Ghost shrimp died. I am wondering about getting red cherry shrimp.

[pbmax]

Plenty of folks buy shrimp online, myself included. I've purchased 5 batches of shrimp online with very few issues. My first purchase was 10 RCS off ebay by priority mail - I received 12 in great shape. There are many very reputable sellers on here that you could get healthy RCS from.

I don't think you're going to find anyone who will tell you that they will survive those conditions for sure. I think it's entirely possible that they'll be fine, but it's also entirely possible that they won't make it.

 

[blue2fyre]

I have bought shrimp off the forum 3 times and they all arrived healthy. You may even find it ends up cheaper than buying from the store. AT least it did for me, my lfs wants $7 per cherry shrimp.
Anyway I can't say for sure they will be ok. It could end up stressing them which could lead to problems. I would think they would be ok, but it is a risk I wouldn't want to take with my shrimp.

 

[Jspigs]

I have decided to finish the ich treatment and then decide what to do/where to get the shrimp then.

Until then I want to gain as much knowledge as I can about red cherry shrimp (rcs).

What are the feeding instructions? I have heard a couple of different things so I just want to be sure.

How many shrimp should I get?

I have heard they reproduce quickly so I don't want to end up with too many shrimp, How can I prevent this?

The tank does have live plants including a bunch of java moss.

I do have a nylon gravel vacuum bag on my filter intake so the shrimp can't get sucked in.

Any other info would be appreciated.

 

[pbmax]

Good call!

These pages have good info on RCS:

www.planetinverts.com
www.theshrimpfarm.com

RCS will eat biofilm (algae, bacteria, protozoans that live on tank surfaces) and any leftovers if you're already feeding fish in that tank. Any sinking food should also work great. Try to avoid any food that has significant amounts of copper in it. I've been feeding mine Mosura Excel, but I just got some Omega shrimp pellets and they like these too (tons cheaper). They'll eat just about anything really. As with all aquaria, err toward underfeeding rather than overfeeding. Anything they don't eat within 2 or 3 hours should be removed from the tank.

Depends on the size of your tank. I have a lot in my RCS tank since they've been breeding like gangbusters, but I started with 13. 10 is a good number to start with.

Yes, they do reproduce quite easily. If you keep them with fish then you'll be lucky if the population sustains itself since just about all fish love tasty baby RCS treats. If you keep them alone and you end up with too many then you either sell them, trade for credit at a fish store, or feed them to fish large enough to eat them. You can also separate males from females if you like... they're easy to sex before they start reproducing (females have darker coloration and will eventually develop a yellowish / whitish saddle of eggs right behind their heads).

 

[pbmax]

As far as plants go, I prefer lots of fast-growers. Some folks don't like this approach because it becomes a maintenance problem to trim plants without pulling shrimp out with the trimmings, but I haven't found this to be a problem. The fast-growers help keep the water parameters stable and provide ever more surface area to grow biofilm. I have mostly elodea, guppy grass, and water wisteria in my RCS tank, along with a good amount of duckweed.

 

[kj5kb]

If you are worried about getting ich from the stock at the LFS then I would not buy anything from them. Get the ich under control and get your fish healthy. Then buy some cherry shrimp from the classified section of the forum.

ditto. most folks are selling from well established tanks and ich will not be an issue. I guarantee my RCS (or water) would not add ich to your tank. Not likely.

Now from an LFS with a shared water system...that's different.

FWIW,
Ich can be present for YEARS at a low, unnoticeable level in your tank, and the stress of adding more critters could bring it out.

 

[Jspigs]

This is the tank set-up that they will be going in: The tank is a 10 gallon planted tank filtered by a Marineland Penguin 150B Bio-wheel power filter with 12 neon tetras.

How may rcs should I get for that tank?

 

[pbmax]

As I said earlier, 10 is a good number to start with. Shrimp have a pretty low bio-load, but there's no sense loading up on a ton of RCS since they'll likely breed to increase their numbers.

I have mine in a 10g with that same filter, though I'll be taking it off soon once I'm confident that my new aquaclear 20 is established. My penguin 150 is terribly loud

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

They are VERY prolific, if you understand how to sex them and are buying locally you could get away with only a few, long as you have a male and a female. I started with about 25 6 months ago and now i have well over a 100 in a 6.6 gallon it's pretty ridiculous the tank is fish less too which gives them no predation.

If you ever have any disease problems with your fish i would move the fish and treat them, never treat with shrimp in tank, they are 10x more sensitive than fish.

 

[Jspigs]

They are VERY prolific, if you understand how to sex them and are buying locally you could get away with only a few, long as you have a male and a female. I started with about 25 6 months ago and now i have well over a 100 in a 6.6 gallon it's pretty ridiculous the tank is fish less too which gives them no predation.

If you ever have any disease problems with your fish i would move the fish and treat them, never treat with shrimp in tank, they are 10x more sensitive than fish.

There are some diseases that require you to treat the entire tank, ich (well actually it is a parasite but it is what I am battling) is one of them.