MAY be getting 2 cherry shrimp on thursday - I HAVE QUESTIONS!

[cjayBetta]

How do I take care of them??

What do they eat?

Do they do well with bettas?

Do they mind the heat? (bettas heater)

Do they eat plants?

Do I need more hidey places (3 in the 5g and 2 big ones in the 10g)

[Tobythefish]

I got cherry shrimp on monday and they are really fun. You might want to get about 4 so that they will breed.
How do I take care of them?? They're easy to take care of, stick to the normal water change schedule.

What do they eat? Any fish food and live plants. Will also eat algae wafers.

Do they do well with bettas? From what I've heard, they can survive if there are a ton of hidey holes. Ghost shrimp would be a better choice to go with bettas, I'm keeping the RCS in their own tank.

Do they mind the heat? (bettas heater) tolerate wide range of temp, 60-90 F.

Do they eat plants? Yes, but not enough to hurt the plants as far as I can tell.

Do I need more hidey places (3 in the 5g and 2 big ones in the 10g) You'll need tons of hidey holes with bettas, java moss is a very good plant for them to hide in.

[Oldfishlady]

RCS or Red cherry shrimp are easy to care for, however, some Betta love them too much and will hunt them down either killing them or tearing them to piece to eat....Some do and some don't bother them-you can increase odds of their survival by having lots of hiding place for them that the Betta can't get into-a mass of java moss works great.

They will eat any leftover food from the Betta and graze on some algae and microorganism in the tank-Mine have never eaten my live plants-but they do graze on dead plant material.

Filtration can sometimes be an issue for them-HOB and canister type due to them being sucked into them-often baby shrimp will survive the trip through the impeller-so its a good idea to check the filter box on occasion for life-even better to not use those type of filters or use sponge filters with shrimp.

Temp that Bettas are kept in are tolerated by the shrimp-shrimp can be sensitive to high nitrate levels and to some plants foods, medications-especially copper based, some additives, excel by Prime when overdosed can kill shrimp-be sure and check label before use.

Reproduce pretty fast and they don't eat their young like the ghost shrimp are known to do-

[cjayBetta]

Oh, perfect :) These dont seem hard to take care of at all! Few extra plants and Ill be good to go.

Thanks for the quick replys guys!

[sparkyjoe]

I'm no expert, but I have a few Cherry Shrimp in one of my 5 gallon betta tanks so I'll do my best...

How do I take care of them?? - I don't do anything special so far. My tanks do have live plants, and a small bit of algae, so they are eating well and growing fast. They all started out small, all of a similar size at about 1/2 inch and now I've got at least one that's clearly bigger and showing a saddle, so hopefully I'll see baby shrimps in the near future.

What do they eat? - As I mentioned, I have live plants and some green algae so they've been eating everything they can, but I also didn't put my shrimp into a new tank so they had some natural food available. I may look into shrimp "food" or they may just enjoy the frozen brine shrimp I already have for my betta.

Do they do well with bettas? - Some do and some don't. The boy my shrimps are in with initially chased and tormented the little shrimp, but they've reached an agreement and he don't bother them now. Doesn't mean he wouldn't eat one if he had the chance.

Do they mind the heat? (bettas heater) - Mine are fine with the warmth.

Do they eat plants? - They don't seem to "eat" live plants, but I have seen then gnawing on the dead/dropped leaves from the Anacharis plant.

Do I need more hidey places (3 in the 5g and 2 big ones in the 10g) - You can never have too many bolt holes and hiding places. I have a big clump of Java Moss in my tank. When in a tank with a betta they need lots of places to hide, particularly when they molt because they're really vulnerable at that time.

I'm sure some experts can give you more advice.

[cjayBetta]

Perfect, now im pumped to go get them now!

Hopefully my LPS has some when they get their new shipment tomorrow because usually they only carry ghost shrimps but I would prefer cherry :)

Oooo now to think of names! :P:P:P