Hi all,
I'm hoping someone out there can offer some advice.
I have a 112 L, heavily planted (Vallis, java moss, java fern), mature (8 years) shrimp-only aquarium.
It was previously a community fish tank, and at one time, I had breeding cherry shrimp in with the fish.
I moved all the fish into a larger aquarium and intended to keep the smaller one as a shrimp colony, only moving shrimp into the community tank once they'd reached a certain size (my Apistos will demolish anything they can fit in their mouths). The only other critters in the shrimp tank are some small snails that came with the plants, and these weird grey worm-like things, but they're only 1cm long and move so slowly I doubt they could catch young shrimp.
I have at least 15 cherry shrimp of different ages, "", size, and grades. I purchased them in batches from three different sources, at different times.
They all seem happy enough, they're bright, out in the open, and I regularly see berried females. The trouble is, I never see any juveniles and the population isn't increasing.
I have an internal pump with the inlet mounted high, pushing water through a hood-mounted canister filter and back in using a spray bar. I've checked the filter and it's not full of shrimp. Nor should that account for 100% of the young disappearing.
I don't do much maintenance on the tank since the bio-load is negligible. I remove algae and replace evaporated water, but otherwise, it's stable.
I feed them roughly once a week, and then it's just some blanched veg or some shrimp pellets.
There's no metal in the tank. Only gravel, rock, and wood (none changed since the tank was cycled).
My LFS suggested I try increasing the population, but that doesn't seem worthwhile as they are obviously breeding. They also suggested a supplement for juveniles, so I've started adding a bit of Bacter AE.
Water parameters are as follows:
Temp: 24C
PH: 7.5 (I'm attempting to lower this a bit using Almond leaves)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Alkalinity: 4dH
Hardness: 8dH
Apologies for the long post but I'm stumped.
I'm hoping someone out there can offer some advice.
I have a 112 L, heavily planted (Vallis, java moss, java fern), mature (8 years) shrimp-only aquarium.
It was previously a community fish tank, and at one time, I had breeding cherry shrimp in with the fish.
I moved all the fish into a larger aquarium and intended to keep the smaller one as a shrimp colony, only moving shrimp into the community tank once they'd reached a certain size (my Apistos will demolish anything they can fit in their mouths). The only other critters in the shrimp tank are some small snails that came with the plants, and these weird grey worm-like things, but they're only 1cm long and move so slowly I doubt they could catch young shrimp.
I have at least 15 cherry shrimp of different ages, "", size, and grades. I purchased them in batches from three different sources, at different times.
They all seem happy enough, they're bright, out in the open, and I regularly see berried females. The trouble is, I never see any juveniles and the population isn't increasing.
I have an internal pump with the inlet mounted high, pushing water through a hood-mounted canister filter and back in using a spray bar. I've checked the filter and it's not full of shrimp. Nor should that account for 100% of the young disappearing.
I don't do much maintenance on the tank since the bio-load is negligible. I remove algae and replace evaporated water, but otherwise, it's stable.
I feed them roughly once a week, and then it's just some blanched veg or some shrimp pellets.
There's no metal in the tank. Only gravel, rock, and wood (none changed since the tank was cycled).
My LFS suggested I try increasing the population, but that doesn't seem worthwhile as they are obviously breeding. They also suggested a supplement for juveniles, so I've started adding a bit of Bacter AE.
Water parameters are as follows:
Temp: 24C
PH: 7.5 (I'm attempting to lower this a bit using Almond leaves)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0
Alkalinity: 4dH
Hardness: 8dH
Apologies for the long post but I'm stumped.
