Shrimp are my favorite aquatic pets. Many algae-eating shrimp, red cherry included, will breed in freshwater, too. They're hard workers and their behavior and interaction is fascinating. I have pics in my gallery and home page if interested - there are neocaridina sinesis var red (cherry shrimp) and var blue (possibly dyed), their offspring (brown/clear in color), amano, indian algae, and ghost shrimp in my tanks. In particular, I find this color change interesting:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=7104&sort=1&cat=533&page=2 All these shrimp are much smaller than the large filter feeders (wood and african/vampire) sometimes discussed here (Lane M. is one owner). I think heavily planted shrimp tanks are awesome. In my experience, neocaridna and amano shrimp are a fantastic algae-fighting/clean-up crew.
www.petshrimp.com has informative forums and profiles. (I think it was Veneer that first posted the link here.)
I've found small shrimp cohabitate with cherry barbs, kuhli and hillstream loaches, and otocinclus just fine. I'd guess a pleco would be fine because of its mouth shape, but don't know. They are/were timid around a 2" blue gourami and our ryukin goldfish. My female betta eats shrimp.
FWIW, mixing with larger/aggressive fish is a gamble, though I've watched my amanos fight off loaches for food.