culling red cherries

[ineke]

Hi all,

At what size do the cherries show their true colours? I have quite a few shrimp-lets at about 1-2 cm that I think are boys and they are a nice pale red -they could be girls but not sure yet,- when do they get their mature colour. What age/size is the best to cull? I don't seem to have any clear ones at all - I could definitely be wrong about the sexes but they have the thin boy shape. Quite a few follow the big boys on the sexy dance which makes me think they are boys.

Cheers

Ineke:encouragement:

[ineke]

Bump

[mickeyG]

Hey ineke, I culled my crs and cherries last year and to be honest things still haven't been the same with my crs. I'd cull only when you are comfortable with the numbers in your colony. Keep all the girls and only keep a couple of the best boys.I now tank space is a small issue but if you can put the culls into a tank just incase something drastic happens. Im no shrimp pro but after few chats with breeders if a cherry hasn't saddled over the1cm-- 1.5 cm mark chances are it won't is fairy high.

[ineke]

Thanks Mick they are in a 100 litre tank and at the moment space is not an issue. So far I have just been picking out any lighter males that are mature. I have no problem with space I was more worried about having heaps of males to females. Most of my females are mature and quite capable of putting the boys in their place at the moment. I can let the numbers build up for sometime without issue so if that's the best option I will continue to just take out the odd male that is noticeably lighter. I quite like the idea of having a lot more shrimp in the tank because at the moment it is spot the shrimp some days in the big tank.

Cheers

Ineke :encouragement:

[Dead Can Dance]

I'll ask a silly question, when you say cull, you mean kill ?

[mr_c265]

Not always, sometimes its more just, remove from active breeding population. When i say cull though, i normally mean angelfish food.

[blindfisherman]

I found the easiest way was to remove anything with a saddle that was poor quality and every clear one

[ineke]

I'll ask a silly question' date=' when you say cull, you mean kill ?[/quote']

When I cull I put my shrimp into my community fish tank which is quite large. Usually by the time I have culled the shrimp have been too big for my fish to eat and I occasionally see them when cleaning the gravel. they have lots of hiding places so should be all right. The other thing people on the forum do is offer them free to beginners to learn with. However in nature they are at the bottom of the food chain and so do end up as fish food but they have to catch them first.

Cheers

Ineke:encouragement:

[ineke]

I found the easiest way was to remove anything with a saddle that was poor quality and every clear one

When my numbers build up a bit more that will be a good way for me to choose as well. I already take out any clear males I can catch so have very few of them left and the babies coming up all seem to have some colour. I do have a number of females that are almost a soft almost pink with very bright saddles and I thought I would wait and see how they matured. But my main aim is to get nice reds like yours. At the moment I have about 10 really good females and 1 male that I am happy with but still trying for a solid red male "who isn't?".I like the idea of just leaving them go for a few months to see what appears. I was given five males a while ago that had come from rili stock but didn't show it and I still have an empty tank waiting for these elusive little guys. Have planted the seed with hubby that I would like some for Mothers Day but being impatient I'm pretty sure I will buy some before then when they come up for sale again. Patience is not one of my virtues.

cheers

Ineke:encouragement: