# Advice for cherry shrimp set-up - now with pic



## George Farmer (20 Jan 2011)

I've just set up my first ever shrimp-only tank for Cherry shrimp.

It's an Orca MT30, 25 litres.

TMC nutraSoil, Sumatra wood covered in Java moss, needle fern, Anubias and hairgrass.  A very simple and low maintenance aquascape!

Tap water is pH 7.6, KH 7, GH 14.  Temp is 26C.

Dosing 1ml TPN+, 1ml Excel per day.

Water change 50% per week.

Does the about set-up sound ok?  

The shrimp have been breeding like crazy in my Iwagumi already with similar spec, but more CO2 and nutrients.

What's the best food for them?  

Any other tips more than welcome!


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## Tom (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

When I was successful with Cherries (pre sodium-softened water), the tank was fairly moss-heavy and they seemed to live, feed and breed in it. I have never fed them specifically, they just seem to eat tiny things in the moss. I bought 3 originally, and lost count at 200 when I stripped "At Forest's Gate" 70-80ish days later


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## andyh (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

George

With Cherries its simple just add water!

They are tough buggers and can survive in a huge range of conditions, all you stats looking fine.
Diet is important, try not to feed fish foods, try algae wafers and shrimp foods. Also feed lean and not every day. If they are in a planted tank they will do very well. Moss is always a winner.

Andy


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## Garuf (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Everything seems in order, shirmps as a general rule do best when they have access to leaf litter as most naturally occur in cool fast-ish flowing rivers/streams that have little to no vegetation, a sandy gravel substrate and quiet high levels of leaf mulm in the quieter regions. 
I did a tonne of research to find out why I couldn't keep them, I'll try and find you the link. 
I'd go lower with your temperature, 22-24c is plenty warm enough and some anecdotal evidence suggest they do best when the temperature is allowed to naturally fluctuate.


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## milla (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Sounds like a nice setup, cherries should thrive in it.
As garuf has said already i would reduce your temps by 2 or 3 degrees. 
As for food something with added calcium helps reduce fatalities during moulting, something like hikari crab cuisine mine also go mental for home made algea wafers (well lumps actually )made from powdered spirulina (spelling)and a crumb type food or powedered flake,moulded into balls with a bit of tank water.
I have also found that adding GH booster once a month helps reduce fatalities during moulting.
And avoid adding hot water from the tap(of course you knowthis one anway)made this mistake recently and lost half my population overnight due to copper poisoning.


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## dw1305 (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Hi all,
Same as the others, I've cooked a few in the summer because the tank got too much sunlight and not enough flow, but other than that they've just got on with it. They really like a filter sponge (and dead leaves as Garuf said) to have a go at, when I come to clean the sponge it will be plastered with shrimps.  I think they've multiplied more quickly since I've fed them occasionally with the "Astax Red crumb" from TA Aquaculture <http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Dried_Foods.htm> and Sweet Potato once a week (I usually give them a small slice of Cucumber or Courgette every day). I've also found that they are very keen on any loose Grindal worms they can find that the fish have missed. 

I had a bit of a surprise recently, I've been feeding my spare shrimps to the _Apistogrammas_, and I had assumed that there weren't any shrimps in their tank. A few nights ago I went to try and remove some fish when they were asleep at night and there were 2 large female RCS on the filter. They would have gone in as big "shrimplets" at the biggest, so they must have lasted several months, presumably by only feeding at night.

cheers Darrel


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## George Farmer (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Thanks guys!

Some great advice there. 

I will post a pic soon if anyone is interested?


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## Tom (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Interested


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## andyh (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

pictures asap please


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## Antoni (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

The setup sound fine to me. Any of the described food will do. I have treated them with Hikari and Shirakura, but just because I had some at home   

Waiting for the pictures   

Regards


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## George Farmer (20 Jan 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*

Here you go.  I'm quite excited about this actually!





I have some Hikari Sinking Wafers (free with the lastest issue of PFK) which contain spirulina and calcium iodate and all sorts of stuff that sounds very healthy.  Might even try one myself! lol

The heater is preset to 26C.  

Maybe I could put the heater on a timer (2 hours on, 2 off or something) to induce a slight temperature swing?

Are there any thoughts on this?  Does anyone have any good links regarding best temperatures?  I've read lots of conflicting info.

What's the best shrimp forum around these days - except this one, of course!?


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## RudeDogg1 (20 Jan 2011)

looks realy nice, as do all your scapes it makes me sick! lol

Rudi


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## Themuleous (20 Jan 2011)

Guessing those are the cherries I sent you? They are great little critters, always busy  I love them.

I feed mine a good helping of this each day. If there is any left the next day they haven't eaten I leave it and feed them the next day, but to be honest thats a rare thing really.

http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/ ... -2126.html

Sam


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## George Farmer (20 Jan 2011)

Yes, Sam. One of the best £20 I've ever spent! 

Thanks for the link.  Hikari do seem to be one of the best dry foods around.


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## Garuf (20 Jan 2011)

If you go on ASW email Chris laukhaup or contact him via crusta10 he's collected them wild in china so would be the best to ask. I'm pretty certain it was surprisingly low, something like 16 day 14 night. You just have to remember that heat is in control of metabolism so they may breed faster but are likely to be stunted or lead shorter lives. You'll find that info will always conflict when an organism is so hardy and very much removed from the wild collections.

High protien diets, those meant for discus especially will give you faster growth/larger broods more often.


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## nry (20 Jan 2011)

RudeDogg1 said:
			
		

> looks realy nice, as do all your scapes it makes me sick! lol
> 
> Rudi



Funny, I thought exactly that 

My cherries from the same source seem fine at getting to the egg stage, then they hide for a few days, next thing I know, all the eggs are gone and there are no babies.  My last setup and mixed 'amano' shrimp was like a shrimp paradise, they bred like rabbits


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## Antoni (20 Jan 2011)

Great pic and scape, George!

