Cherry Shrimp and my Emperor 400...

[aquarob]

Ok, I have never even seen these shrimp, and supposedly they are very, very small. Like 1 inch full grown and rather skinny too. I want to get some type of shrimp for my 55g community, but I am worried these guys will get sucked to the intake on my filter and die. In fact, im almost sure thats what will happen. So, those are probably out. However, I do want some type of invert/shrimp to help my corydoras and Oto's to clean the tank. I am a clean freak, but hey, a fish in a clean tank is a happy fish. Thats the way I look at it. So, any suggestion on a good freshwater shrimp or crab for my tank? I cant do a lobster or crayfish because I dont want them trying to eat my tetras or corys. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

P.S. I am glad AC is back online. Missed you guys.

[hurricanejedi]

Bamboo (wood) shrimp can get to about 3". I see them at Petco a lot and they look pretty neat.

[YuccaPatrol]

I am interested in these Cherry shrimp too. To determine if shrimp would survive in my community tank, I bought a dozen or so ghost shrimp since they are cheaply sold as feeders. They are cleaning my java fern of some annoying algae that the snails can't get to and so far have not been bothered by my fish in 2 weeks.

If I end up getting the cherry shrimp, I will put them in my 10 gal quarrantine tank and grow them up before I set them loose with the fish.

Apparently they are easy enough to breed, so if I am smart I will keep a breeding colony in the quarrantine tank to ensure that I have a supply of them for my other aquariums.

[beviking]

Apparently they are easy enough to breed, so if I am smart I will keep a breeding colony in the quarrantine tank to ensure that I have a supply of them for my other aquariums.

No doubt about that! They are tough little buggers. I find them in my canister filter often enough. If you have a pre-filter on your intake (sponge covering the intake) the chances of a shrimp getting into the filter are smaller and those that do get into it will likely be small enough to get by the impeller and live inside the filter (for HOB types). I only clean my canister every 1 1/2-2 months and they just hang out until I put 'em back in the tank.

Fish will eat (try to eat) smaller/younger shrimp. I will say they are QUICK and even larger community fish (gouramis, anglefish, tetras) have a hard time (if not near impossible) catching and eating an adult Cherry Shrimp.

If you're worried about size, the amano(japonica) shrimp would be a better choice than the filter feeding wood shrimp. I agree with hurricanejedi though, the wood shrimp are neat.

AC's classifieds and aquabid are a cheaper source for Cherry Shrimp (and pretty much everything!) than the lfs!

-Bill

[hurricanejedi]

Where can you get a pre-filter? I would be worried about shrimp and fry getting into my canister as well.

[gagaliya]

the problem with those sponge prefilters are they also trap a lot of the dirt/gunk that suppose to go into the filter. So you ended up with a very dirty sponge prefilter in your tank very fast. For a community tank with small fish(small wastes) I think putting some sort of filter cloth(grid type) on the filter intake would prevent cherry getting sucked in while still large enough to allow the dirty stuff go through.

here's an example of the prefilter you can buy, they are mostly for fry tanks. But may work for you:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Aquarium-Baby-Fish-Saver-Pre-Filter-5-8-Sold-in-Lots_W0QQitemZ7743656877QQcategoryZ46310QQssPageNa meZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[ceatwood]

:OT: yep I am going to digress for one moment:
the problem with those sponge prefilters are they also trap a lot of the dirt/gunk that suppose to go into the filter. So you ended up with a very dirty sponge prefilter in your tank very fast.

I find this an odd statement.

So help me understand what is different about the sponge beign full of poop or the filter being full of poop? (not trying to critisize or anything, just wondering if I am missing something)

I do the prefilter on my canister only because:
A) it keeps the flow up on my canister wich otherwise gets clogged up pretty fast (I blame the pleco mostly :eek: I know, a shocking statement, someones gonna flame me for it!)
B) Everytime I water changes I can reach over, take it off, rinse it in the tank water and get of that much more poop rather than having it sucked into my filter and stay there increasing the nitrates that way.

I have noticed (not that I have done any real analysis on it) by looking through my old log of water conditions that the nitrates were higher before I started doing this, but that is not causation, only correllation, since I know many of my habits have changed as I get into fish keeping more.

BACK onto topic, will the shrimp bother any of the fish in any way? I would like to have an invert in my 10g community and now that I see the cherry shrimp are so samll I am thinking about it (yes I had been assuming that they weer larger. I'll go write on the blackborad 1000 times "I will do research before assuming anything about aquaria")

[DaisyTattoo]

I have ghost shrimp in my 55 gallon and they dont bother any fish and they are really good little cleaners....they have dissappeared slowly though so i am sure someone is eating them but i dont know who yet lol. but at least they are cheap and they get the job done. They are neat too cause their insides turn the color of whatever they eat. They love peas and the inside of them turn green whenever I feed the peas to them.