Cherry shrimps can breed in a home aquarium. In this article, we have added steps involved in the breeding of cherry shrimps and their life cycle.
How Often Do Cherry Shrimp Breed? Cherry shrimp can breed throughout the year. It can start breeding in 3 to 5 months. Female hatch 20 to 30 eggs per hatch and takes 2 to 3 weeks for hatching. They mate when males leave sperms in female genitals through the appendix masculine. The female shrimp remain pregnant for about 30 days.
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How Often Do Cherry Shrimp Breed?
These shrimps differ in colors like Fire red cherry shrimp is bright red, Sakura cherry shrimp is light red and has patches on the skin. It usually feeds on plants and small insects. It is a very peaceful and friendly pet you can have in your room.
They require proper conditions to start hatching eggs at any time. They are hard, tolerant, and can breed easily.
Cherry shrimp’s scientific name is Neocaridinaheteropoda has more than 20 varieties in different regions. These are small ornamented freshwater organisms and are native to Taiwan.
How many eggs cherry shrimp lay at a time?
The number of eggs varies in all varieties of cherry shrimp. In red cherry shrimp, the female shrimps produce at least 20 to 30 shrimplets per hatch.
They need 2 to 3 weeks to hatch in red cherry shrimps. Larger shrimps can produce more shrimplets than shorter shrimps. The eggs are usually green or yellow according to the color of the saddle. The color gets even darker until the female hatch the eggs.
At which age the cherry shrimp become mature
The red cherry shrimp takes about 2 to 6 months to become mature. The first stage of their life cycle is post larva; it continues for 2 days. Then it transforms into another stage, it lasts for 10 days, and shrimps turn into juvenile offspring. Then it gains weight for 2 to 3 months to become fully mature.
Both male and female fully grow up with a length of 2.3 to 2.5cm. Female shrimps have an orange color ovary at the junction of the cephalothorax with a tail.
The aquarist also refers to the ovaries as a saddle. The saddle is yellow females also have a long round and colored tail. The males have an appendix masculine on the second pleopod.
Mating and fertilization in cherry shrimp
Female shrimps start molting before start breeding. It is a process of shedding the exoskeleton in shrimps. It enables them to grow in size and grow a new skeleton.
It makes the cuticle very soft and assists them in fertilization. It requires only 10 to 20 minutes to complete it. After that, it hides in water and releases pheromone in it.
The smell of the hormone serves as a signal for the male that tells the female is ready to mate. Male start searching her in the surrounding water in response to the smell. To mate, both of them should face each other. Males use their appendix masculine to transfer sperms into the genital organ of females.
Then females start moving their eggs from the saddle to the brood pouch. The eggs going through it pass the sperms to convert into a zygote. This whole mating process takes 10 to 15 seconds. A female who is carrying eggs in the lower abdomen is called berried shrimp.
Fertilized eggs are oval and have a greenish to yellow color. The eggs are bind to a ribbon-like filament that attaches them to the female pleopod. Each egg is large 2mm in length.
The development of fertilized egg takes 30 days. Then female shrimp hatches eggs baby shrimplets exactly look like their parents. Babies have an average length of 2.4mm and complete growth and development in 16 stages.
How to breed cherry shrimps at home?
Breeding cherry shrimps at home is super easy. You can do it even in your fish aquarium by providing a suitable environment and abundant food.
Have a mix of both genders to start-up breeding. You can have just 3 male and female shrimps in the tank to proceed for breeding. After one month, you will have a large number of shrimps swimming in the water.
You can never observe fertilization with naked eyes but, female cherry shrimp bearing eggs can is visible. You should control the factors I am going to describe below to speed up the process.
Factors to consider before breeding cherry shrimp at home
There are many things to consider before proceeding with the procedure. Here is a brief description of all of them.
Aquarium temperature
Red cherry shrimp need a steady water temperature to start breeding. You should maintain the temperature up to 80farhenheit to 81.
High temperature can speed up the process of breading but, temperature exceeding 82 can cause a reduction in the amount of dissolved oxygen. It can put the life of shrimps in danger and also have a destructive impact on their health.
Water changes
When we have shrimps in the tank, be careful when you are changing water. First, the temperature of water you are adding should be equal to the tank water. You should add chlorine-free water because high chlorine content is dangerous for them.
Chemicals
You should also consider the type of chemicals that are present in aquarium water. Excess organic waste in water can kill them.
They are sensitive and can not tolerate harsh chemicals like ammonia and nitrates. So you should check the water chemistry before adding it to the tank.
pH of water
Ideally, the water should have pH in the neutral range because higher PH is harmful and can hinder breeding. You can add any chemical to lower the PH of the water.
Co2 injections are necessary for the survival of plants in the aquarium but, they can disturb the PH. So, take great care while injecting CO2 into the tank.
Continuous food supply
Cherry shrimps need abundant food during breeding. They feed on algae wafers, shrimps pellets and, different vegetables, shrimps like to eat cucumber. Add small quantities of the food in the tank after every 2 hours.
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