# Growth Rates in neocardina



## Splak (May 1, 2013)

So, I have had some neos for months now, breeding and all. But my growth rates are stupidly slow.

I use RO remineralized with Salty Shrimp GH/KH+.

My temps are about 75f.

I feed premade shrimp foods a few times a week and some canned green beans 1-2 times a week.


Now, I threw an adult berried cherry into my bushynose grow out tank, heated to about 78f. She dropped eggs and within a month the babies were grown and berried!!! 

All my other shrimp tanks, the babies are still growing 4+ months and not even close to being ready to breed.

The only thing I can think of is there is always a food supply available in my grow out tank, which is canned green beans.


So my problem is probably under feeding, but I am worried about over feeding since it is just shrimp in the tanks, and not many of them.

How can I go about safely feeding my shrimps more without polluting the water?


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## Atom (Sep 17, 2014)

I think the temperature difference might be affecting the growth rates between your tanks as well. It's been said that shrimp grow faster (and die sooner) in warmer water. Water temperature can also affect the rate of hatching of your eggs (warmer = sooner). This pic may be of interest to you:










Trying to get things done faster isn't usually the best way though. Shrimps and mosses tend to prefer the lower temperature ranges, though with neos you might be able to get away with a slightly higher temp than with caridinas.

Overfeeding is a huge problem though and if they're happy with their current amount of food, it's probably best to keep it where it is.


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## jumpsmasher (Oct 1, 2012)

For neo's, I find they like it a bit warmer - around 26C. I also find their growth rate dlows down if the PH is too low but others have great success with raising them in low ph so i guess it depends on your shrimps.

As for food, the best thing is to have lots of natural food - i.e biofilm, algae etc; For that a decent light is all you need. 

For commercial food use a feeding dish so you can remove any uneaten food after a few hours. Some people also use 1/2 bare bottom tanks for the same purpose as well. 

I feed all my shrimps once a day, and all the food is usually gone within 30 minutes or less - if it is not than i know there is something wrong with the tank : )


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## alstare2000 (Feb 16, 2013)

75F seems like good temp maybe add high protein food and feed it twice a week small amount see if it helps (earth worm sticks or such). Possibly try to feed twice a day. Also how many shrimps you think there is and what size of the tank ?

For my tanks it varies, I have the red and also yellow ones.
I would say that they mostly reach close to adult size with about 4 months.

I think there is lot of variables, if you feed more protein based diet I noticed they seemed to grow faster but it took me a while to figure out that due to this adult size shrimp (possibly younger too) have molting problems.

Also my red seem to grow faster then my yellow ones being now on the same diet (possibly due to bit different water or substrate not sure).

I had a batch (yellow neocaridina) of young in the same tank and during summer months they seemed to grow faster then during fall. The breeding practically stops for my red and yellow shrimp Nov-Feb. I initially though maybe there is something wrong but I think it's just season as this is happening second year in a row. Now I started seeing saddles on most of the females starting to form. Temp is always 25-26 in my house.

Like Atom mentioned faster sometimes doesn't mean better.
I learned that even though they grow slower once I started to feed them less in general and less protein diet I never really seen a dead shrimp in my tank.


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