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By Jake Admin Plantgeek.
This link has the photos as well

I found this while looking for some info about the Shrimp I recently bought.
I also had to do a bit of editing as it did not like the cut and paste etc.

If I have missed any thig please let me know and I will fix it.

RED CHERRY SHRIMP
First, I would like to cover the basic general water parameters and conditions I keep my red cherry shrimp in.

The basics:

Water parameters-

Temp: 74-76 F
Ph: 7.0 - 7.8
Gh: medium hard, or 8-12 German degrees, approximately
Ammonia/nitrite: 0
Nitrates: 5-10ppm
kh: irrelevant, but 1 German degrees or higher preferable

I have found the temp to be optimal, and the shrimp do require a bit of hardness to the water, but the most important thing is the ammonia and nitrites. If you have any at all, the shrimp will be the first ones to tell you, more than likely. A significant spike of either and you can count on having to pick up some dead shrimp.

Food-
Crab and lobster bites - I use HBH, but Hikari and other brands are fine too. Preferably sinking.
Blanched spinach- finely chopped. Feed sparingly...takes them awhile to eat it.
Homemade foods - under plant geek articles look for homemade frozen veggie food, diy.
Flake food - I prefer the omega one veggie flakes, but any quality veggie/spirulina algae flake.
Algae wafers- I prefer omega one veggie discs, but they will eat any algae wafer.
Algae-ridden plants - I routinely drop plants in there from other tanks that have algae on them. Good food for the shrimp, nice service for me.

Stocking-
The bioload of these shrimp are minimal, so there really is not a good rule that I know of as far as how many per gallon to have. The food you feed them is going to have more of an impact on the bioload, so keep that in mind. You can not have 895 shrimp in a ten gallon even if the filtration could take the bioload, simply due to the fact that it could not take the bioload of the food if any is left uneaten. If I had to say a general stocking rule, I would go with 2 per gallon I guess, conservatively speaking.

Tank mates-
Any aggressive fish are usually out of the running for shrimp tank mates. If planning to breed the cherry shrimp, most fish are out period, as red cherry babies tend to look an awful lot like baby brine shrimp... and probably taste close to the same as well. Big fish like Oscars, larger cichlids, etc. will enjoy the red cherries as a snack, but not as a tank mate. Loaches and similar species of scavenging crustacean eaters are also likely to find an opportune meal in a shrimp tank mate.

Fish I have had shrimp with that do not mess with them: Guppies, cardinal tetras, neon tetras, harlequin rasboras, corydoras, snails, Siamese algae eaters, and similar species. I have had a few red cherries in my 75 gallon with zebra loaches, gold zebra loaches, Bolivian rams, and a lot of other fish I did not think would work with them, but somehow the shrimp remain. I am not sure if it is due to the heavy plant coverage or they are just smart shrimps

Substrate:
In a species/breeding tank for shrimp, the thinner the better. I want the filtration to be able to suck up everything without me having to go in there with a gravel vac. I use just enough sand or gravel to cover the bottom of the tank to prevent any optical illusions to the shrimp, and for appearances sake. Shrimp primarily go for floating plants as their favourite anyway, but if potted plants are desired, the small terra cotta pots from the garden centre work just fine with some Schultz aquatic soil or planted tank substrate for planting those rooted plants.

Breeding:
Males are generally smaller and of a more transparent coloration than the females, although I have seen totally transparent red cherries carrying eggs, so the coloration is not written in stone. Mood, food, lighting, water parameters, etc, all factor in as to the coloration of a red cherry shrimp at any particular time. The various stages of their molting and age are also factors. Suffice it to say, I would recommend starting out with at least ten shrimp to ensure you have both sexes. I started with 12, personally.

It takes approximately 28 days for a red cherry holding eggs for those eggs to hatch. The baby shrimp come out of the egg as miniature versions of the adult - no larval stage or anything. They do not need brackish or saltwater to develop.

There is nothing particularly special you have to do to get them to spawn. Provide good food, maintain good water parameters, and protect the baby shrimp from being sucked into the filter and it pretty much takes care of itself. A coarse sponge prefilter is not really good enough to prevent the baby shrimp from being sucked up, because the shrimp are so tiny, it is really not too hard for them to be sucked through the pores. I would recommend using a fine mesh filter bag, or similar material, rubber banded to the intake of a power filter. Even better, an air driven filter with no moving parts, such as penn plaxs bubbler filters. The corner filter they have is perfect, as it does not create huge disruptive bubbles. Preferably, you leave the top cover off of it so the chance of shrimp getting caught up in it is practically nil. My shrimp regularly graze the top filter floss for any treats that may have migrated there.




