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So you want to know how to breed more cherry shrimp
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And in this video, I'm going to share with you seven secrets to breeding more shrimp
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Hello friends, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Richard and I'm a shrimp reader based in the UK
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So my first secret to breeding more cherry shrimp is to feed your shrimp good quality foods
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Now, shrimp are often sold as clean-up crew, and many of us are guilty of just dumping them in the tank
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and leaving them to scavenge and whatever they can find. And whilst they are detribles, whilst they will act as a clean-up crew in your aquarium
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if you want to get the best out of your cherry shrimp, you've got to actually feed them and feed them good quality foods
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Female cherry shrimp require fairly large quantities of protein to be able to produce good batches of eggs
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One of the best ways we can get protein to our female cherry shrimp is to feed them frozen bloodworms
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Frozen bloodworms are packed full of protein. an excellent food. If you want to really bulk your females up and make them baby-producing
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machines, you want to be feeding them blood worms maybe two or three times a week, sometimes more
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but you can also feed your shrimp other good quality sinking fish foods. Personally, I like to
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feed my shrimp a mixture of not only the frozen blood worms or frozen brine shrimp, but also
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rapashi gel food, algae wafers, tetracholus, sinking granules. The chances are if you pick a good quality
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sinking fish food, your shrimp will thrive on that. And the more protein you get to your females, the more eggs should be capable of produce him
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Now, secret number two to producing more babies is to provide your shrimps with clumps of live plants or piles of rocks
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When female cherry shrimp are carrying their eggs, which they do for about 30 days or so
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they'll be looking for somewhere to deposit their young. Whilst they don't have maternal insects, they don't look after their babies
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they do look for somewhere to deposit those babies where they will be safe
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In my experience, a good pile of rocks or a decent clump of plant such as Java moss
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make the ideal place for female cherished shrimp to deposit her babies
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to release her babies so that they can have the best chance of survival
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In recent years, I have discovered that those tanks that have large clumps of java moss
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or decent piles of rocks typically produce more babies. And I think part of that is down to the fact that the females have
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somewhere safe to deposit their babies and the babies have somewhere to spend the first few weeks of their life where they safe from predators Now that leads us nicely on to secret number three which is if you want to breed more cherry shrimp you need to remove all predators from your aquarium Now typically
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we go predators, right? That's Oscars. That's angel fish. That's discus. That's big fish, like these
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goldfish, right? Truth be told, a baby shrimp is phenomenally small. To a baby shrimp, a neon tetra
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is a predator. To a baby shrimp, a harlequin brass baron. is a predator. If we want to get the highest yield from my cherished shrimp, we want to produce
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as many babies as possible. We need to remove anything from that tank that could be considered
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a predator. With possibly the sole exception of an otter sinkless catfish, I would say just about
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any fish you have in your aquarium will eat baby cherished shrimp given the chance. At the end of
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the day, in the world of fish, if something is small enough to fit in that fish's mouth, it will
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eventually end up there. And that, needless to say, applies to baby cherry shrimp
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you want to get more shrimp out of your breeding colony, remove any predators from the tank
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Secret number four is to make sure if you're using a canister or a hang-on-back filter
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that you add an intake sponge over the strainer to that filter
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Canister filters and hang-on-back filters do a fantastic job of sucking water out of the aquarium
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passing it through the filter media, and returning it to the tank. And over their intakes, they have a strainer which is fabulous by keeping fish out
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but it's pretty much hopeless for keeping out shrimp, especially baby shrimp
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Baby shrimp only need past that strainer, and the current of the water being sucked into the filter will suck that baby shrimp in
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into the impeller, into the filter media, and the chances are that'll be the end of that baby
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In every single shrimp tank where I use a hang-on-back filter or a canister filter
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I place a sponge over the intake. And what that sponge does is not only provide somewhere for the shrimp to gather
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and eat on any food and bacteria and detritus that is being sucked into the filter
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But it also prevents the baby shrimp from being sucked in. You'd be amazed how many times someone will message me and say
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I can't understand it. I bought 20 shrimp, I never see any babies. And once I get into conversation with them
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it turns out they're typically running a hang-on-back filter. And I say I can almost guarantee if you put a sponge over the intake to that hang-on-back filter
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you will start to see babies. So secret number five is the cut down on the water changes
