Cherry shrimp in a fry tank.

[hennaartist]

I am planning to put a few cherry shrimp in a 5 gallon tank I use for guppy fry. I have gravel substrate, the tank temp is at 78 degrees, with average water parameters on a slightly hard side.

I plan to feed a high calcium diet as I do with my crawfish in my 20 gallon.

Any recommendations?

 

[Fishfur]

Once the fry grow large enough, they will be quite capable of eating newborn shrimplets.

Guppy fry are happy to feed from the bottom, which is where newborn shrimp will be for their first couple of days. If there are lots of plants and plenty of hiding places the fry can't get into, some babies will survive, but I'd think you would have losses. Depends a bit on what size the fry are when a batch of shrimp are born.. new born fry aren't going to take baby shrimp, but they do grow quite quickly and are attracted to moving prey.

I had a bunch of Endler fry that ate most of the scuds living on the bottom of their tank, and the adult scuds are a fair bit larger than newborn shrimp are. The fry kept hunting for them once they discovered them, and nearly all of them were eventually eaten. Not a disaster, I keep the scuds as fish food.

 

[Kittykat364]

I was thinking about this too, would it work if it was heavily planted?


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Fishfur]

If it's heavily planted the shrimp will be a lot safer. Not totally safe, but safer. The denser the plants are the more places there are to hide and at many levels instead of all being on the bottom.