Feeding and Nutrition :: Shrimp breeding time!

[Kingbird44]

So ghost shrimp is the only live food that Sedge can actually catch and he definitely is entertained by them. I give him a batch maybe every month or so. So, I've been thinking of setting up a breeding tank for a while- I have most of the supplies I need and a spare 10 gal tank.

I was going to try breeding ghost shrimp, but I accidentally added them to my tank before it was fully cycled (oops). They were all dying so I just fed them to Sedge. That was a couple days ago. Now I'm waiting for the tank to finish cycling and will try again.

But someone locally has fire red shrimp (which I think are a variant of cherry red shrimp) for sale. Now I'm thinking they are a bit more expensive, but if I can buy them somewhere other than the pet store, it might be a good investment. They are supposedly easier to breed. I have only had ghosties before though.

So, who has bred shrimp?

Other than it being fun, do you have any thoughts on the money / time / energy trade-offs in breeding your own (now is the time to talk me out of it )

And any thoughts on the reds vs ghost shrimp?

Oh, lastly, if he can and does catch ghosties, is it safe to assume he will respond similarly to the reds?

Thanks!

[litefoot]

For me it's ghost shrimp , by me I can get 15 for a $1 or just catch my own. Cherry's by me are very high , so it's ghost. If you are good friends with a pet shop they may let you pick out more females than males. That will kick start everything for you. Once you get a few mated pair all will be good.

Cheery's for sale , if cheap , go with them. They do breed more but you will spend more money and time to keep them going watching the ammonia / nitrites.... Also the babies prefer Indian almond leaf litter to feed on , ghost are happy with just algae.
I am doing ghost just for food in Piggley's tank and being 150 gallons they breed , lots of hiding places in the river rocks ! I also put several mated pair in my 70 gallon plant tank and supply Piggley and my neighbor with shrimp. All I do in that tank is keep a sponge filter , a must , so not to lose babies in regular filter.
The only real trick is getting more females than males , may take a little while. For me I found trying to go to High Tec takes the fun out of it , I let nature take it course. If I would do it for a show tank yes High Tec would be the way.
Sedge may take as any turtle to something red . In Piggley's early days would pick the red's over yellows or any other color. Now he just EAT's !

[Kingbird44]

Thanks, litefoot. The cherries aren't super cheap but they are better deal than at the store. I'd spend 15 or 20 to start up instead of 5 or 7. What do you mean high-tech? From what I can tell, the Indian almond leaf is a plus but not necessary. Water quality?

I assume he will catch the cherries. In terms of red, idk, he doesn't chase the Serpae Tetra much!

[litefoot]

It comes down to who you talk to. I found cherries are not big algae eaters and prefer almond leaf litter , my opinion. But yes not necessary.

Also before Katrina My plant tank was more a show tank and based it on this : http://fishtankadvisor.com/first-high-t ... nted-tank/

After awhile I added shrimp. To me I found a health planted tank creates a beneficial environment for shrimp ! You can also do it with a bare bottom tank , simple , if just for a food source. Lots of shrimp require different setup from the easiest to the super hard. Ghost and Cherries are easy.

The High Tec comes into play more for the plants and one can get carried away with that. You may like me start off as a food source but will end up with a show tank . Today being older I let nature do most of the work , I keep it very simple being for a food source only.

Did you see this good read : http://aquariuminfo.org/shrimptank.html

Any shrimp in a planted tank you should only inject CO2 during lighted hours when they use it or you could have PH swings. Any solenoid type works but the easiest is a bubble counter at a low dose , I found works well and it's cheap.

If you go with a planted tank Finnex makes some great plant lights !

Also easy to get carried away with , as I did a few years ago , and wanting show tanks just keep the maintenance in mind , more work along with Sedge's tank.

[Kingbird44]

Hmm, yeah I'm not interested in it being that involved. I figured I'd try with the cherry shrimp and if it fails then oh, well. But it would be neat. I was thinking just a low tech tank with a few plants. The tank is by a window, so I'm hoping that helps with light.

This is what it looks like now- it's cycling and kind of messy at the moment. I'm thinking of adding some crushed coral gravel or something to mix in with the sand.

