's fluctuation in your water whether its temperature etc.

[Euryth]

Exactly what I was going to suggest next, ohmiko! If you're disturbing the tank too often by moving things around, aquascaping frequently, etc. or even changing the water too often that could be an issue. 

 

Taking ohmiko's breeder box suggestion would be the easiest way to make sure breeding is occurring. With a tank that large, I would honestly have started with a much larger colony than 25 in order to prevent that from happening. It may not seem like mating is occurring, but I'm sure it does when we're unaware in situations like these. You could rearrange the tank to isolate the hiding places in certain areas like placing moss clumps, large leafy plants or lava rock in the right back corner of the tank. The rest could be slightly barren or lightly scaped.

[OUShrimpGuy]

4 hours ago, Euryth said:

Exactly what I was going to suggest next, ohmiko! If you're disturbing the tank too often by moving things around, aquascaping frequently, etc. or even changing the water too often that could be an issue. 

 

Taking ohmiko's breeder box suggestion would be the easiest way to make sure breeding is occurring. With a tank that large, I would honestly have started with a much larger colony than 25 in order to prevent that from happening. It may not seem like mating is occurring, but I'm sure it does when we're unaware in situations like these. You could rearrange the tank to isolate the hiding places in certain areas like placing moss clumps, large leafy plants or lava rock in the right back corner of the tank. The rest could be slightly barren or lightly scaped.

 

 

How many rcs would you recommend for a 20 gallon setup to start a colony?

[Euryth]

I'd say maybe 50 or more to start off would've been good.  As long as your tank is cycled,  water params are good & your filtration is adequate, there's no real limit to how many you could have.  Shrimp have such a small bio load, too. 

[wego21]

I started my 10G tank with about 15 shrimp, and ratio of 11 or 12 female and rest are males. Now I have full tank of juvenile shrimp, nearly half of the females were berried and gave birth at the same time. Depending on the price and the type of the shrimp you want to keep if they are not expensive buy more.