this isn't answering your question but I wouldn't get 10 cherries, just save some money and get like 5. they will breed if not the first day than in a week
People told me 10 is almost guaranteed for both sex. Guess I can get 5 and just see if it works out. Thanksthis isn't answering your question but I wouldn't get 10 cherries, just save some money and get like 5. they will breed if not the first day than in a week
Damn that sucks to wait that long. As the soil runs out in like a year? Does only carpet plants mean heavliy planted? So confusing people telling me tank can be cycled in 1 week, 2 weeks now 4? Really want something living in here to watch at in the meantime.Have tank running *AT LEAST* 30 days, until the cycle is done before introducing any shrimp.
If you want fish and shrimp, then definitely do start with 10 cherry shrimp. Make sure tank is heavily planted, then wait a minimum of 6 months before introducing fish. This allows the cherry shrimp to become established in the tank and hopefully create a healthy breeding population before introducing the fish. The fish may or may not pose a risk to the adult shrimp but they will eat baby shrimp.
The amanos and cherries can be introduced at the same time, as long as the tank is fully cycled and matured. Shrimp don't do well in un-cycled or young tanks... so it's better to wait longer anyway.
Got a rain barrel at home and of course no rain falling with my daily water changes. A jungle isn't really a option because of the Iwagumi. Might skip the fish then?Honestly, if you want Neos, just go with sand substrate. They generally do better in higher pH water anyway with GH and KH.
If you go with buffering substrate, you want RO water with a GH+ only remineralizer. At that point, you could keep Caridinas and perhaps some Tigers... however, considering these shrimp are typically more expensive, you really don't want to keep fish with them....
Amanos, if they don't like your water parameters, will just jump ship and if you are lucky, you'll find them within 10' of the aquarium. If not, they might be 20-30 or so feet away.
If your water parameters are not ideal, you'd just kill the cherries...
And it should be stated that if you keep shrimp and fish together, you may lose out on the entire reason you purchased the shrimp in the first place because they (specifically Neos and Caridinas) don't like fish... in other words, you may never see your shrimp because they would always be in hiding away from the fish, and it also means you'll have lower breeding rates once the fish are in there. This is another reason why it's recommended to wait at least 6 months before introducing fish.
"Heavily planted" should mean more than just carpet plants... You want moss and thick growth plants as well. In other words, you kind of want it to look like a jungle.