Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: hobo on June 04, 2013, 07:19:38 PM
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Hi all,
I know i have just started my tank but have 5 rummynose tetras in and when i seen the cherry shrimp i couldnt resist. I bought 5 of the tiny wee things. Very excited to get them home i set about settling them in. when eventually i set them free in the tank i noticed 2 of the 5 had tiny yellow eggs in there clutches wow didnt see them on purchase and neither obviously did pet shop.
The question is do the mothers carry the eggs until hatched or what happens?
Thanks
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Yes the females carry the eggs until they hatch into miniature shrimp (some shrimps hatch into a larval stage but cherries don't). The breeding cycle is around 30 days.
However, you are doing a fish-in cycle and shrimps are even more sensitive to ammonia and nitrite than fish are. You may well find your shrimps succumb to the cycle I'm afraid.
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Thanks sue,
I do hope you are wrong about the wee shrimps iv been keeping an eye on the water and so far so good. Bearing in mind i might have came across as a completely new set up where infact the filter was being used up until a week before i used it and i have used my mums gravel so im hoping that all of this has helped settle the tank a bit quicker.
Am i rite or does this just count as a new start tank?
Thanks
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Aha, you didn't mention that the filter was a used one! (or I missed it)
Provided the media in the filter was kept wet till you took it, you should still have a god amount of bacteria in there even if there were no fish in the tank. Some might have died but with a small fish load there should be more than enough left.
The gravel will have some bacteria on it but not many compared to the amount in the filter.
If the filter media dried out though, you may well find yourself starting from scratch.
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mmmm unfortunately it was dry so may have lost all the goodness from that just as i seen some light at the end of the tunnel. If i had thought about it i should have taken some water from my mums tank to get me started but heinseight is a great thing. Think a water test is in order to put my mind at rest. :-\
Thanks
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The ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria in the filter can survive quite a while if the media is kept wet. Some die off but the rest become dormant and the longer they are kept without food (ammonia & nitrite) and oxygen, the longer it takes them to become active again.
But if the media dries out, the bacteria die. It sounds as though you are starting from scratch so you will need to keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite at least twice daily.
The gravel you had off your mother - if that was wet all the time there will be some bacteria on it, but if that was dry there won't. These bacteria grow in the biofilm on every surface in the tank, but the vast majority grow inside the filter. This is because the media are designed to have a huge surface area (think of the surface of every bubble in a sponge) and because the water flow brings a constant supply of food and oxygen. There are incredibly few of these bacteria in tank water, only the odd ones that have become dislodged from their biofilm.
You said in your other post that you had your tank off your mother - that included the filter? Does she have another tank still running with fish in or was this her only tank? If she does have another, will she give you some media from the filter in that tank? If she will, that would help you a lot. You would need to transport the media from her filter to yours as if it were a fish (ie in a bag of water). Make room in your filter by taking out some old media, where the watre first enters the filter so any odd bits of biofilm that come loose get washed deeper in). Sponge can be cut up to make it fit (keep it wet while doing it!). And don't forget to buy some new media for your mother to fill the space left in her filter ;D
But if she did give you her only tank, unless you can find someone else with a tank I'm afraid you may well find yourself doing a fish-in cycle.