Thinking of Cherries Again...

[Ben M]

Hi, I'm thinking of cherries again for my 4ft tank now i have got rid of the kribs. the tank is about 4 years old, so is matured. the stocking is 7 lemon BN's, 6 Corydoras aeneus, 2 Corydoras copei, 19 Trigonostigma hengeli, 5 SAE's and 12 kuhli loaches. the tank is well planted, and will soon be planted even heavier, as i'm going to be planting some more plants on the weekend.

all water stats are fine: no ammonia or nitrites, and the nitrates are kept at around 20. i've never used any medications containing copper. do you think that the cherry shrimp will be ok in here? and with lots of cover could they successfully breed?

also, my brother has a juwel lido 120, and when he moves on his kribs could he have cherry shrimp? the stocking will be: 8 silvertip tetras, 6 cherry barbs, 5 tiger barbs, a pair of lemon BN's and maybe some more fish (undecided, but i will check their shrimp compatibility before buying).

will this tank be ok? it is also heavily planted with tons of hiding places.

cheers

 

[Themuleous]

Cherries would be fine in the 4ft I'm sure. The barbs in the lido would concern me though, as I've see the odessa barbs in my tank making short work of cherries quite a few times.

Sam

 

[Ben M]

thanks. i did wonder about the tiger barbs. i think the cherry barbs would be fine with them, as they have small mouths and don't really seem bothered about baby kribs. how big where the odessa barbs when they were eating the cherries? because they grow a lot bigger than tigers don't they?at the moment i have a load of young kribs in the lido (which will be gone soon), and they are about 1cm, but the tiger barbs don't attempt to eat them. and there is lots of cover, so the tigers probably won't see them much anyway.

what do you think?

cheers

 

[Arana]

I have cherry barbs and they are fine with the shrimp, they were inquisitive at first but once they realised they weren't going to fit in their mouths they gave up looking at them like they were a kebab after a night out on the beer

 

[Ben M]

thanks, does anybody know what tiger barbs are like with cherries?

cheers

 

[basil]

If the fish can get the shrimp into it's mouth it's a meal - simple! Yes your adult shrimp will live and breed but the shrimp colony will not reach anywhere near it's potential as the babies will get eaten for sure. Chances are the adult shrimp will feel threatened too and spend most of the time in hiding.

 

[Ben M]

so is it just the nano and the 4ft that will be ok?

cheers