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Advice for cherry shrimp set-up - now with pic

George Farmer

George Farmer

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UKAPS Team
Joined
30 Jun 2007
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Location
Cambridgeshire
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! :thumbup:
 
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 :)
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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 :D

Regards
 
Re: Advice for cherry shrimp set-up

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

5373052755_2ffc39d8b1_z.jpg


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!? :thumbup:
 
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
 
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.
 
RudeDogg1 said:
looks realy nice, as do all your scapes it makes me sick! lol

Rudi
Click to expand...

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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