CRS breeding in winter

So, what are they thinking in the merciless Canadian winter?

 So I have moved most of my shrimp tanks in my new shrimp room (started cycling in July 2013), it's in a small 10'x14' room in the basement. The breeding had been great from the beginning, all shrimps were breeding up until late October when the room temperature dropped to 18 - 19C (~65F). The babies kept growing although very slowly, and breeding slowly slowed down.

I have less than 10 shrimps that got berried in December, and I have probably over 500 bee shrimps in the shrimp room. And less than 5 in January.

What's going on?

I remember although breeding slowed down, but I had way more berried shrimp last year in tanks I had heaters in. This year it just slowed down to almost a full stop.

I have a CRS tank in my living room. The population grew from 3 to about 150 between March 2013 and November of the same year. I also observe no berried shrimp in that tank. Before November, female shrimps constantly got berried.

A lot hobbyists contribute this to barometer changes in the winter. I can't disprove that, but it doesn't explain why breeding still goes on in my buddies' shrimp tanks, but almost every tank in my house slowed down.

Hope things will pick up again soon. My experience tells me March is the magic time. I will just convince myself it's just a matter of time like I've told others countless times.

Share your experience?

ShrimpWiki.com

I'm glad to tell you my friend that I've accepted the offer to be the shrimp room consultant for ShrimpWiki.com (http://shrimpwiki.com). This new store is established by a group of shrimp keepers just like you and me. Give them a visit. They are having a free draw for a free BKK, check the site for details.

Blue Blot Eats

How food is moved around the mouth when a shrimp is eating.

The solution for feeding Barley Straw Pelletes

What do I feed my shrimps?

Do you want to know? I have been experimenting a few things, and have some of my own opinions and suspicion on some common "believes".

So what do I feed them you ask? Tell me what you feed your shrimps first, I'll need to take some pictures before I post mine (which is a mess really)

Why?

The 20G L CRS had some newborns a few days ago, I spotted 6 three days ago, then 2 two days ago, only 1 yesterday. It just has to be this hard for me.

Environment:
20 G Long (set up in early March, shrimps introduced in about 4 weeks, it was cycled before shrimps)
Akadama 2" to 2.5"
UGF air driven
Up Aqua EX 120 HOB Canister
One extra airstone
My DIY nitrate filter
13w clipped on CFL light
Tons of peacock and java moss, 1 lone java fern, some amazon frogbits (they haven't been doing well), some hornwort. Two pieces of DW with moss on it, each about 10" x 8".

Temperature: 19 - 23, got up to 24/25 a few times but never stay there for more than 8 hours.
PH 6.5-6.8
TDS 150 - 160
GH 6-8
KH 0-1
NH3/NO2 0
NO3 5-15

20 - 23 adulat CRS low grade
10 OEBT sub-adult

A few more shots on part of the tank,

I have probably lost close to 100 baby CRS by 5 or 6 releases. Adults are fine, OEBTs are thriving and grow fast, and no baby CRS survived more than a week.


I need to move this tank so will have to tear it down. I don't really care that much about the breeding activity in this tank but just can't figure out what is wrong. The shrimps in this tank mostly were put there to wait for the permanent home ready (it was ready 3 days ago).

Calcium for shrimps

Shrimps need calcium, everyone knows that. They need more calcium because it's the main ingredient in their shell. This is why a lot of shrimp food is advertised as calcium rich.

A few things I gathered from various source, all may not apply but this is what I currently believe in.

What you should avoid or be cautious,
- Too high a GH in water (mainly calcium) is actually bad for shrimp, it will cause molting issue. One theory is that their shell grows so well it's too hard to molt.
- Too low a GH makes molting easier, however, it may also cause issue with shell development.
- Spinach contains high calcium, however, the oxalic acid (草酸) and Fe in spinach are calcium blockers -- they reduce the ability for shrimp to absorb and use the calcium.


What you can do to help calcium intake,
- Vitamin D helps calcium intake. I'm not sure high light helps but researches have been done and prove that longer photo period increases shrimp growth. Here is an interesting paper (http://ntour.ntou.edu.tw/ir/handle/987654321/10676)
- Other vegetables may actually be better for calcium supplement - bok choy, broccoli, cabbage ... etc.


Some other things I have found, tried, or thinking of trying:


Cuttlebone: it's vouched  by a lot of shrimp keeper for its benefit to help molting. Since it's cheap and seem harmless, I use it too. But you should know that,
- It does increase the GH/TDS. I added one whole cuttlebone (cut into three pieces) in 500ml of water of TDS 175. After 48 hours, the TDS got to almost 600.
- However, I put one section (1/3 of a whole cuttlebone) into a 6 gallon tank. After 24 hours, there was NO TDS increase.
My conclusion: while it does increase TDS, small amount doesn't have noticeable effect.

BW minerock: I have it in one of my tanks, not sure if it is effective or not. No noticeable difference in that particular tank. It may have increased the molting frequency but I'm not sure if it is due to this. Since I bought some, I use it.

There are lot of other products but hard to get. When I get something new I'll add my experience here.

There's no end

So, my previous issue with the 7.5G seems to have disappeared after changing a few things. I've been busy at work/family/fishing and it's been really hard to find time to do what I need to do. The tanks in the basement are cycling, NO2 has shown for more than a week but no sign of easing off. Netlea tank still leaching NH3 after, hmm... almost 3 months. Then my main CRS/OEBT tank is giving me trouble.

The shrimp in the 20GL tank has been acting funny. Monday when I fed them, although they still came for spinach but after 10 minutes most just wondered off. And from then on, they started to be very inactive. No dead shrimps are found yet but I really can't tell if the bodies were just eaten (probably not by the way they respond to food). However, all baby CRS are goners now. It does make the tank move planned in about a week to 2 weeks easier I guess.

Also, I saw ONE hydra and ONE very small planaria-like creature. So I dosed panacur Tuesday night... then last night.... they became really inactive, and I tested NH3 0 (or very close to 0, I always have trouble comparing the yellows of different shade), NO2 0, and then... NO3 somewhere between 70 to 80. OMG.... what's going on. Did 10% WC and got more ROs to do a 30% WC today. So much for the panacur dosing but that can wait. Not sure now if planarias got to the baby CRS or the NO3. I'll deal with NO3 first.

I'll do a few daily 10%-30% WC until NO3 comes down to 20% then add the DIY NO3 reactor with Seachem deNitrate. Sigh... this is not as easy as I thought it would be after a few months.