breeding shrimp colony

So, I have this pretty good sized tank that has a dense fern growing. Its like 2.5 feet across, 8-10 high with other plants growing within. The biggest fish can not penetrate but the apistos can. I have heard/read of ppl having large enough shrimp colonies where their breeding out paces predation. Does anyone think I could pull this off? If so, how large of a colony should I try to start off with? Could anyone her supply a colony of this size Simi adorably ($100 or something).

Input greatly appreciated:)

Adorably  .. I say, give it a try. The dude on cl said 10 shrimp for $20, 20 for $30.. maybe he could hook b itvup with a big bulk order for cheap, seems he has the quality and quantity. Good luck, and keep us up to date.

Heh, well, honestly I don't think the shrimp would survive with fish of that size predating them, no matter how many you throw in at first. I would save the $$, personally.

In my experience, this only works if the adults aren't eaten.

Normally people that keep dwarf cichlids with the shrimp let the shrimp get established and breeding first from what I've seen, then add the cichlids.

Don't take my advice, seriously.
Because I don't know anything about shrimp, I just thought it sounded cool.
those two seem to have first hand experience.

Not I, I've yet to grow my own live food.  

Just passing on things I've read from other forums where they maintained dwarf cichlids with shrimps. The ones that add it afterwards either get eaten or have to add 100+ adults for it to work.

dwarfpike wrote:Normally people that keep dwarf cichlids with the shrimp let the shrimp get established and breeding first from what I've seen, then add the cichlids.

Yeah, I was thinking that too - shrimp first, then monsters that eat them.

Established shrimp idea makes since. I have tried this with CRS and the Cherry's but with only about 3 adults and perhaps 10 small buggers. Well, even though I poured them in the ferns they scattered throughout the tank. This is where I was thinking about the possibility of finding someone with a breeding colony of a 100+. I would think at lest 10 would be smart enough to STAY where its safe. I could also put some in a 10 gallon I have. Lest I would be able to attempt to breed some in there.

I had a friend on another forum with bolivian rams and red cherries, the sweet spot was about 50 adults in a 90 gallon. The numbers stayed the same even though the rams picked off molting adults and some of the wee lil baby shrimp. That number sustained for about 2 years. Lots and lots of java moss though.

Anthony J. wrote:Adorably  .. I say, give it a try. The dude on cl said 10 shrimp for $20, 20 for $30.. maybe he could hook b itvup with a big bulk order for cheap, seems he has the quality and quantity. Good luck, and keep us up to date.

I actually appreciate this idea. There are 2 sellers selling cherry's on CL @$2 ea. Never know, they may kick the price down  for a $100 bill! Its Christmas season ya know

That was his response right away,  I said I wanted 10, he said, alright 10 for $20 or 20 for $30, by my estimation,  by the time you got to 50 or 60, he would be willing to go down to a buck a piece. But don't buy em all, I need 10

I tried this with two gbr and a betta in a tank. I bought about 50 shrimp lets from Tanya ( they were her color culls) she hooked them up super cheap. Anyway. I no longer have the shrimp, but my gbr are doing really well with my two apistos I still have. Also think they would get decimated no matter how big the shrimp were. Apistos love shrimp/crayfish/ lobster/crab ..... Oh wait, that's me.... haha

Lloyd378 , lol!

Well I think there is a few factors that play here overall. Besides being above to establish the shrimp 1st. Cherry shrimp seems to be the biggest bodied shrimp as adults. If I can get a handful (literally) of these with a few that's already berried I may have a chance. Also, if I establish a colony in another tank, introducing a few berried shrimp. Over time- I may get lucky with a few survivors establishing a colony.
This fern plant is super thick. As I trim the outsides it grows inward upon itself. Even though I trim the inside at times it's still a thick forest of stems. This with random moss growing through it, and a layer of red root floaters on top I know a little bugger could thrive in there as long as they where smart enough to stay in there. Out of the 3 Apisto's ,1 dwarf pike, and 2 angels that's in this tank only otocinclus call the dark forest fern their home.

I started with less than a dozen RCS, and put them in my 10 gallon tank with guppies. A few of them died off, and by the time I moved last month, I had about 6 left. I was thinking that the experiment had not worked well, but then lo and behold, right after moving I discovered about 20 baby shrimp had been hiding in the java moss or other plants, and I hadn't noticed them until I was pouring water back into my tank and saw little shrimplets.

Now, guppies aren't great predators, and this was over a period of months, so I would say you would need probably 20x the numbers to keep this going with something like apistos constantly picking them off. Now I have the shrimp in my 20 gallon, and my GBR don't seem to bother them too much, so it all depends on how many and what type of dwarfs you want to keep. I think a couple pairs of GBR could work, but a more predatory species would be much harder to work with.