Red Cherry Shrimp

[black hills tj]

Hey Everyone,

Looking at stocking a tank that will be used as a fry tank(eventually) with some shrimp. I'd like to go with red cherry shrimp, but I have some questions. Also if the colony really gets breeding I will move some into my 20g tall and my 29g tanks.

1. Are shrimp compatible with:
A.German Blue Rams?
B.Striata Loaches?
C.ABN Plecos?
D.Angel?

(These are the fish I'm asking about because either/and the GBR fry and ABN pleco fry will be in this tank. And i have striata loaches in my 20g and an angel in my 29 that I can see picking on them.)

2. Would low light, a sand substrate, driftwood, and java moss be a good environment for RCS?

3. I know loads of people on the forum here have hundreds of RCS. Is anyone willing to ship, sell, or trade any of theirs? I'm thinking 10-20 would be a good # to start the colony and keep a decent bioload in the 10g tank.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[neilanh]

I can attest from personal experience that GBRs love to eat shrimp

even ones bigger than their mouths

 

[WaterPond]

1. They do best in species only tanks, or with small harmless fish.
(schooling fish, guppies...)

2.Perfect environment, they can live fine in there, but if you really want to breed them make sure you have a calcium source for them. This ensures there is enough calcium for proper molting, and shrimp breed right after they molt. More molting: more breeding.

3. Good amount to start with! Just make sure the tank is fully cycled.

 

[black hills tj]

How would they do with the GBR fry though? Would the RCS "fry" be a good snack for the GBR fry if they found any? Would the GBR fry eat any RCS regardless of size?

 

[WaterPond]

I dunno

Its good to be optimistic but your gbrs wont spawn guarenteed. In my opinion, if breeding a fish, it is better to keep them all alone or with fish that will not interfere with breeding. So... in my opinion you should just keep adults, breed and raise fry in the same tank, that way it keeps from stress of moving eggs/mother, or fry/mother (the mother should be moved along with the eggs or hatched fry.)

Shrimplettes are tiny, almost not visible, but im not sure if they could be eaten by newly hatched fry... bt they could be eaten by juveniles for sure.

 

[black hills tj]

Well then, it was just an idea. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

Angels find them quite tasty.

 

[gu2high]

I put 8 RCS in a community tank including blue ram, platy, molly, guppy 2 weeks ago and haven't found any of them until today I have found a very red adult female. It 'jumped' very quickly when a blue ram stared at her very closely. The blue ram followed her but the shrimp jumped again and disappeared in driftwood/plants. I think small shrimp would be eaten by blue ram if shrimp didn't know how to escape. But shrimp does know the danger and if the tank has many hiding places, it has a chance to survive. I also have several juvenile ABN pleco and don't think they have any danger to RCS.

 

[fishb0ne]

Angels and rams will eat them pronto. And if they do get away and don't get eaten, they'll most likely live in a perpetual state of stress.

 

[gu2high]

I guess a little bit of stress but not a big problem since there are too many hiding places in my main community planted tank. Based on color and appearance and activity of the shrimp I saw, I feel it is happy and healthy in the tank. My all RCS in a 10 gallon RCS only tank are all dead today except the biggest one. This one is originally in the main tank when I saw it I caught and transferred it to the 10 gallon tank. The color and condition of the shrimp is not as good as when it was in the main tank so I put it back to the main tank today. Within 3 minutes, it disappeared even I was keeping trying to follow it.

I checked the 10 gallon tank and couldn't figure out the death causes.

 

[fishb0ne]

Not to insult your knowledge but ... perhaps not cycled? Bad water parameters? #1 cause for invert deaths.

 

[TwoHobbies]

BN plecos are shrimp safe. I believe cories are also, anything else....anything, that has a mouth big enough to fit, may eat shrimp.

If your're purchasing RCS to put into a tank with fish, you are more than likely just buying expensive fish food!

 

[fishb0ne]

My ghost shrimp are fine together with neons and one dwarf gourami. Although he's a very curious fella and tends to experiment unknown things by tasting them, he seems to not care about my shrimp at all, knock on wood ...

 

[newfound77951]

I have RCS in a 10 gallon with 4 pristella tetras and 4 pygmy cories and they are fine...I occasionally see baby shrimp but they never get bigger, although I'm not sure if the fish or the filter is more to blame. My fish ignore the shrimp but then again the shrimp are about the same length as the fish.

 

[gu2high]

The 10 gallon tank is cycled and water is ok - NH4=0, NO2=0, NO3<5ppm, pH7.2-7.4, no fish except RCS. I feed them plant trimming with algae and Hiraki and HBH crab foods. The 10 gallon tank is sat beside my chair - where I am working. I guess the shrimps get stressed out because I am always sitting 2 feet away from them. I noticed this stress when I 'was punishing' one of my blue ram in the tank. The fish losed color too. However, I don't see a problem when raising fry - zebra danio, guppy, platy, etc.

Today I found one big RCS in the main tank and it is very red - the color I have never seen on the shrimp in 10 gallon tank. And, it is PREGNANT. I think it is big enough (near 1 inch) that no fish can eat it - no can dwarf gourami or blue ram. I have many guppy and molly fry and the big fish do not eat them. I don't want to move it to the 10 gallon tank this time, and just let baby shrimp be born in the main tank and hope some of them know how to hide and be survived.

The 10 gallon tank is now prepared for raising American flag fish fry.