# Red Cherry Shrimp not breeding?



## Andrea3 (Sep 25, 2009)

Hello

From what I've read it seems that rcs breed readily in many different conditions...what would cause them not to? I have a large group in a 38 gallon aquarium, they seem otherwise healthy?

Thank you


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

Have you seen any that have berried at least over the past couple months?

Do you have any fish in there with them? They might be eating the fry before you notice any.


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## Andrea3 (Sep 25, 2009)

I haven't seen any with eggs ever, I've had them since before Christmas, I do have fish in with them


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

Maybe just unlucky and happened to get all males or females? lol probably not...

Well it would be helpful if you can give us details to how your tank is set up and the water parameters so we have more to go on.

But possible suggestions that I'm throwing out there, I can be totally wrong.

- Constantly harassed by the fish so they're so stressed that they can't/won't do the do. 

- Is it a planted tank? It would probably help if they had something like a giant ball of java moss a) for them to hide in b) helps feed the fry a bit.

- Water conditions (I know nothing about) could be affecting(effecting?) their shells. Softening up their shells too much that the eggs can't really survive. Maybe something about adding a bit of calcium to their diet could help?

These are all I can think of. Cherries are very tough, I've had some breed in a tank of dirty water that I left out for a few months (and forgot about) before. 
Note: Just so no one gets offended by that last comment, I had transferred all my fish + shrimps to a larger tank but slacked in the clean up and left what I thought was an empty tank sitting in the room. However, there were a bunch of baby shrimps that I did not see and they eventually grew up to be adult-ish. How they survived, I do not know.


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

Wow, you left that tank empty and the baby grow up to adults...that is amazing. 

Btw Andrea3, what kind of fishy do you have with the rcs?


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## aln (Jan 26, 2010)

i kept tetra in a tank with RCS before and they bred. but you need a nice ball or moss (java, flames, tawi,etc) so that the babies have food and shelter. i also have rams in the tank but my java moss is soo thick at the back the cherries just breed slowing but they still breed


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## Andrea3 (Sep 25, 2009)

I have: 
3 mollies
3 leopard danios
3 gold zebra loaches
red ramshorn snails

None of the fish seem to bother with the shrimp very much, it is a planted tank so there are lots of hiding spots. The snails actually haven't been breeding lately either, they did before.


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

Andrea3 said:


> I have:
> 3 mollies
> 3 leopard danios
> 3 gold zebra loaches
> ...


I think the loaches might be the ones eating the babies if they did breed.


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## Andrea3 (Sep 25, 2009)

I think they would eat the babies if there were any they could find, but I haven't seen even eggs? The tank has quite a lot of plants, with a large bunch of java moss for hiding. The shrimp don't seem stressed and are out all over the tank.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

I'm going to say from experience here that likely it is the danios that are taking a snacking on or nipping the shrimp and the shrimp stressed
out and probably aborted the eggs.

I've got zebra danios with my some RCS I've got and I got struck with some dead bodies. WHen I'm atth e tank in the day time it looked like everyone was ok but one time when I had a day off I stayed up later and thouhgt to check the tank after the lights were off I found the z.danios picking on the shrimp left and right with nibbles. 

I'm peeved as I lost my crystal red shrimp and most of my RCS's. I moved what I had left over to my 5.5gal with white cloud minnows in there which don't bother the RCS day or night (I checked). I'm probably all out of females as I've got like 2 left out of the 11 shrimp I had for free.



Andrea3 said:


> I have:
> 3 mollies
> 3 leopard danios
> 3 gold zebra loaches
> ...


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

It might be that the shrimp that become larger become slower moving, and more easily targeted by the Loaches. Even adult shrimp make tasty snacks for loaches.

As for the other fish you have, they will eat baby shrimp readily, unless you have lots of hiding spaces for the shrimp.


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## Andrea3 (Sep 25, 2009)

You could be right that they are picking on them at night, I haven't watched them in the dark before...I will peek in on them later tonight. Before I had this tank I had them in a 12g tank with several rummynose tetras, they didn't have any eggs then either, would the tetras also stress them, or do you think it is more likely a water problem?


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