red cherry shrimp

[malonbl]

I have a nearly stocked aquarium. I am thinking of adding a few shrimp, but I have never had them, so I have some questions.

1) First of all, my main question is in regards to my tank suitability? I have a 29 gallon tank. I have a fine gravel (CaribSea), a few lava rocks and a couple large pieces of driftwood. I have two HOB filters: Fluval (formerly aquaclear) 70 and the aqueon 20 that came with the tank. The tank is fairly heavily planted with low-moderate light plants (java ferns, anubias, crypts, etc). I dose conservatively with 3 mls glut (matricide), daily dry nitrates to between 10-20 and weekly flourish comprehensive. I don't dose dry phosphates as they are typically around 2. I do a 50% weekly water change and vacuum substrate well. According to aqadvisor, I am stocked at 87%. I have 11 ember tetras, 8 neon tetras, 5 green rasboras and 6 corydoras elegans.

2) Would I need to feed them something special or do they scavenge fish food, algae, etc?

3) Are they typically purchased in multiples and what would be a good number for a planted 29 gallon?

4) Are they helpful with tank maintenance/cleanliness?

Thanks for answers to any or all of these questions

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi. You have a similar set to mine except my tank is 60g. I have lots of tetras, black neon, diamond neon, rummy nose, glow lights and red phantoms. Also have Cory's.
I started with ten RCS. I found that medium sized transferred easier than older shrimp. The older ones don't seem to acclimatise as well and I lost a couple. Don't buy baby shrimp, the fish will eat them.
The shrimp will eat anything but they do really need plenty of moss for feeding on (they eat the bio film and not the moss itself) but also to hide and breed in. My shrimp love algae wafers though - their favourite, but will eat anything. When they shed their shells leave them in the tank, they eat them to recycle the calcium.
Shrimp are fabulous at scavenging and helping clear up any uneaten food. They have a negligible bio load on the tank.
My shrimp have bred like crazy and I have well over 100. I think many of the babies are eaten by the fish but more survive than disappear.
Don't give up if your first introduction is not successful. I had a couple of failures and now realise that the shrimp like to be put in an older tank, not brand spanking new.
I would start with about 6-10 shrimp but if you can't afford that then get 3 females and 2 males to get started. Don't bother to try and buy berried shrimp, they will probably drop the eggs anyway. Look for good bold coloured females with a good egg saddle visable. Males are not quite as coloured but try and get the best coloured males available and your stock should end up of good quality. It is also quite good to introduce the odd shrimp from another source so the colours stay true. Inbreeding may eventually lead to the shrimps returning to their natural more brown colouring. But this takes many generations.
I inherited a few RCS with my tank and added a few more at a time. I didn't really want shrimp but now my colony is my pride and joy. Hope you have luck with yours.




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[malonbl]

Thanks for the reply. Just to be sure, the shrimp are not adversely affected by the glut dosing are they?

 

[ScotJudd]

I use Excel (Glut) all the time but as a precaution I would stop the Glut 48 hrs before introducing shrimp and then slowly introduce Glut daily until your regular dosage is reached.
Also, shrimp can't tolerate copper, so most medication is not to be used, however the copper level in Flourish comprehensive is so low it has no effect on my RCS.
Not being able to medicate my main tank makes it imperative that I don't introduce disease. I always quarantine new stock and never add the LFS water into my main tank. When I get a new shrimp I empty the LFS bag into a bucket and drip feed water from my tank until water volume is about 10 times the bag volume. Then I net or hand catch the shrimp and lower them into the tank. The possibility of transferring free floating parasites is reduced. Seems a bit over the top but it's easier to do that than have to deal with a disease outbreak. If you use a quarantine tank then you'll have no problems anyway.



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[malonbl]

thanks Scot