Cherry Shrimp Safe With Tetra's?

[Mr Bee]

Hi, I'm wanting to add either some Cherry Shrimp, or Nerite Snails into my tank, both to eat some of the algae off the decor, and also for a bit of variety and something different.

I'm pretty much decided on getting some shrimps first, and maybe adding a couple of snails later. I have seen some shrimps in my LFS (not Cherries though, slightly larger variety) and they look quite cool climbing and scuttling about, and a little bit cute in a strange way!

But a few LFS I've tried so far dont sell the cherries, which I want as they are the smaller variety. You can get them online, but they all sell them as young ones at about 1cm big. I'm worried that at this size my tetras will either eat or harass them, and they will end up not surviving


What is your opinion, would 1cm Cherry Shrimp survive with my tetras, are they already too big to be attacked at that size??

I have 5 neons and 6 glowlights in a 60L (~14 uk gal.) tank.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Glowlights only get a little bigger than your average neon, right?

If so, the shrimp should be fine if you give them places to hide. Babies will be eaten if they come out, but not adults. Any snail will be fine with the fish too.

EDIT: Didn't notice you said they were only half an inch. They might be eaten, but neons and glowlights have small mouths, so I don't know.

 

[Wolfenrook]

I have succesfully bred and raised cherry shrimp in a heavily planted community aquarium with tetras, and powder blue dwarf gourami. Just make sure that they can hide really easily and that you start with a large group of shrimp. That way if you lose a few you still have enough to get a self sustaining colony going, even with a bit of predation which is almost guaranteed with tetras and baby cherry shrimp. If it wasn't for this predation my 180 litre would probably be overflowing with cherry shrimp rather than ticking over nicely.

Ade

 

[connorsbala]

Ive had amano shrimp and cherries in with community fish and they lived perfectly fine.
But, when i used de-chlorinated tap water in my community tank, everytime i added cherries, they died within minutes. Now, i put this down to being very sensitive to copper. But, since ive used RO, they've been fine. I have gotten rid of my community tank now and have a 70l dwarf puffer tank which consists of RO at a pH of 6.5, and my amano's thrive.
So, what im getting at is abvoid using water from the hot tap and avoid using medications which consist of copper too!

 

[Wolfenrook]

I use dechlorinated tap water in all of my set ups with shrimp in them with no bother. I agree with not using hot water from the tap however, although some folks disagree with me on this. If I really need to warm the water I just boil the kettle.

One bit of advice I would give though is to take care using different makes of dechlorinator. I have heard of crashes where 2 brands have reacted together and killed more sensitive shrimp. Don't fix what isn't broken, stick with the brand you always use.

Ade

 

[Mr Bee]

I use dechlorinated tap water in all of my set ups with shrimp in them with no bother. I agree with not using hot water from the tap however, although some folks disagree with me on this. If I really need to warm the water I just boil the kettle.

What is the problem of using water from the hot tap? I've not heard anything about this before.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

It supposedly picks up metals from the pipes. I have copper piping in my house, so I only use the cold tap, just in case.

 

[connorsbala]

It supposedly picks up metals from the pipes. I have copper piping in my house, so I only use the cold tap, just in case.

Precisely

 

[Mr Bee]

I have some shrimps

I got 6 cherries (3 girls & 3 boys!) and the shop got 3 tiny baby shrimp scooped in with them too, so there's 9 went in the tank.

I got them from Calder Valley Aquatics in Halifax, and I would reccommend this shop to anyone. I was very impressed with the place, fantastic stock, good wide selection, and very clean healthy tanks. The owner was very knowledgable and clearly interested in fish - a nice change from my LFS (pets @ home).

Anyway, the shrimp I got were juveniles, about 2cm long; and when I put them in the tank some of the Glowlights attacked them

They made their way into the plants and I shooed the glowlights away. But they came back out a bit later, and a glowlight had another nip at a shrimp before it ran away again. They were all well in hiding after that, and I've only managed to see a quick glimpse of a couple since then, under one of the tank decor.

Will the glowlights stop this nipping? - Is it a dominance thing or is it because its something small, if so will they leave the shrimps in peace when they get big enough??

By the way, how long does it take for CRS to get from ~2cm to full adult size??

 

[Mr Bee]

Just a quick bump!

Anyone got an idea on this Glowlight harassment??

 

[Shrimper]

Its not a species i've kept but with my Harlequins once they had realized the shrimp were too big to eat they gave up trying.

 

[Wolfenrook]

Its not a species i've kept but with my Harlequins once they had realized the shrimp were too big to eat they gave up trying.

My neons were the same, tried it on for a while before finally giving up. Not kept glowlights with shrimp, but ime they are less aggressive even than neons, so hopefully they will settle down given time.

Ade

 

[Mr Bee]

Cool, I think they might have calmed down a bit now. It was actually the glowlights that were showing aggression, while the neons completely ignored the shrimps. Since the first day, I have seen a shrimp sat on top of the filter eating algae off it for a good half hour or so, in the open, with neons and glowlights swimming past it. They must have seen it, but didn't look they were harrassing it at all.

I just hope they might have decided they're not worth the trouble, and will just wait for a big hand to drop some easy food onto the surface for them


The fish do keep swimming into the plants a bit more than they used to, perhaps investigating if there are any smaller shrimp which might be an easier meal?