# Red Cherry Shrimp Stopped Reproducing



## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

I have an 8 gallon red cherry shrimp only planted tank. I went from 10 shrimp to 60 shrimp in a very short period of time (less than 8 months). For the past 3 months or so, the shrimp have stopped having babies. The females become saddled but do not become berried. Does anyone know what is going on?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Once the population of the RCS reaches a certain limit, then the shrimp will automatically stop reproducing.

If you cull the population, the females will start to become berried again.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Like Darkblade says, a certain habitat can only support a certain population. incase that is not the case, think about...

Have you added anything new to your maintenance?
Have you started to fertilise live plants with dry or liquid chemicals?
Have you changed food brands and types?
Does your food contain any copper?


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

I have heard of a population limit to a tank. My assumption was that the population would grow and die back, grow and die back. I have read that the shrimp may excrete hormones that would stop the shrimp from reproducing. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

I have changed two things with the tank: started adding excel and started feeding frozen blood worms on occasion. Do these seem like likely culprits?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Neither should stop the shrimp from reproducing. Excel can kill your shrimp if overdosed, so be careful.

For the blood worms, there is really no need to feed that to your shrimp, as they prefer something with more vegetable content.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> Neither should stop the shrimp from reproducing. Excel can kill your shrimp if overdosed, so be careful.
> 
> For the blood worms, there is really no need to feed that to your shrimp, as they prefer something with more vegetable content.


I think Excel can stop shrimp from reproducing, assuming it's overdosed but not enough to kill shrimp.

Try doing a few water changes, if it is a population-control hormone then you should be able to get some of it out of the water through water changes.


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## Twiggles (Jun 6, 2010)

You could just remove a portion of the population; like either sell them, move them to another tank, or use them as food for other fish. Either way I agree with Darkblade's comments, they've just reached their limit.


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

I do a 20% water change every 2 to 3 days. It's probably excessive but I've been doing it consistently. I've only had a handful of deaths since I've starting raising RCS shrimp. Perhaps the Excel is the culprit for the lack of new births. Has anyone else come across this? I'll cut back on the Excel and see if that does the trick.

I've just done a water change and the males are zooming around the tank. It's usually a sign that a female is ready to mate.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Darkblade48 said:


> Once the population of the RCS reaches a certain limit, then the shrimp will automatically stop reproducing.
> 
> If you cull the population, the females will start to become berried again.


Interesting. I did not know that. So you're saying the RCS will self regulate to their enviroment knowing htat the enviroment can not support anymore population growth so they self-sense that and stop reproducing?

Sounds much like composting worms in a composting bin or worm tower/hotel where they somehow know that the container can not house any more babies and population growth so they self regulate and stop reproducing.

Could that be the reason why if you wanted to breed RCS/CRS you house them in a large tank with only a few breeders in there so they can keep filling up the tank?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Cubeman said:


> I do a 20% water change every 2 to 3 days. It's probably excessive but I've been doing it consistently. I've only had a handful of deaths since I've starting raising RCS shrimp. Perhaps the Excel is the culprit for the lack of new births. Has anyone else come across this? I'll cut back on the Excel and see if that does the trick.
> 
> I've just done a water change and the males are zooming around the tank. It's usually a sign that a female is ready to mate.


Yes, I've had this experience. Excel is the culprit; even at regular recommended dosage. Most people don't know this because they never experience breeding explosion before, so they assume that there is no side effect. Since you are one of the few who experience this, it will be much more noticable.

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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

I have been dosing Excel at the recommended level on a daily basis. I have heard many people say that it is fine with shrimp. I assumed that since the shrimp weren't dying and they seemed to have good colour that the Excel was not a problem. Hopefully, if it is the Excel, it is not permanent damage.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I do not dose Excel, nor glutaraldehyde, and my shrimp still do not breed. When I rescaped my aquarium recently, there were more than 60-70 shrimp. After culling about 30, within a week, I saw berried shrimp.


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

Darkblade48 said:


> I do not dose Excel, nor glutaraldehyde, and my shrimp still do not breed. When I rescaped my aquarium recently, there were more than 60-70 shrimp. After culling about 30, within a week, I saw berried shrimp.


