Options for moving berried cherry shrimp.

digitalphrage

digitalphrage

oh god how did this get here i am n
Nov 14, 2010
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Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.
mrhappyrotter.wordpress.com
Background: I recently bought my very first group of cherry shrimp last week. While I've kept many different species of shrimp before, this is the first time I've owned cherries. I got them because the tank I keep my killifish fry was accumulating some debris on the substrate from copious amounts of java moss (thanks again RAINBOW!) and from the frequent feedings of brine shrimp. Believe it or not, the 5 shrimp have already helped tremendously. Not only are they feeding on the debris, they've helped corral it into neat clumps that are far easier to siphon from the tank.

So, as if their house keeping services weren't awesome enough, it turns out one of them is a berried female! But, that leaves me with a problem...I can leave her in the tank where the killies will almost certainly eat all the baby shrimp or I can move her to another tank to release them.

My question is, will moving her end up causing more harm than good? I don't want to move her and have her die from the change of conditions or stress. I was thinking about treating her like my smallest killi fry -- move her into a small plastic container, which I float in one of my tanks in order to keep the temperature constant. With any other shrimp I wouldn't worry, but I've read and heard mixed reviews on how hardy these cherries are...figured I'd ask the experts...LOL.
 
I move berried shrimp quite often. It can be stressful on them which could cause them to drop the eggs. When I transfer a berried female, I use a small cup or shot glass and a large specimen container. The cup has to be able to fit in the container.

I'll fill the container about half full of tank water. Using the cup, slowly corale her into it then gently lift if out of the tank. Lower the entire cup into the specimen container and gentle tilt and remove. I hang the specimen container on the inside of the tank to keep it the same temp. From there you can drip acclimate nice and slowly to the second tank.

Most of the ones I move stay in the container until the eggs hatch. But that's a different story all together. ;o)

Hope this helps and good luck!
 
You can safely use a net to capture the female and move her to another tank. Prior to doing so, make sure that water temp, and chemistry, matches. It is also crucial that the nursery tank be cycled and healthy. I kept my nursery tanks healthy by keeping snails (MTS, Ramshorn, etc...) in them. That way, the tanks were ready whenever I needed. For a female shrimp to drop her eggs requires a fair amount of stress, or for something to be wrong with the eggs.

FYI, I've used plastic tubs as overflow nursery/quarantine tanks successfully. One tub was in use for over eight continuous years. It had a sponge filter and DIY hood light. The whole setup cost me ~$30 for a 40 gallon tank.
 
Also, depending on how copious the java moss is, you may find your numbers increase inspite of the fish. Happy cherries will breed about as fast as happy guppies/mollies and just a hair slower than pond snails it seems. If you have sufficient hiding spaces and a large enough moss tangle, they should have enough time for most of them to size up to outside mouthful size.

This of course is precluded on you having some of the smaller mouthed killies. The big ones, I'm not even sure i would trust with cherries at all.
 
^^yeah, I had small garderneri killies I got the same auction as cherry shrimp. They tried to eat shrimp >half as long as they were. I think they got a couple not quite adult shrimp but I was shocked to see an adult hanging halfway out of the male killie's mouth. Very avid hunters!

If you can gently catch the berried shrimp she should hang onto the eggs unless they're close to or starting hatching. Good luck & if she drops them she'll have more soon.
 
Your best bet is to use a small container and chase them into it. I use the old betta cups for this.....
 
I have also kept RCS with (adult) gardneri killifish, and the shrimp mostly went into hiding - in one tank I didn't see any for months and assumed the killifish had gotten them. But the shrimp reappeared as soon as the killifish were removed. So if you have some cover, some of the shrimp may well survive with small killis.

Now, tell me why Java moss produces debris, and who or what is Rainbow.
 
Thanks for all the responses!

Thus far the shrimp are in with very young 4 week old gardneris, so no risk to the adult shrimp who pretty much ignore the killies, but there'd be plenty of risk for the newly hatched shrimp. I'll probably just put a big clump of moss in a small plastic container and float that in the same tank the cherries are currently in. That way, momma can release her babies and they'll have plenty of food. Of course I'll keep up with daily water changes within the container -- I already do that for the newly hatched killi fry.

And to bitbot...Rainbow = RainbowCharmer, a fellow AC member who was kind enough to send me a lifetime supply of java moss. I've placed a bunch in the fry tank. The debris is the little bits and pieces that fall off the moss (older pieces, dead spots, etc), plus fish poop and snail poop. It settles on the bottom of the tank. Prior to having the shrimp, it was scattered about and difficult to siphon up without siphoning out significant quantities of tank water with it. Now that the shrimp are in there, their movement along the substrate has pushed all the debris into a few concentrated clumps making it significantly easier to siphon out.
 
The deed is done. I scooped momma shrimp up and put her in her little incubation container. The container is filled with java moss, so there should be plenty of hiding places (and food) to keep her fed and comfortable. From what I've seen it takes 18 - 21 days for the babies to hatch, but since I don't know when she produced the eggs, it might be a lot sooner than that. I'll be keeping my eyes on her.

I do appreciate all the input from you guys.
 
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