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Water changes are an essential part of fish and shrimp keeping A fish tank in aquarium is a closed system and the inhabitants of that tank are completely dependent on us to change water to keep the water safe and healthy for the fish or
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shrimp to living. With that said, I'm 99% certain that the majority of us change water
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out of fear. We don't test our water, we simply go, well, I change my water once a week
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I change 50% every other weekend, whatever it might be. We do it out of habit and
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fear. If you're testing your water and the nitrates or the nitrites or ammonia levels
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are high, then yes, carry out of water change. But don't change water just out of fear or
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out of habit. What shrimp love is stability and one of the best ways to keep our aquarium
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water stable is just to leave it alone. I don't think many people religiously test their
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water once a week and then if they see a reading that is unacceptable, carry out of water
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change. I have been guilty in the past of every Saturday morning, I water change all my
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tanks, job done. But what shrimp actually want, generally speaking, is to be given water within
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the parameters they like and then for that aquarium to be left alone. I genuinely believe the
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fewer water changes we do, the more stable that water becomes and the more likely the
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shrimp that live in that aquarium are to breed and to thrive and for the colony really to grow large
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If you have concerns that nitrate levels might be getting too high, then A, B, slightly less, and B, try adding live plants
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Live plants actually absorb ammonia and nitrites and nitrates out of the water as they grow
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Having live plants reduces the need for water changes. Every single tank I have is chocked full of live aquarium plants
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Why? Because their nature's filter. They suck all of the ammonia and nitrites and many of the nitrates out as they grow
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I'm absolutely certain. The key to a large healthy shrimp colony is stability
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Now secret number six to breeding more shrimp is to add botanicals
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And what do I mean by botanicals? Botanicals are essentially older cones or catapa leaves or oak leaves
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There are a wide selection of different botanicals we can add to our shrimp tank
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Now what happens is these leaves or cones or pieces of bark become absolutely covered in bacteria
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It's the bacteria that begins to break them down. One of the shrimp favourite foods is actually bacteria especially baby shrimp who need microscopic food If you add a couple of catapa leaves or oak leaves to your shrimp tank within a week or two they will begin to break down And as they break down they will be covered in shrimp
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And your first thought is, oh, the shrimp eat the leaves. No, the shrimp don't eat the leaves
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The shrimp feast on the bacteria and the life and the microscopic organisms that are breaking down those leaves
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Yes, as the leaves or the cones break down, they may release tannings into the water
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and make it slightly brown. But in my experience, that's only a positive thing. I've never ever found that shrimp struggle in water that has some tannins in it
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If anything, that aquarium is a healthier system for the shrimp to live in
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I try and add catapa leaves or oak leaves or aldacones to pretty much every shrimp tank I have
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So secret number seven to breeding more shrimp is don't be too tidy in your aquarium
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How often have you come along and sit in your tank that a leaf has fallen off a plant and you've whipped it out
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How often have you come along and think there's a tiny piece of uneaten food? I better suck that out with my hose
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As mentioned previously, shrimp are essentially detrobors. In the wild, they make their living breaking down pretty much anything they come across
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Dead fish, bugs that land in the water, leaves that are breaking down, fish poop
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anything they come across that breaks down, shrimp will eat. Now I'm not suggesting that you gather up a load of dead fish and chuck them in your
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shrimp tank, that would clearly be disastrous. But there's no need to come along with your
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with your hose every time you see a speck of detritus on the substrate and suck it out
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There's probably no need to gravel back your shrimp tank because much of the detritus in there is shrimp food
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And there's certainly no need to go along and remove any dead or decaying plant leaves that are sitting in your tank
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Now, of course, if you've got half a dozen plants and for some reason they've all died at once
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yes, you want to remove them because that volume of foliage breaking down could potentially cause an ammonia spike
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But one or two leaves, if you leave those leaves to begin to break down, they'll be covered in shrimp and they're basically natural food for your shrimp
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There is no need to be clean and tidy in a shrimp tank within reason
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So what makes me think I'm qualified to discuss breeding large shrimp colonies
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Well, for many years, we bred shrimp to sell. We bred shrimp commercially
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We bred thousands of shrimp every month. And one of the subjects I talk on most frequently is actually breeding shrimp for profit
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and I recently made a video on how you can breach for profit if you can watch next
