Cherry Shrimp.....

[BallAquatics]

I've been chatting with a young fellow over on the TFH forum about raising some Red Cherry shrimp and it lead to me dragging out some of my old photos.

Long story short, about 10 years ago I got some Red Cherry shrimp in some java moss I bought on E-Bay.  They weren't anything special and for about 6 months I just had them in a plastic shoe box by the window sill in the fish room.  I wasn't really sure I even wanted to fool around with them.



Well eventually I set them up in a 10 gallon with some moss and a sponge filter.  With selective breeding I got them to be very red.



They were very easy to keep and in big demand so I started selling them on E-Bay.  They reproduced like rabbits and I kept working with them to get better color.



I was hoping to get a rich deep red burgundy colored shrimp.  I had just about gotten there and I switched gears and stopped keeping shrimp.  Looking at these old photos brought back some fond memories.



Dennis

[Mugwump]

They are interesting little creatures....what did you feed them?...anything special?....how many to an average spawn??...what fry food is best?....

[wsantia1]

Those were nice looking shrimp.

[BallAquatics]

Thanks Willie.

...what did you feed them?...anything special?....how many to an average spawn??...what fry food is best?....

I fed them very little actually.  They get much of their food by grazing on bio-film growing inside the tank.  For that reason, they do much better in and established aquarium rather than a new set-up.  When I did feed them, they got algae wafers, veggie sticks, and sometimes plain old flake fish food.  You have to be very careful to not over feed them as they don't require much at all. 

A mature female would drop 25+ baby shrimp.  They get what's called a saddle just before they molt and spawn.  It looks like this.....



Once they molt, they carry the eggs under their tail so it's easy to tell how many females you have they are going to produce young.



I never found it necessary to feed the fry anything different from the adults.  The sponge filter was one of their favorite feeding places as it has an abundance of bio-film growing there.....



Dennis

[Mugwump]

Thanks, Dennis....good explanation....

[PaulineMi]

You sure do have a touch with all things aquatic Dennis.  Nice.

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[BillT]

Nice little shrimps Dennis.
I used to collect crayfish when I was a kid. They are very similar to crayfish (both are decapod crustaceans).

[BallAquatics]

Thank you Pauline.  I have been blessed with good fortune in my aquatic adventures over the years.   

I used to collect crayfish when I was a kid.

Same here Bill.  I can't imagine how many hours I spent in the creeks and farm ponds around my childhood home.  I generally tell people I've been keeping fish since I was 8 years old in 1965, but I was keeping a multitude of creatures in buckets and jars for many years before that.   

I still have a soft spot for crayfish and have several scattered about the fish room.....



My Marble crayfish often stand up on their tails and wave their claws around when I walk by like they are saying, "Hey, over here.  Drop me in one of those veggie sticks!"  Very entertaining to say the least.  They are the first thing the grand kids want to see when the come out to the fish room.

Dennis

[b125killer]

They are interesting shrimp Dennis. I had some ghost shrimp a while back. I think that shrimp are neat the way they go about there business.

[BillT]

My Marble crayfish often stand up on their tails and wave their claws around when I walk by like they are saying, "Hey, over here.  Drop me in one of those veggie sticks!"  Very entertaining to say the least.  They are the first thing the grand kids want to see when the come out to the fish room.

For a few years i worked on crayfish in a lab and was taking care of about 200-300. Most of them we raised from little guys (maybe 2 mm), a few from eggs.
Most of them were pretty normal but few of them definitely had different personalities. Some were kind of mopy, not very active, not aggressive. Some were just the opposite, very aggressive, alert, probably more active eaters too.

[PaulineMi]

At least I now know I'm not letting my imagination get away from me when I notice a type of personality in my Amano shrimp compared to my cherry shrimp.   

[JR]

Bought some ghost shrimp a while back. They were fun. They did not last long. My Pearl Gourami ate them.