# Shrimp Fest!



## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

I have a 2.5 NPT that I've dedicated to my Red Cherry Shrimp. I've become so attached to them, I can't stand the thought of risking them in with my Bettas. I put half an algae wafer in the tank this afternoon and enjoyed watching the "Shrimp Fest"! lol! I counted 17 at one point and at least 3 of them are carrying eggs. Thinking I may have to move them to a larger tank?


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

Cruel as it sounds, you could donate a few shrimplets for your bettas to snack on.

Not that I've been able to. Have a 10 st up for just this. Isn't it so fun to just watch them grow and multiply!?


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Wow! How cool! I've been thinking about moving my ghosties to their own tank but my girls do just fine with them for now. I move the berried ones to a planted QT when their eggs clear up and so far so good, havent had any babies yet, but I'm sure there is plenty to much on till they mature.


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

@SilverFang... I might one of these days if I truly find myself with more than I know what to do with. Maybe... lol!

@amaeki09... Thanks! These are the first shrimp I've ever had and I really don't know much. What does "berried" mean? I'll have to do some research b/c it seems like a few of them have had eggs forever, but as far as I can tell no shrimplets. I thought she was having shrimplets on Xmas Eve, but I learned she was just "fanning" the eggs.


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## Juicebox (Oct 24, 2012)

berreid just means a female with eggs

howmany shrimp did you start out with??

ive got 5 ghosties at the moment, 1 has eggs,they are harder to raise than red cherries though,im totally gonna get a small tank to raise red cherries in the future,that looks fun


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## aemaki09 (Oct 23, 2012)

Yeah Juicebox is right
Also though, I think shrimp eggs are supposed to start hatching after 21 days


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

Thanks Juicebox... I got them from ebay. Went back and looked at auction and I got the one for 20+ RCS.


aemaki09... what do you mean when the eggs clear up? The eggs seem to be cream colored, but with the largest one I think I may be able to see eyes now?


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

Creamy, yellow, green. All normal colours for eggs. When you see dark spots (eyes) it will be within the week. I have close to an inch of salvinia in my tank. So lots of infusoria for the shrimplets.

I started out with six, then I added either 3 or six more.
Once our hot summer finished the started breeding and I'm up to .... uhm, no idea how many! But when they feed, they form as large of a clump as my marimo.


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

*I have babies... and a ?*

Big Mama (as I call her) finally had her babies!!! Was trying to count them, but gave up. They're so tiny and so fast, but there are a lot of them! 

Hopefully someone can answer this... is there anything special I need to feed them or just let them scavenge? I usually toss in a small piece of algae wafer every few days... is that good enough? Thanks Much!


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I think about red lobster reading the title of this thread...


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

hehehe! I do love the shrimp at Red Lobster... but these guys are safe;-)


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

Do you have any floating plants? I know that's where the infusoria grows for me. You might try crushing up a little algae wafer and sprinkling it in a few times a day (very small amount).


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

Thanks Silverfang! I have dwarf water lettuce, frogbit, and duckweed... what is infusoria?


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

microorganisms. They are the right size for shrimplets


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

MattsBettas said:


> I think about red lobster reading the title of this thread...


Haha, I thought the same thing.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

In my (_almost_)dedicated shrimp tanks that are soil based heavy planted....I feed mine-half an algae wafer and some of my homemade food every other day and a large pinch of Ocean nutrition community formula flake food daily-this is for the shrimp, snails and the plants (_flake food is a great plant food too_) I also leave all the exoskeleton they shed so they can eat them and what they don't eat the snails will and/or breakdown for the plants.

I like to keep an (_almost_) shrimp only tanks (_5-10gal_) so that I can seed my other tank from it-That way I will always have a healthy colony of shrimp without worrying about them all being eaten or killed. However, sometimes I will use my shrimp only tanks on occasion to spawn and leave the fry in for a few weeks before I move the fry to grow out tanks. The breeders will eat some of the shrimplets, but never enough to make an impact on the colony-since the breeders may not be in that tank for longer than a few days anyway-Plus, I have lots of cover in the way of java moss.

I can't prove this, but in my tanks- it seems if the Bettas are raised with shrimp-they don't seem to harass the adult shrimp as much-they do eat any shrimplets small enough to fit in their mouths-but that is to be expected since they would be considered part of the Betta natural diet.


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

Thanks SilverFang! 

Thanks for the feeding tips OFL... I ordered the Community Flakes... I don't think I've been feeding them enough. Some /algae wafer a few times a week, but most of the time they're on their own sifting through the sand and checking out the plants. Yikes!


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

For the adults, I give half a wafer 6 days a week. Occasionally a slice of blanched zucchini. I heard somewhere that you can tell the health of a colony based on how quickly they come for food.

Mine are very healthy.


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## imsunflwr1 (Nov 13, 2012)

hahaha! Mine too... they converge very quickly... so do the MTS! I just didn't think you were suppose to feed them that often so they would do their job in the NPT?


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