Do you have Cherry Shrimp?

[Fishmanic]

I just bought 6 cherry shrimp. I hear they reproduce readily. Do you have cherry shrimp?
If you do have cherry shrimp, what has been your experience with the shrimp reproducing. Am I going to have a problem in my 5 gallon tank? . Am I going to now have a shrimp exposion in my tank?
I have a larger gravel substrate. I probably would have been better off with a sand substrate. What do you have for a substrate in your shrimp tank?

What do you feed your Cherry Shrimp?

I do have a 29 gallon tank in which I can add Cherry Shrimp if they reproduce in my 5 gallon.

 

[Ram419]

I put 3 red cherry shrimp in my 5 gallon about half a year ago now. Then another 3 about two months after the first 3. I now have many shrimps in the tank but very reasonable numbers. There a single betta that's always been in the tank too. Heavly planted.

 

[Fishmanic]

@Ram419
Maybe your Betta has been eating some of your shrimp.
I just don't want another fry overload like what happened in my 29 gallon which originally had 2 adult BN pleco which spawned and created an expolsion of 48 Pleco fry. I brought most of the Plecos fry to my LFS today. What a relief to rehome them.

 

[Ram419]

Well, plecos are a bit larger than red cherries so I could see the concern. Perhaps my betta has maybe eaten some smaller baby shrimp. I don't think betta could eat the more grown ones though.

 

[Fishmanic]

I figure the LFS probably has loads of cherry shrimp so I fear they won't take any excess cherry shrimp from my tanks.

 

[Ram419]

I've never tried to give any excess of anything yet to a LFS. Although, I have a load of guppies now, so maybe they will take them? IDK, the male guppies I bought from one LFS said they were locally bread so maybe they will. Those males are the ones that caused the explosion. haha

 

[Fishmanic]

I've never tried to give any excess of anything yet to a LFS. Although, I have a load of guppies now, so maybe they will take them? IDK, the male guppies I bought from one LFS said they were locally bread so maybe they will. Those males are the ones that caused the explosion. haha

I have always avoided guppys for that reason. Don't want another rehoming problem

 

[Ram419]

I have always avoided guppys for that reason. Don't want another rehoming problem

I've converted my 10 gallon quaratine tank to a female guppy tank now. Going to try and separate the males and females.

 

[connorlindeman]

I have neocardinia in a 10g. No predators. They have never outgrown the tank. The population stabilizes quickly.

 

[Fishmanic]

How do they self regulate? Do the fully grown shrimp eat the fry?
How many can I expect to get in my 5 gallon tank. I have 6 new ones in the tank at the moment.

 

[Ram419]

I think the regulation is in relation to how much food is available to them. So if there's a lot of algae or extra fish food they will propagate more. I feed my betta dried blood worms and he always eats all of it. So there's never any left for the shrimp. I occasionally give the shrimp unsalted green beans or blanched kale. There's near to none algae in this tank, which I'm very happy about. One of the best ones I've done yet.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

How do they self regulate? Do the fully grown shrimp eat the fry?
How many can I expect to get in my 5 gallon tank. I have 6 new ones in the tank at the moment.

i used to have a large colony in my 20g long (i had well over 50 adults when i broke it down). i never witnessed adult shrimp eating fry because neo shrimp are scavengers so they won’t hunt live prey.

it shouldn’t take long for them to start reproducing, but you’ll want to add new blood (fresh shrimp) every once in a while so you don’t get inbred shrimp. because after a while inbred cherries are brown and dirty looking, if you want to keep a good strain definitely add fresh shrimp every once in a while.

they should thrive in a 5g, their bioload is very small so i wouldn’t worry about “overstocking” but 6 isn’t that many at all. just make sure they have plenty of live plants and are well fed and you’ll be good to go.

 

[Fishmanic]

@ pheonixking
What did you feed your shrimp. I fear that my larger gravel substrate wont allow much food to sit on the surface.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Hi! Cherry shrimp are said to be illegal in my state due to them being non-native shrimp. Only chameleon shrimp and other native shrimp can be sold in fish stores.

 

[seangee]

How do they self regulate? Do the fully grown shrimp eat the fry?
How many can I expect to get in my 5 gallon tank. I have 6 new ones in the tank at the moment.

As the population grows the rate of reproduction decreases. When the population decreases the reproduction rate goes back up so over time the population is fairly stable. Unlike guppies they are not wired to reproduce at all costs.