Red Cherry Shrimp Help

[aemaki09]

I recently bought 2 berried female RCS and am having a little trouble deciding how to care for them. If anyone has experience and help answer some of my questions please let me know.

At the moment I have them in a 1 gallon unfiltered critter keeper. It has a gravel substrate and heavily planted with a ton of java moss, a marimo moss ball, duckweed, water wisteria, moneywort, and pennywort. It doesnt have a heater but the temperature stays at 70* day and night which is in their range from what I have read.

As soon as I get one of my girls out of QT I plan on moving them into a 2.5 gallon tank that will be heated and filtered. How many more RCS could I add to that size of tank?

What type of food should I feed? At the moment I have all sorts of betta pellets, hikari micro pellets, omega one tropical flakes, algea wafers, and API *i think* bottom feeder pellets. I have been feeding 1 bottom feeder pellet each morning and if they eat it all I add one in at night too. Should I add anything else that I have to their diet, or buy something else? I know my ghost shrimp really enjoy scavenging for my betta pellets so I wasnt sure if that should be added?

Any special care for their babies? I have never had shrimp babies before.

Can they interbreed with ghost shrimp? Will Ghost shrimp kill the babies?

I have read that they dont need a filter as long as their parameters and temperature stay stable, is this correct? (I really hope so because I'll have to order a sponge filter online until I can get them into the other tank)


Any other advice or info would be greatly appreciated!

[Aluka]

i'm not sure if you want to keep them with ghost shrimps, cause ghost shrimps have claws and can be slightly aggressiveness (females one, they are much bigger than the cherry)

Don't feed them everyday, you'll get those lil white worms from too much food left over. If its heavily planted, the shrimps will eat the bio film off them. I brought some sinking veggy sticks made for shrimps on the plantedtank forums, and i feed my shrimps 1/5 of a stick every 3 days(i have 2 adults and 15 shrimplets). (the person that sold me them has about 40 shrimps and he feeds them 1 stick every 3 days)

If you are moving the females into a filter tank, make sure its a sponge filter. If its one of those overhanging filters u might want to put a pantyhose over the intake, or the babies will get suck in. They are really tiny. I don't filter my shrimp colony, but i do a water change every 2 days.

When you change water, don't use a gravel vaccum, you'll suck out the babies, Carefully scoop out water and check every cup you scoop out if there is a baby. Use a turkey baster to clean the bottom.

[Silverfang]

if you just have the two females (for now). Then a tiny sliver or few crumbles of algae wafer will be enough. VERY little. Talking grains. Something the size of a betta pellet would be TONS.

For my shrimplets, they eat naturally growing organisms. And they hang out in the salvinia to graze. (floaters!)

[tekkguy]

You can easily support 30 shrimp in the 2.5. More if you keep an eye on the water. They are hardy but sensitive to water. They do not need a heater or filtration but they will appreciate it and breed better in the heat. Get the moved before those eggs hatch because you will never, ever find all of the babies in a planted tank! They are almost invisible for about a week and my two week old babies are still incredibly tiny.

One more note... No special food is required for the babies. And yes, do not keep them with ghost shrimp. I've seen an aggressive ghostie rip a full grown red female in half.

[aemaki09]

Thanks guys! I guess I better get them moved ASAP.