My cherry shrimp get right up in the weed near the surface and get the fish flakes as they are blown past by the filter. Once all the obvious free floating flakes are gone the cherries then move on to cleaning the weed, the filter inlet and I have even seen them brave the school of catfish for any special tidbits on the floor of the tank. I have even watched the larger cherries grab a huge (in comparision to their size) peice of flake food and swim off with it to some hidy hole to eat in peace. Because the tank is planted and has some rock ornamnets and the only other inhabitants are a school of catfish (and about a thousand unwanted snails) the Cherry Shrimp get a few special treats like sinking wafers and shrimp pellets more so by chance than design. But they seem happy enough....I started out with 12 and at last count got around 50 and have noticed more females carrying eggs. So very soon I'll be splitting the colony and putting some in another tank to see how they survive my husbands piranha like guppies (his guppies are so mad if you put your hand in the tank to do anything in there the stupid things think your arm/ hand is food and if you try to net 1 the entire lot try getting in the net as well
). I plan to eventually get Cherry Shrimp in all bar the Pakistani Loach tank as I fear the Pak's will just view the shrimp as an easier lunch than the snails they currently munch.
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