# Shrimplets in a planted community tank



## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

I was just doing a water change on a killie breeding tank that I'd added a few juvenile cherry shrimp to about 6 months ago. I was about to empty the bucket on my veggie garden when a movement caught my eye. Turns out I had about a dozen very tiny new shrimp in the mess. It took a while, but I caught them. I've got them in an in-between planted tank right now, but I'm thinking I'd like to add them to my large planted tank.

The problem is that it has a lot of fish in it. It's also a densely planted jungle. What are the odds that the shrimp will survive? I regularly get fish fry growing to maturity in the mess. These shrimp, are, to my mind, too small to be picked at right now but they'll become more visible as they grow. My big worry is the school of clown loaches in the tank.

Would it be cruel to try? How long do shrimp take to mature?


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

Westender said:


> I was just doing a water change on a killie breeding tank that I'd added a few juvenile cherry shrimp to about 6 months ago. I was about to empty the bucket on my veggie garden when a movement caught my eye. Turns out I had about a dozen very tiny new shrimp in the mess. It took a while, but I caught them. I've got them in an in-between planted tank right now, but I'm thinking I'd like to add them to my large planted tank.
> 
> The problem is that it has a lot of fish in it. It's also a densely planted jungle. What are the odds that the shrimp will survive? I regularly get fish fry growing to maturity in the mess. These shrimp, are, to my mind, too small to be picked at right now but they'll become more visible as they grow. My big worry is the school of clown loaches in the tank.
> 
> Would it be cruel to try? How long do shrimp take to mature?


A month or two but they will probally be hunted down by the clown loaches before then.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

It might be worth a shot. I have a 20g with a pair of german blue rams (small albeit), and a trio of fully grown gouramis, and somehow the shrimplets (less than a cm) have survived to maturity. It is also a densely planted jungle, with plenty of places for the shrimp to hide out.
I'm guessing your school is quite young, as clown loaches usually don't do well with planted tanks (well, the other way around I guess). If they are small, then I 'd guess the shrimp have more than a fighting chance to survive.


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## lili (Dec 15, 2007)

My fishes except the yo-yo loaches don't eat the baby shrimp. But if there is a loach .... I am really surprised that you found baby shrimps .
I have 3 betta girls and one of them is in the shrimps tank. The others are killers but this one is afraid of shrimps ... believe it or no. I had several baby shrimps growing next to her. She jumps around if the shrimps touch her with the whiskers.
L


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

My clown school has been growing from the original 3 5 years ago to the 7 that now inhabit the tank. They're doing very well - growing pretty quickly (for clowns) and are always front and centre. It's a big tank - 100 gallons - and is incredibly densely planted - it's low tech and combines Val, crypts, Bacoba, a few swords, Anubias, java fern and java moss. It also has a large number of fish in it - BN plecos (about a dozen), khuli loaches (3), emperor tetras (5), odessa barbs (7), Aplocheilus lineatus (2 plus several fry), Kribensis (2), Corydoras panda (3) and Julii (3), Gold barbs (4), Cherry barbs (5), Betta falx (3) and 2 Red paradise fish (probably M. erythropterus).

The plants don't suffer, except for the swords that get shredded when I forget to put in stalks of broccoli or zucchini. So far I've had fry that have grown to maturity in the tank from the emperors, all of the barbs, the killies and the bettas and the paradise fish. The kribs have just spawned so I'll watch what happens with them, although I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go fishing for their fry.

There are even ramshorn snails that manage to survive in the tank long enough to reproduce. I think that it might actually be smarter to introduce these tiny pinhead sized shrimp and let them grow out in the tank to create a population. I dunno.

Also, I notice amongst the shrimp that about 1 in 5 is bright red. Any ideas why? Is red a non-dominant form?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

The very red ones are generally mature females. The less coloured ones are generally males, but 1 to 5 seems odd.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

For some reason, I thought it was the other way around, the bright red ones were males?


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

I'd read that the bright red larger ones are females, but with my juveniles (pinhead sized) I'm amazed to see that some are brilliant red and some are grey or green. Way more of the gray-green ones. I don't have any experience with shrimp (other than ghost shrimp that managed to live and reproduce inside a canister filter on an african cichlid tank) but I'd assumed that such sexual dimorphism would develop as the shrimp matured.


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

Tabatha said:


> For some reason, I thought it was the other way around, the bright red ones were males?


I have had males that are just as colourful if not moreso then the females. Colour is not always a great indicator of sex really.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Hence generally, as 'rules' tend not to be all encompassing.

I find that more often than not though that my mature females (> 1.5 inches) are the bright red color, and that almost none of them are males.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

I've found that shrimps learn quickly if they need to watch their backs, if they get chased down once, they remember. They can hide really well if there are places to hide as they grow up.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

BTW, Katalyst sold me a wack of shrimp and after carefully drip acclimatizing them, we put them in the tank where they were instantly hunted down and decimated by the angelfish and Bolivian rams.  This is a very heavily planted 90g aquarium.


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## redclove (Feb 26, 2008)

If anyone is interested I've been making clay logs as 'shrimp brothels'. They love them, esp the pregnant ones, they seem to always be inside them. Also make great hiding places from predators.

They are made with food-safe clay and have been cured and fired. they look pretty darn real too. I've got about 10 of them, I may part with a few but if there is interest maybe I'll make another batch.

Images:


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

Tabatha - that sucks. Were they large?

I think I'm going to collect a bunch of pinheads and drop them into my plant tank at night. Then I'll wait to see if anything ever shows up. The original adults certainly don't seem to have any problems reproducing, so it won't be a huge loss to me if I lose them.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Westender said:


> Tabatha - that sucks. Were they large?
> 
> I think I'm going to collect a bunch of pinheads and drop them into my plant tank at night. Then I'll wait to see if anything ever shows up. The original adults certainly don't seem to have any problems reproducing, so it won't be a huge loss to me if I lose them.



There weren't any adults but they were all sizes. I tossed some food in on one side to distract them. It wasn't enough. A few survived, but not many. They now live under the driftwood but that kinda defeats the purpose.


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## Westender (Mar 24, 2006)

Kinda like my khuli loaches. I forget that they're there, except that periodically they come out at feeding time. They're like red and black breakfast sausages with whiskers. My daughter is terrified of them for some reason.

I'll keep my fingers crossed with my shrimps. My tank is very densely planted though, so the odds are good.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I'd think your odds are fairly good, since you've gotten tetra fry to grow to maturity in the tank. Shrimplets should have no problems in there.


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## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

Westender said:


> Kinda like my khuli loaches. I forget that they're there, except that periodically they come out at feeding time. They're like red and black breakfast sausages with whiskers. QUOTE]
> 
> Hysterical and true! The clowns are like red and black tasmanian devils when I drop snails in the tank for them.


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## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

Might as well try adding the little guys to the tank and see what happens in a few months.
@Tabatha, i think possibly when you put the food in it sent the fish into a 'hunting' mode and once the apparent food was gone they went searching for more and found the shrimps  , maybe next time add the food like an 30min or so beforehand so they are more docile, but not stil excited from the meal.


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