# mystery of the vanishing cherries



## craig mason (25 Feb 2017)

in my tank its quite well planted with annubias i put 18 shrimp in it but can only see a few of them
the tank is 30 litre
it contains 6 ember tetra 2 coolie loach its powered by a superfish aquaflow 100 internal filter


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## Progen (25 Feb 2017)

It's hard to say what will eat them. I've bought them a few times for my 50ish gallon and they kept disappearing. Other than a few dead ones when the damned mangrove driftwood was leaching stuff and 2 in the canister filter, I've never found any bodies. The only fishes are neon tetras, dwarf puffers (slightly suspect) and otocinculuses.  Main suspect would be the 3 Indian whisker shrimps but I reckon even seemingly harmless fishes or other inverts will eat them if given the chance.


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## louis_last (25 Feb 2017)

Progen said:


> dwarf puffers (slightly suspect)


that's your guilty party right there.


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## zozo (25 Feb 2017)

Open top? The floor? Behind the cabinet?..


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## KipperSarnie (26 Feb 2017)

This really is spooky!
Must be a worm hole!
Never bought a shrimp in my life yet at last count I managed 24 Red Shrimp in my Discus tank in the house!


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## rebel (26 Feb 2017)

You need to have a hidden camera to catch those Khuli loaches eating your shrimp.


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## zozo (26 Feb 2017)

With cherries you need some numbers and give them hiding places to crawl in and under. So they or not for reach for bigger predators. And keep the smaller predators out of there for a few months. Once cherries start to multiply they are unstoppable, they breed faster than predators can eat them.
Just give them some time..

I started with 30 in my 110 litre tank, have barbs and trichopsis pumilas, both hunt and eat shrimp, but i see my shrimp numbers only go up. Have over a 100 now.. But gave them places in my scape, where nothing can reach the fry living there. Planning to extend the population with Dario's. to keep the shrimp numbers in check.

While back i threw 3 juvenile cherry shrimps in a 25 litre tank with no fish, now 4 months later i stopped counting at 25.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (26 Feb 2017)

The internal filter is also a possibility, have you emptied it. The puffer is definitely in the frame as well BTW. I have put loads in my 100ltr tank and don't see many of them. Possibly 6/7 at a time even though there should be 40+ in there from a previous shrimp set up. I'm hoping they will breed but no signs of any berried yet. They bred like wild fire in the shrimp tank so I can only assume the presence of fish is unnerving them. Filters are shrimp killers IMO. Without a mesh on the in take they either get sucked into the canister or worse killed. 

I use glass lilly pipes on my tank and one week my mesh intake broke so I left it off until a new one came. In the mean time I found 3 RCS dead stuck to the inlet slot on the lilly and managed to save one which I caught in time. I think they investigate around the slots then the force of the current traps them.


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## SinkorSwim (2 Mar 2017)

Filter if not shrimp proof could be a reason but IMO there isn't really a safe fish out there.. Ottos in my experience wont actively attempt to take on shrimp but shrimplets at their smallest will get hoovered up by any algae/bottom feeder intentionally or not.
Once fish get a taste for shrimp, they generally don't forget it and let's face it shrimp are usually on the menu.


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## alto (4 Mar 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Filters are shrimp killers IMO. Without a mesh on the in take they either get sucked into the canister or worse killed.


I use the stock Eheim filter intake & spray bar & have never seen shrimp "stuck" (& dying) on the intake ...shrimp life inside the canister varies from 0 - 50 (mostly small so possibly even released inside the filter - I only open it every few months)
If I have a thick Monte Carlo carpet the babies are all down inside it until they get to a bigger size.

S Vaillanti (chocolate gourami type) are the only fish I've kept that appear completely shrimp safe - they won't even eat frozen brine shrimp  Recently observed a poor Vaillanti boy stuck in a shrimp triangle - they all had perfectly delicious bloodworms while his was inedible - he looked longingly at each shrimp in turn, then finally concluded none were willing to share & wandered off ...... 
(S osphromenoides would've dived right in to snatch every bloodworm, though I've never seen an outright shrimp attack)


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