Should I get red cherry shrimp now?

[MrNitrite]

Someone on my local Craig's list has some for sale now. But the tank is not cycled yet(4 White Clouds in a 20 long). Can I add a couple of red cherries or would that be a bad idea now? I do have a 2.5 gal tank that I could keep them in until the 20 cycles. What do you think?

 

[fort384]

Is the 2.5 cycled? I wouldn't suggest adding them until your tank is cycled.

 

[BigJim]

RCS are supposed to be kind of fragile when it comes to water conditions. I'm also cycling a 20L with the intentions of stocking it with guppies, corys, and RCS, and I'm planning on putting the RCS in last.

 

[beglely]

I would wait. Shrimp are delicate and die easy sometimes, and altho red cherries are probably one of the easiest to keep, its still a risk. People sell them enough on here and in stores that you should have no problem getting some when your tank is ready

 

[MrNitrite]

Fort, the 2.5 doesn't have water in it yet. I was going to keep the ammonia down by lots of water changes-not a big deal on a tank this small. But I think I'll wait-that's the best way to do it. Thanks everyone.

 

[bs6749]

RCS are not that fragile. I've never cylced any of my shrimp breeding tanks prior to adding shrimp and that includes my high grade CRS/CBS (I'd say 8/10 for being fragile), which was $300+ in shrimp. I've never had a loss because of it. Shrimp have extremely small bioloads. You can easily keep over 600 of them by themselves in a 20L. I don't recommend keeping them in numbers less than 20 or so to start a colony. I'd go with 30-40 in a 20L. Make sure you have lots of Java moss and you will be good to go. Daily water changes can help if you are worried about ammonia and nitrites. Adding Prime to the tank every day will also neutralize ammonia until the tank cycles. You also have the option of getting seeded filter media and putting it into the tank. Plants like Java moss will accomplish the same thing and will also remove ammonia for themselves to grow and they house microorganisms which the shrimp will love.

 

[MrNitrite]

Thanks for all the info bs6749. One question-do they breed easily? I don't want them to multiply(only want a few), but is it likely to happen anyway?

 

[bs6749]

Red Cherry Shrimp are the guppies of the shrimp world. If you have males and females you will have babies eventually. Keep them in a tank with fish to control the population or sell excess ones to make money. I really recommend starting with at least 30 of them in a tank that size. You need lots of them so they al feel secure, otherwise you won't ever see any of them as they will all be hiding. They need to see others out and about to feel comfortable.

 

[Da Squid]

Since it looks like MrNitrites questions were all answered, I thought I might hijak this one . I'm pretty clueless about shrimp still, but was considering them for my tank. Of course I just ripped out almost all of my java moss recently. Is moss a must for shrimp? My tank is high light heavily planted so they would definately have a jungle to hide in with the other plants. Also, I fertalize, so would that screw up the invertibrates?

 

[fort384]

Heavily planted is good. You don't have to have moss. No worries on most ferts. Just avoid anything with copper in it. I have seen some COTS ferts that contain low levels of copper.

 

[Da Squid]

Thanks Fort! I'm definately tempted. My micro fert is that popular one with the three letter abriviation. CMB? I forget. The red would look great against my black backround and overwhelming green colors. My only concern would be that they have enough food to eat. There is very little algae in the tank and my other fish really wolf down algae wafers during feeding.
Is acclimating them to a tank the same as with fish? Float the bag in the water and slowly add tank water, then net them out into the tank?

 

[fort384]

CSM+B. Should be no issues - that is a trace mix, very low, almost no copper (almost all these products have some copper content). I think the only 1 I remember seeing with questionable copper levels was called "Florapride" or something like that, and it was a K + Fe mix.

Depends on who you ask for the acclimation... I drip acclimate in a bucket - but I think I remember Bryan saying he just floats the bag to equalize temp and then nets them into the tank. He is the resident shrimp expert, so I would trust that this should be fine.

 

[Da Squid]

Apparently LFS's are NOT the way to go for red cherry shrimp . I drove all the way out to my favorite place but they were 5 bucks each for really tiny 1 cm ones. I was hoping they'd be a dollar at the most.

So I ended up with 6 albino glow light tetras to add some nice color to the tank. And somehow they talked me into buying two zerbra loaches. I've had terrible luck with bottom feeders, but it would be fun to watch them take down my snail population a little bit.

 

[fort384]

check aquabid or post in the classified forum here. You can usually get them for pretty reasonable, even with shipping.

 

[cwt]

Loaches will eat snails if they're hungry... maybe not all the time.

Shrimp are easy though. All you really need is one male and one pregnant adult female, a quiet corner with some moss, and they'll multiply like crazy.

 

[Da Squid]

Thanks, I'm definitely not giving up on shrimp, though I'll probably wait a month till I've fully gotten used to the new glowlights and loaches before adding new things. I've got a million observations and questions on the loaches but I'll reserve them for a different post