Molly/Platy with Cherry Red Shrimp

[Marc.munoz31]

I have close to 30 shrimp and I have seen some berried, but I don't think I have seen any shrimplets? They have been in there close to 2 months. Do ya'll think the live bearers are eating the fry? Or do I just need to be patient?? The tank is a 29g planted aquarium plenty of hiding room.

[mnemenoi]

I would be almost certain they are eating the shrimplets. I have kept them with guppies and although the males generally behaved any females would devour them. Having kept them for years about the only livebearer I would keep with shrimp are Heterandia Formosa (dwarf livebearers) and even then I'd expect predation of shrimplets.

[Marc.munoz31]

Thanks I guess I will be giving away some fish! I much rather have my shrimp thrive I enjoy the planted tank too much.

[mnemenoi]

They are great indeed! There are a variety of other fish that can be used with shrimp, but you just have to be very careful with selection. I'd be happy to offer some advice if you could give the water parameters. I can only guess that it is a harder water tank (likely normal tap and Ph), but given that I would suggest the Australian Blue eyes (psuedomugil sp.), Ember tetras, Ruby tetras, microrasbora (Bororas sp.), possibly even some lampeyes. They all stay fairly small and although they might predate the occasional shrimplet, they should outbreed them easily. We keep Gertrudaes in our cherry tank and they are litterally uncountable. Ours is very densely planted though and contains quite a few fish that should not 'normally' be kept with them, but has worked in such a densely planted tank.

[Marc.munoz31]

Thanks for the help the PH is between 7.2 and 7.4. I have a couple neon tetra will they hurt the shrimp?

[mnemenoi]

We have Cradinal tetra in with ours and I won't say they never eat shrimp, but ours breed far faster then what they take out. Embers and Rubies are a bit smaller in scale though. With those paramaters I'd imagine most of the above fish would work within your parameters. I imagine with enough dense vegetation (mats of java/christmas moss) you should be fine when it comes to breeding your shrimp. I am assuming you are seeing berried females, but no shrimplets? With 30 adults you should be over run in no time.

[Marc.munoz31]

Yes I have seen at least 2 berried but no shrimplets. I'm looking forward to a healthy colony. Thanks.

[mistahoo]

Re: Molly/Platy with Cherry Red Shrimp

Sorry for thread jacking, but I have a question as well that runs along a similar line. I plan to start up a tank with ADA substrate, but I'm not quite sure if I want to use amazonia or aquasoil. The tank will be slightly acidic and it will be for the black pearls. I'm probably going to get a 40B setup with a 20L or some other setup underneath as a hatchery/fry tank. This won't be for a while, but I'd like some insight on this to plan ahead.

Here's the question. What shrimps and plants could I add to slightly acidic water (how ever much the substrate, alder cones, and aged water will drop it) and won't get eaten by 1-1.5" killifish? I would like both to be able to thrive in this type of setup.

Sent from my spaceship using Tapatalk 2.

[mnemenoi]

Any of the bee shrimp species (Tigers, CRS, CBS and all their variants) actually prefer acidic water. With enough cover you should be able to have them breeding although your pearls might nab a few shrimplets the adults should be fine. I have kept Nothos in that 10 gallon in our daughters room we netted those shrimp out of and they are about the same size. You should be fine. Amazonia Aquasoil is the brand, though Brightwell Aquatics Rio Escuro is decent as well and does about the same thing. It is what we are using in our CBS tank and with distilled (ro) water it is well below a 6.0 Ph

[mistahoo]

Any of the bee shrimp species (Tigers, CRS, CBS and all their variants) actually prefer acidic water. With enough cover you should be able to have them breeding although your pearls might nab a few shrimplets the adults should be fine. I have kept Nothos in that 10 gallon in our daughters room we netted those shrimp out of and they are about the same size. You should be fine. Amazonia Aquasoil is the brand, though Brightwell Aquatics Rio Escuro is decent as well and does about the same thing. It is what we are using in our CBS tank and with distilled (ro) water it is well below a 6.0 Ph

Cool. I think I might do some Tigers or possibly some CBS. I was more worried about the shrimps possibly eating killifish eggs when they are laid, but I will have lots of moss and heavily planted as it seems to have great effects on the fish as well.

Thanks for clearing up the brands. I've heard Amazonia and Aquasoil mentioned several times but never knew what the difference was... Now I know they're both part of the same brand name lol. You told me about the Brightwell stuff, but I forgot what it was called. Thanks for bringing that up again. I may go with that, but I still have tons of time to plan out this tank and its setup. I won't be using distilled water, but I am using aged water because it's cheap and there's only initial costs of the container and the water bill. Plus it's readily available at home and I won't have to deal with any ro filters, going out to buy ro water, etc.

[mnemenoi]

My only worry would be high TDS in the water. Most of the tigers/CRS/CBS all are very finicky with anything above a certain amount and our water is crazy high. If the amazonia was able to eliminate some of it, every water change it would disturb the chemistry and you'd experiance a shift up. I have tried CRS/CBS in our local tap and they survived, but no shrimplets or breeding. It was only when I began being crazy about TDS in the tank that they have really began breeding like mad. On shrimp now they are actually suggesting you do not use Seiryu stone in CRS/CBS breeding tanks as it will leach minerals into the water and raise the TDS to nonbreeding levels. Tigers are a bit less finicky, but its certainly something to be aware of and a TDS meter really help a lot. Many soft water fish can be bred in higher Ph, but their eggs fungus and are not viable. Many think this is due to the fact that bacteria and even cycleing bacteria are nearly absent in anything under a Ph 6.0, thus reducing the risk to the eggs and providing a more sterile enviroment that prevents or induces bacterial/fungus growth. Ammonia is about all that accumulates in low Ph tanks and can be uptaken directly by plants or water changes. Lids help with evaporation and although its a bit of a pain, distilled or RO water can make the difference. Just something to consider. Filtered rainwater is essentially distilled and has the same properties, you just have to worry about any atmospheric pollutants.

[mistahoo]

You can't lower TDS by aging tap water? I can try to get an RO filter if need be for optimal reproduction and health, but I would rather not if I can get by through other simpler methods.

[mnemenoi]

Aging water will not reduce the TDS, it is a calculation of all the various minerals present in your water. The actual chemical composition can change as well and the TDS maintain at its previous state. Even the addition of ferts or Excel can increase TDS (Total Dissolved Solids). It can be measured in other manners (GH & KH), but the systems and values are not exactly useful to our application and test kits are comparable to a TDS meter. Distilled water or RO water has been my best source. There are zero water filters that come with free TDS meters and are somewhat effective, but in our high TDS water the filters become fouled very quickly and need to be replaced.

[mistahoo]

Hmmm... That may have just narrowed down the options to just select variants of Tigers. I don't really plan on getting ro/distilled water for water changes, but I may consider it to get CBS. Thanks for the in depth information!

[mnemenoi]

No problem, I had about 40 CRS/CBS a few years ago and they all eventually dies, while my RCS thrived and multiplied. We started doing a ton of research to avoid the same mistakes and we tried a different course for this latest tank. I can honestly say it is effective, my females are always berried and we'll soon be having to get rid of some ss-sss grade CBS as we are seeing lots of offspring and the jucies are approaching adult size now. I will certainly say it was accompanied by its own myriad of other issues and has taken some research to understand what is occuring in the tank, but it does work. I'd hate to hazard a guess at what level they stop or what the upper limit on TDS could be, but it works where I am at currently. I know that higher grade shrimp (very inbred) require even stricter conditions and thus what I attest to my success rate among higher grade CBS.