I started with 5 cherries in a 5 gallon tank by themselves over 2 years ago. Now, I have well over 100 in a 12g soon-to-be sorta medium-high tech planted tank. I honestly believe that java moss is a must have if you want your cherries to breed. I have fed mine pretty much everything imaginable; a few brands oftropical flakes, pellets and granules, about 4 different brands of algae wafers, algae scraped off from other tanks, small fish that died in other tanks ('healthy' dead fish), vegies, catappa leaves, live blackworms, frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp, pieces of prawn and a frozen food I made which had all sorts of vegies, tuna, prawns and a few different prepared foods all mushed together. At the moment, mine get fed 2 algae wafers every second day and until I have a solid micro-organism growth on the glass (cleaned and re-setup the tank a week ago) a *small* pinch of whatever the big community tank gets once a day. All in all, cherry shrimp are pretty great. They're easy to keep and breed and are kinda cool to watch.