I have been keeping red cherries without a heater in a room tempreture of 22-24 degrees C, so in the tank must be about 20-22. They used to breed fine!

Regards


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## Tom (21 Jan 2011)

I've always kept mine at room temp too


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## George Farmer (21 Jan 2011)

Thanks, guys.

I'll turn off the heater and note any differences.  Hopefully the crypts won't mind either.


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## LondonDragon (21 Jan 2011)

Cherries do fine at temps of 26C, I had mine breeding at 30C before.


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## George Farmer (21 Jan 2011)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Cherries do fine at temps of 26C, I had mine breeding at 30C before.


See what I mean?!  Conflicting advice!

Thanks, Paulo.  I think you're probably one of the most experienced shrimp keepers on here, so I'll bear that in mind.


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## ghostsword (21 Jan 2011)

I have two tanks with Cherry shrimp at home, one is at 24C the other at 16-18C (no heater). They seemed fine in both tanks, but the ones on the cooler tank grow slower, and I have not seen any shrimplets yet on the cooler tank. 

From my observations, and from the habitat they come from,  what shrimp need is good oxygenated water, the temp may vary.


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## Tom (21 Jan 2011)

Just tried mine on one of those PFK wafers


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## JenCliBee (21 Jan 2011)

If i remember correctly (been a while since ive kept cherries), optimal temps are 22-24 for breeding, higher temps will just slow the breeding down and lowering will just slow the breeding and growth.

Having it to warm like most fish above it's ideal temp just metabolise quicker and results in quicker growing generally larger shrimp but usually a slightly shorter life expectancy.

Lovely looking tank George, im sure the shrimp will love it.


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## Gill (22 Jan 2011)

I like cherries and agree that they are very robust. 
I have them outdoors in one of those blue builders barrels ( will be checking them on return).
I have them in unheated bowl that sits on the kitchen windowsill.
I have them in another unheated bowl, that sits on the living room windowsill. This one gets alot of sun and houses daphnia will them with a  pair of Gold HF.
The lowest I have kept them at was around 15degrees and they were fine.


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## Mark Webb (22 Jan 2011)

Looks really nice George. I have always kept mine at 23°C and they breed very well. Did you do a fishless cycle before adding Shrimp? If so how long for? I am interested in the TMC Nutrasoil but can't find an online stockist? Can you suggest one?

I feed Algae Wafer and JBL Novo Prawn.


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## Garuf (22 Jan 2011)

Oh eye spy, white sand foreground photo of the shrimps, fully planted substrate photo? I sense a rescape!
Tank looks great, good luck, like I say, when a animal is so adaptable many people will offer information claiming it to be optimal so it's something I'm not at all surprised by.


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## bigmatt (11 Apr 2011)

Any update George?  I'm about to set up a shrimp nano myself so i'd be really interested to know ho you got on. And a slight hijack - i fed my shrimp Aqua El Crustabs (free with an Aqua El shrimp tank) and they went mad for it - suddenly they were all berried!  Does anyone know a UK supplier as Google is drawing a blank!
Cheers!,
Matt


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## hotweldfire (11 Apr 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*



			
				George Farmer said:
			
		

> Here you go.  I'm quite excited about this actually!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



This is the only one I'm registered on:
http://www.ukshrimp.co.uk/

Bit quiet but some clued up people on there.

This is a good blog site if you want to get into the crazy world of rarer species/highly selective breeding:
http://www.shrimp-attack.com/

I've kept mine in a range of temps and they've done fine but agree with others, they probably benefit from slightly cooler than the 26c that I usually keep them in. They've survived all sorts of catastrophes that have done for my CRS. The only thing that's resulted in actual death is adding Kusari dewormer (for nematode infested boraras) which lead to cracked shells. That was only the sakuras though (obviously more inbred), the majority survived that fine too.


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## a1Matt (11 Apr 2011)

*Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up*



			
				hotweldfire said:
			
		

> This is a good blog site if you want to get into the crazy world of rarer species/highly selective breeding:
> http://www.shrimp-attack.com/



I would advise NOT going on this forum.
You start off with a bit of drinking on the weekends, then the next thing you know your hitting the crack pipe every night.
It's all just too addictive  
See you all at shrimps anonymous (Hi, my name is Matt, and I currently have...)


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## hotweldfire (11 Apr 2011)

Seriously. 

Not long ago I almost went for some pandas off aquabid going for $80 a piece. Luckily my wife walked in the room as I was about to hit the bid button. Had they been blue bolts I probably would have hit it anyway.

Dangerous things shrimp.


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## spyder (12 Apr 2011)

Crisp, clean and fresh. Great use of space.   

Wood and moss is a winner for me.

Why are shrimp so addictive?


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## hotweldfire (12 Apr 2011)

Also this looks like a busy and useful site although haven't explored it much myself:
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/forum.php

Don't want to hijack George's thread but for me the addiction comes from the selective breeding. Much harder to do with fish.


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## cookie3985 (27 Apr 2011)

Gill said:
			
		

> I like cherries and agree that they are very robust.
> I have them outdoors in one of those blue builders barrels ( will be checking them on return).
> I have them in unheated bowl that sits on the kitchen windowsill.
> I have them in another unheated bowl, that sits on the living room windowsill. This one gets alot of sun and houses daphnia will them with a  pair of Gold HF.
> The lowest I have kept them at was around 15degrees and they were fine.



For some strange reason I read this post like a poem. Must be the layout.   and the fact I teach in a secondary school probably.


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