A question about red shrimp

[LizStreithorst]

Twee, the half owner of my mom and pop LPS has been trying to raise Red Cherry Shrimp. At first she was doing fine and having babies. Now she says that the shrimp keep disappearing. When I counted she only had 10 in the tank. One thing I noticed was that she had taken out her substrate. Do these shrimp actually require a substrate. Nothing else has changed. She does a WC once a week. I keep telling her that she needs more plants, but I don't know that to be true. They have a pretty little display tank that they have they sell shrimp from and those are doing fine. They buy their red and blue shrimp from me.

Mine are breeding so much that I feed a lot of them to my other fish. (The Rainbows devour a scoop of shrimp in a blink. A net full lasts my Betta over a week, but he gets them.) The owners of this store have so kind to me over the years that if I can help Twee, I really want to.

[danotaylor]

Liz how long ago did they remove the substrate? I wonder if there was some trapped gases or anaerobes in the substrate that got released and caused a die off?

[LizStreithorst]

Within the last 3 weeks, if I'm correct. But it was just a thin layer and Twee vacuumed it well every week.

[danotaylor]

Hmm, that's a bit weird then, so I'm not sure...no copper containing meds?

[LizStreithorst]

No, nothing but food and WC.

[smsimcik]

Hey Liz,
I keep red cherries in both bare bottom and substrate tanks and they seem to reproduce equally well in both. So I don't think having substrate matters that much.
But I have noticed they seem to reproduce much faster with lots of live plants, especially java fern, java moss and subwassertang. I think they need to feel secure in the plants before they are comfortable breeding.
I've also noticed they don't breed nearly as fast if the temp is much above about 78F.

[LizStreithorst]

Thanks, Steve. I had a feeling that it was the lack of plants rather than the lack of substrate. I can give her plenty of Java moss but not as much subwassertag. That is the plant they can't get from the wholesaler. I wish is didn't grow so slowly...

[smsimcik]

Java moss should be fine. Yeah, subwassertang sure grows slow. Actually, any plant will do. I have loose bunches of anubius and java fern just floating around in my bare bottom 10 gallon guppy tanks and the shrimp crawl all in it.
I also didn't want to imply that they won't breed in warm water above 78F, they will, just slower. They really thrive at about 75F. You might check with her to see what temp she's keeping them at.

[LizStreithorst]

I have an overgrown anubias I can cut and glue to something that I can give her. I'll have tons of Java moss, but twee says that my java moss melts in her tanks (?) I think it's time for her to try it in her shrimp tank. I just 2 big bunches of suswassertang. I'll keep one for the new 10 gallon tanks I'm setting up and give her the other. They really don't have a lot of live plants for sale at their shop. People prefer fake. Go figure...

I'm always taking out Jungle val and tossing it. I have a pot that I can plant some in for her as long as any plant is good. I want very much for this nice lady to succeed