How large is your tank? I have 60 shrimp in an 8 gallon tank. I've seen tanks which seemed more crowded.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Cubeman said:


> I have been dosing Excel at the recommended level on a daily basis. I have heard many people say that it is fine with shrimp. I assumed that since the shrimp weren't dying and they seemed to have good colour that the Excel was not a problem. Hopefully, if it is the Excel, it is not permanent damage.


Both assumptions are correct, I am not disputing the fact that many people still have a viable population of shrimps while dosing Excel. I agree with that statement to some degree. It's the massive breeding explosion that you're looking for. Like I said before, not too many people experience this, so most people assume that it's OK with Excel. This is the difference between a breeder and a hobbiest. As a breeder, you would aim to see at least a %35+ baby shrimp survival rate. Most hobbiest only get something like %10 or some might luck out at %20.


Cubeman said:


> How large is your tank? I have 60 shrimp in an 8 gallon tank. I've seen tanks which seemed more crowded.


I've had 100+ in a 5G planted tank before. But that depends on the layout of your tank. If it's baren tank, then I would guess that 60+ would have been a max.

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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Cubeman said:


> How large is your tank? I have 60 shrimp in an 8 gallon tank. I've seen tanks which seemed more crowded.


My tank is almost 1/3 the size (ADA Mini-S is about 3 gallons).

Density wise, it is about the same as Zebrapl3co has stated (about 20 shrimp per gallon or so).

You probably have a lot more than 60 shrimp. At any given time in my planted Mini-S, I might only see ~20-30 (adult) shrimp, at most.


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

It's been three days since I discontinued Excel dosing in my tank. I will keep you posted on whether any shrimp get berried. If there is no change, I will cull the shrimp to see if that helps.

Concerning the number of shrimp, I feed the shrimp an organic spinach leaf every other day. They almost all come out to snack on the leaf. The way the tank is set up, I can view all areas of the tank. I can usually get a very good count of the shrimp during snack time.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Curious now. Say using standard tank sizings here. 1/2.5/5.5/10/20/etc gallon tanks what is the max amount of RCS each of those tanks can hold with active breeders to breed to fill the tanks up. I'm interested in the 1-10gal sizing as I have those tanks in use right now.


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

Cubeman said:


> I have an 8 gallon red cherry shrimp only planted tank. I went from 10 shrimp to 60 shrimp in a very short period of time (less than 8 months). For the past 3 months or so, the shrimp have stopped having babies. The females become saddled but do not become berried. Does anyone know what is going on?


Maybe you got a batch of homosexual red cherry shrimps. HRCS??


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

AquaNekoMobile said:


> Curious now. Say using standard tank sizings here. 1/2.5/5.5/10/20/etc gallon tanks what is the max amount of RCS each of those tanks can hold with active breeders to breed to fill the tanks up. I'm interested in the 1-10gal sizing as I have those tanks in use right now.


A couple of people have used the figure 20 shrimp per gallon. I'm sure a number of variables such as tank layout, filtration, water change regime etc. would alter this number.


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

*Update*

It's been more than two months since my red cherry shrimp stopped reproducing. I'm happy to announce that a female is now berried. I'm not going to count my shrimps before they are hatched but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Basically, I stopped using excel as per suggestions on the board. I also increased the light period by one hour. Otherwise, most other parameters have stayed the same as far as I know. The population has slowly dwindled from around 50 to the high 30's. Some have suggested that there is some self-regulating system for the shrimp population. I'm not sure of this. Even if it were true, I don't believe I should have topped out at at 50 for an 8 gallon tank.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

There has to be some other reason.

Even if the shrimp do secrete the hormones, if you want you can try doing more water changes... works for mass breeding of fish in smaller tanks, why not shrimp?


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## Cubeman (Sep 4, 2009)

I currently do a 20% water change every 2 to 3 days. I have been doing that consistently since I started raising the shrimp. I have even suspected that I am doing something with the water changes that is changing the water chemistry, something that I cannot detect.


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