[Kingbird44]

[litefoot]

Looks good for the shrimp , now you will have another hobby.

How many hours light that window has? May have to supplement some.
You have the narrow leaf anacharis , I found it does much better , good. The wide leaf type is hard to find and grows slower. Once it starts make your cuttings about 5" so to have a bud or two for sure. Found any shorter the cutting it may just grow as is , longer.
Floating plants water lettuce (rosette) does very well , they have several types but the rosette type produces more.
Hornwort is a good one to have.

Don't take this wrong , hope that tank ends up being to small , means you are doing great and need more space !

Just in case your LPS has small supply here's a good site : http://www.aquariumplants.com/

Or as I have a great city park with free , I just clean them good and quarantine them first.

[Kingbird44]

I probably don't have time for yet another hobby. Can we just call this one part of the turtle hobby still?

I do have an led in there, it's just not on right now. Unfortunately it is a north-facing window, so the light might not be super strong. But at least it's summer so the days are plenty long...

Thanks for the plant ID...the pet store people weren't even sure...

[steve]

Very nice looking. Whats that black thing to the left/bottom?

[Kingbird44]

It's a flat heater- I'm going to replace it with a 50 watt adjustable heater, but it's not here yet.

[litefoot]

Why I mentioned the water lettuce rosette , it has a much better root system and will help keep the tank cleaner than the Hyacinth you have. Hyacinth Is larger and will take up more space in that tank. Also water lettuce rosette produce's much faster in medium light were as the hyacinth likes more light and produces slower.

Kingbird you could have gotten Steve "whats that black thing" ......you should have told him it was a new hybrid softshell turtle ...... Got Ya.

[Kingbird44]

Good idea about the water lettuce, thanks!

[rambologic]

Any updates on this? I just bought a 10 gallon tank yesterday (Petco's $1 per gallon sale), an anubias and sword (plants were buy 1, get 1 50% off), plus a few other supplies for less than $20 total. Already had a filter and such. Definitely going to get some sponge to put over the intake of the filter.

I was going to get ghost shrimp, as they had several, but the worker who was going to get them was staring at them for a while from different angles.. I thought, maybe she's not sure if the shrimp are in fact ghost shrimp? But then she pointed it out.. the shrimp had Ich. Needless to say, I did not buy them. They are going to quarantine all of the fish in the tank and treat them, and will call me back when they either have a new shipment in, or when the existing ones have recovered.

That got me thinking though, maybe I should get cherry shrimp? Want a semi-heavy planted aquarium with just shrimp. But as pointed out, cherry shrimp are significantly more expensive. Holding off on it.

[Kingbird44]

Updates include me being frustrated, haha. I can't get this stupid tank to have the right water parameters! It went through the cycling process yet still has a tiny bit of ammonia constantly. Apparently my tap water has one part per million ammonia in it and I did not realize this before. If I ever get this working I am planning on doing the red cherries though.

In other news, I under-fed Sedge for a couple days, when it was the beginning of a new month and I hadn't rewritten the calendar that I used to remember what to feed him (and I'd rather under feed then over feed). He decided to take matters into his own hands (paws?) and after biting a few chunks off of decorations, he captured one of the Serpae Tetra! He swam around in frantic excitement after he caught it... I thought that would be the end of all of the Tetra, but after I went back to his regular feeding schedule , he has not really attempted to catch the other seven since. Haha it's good to know there is back up food if he REALLY wants it...

[rambologic]

That's annoying indeed. I need to test my water parameters, but the water smelled funky for the first few days and has since cleared up the smell. Borrowed some cycled media from the main tank. Need to test to make sure. I did see someone had cherries locally for $1 a piece. Maybe get 10 of them? Not sure, going to wait a while though, for the water to get set-up. Don't want a bunch of dead cherries.

That's interesting! I feel like turtles will get vicious and their hunting instinct will kick in if you stop feeding them for a while.. mine have never gotten to the point of actively hunting, but I'm sure they would if I didn't feed them for long enough. Hopefully your other Tetras are more alert now....