Additives/Maintenance:
Here is my list of the additives I use. I do not really have a scientific formula for any of them, but many are just for water hardness due to my medium soft water. If your water is not soft, many of these can be bypassed. I would mix most of these with the water change water and not dump in straight.

Seachem reef iodine Some say it helps the shrimp molt and they need it. Others say it does absolutely nothing. All I know is that the bottle is 10 bucks, and the dosage that is recommended by the people that say it is needed is negligible. It is not going to do any harm, and a ten dollar bottle is going to last infinitely, so Why not? I say. I add a little squirt into the water change water.

Seachem Equilibrium: I use it to maintain a good general hardness in my shrimp tanks. It contains calcium needed for the shrimps shell, plus magnesium, iron, manganese, and soluble potash. None will hurt the shrimp, and they will particularly like the calcium and magnesium.

Oceanic natural sea salt: It has calcium, buffers, and I heard shrimp like a little bit of salt. I probably add no more than two teaspoons per 5 gallons of water change water. If the shrimp do not like it, I sure can not tell. The tiniest bag they sell is lasting me forever, so it goes along with my iodine theory.

Plant ferts: I have not mentioned it yet, but plants are a big A+ in any shrimp tank, especially floating plants. Guppy grass, some floating pearl grass, etc. many work great. Red cherries particularly enjoy hanging upside down from them like bats, many times using this leverage to skim the surface of the water for whatever goodies they can find. I would fertilize the tank as normal, and not worry about plantex csm+b having copper in it or whatever. PMDD, Seachems Flourish Trace, Tropica Master grow. I have used them all in shrimp tanks without any negative effects.

Crushed coral: What can I say, I love the stuff. I put it in the filter and it gives me the calcium I am looking for. Gh/kh/ph in the filter, what could be better? I tend to use this but keep the other stuff on hand for any touch ups I feel like making. I use the CaribSea Florida crushed coral.

For the maintenance part, I wanted to touch upon how to safely perform a water change without sucking up baby shrimp, if you are setting up a shrimp breeding tank. I use standard airline from the LFS and a cheapo air valve. On the end that I plan to put in the water, I secured a little patch of pantyhose to the end with a rubber band, then suck start the siphon with a large turkey baster the one I have is just the right size for that, then empty into a 5 gal jug. It may take awhile, but there are not any baby shrimp going in your water change water either. Other people have said they use a fine mesh over their python. Whatever your method, keep in mind that baby red cherry shrimp are smaller than baby brine shrimp. At least to my eyes they are. If baby brine can go through it, so can a red cherry baby. When I am done, I just close the valve and hang the line up. There is enough water in it so that when I go to water change the next time, what comes out when I open the valve will be enough to start the siphon again. It could also be hard rigged with airline holders and be a permanent fixture in the tank.

In summary:
Red cherry shrimp can live in lower temperatures than I recommend, but too low and they wont breed. I have heard of people having them survive brief periods of 55-60F water, but that is far from optimal. They are a fairly hardy group of critters, but very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites especially. High nitrates are also not a good thing. They enjoy plants above all, and I have found them to thrive with a good supply of floating plants. This also helps to curtail any ammonia/nitrite problems. I recommend one of those Ammonia alerts from Seachem if you really want piece of mind about that, though. It will keep you from standing over your tank and burning those test kits up.

As a side note, they do NOT occur in the wild naturally, although Neocaridina denticulata sinensis do. The red variation known, as Red Cherry shrimp were first bred in Taiwan, so they are said to be from that region, but they are not a naturally occurring colour variation. I felt I should dispel that myth due to the questions I have received about depleting the wild numbers of these animals.

These shrimp, like most other similar crustaceans, they do not have a particularly long lifespan, nor do they get very big, but they are rewarding to keep and raise nonetheless. They are more entertaining then one would think I sometimes see them grab a piece of food or plant and surf it down to the substrate before letting go one of their many antics. They are not fish and you probably wont name them, but once you have had shrimp in your tank, it is hard to imagine a tank without them.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
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Dont you think its only fair to mention the site/person that you took this information from? I do.

I think he was having a 'grandpa moment' and forgot.

---

Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

Thank you Lindy it is also called a bad cold and very bad dose of Bronchitis month+++.

Lindy its "Great grandpa moment"

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Cherry's are bomb proof. I put a pregnant female in a 1.5 gallon bowl, with no filtration or food, and there aer now 5 living in there, being sustained off of things that grow in the water and on the java moss.
One thing to mention, dont the shrimp get sick when they encounter copper, so their food shouldn't have any in it?