As long as you have both male and female Cherry Shrimps in your tank, then it is likely that they will reproduce. If your pet inverts have stopped breeding, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article at Aquarium Blueprints.
1. The first step we recommend taking is to make sure that you have enough males and females in your tank.
To tell them apart, you can look at the abdomen shape as males usually have straight abdomens while the females have curvier abdomens. Males are also generally smaller and less vibrant when compared to the females.
2. If you are sure that you have enough males and females in your colony, then the next step you can take is to make sure you have compatible tank mates.
A vast majority of fish will either eat or harass your shrimps. If your pet inverts are stressed, then they are less likely to mate.
Therefore, we recommend that you have a shrimp-only tank or an aquarium that houses just shrimps and snails.
3. You can also try increasing the temperature of the tank as doing so will help Cherry Shrimps mature faster and may trigger them to breed.
The Cherry Shrimp, also known as Neocaridina Shrimp, species can tolerate temperatures of up to 80°F (or 27°C).
4. If you haven’t done a water change in over a week, then you may want to consider doing so.
A water change will most likely cause your females to molt, which may trigger them to start breeding. If you see a lot of male swimming around frantically shortly after a water change, then it is a good sign as it signals that they are looking to mate with freshly molted females.
5. You may also want to reevaluate what you are feeding your shrimps as they required a balanced diet of protein and minerals.
We personally have great success feeding out Cherry Shrimp colony a combination of Bacter AE along with Shrimp King.
6. If your Cherry Shrimps have been breeding for many years, then it is likely that the interbreeding may be causing fertility issues.
To fix this issue, we recommend adding several new Cherry Shrimps to the tank so that you can diversify the gene pool of the colony.
7. If you have many shrimps, then the overcrowded population are less likely to breed as there simply not enough room to sustain further growth.
In this case, we recommend that you get a new tank and then separate the colony in order to get the breeding to start again.
8. It is important that you provide a stress-free environment as well.
In addition to removing any incompatible tank mates, we also recommend that you provide plenty of hiding spaces of your pet shrimps.
Furthermore, you should make sure that the water parameters are suitable for your inverts.
For the uninformed, the following are recommended for Cherry Shrimps:
- 6.5 pH to 7.5 pH
- 7 GH to 15 GH
- 2 KH to 8 KH
- 0 ppm of Ammonia
- 0 ppm of Nitrites
- Less than 20 ppm of Nitrates
To see how you can achieve each of these water parameters, you can take a look at the following guides:
