# First ever RCS berried... what now?



## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

Hey all,

When I first got my cherry shrimp about 3 weeks ago I thought it would be a while before I would see one berried. The biggest of the 10 I have in my 10 gallon community tank are 3/4" to 1", and I was thinking they weren't even capable of getting berried at this age/length.

So when I discovered that one of my shrimp all of a sudden had yellow berries in her I was pretty excited!

But then I realized that in order to bring these little guys up to a decent size before introducing them I'd probably have to extract the pregnant female.

I had already been planning on getting a 2.5 gallon for just the shrimp and it seems that now would be a good time to make that happen. But I was wondering what would be the best way to have this come to a good ending.

After reading up on shrimp in general for a good while now I'm still unsure as to what I should do for filtration and substrate, to both keep it within a speedy timeframe and a budget.

My initial thought was to keep the tank bare bottom, for the convenience of it. I have a big chunk of java moss which will make its way to the new tank for sure. But a little bit of substrate seems like it would be better for the shrimp as I believe it would harvest some algae. Now I have some regular aquarium gravel from a second 10g tank that's gotta be close to being cycled (I don't have the test kit to tell for sure, but will take a water sample to the fish store if needed).

What are the pros and thus all of you guys' thoughts on the best way to go about this?

Have the camera resting by the tank in case the mother comes around so I can snap a couple of pictures of her.

Sorry this was a little lengthy for what seems to pass as some regular cherry shrimp, but I'm pretty thrilled!

Thanks!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

If you don't have fish in your ten gallon I'd leave them in there, shrimp won't eat the fry. Definitely leave substrate and moss for the micro-nutrients to adhese to as you mentioned so that the babies will have something to munch on and hide in.

Let us know if you have fish and what kind they are as they would be your only worry at this point if your water parameters are good.


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

effox said:


> If you don't have fish in your ten gallon I'd leave them in there, shrimp won't eat the fry. Definitely leave substrate and moss for the micro-nutrients to adhese to as you mentioned so that the babies will have something to munch on and hide in.
> 
> Let us know if you have fish and what kind they are as they would be your only worry at this point if your water parameters are good.


I have different fish in there: neon tetras about 4, a peppered cory, 2 white cloud minnows and a tequila sunrise guppy (thanks honey! ).

The guppy is the biggest worry. The other 10 gallon tank is holding the betta which wouldn't cooperate with the other fish.

I was able to snap a shot of the mother and while I was at it took one of a plant that I'm unable to ID, but have tons of!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I'd definitely move them in that case. Don't make it bare bottom, they'll need to eat off off the substrate and moss. I'd move some of the substrate that you already have established in your 10 gallon over as it should contain algae and what not already on it.

Use a seeded filter for an instant cycle. I'd stick with a sponge filter, or a hob that has a prefilter on it as shrimp will get nosy and end up sucked up and potentially killed in the filter.


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

effox said:


> I'd definitely move them in that case. Don't make it bare bottom, they'll need to eat off off the substrate and moss. I'd move some of the substrate that you already have established in your 10 gallon over as it should contain algae and what not already on it.
> 
> Use a seeded filter for an instant cycle. I'd stick with a sponge filter, or a hob that has a prefilter on it as shrimp will get nosy and end up sucked up and potentially killed in the filter.


Thanks for your quick replies!

The seeded filter I could use for the tank is what I believe to be an Aquaclear 30 or 50 (don't know for sure as I got this setup off of usedvictoria for free and the owner didn't have a clue), this seems like it might be a bit too powerful for a 2.5gallon tank. I could also use the tetra whisper PF10 from the community 10 gallon, that's been running the longest.

The moss and plants from the main 10 gallon would hold quite a bit of bacteria too I suppose.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

They would hold a bunch of good stuff for the shrimpies. My brother just had his hatch and they lived in the moss for the first week, now they are venturing on to the gravel to eat.


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

What're the opinions on a heater?


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## DeeB (May 12, 2010)

silentoak said:


> I was able to snap a shot of the mother and while I was at it took one of a plant that I'm unable to ID, but have tons of!
> 
> View attachment 3976
> View attachment 3977


That's water sprite or indian fern (_Ceratopteris thalictroides_). Yours might be the juvenile form or the 'oak-leaved' variety.

And congrats on the berried RCS female


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

DeeB said:


> That's water sprite or indian fern (_Ceratopteris thalictroides_). Yours might be the juvenile form or the 'oak-leaved' variety.
> 
> And congrats on the berried RCS female


Definetly oak-leafed  some stems are easily 8" long, with the leafs floating on the surface.


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

Have the little 2.5gallon set up with substrate from the 2nd aquarium that was holding the betta.

Took a water sample with me to my lfs this morning and was assured there that there wasn't a trace of ammonia, but also got told that both my nitrites and nitrates were zero. 

And just moments ago I introduced the 1st shrimp to the new tank. It's not the berried female yet, she wasn't up for grabs and I felt it safe to give it an overnight test run with just 1 shrimp. Sound good? How long do you guys think I should let pass?

I did take pictures of a couple of steps I went through and will upload them once I know this whole endeavor didn't fail horribly.

The one that I introduced is racing around a lot, good sign or bad?


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

The shrimp that I introduced last night made it through. So today I started introducing the others on a "whenever-I-could-spot-one" basis.

The last one went in about 15 minutes ago, and that was the berried female.

I think there's about 3 really small ones left in the tank now, which I'll just leave to grow out and work on the algae a bit.

So far so good! Will be taking a little more pictures later and post them tomorrow.

Considering this whole thing my CRS test run


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## silentoak (Mar 17, 2011)

Took some pictures of the tank as it is now, and probably as it will stay for the next while.



I'm gonna post the rest of them in the journal section as this is no longer just about the shrimp now.


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