[Cap10Squirty]

I bought 25 Red Cherry Shrimp and they'll be arriving late next week once the seller ships out next week. I need to know a few things so I can make appropriate changes to my setup if necessary. I have a 20 gallon long planted tank that I hope works out for the shrimp. I'll describe it best I can below

- 20 gallon long
- EI daily (dosing at 20-40 gallon recommendations)
- Pressurized CO2 using small 50 GPH powerhead
- Additional Fe, GH Booster
- Filtration - Eheim 2213 with sponge over filter, I can turn down the flow using the valves if needed

- Other inhabitants: Ramshorn snails, pond snails, about 10 Neon & Glowlight Tetras, and 2 Otocinclus

So I bought into the EI dosing because I liked the idea of NOT having to be OCD about testing water parameters. The tank is about 90% planted with a glosso carpet in the front. Lots of stem plants, driftwood, and mosses in the back should provide enough shelter.

Because of not having any test kits, nor do I really want to get any. I have bought Seachem Cuprisorb to be on the safe side - I'd rather spend $10 for a product that I can reuse over and over versus buying a test kit I'll use once to get an idea of what's in my water.

What should I do, I'm a little nervous about risking all 25 shrimp once they come in and later find out that they disagreed with my tank to the point of death. Should I set up a temporary 10 gallon or a betta bowl to hold them and slowly introduce 5 at a time to the 20 gallon?

Any advice is appreciated, I've never dealt with delicate shrimp before but am really looking forward to having them crawling all over my tank!

 

[The Trigger]

Cherry shrimp are extremely hardy. I've kept thin a very wide range of conditions and never had any major problems. Just keep the temp in the mid to high 70s and the water clean and they will breed like rabbits. I've even kept them with blue rams and apistos and they still had a thriving colony. Just give them lots of hiding places and places to feel safe where they can lay their eggs and you should have a minimal casualty rate from fish eating them. I have them with cardinal tetras now and the fish show no interest in the shrimplets.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Awesome. Well I work hard at keeping things clean in the aquarium and the water stays around 78. I'll report back here later next week to let everyone know how things turned out. If they breed like rabbits that'll be awesome.

 

[GBRguy]

just a heads up a master test kit on amazon is only about 20 bucks. most people with shrimp also get a kh and gh test kit($10) and a TDS pen($20) on amazon. Like you I didn't wont to have to check water every day so I do twice a week just to make sure everything is ok. Regardless I hope everything works out for you.

 

[35ppt]

I don't think cherries have as much issues with higher temps, but I think you might want to keep the temp more like low to mid 70F due to bacterial risks, plus they will live longer. Plus moss likes lower temps.

One reason for testing is to make sure your paramaters don't fluctuate too much, as shrimps like stability. If your seller tells you their parameters and you know your parameters, that is also helpful info.

You will also need a tank for the culls...

 

[koiboi]

Sounds like environmentally (I think I just made up that word) your set up is perfect. They'll love the moss and it's a great nursery for the shrimplets. My two cents is my colony of cherries did fine for about 8 months with the cardinals, then shrimplets went missing. The colony has slowly decreased in number over the last 4 months or so. I think the cardinals got an accidental taste of shrimp one day then never looked back! So you never know. The other cherry tank has chili rasboras in it and they are drowning in shrimp.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

My fish and plants will be fine with a little lower temperature range so I'll keep that in mind for when I get everything ready for the shrimp

As for fish getting too aggressive with the RCS, I'll keep an eye but I'm sure the neons won't be a problem for the adult RCS at least. I will keep an eye out for the Glowlight tetras as they are a little bigger and more aggressive eaters than the neons.

Another question: the seller has these shrimp listed as "Super Red Cherry Shrimp" - are these just normal RCS with a higher amount of red or is this a different species? I couldn't find much info on "super red" other than it being descriptive of the amount of red haha.

Here is a picture, from above, of the leftmost corner of my tank where the glosso carpet turns into an overgrown stem plant and java fern jungle. Is this fine for cherry shrimp? I know sometimes my fish seem to avoid trying to weave through the plants as it gets pretty dense in some areas.

Edit: moss is in the back corner where it's a little darker - I have Christmas and java moss.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

Super Red is a sales name to sell them better. There is no grade of "Super Red."

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Alright, good to know! Well, the price that I paid for the shrimp (if delivered alive and well) was much cheaper than what I'm used to paying for aquarium livestock and happened to be cheaper than all of the other listings that I happened across.

Thank you for pointing that out to me though, Soothing Shrimp

 

[MSG]

$1.40 each isn't bad compared to what most LFS charge for a basic cherry. I'm assuming these are the shrimps you ordered?

They're not exactly the clearest photos, but the few I highlighted are best of the bunch.

Take some pictures when they arrive & BEFORE releasing them in your tank. From your photos and the amount of plants you have you'll RARELY see them.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Yes those are the pictures for the listing that I was referring to. Well if the shrimp want to hide out that's cool with me. As long as I'm able to keep them alive and thriving that's what I aim for.

I'll take photos, but why the importance of before I release them?

 

[HUNTER]

I started with the same amount and now they're so many and I'll need a fish to trim them down.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

I started with the same amount and now they're so many and I'll need a fish to trim them down.

Awesome, that's what I want is the tank to be booming with life, be it fish or snails, or SHRIMP!

......the shrimp won't start clearing out my plants as they explore and colonize will they?

 

[MSG]

I recommend taking pictures of the new shrimp BEFORE you release them into the tank because they will vanish within the cover your plants. Shrimp don't respond like fish or beg for food, so you'll see them when they feel like coming out.

Very rare for mine to all gather in one place even when they find a large piece of food.

Also some of the lesser grade cherry shrimps lose color when they're stressed. My fire shrimp don't lose color whatsoever, but the palmatas do seem to change their color at will & each have a unique color pattern so I can tell them apart.

I would worry more about the pond snails devouring your plants than any of your other livestock.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

The pond snails have not eaten anything live and green other than algae so that's good. I'll be sure to take photos before I let them explore!

 

[dana]

Pond snails are evil and will eat your plants when they run out of algae, Your shrimp will do fine in your community tank, they will have lots of places to hide, when you get babies you'll be happy

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Pond snails are evil and will eat your plants when they run out of algae, Your shrimp will do fine in your community tank, they will have lots of places to hide, when you get babies you'll be happy

The pond snails have yet to demonstrate their evilness! However, I'm willing to take preventative measures for the betterment of my plants

Should I purchase an assassin snail or two and then reintroduce a different snail? (I had no say in the pond snails arriving, but have not complained as they keep things spotless).