# [Wet Thumb Forum]-cherry reds or crystal reds? Which would you choose?



## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

Hey, 

I have a small tank, which i'm hoping to set up for breeding either of the above. The trouble is, i just can't decide which? 
If you have had experience with either of these, please let me know. 

thanks in advance.

BEN


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## imported_shalu (Feb 13, 2004)

I have both in the same tank. Be aware, cherries are extremely prolific, they can overwhelm a tank quickly. Just had some crystal reds hatching, really excited.

If only one, I would choose crystal reds, they are more beautiful, rarer


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## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

Hey Shalu,

thanks! Thats a cool pic. Is it one of your own? I think i'm going to go for crystals.. They're definitely more beautiful IMO. 
Do you know what you did to induce breeding, or was it really just a matter of them being in the same tank? any advice would be cool.
I'm thinking the store credits on crystals will be better too.. as an added bonus! i'm hoping to use crystals to cover the costs of CO2 eventually.
Let me know what you did to get them to breed, and good luck rearing them!

thanks again,


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## imported_shalu (Feb 13, 2004)

yes, that's a pic of my 10 gallon shrimp tank. 

They will try to breed as long as there are both male and female in the same tank. I don't do anything special, except I try to keep the water soft with R/O water change(gh=2-3, kh=2-3). I thought it might help with hatch rate of eggs just like breeding many fish. Don't know if that helps really. I keep it simple, lots of plants, but no CO2. Shrimps are more sensitive than fish, any CO2 accident, shrimp will die first. Weekly water change. Dose macros weekly. Now I dose a few drops of CSM daily. I think I used to have some occasional shrimp death due to overdose of CSM(copper in it) in one shot. They mature much slower than cherries, about 6 months.

I have three pregnant females at the same time. I think the first one just released the eggs. I have a tough time to tell apart the cherry shrimplets and crystal red shrimplets. Probably need to wait for them to get a little bigger. The newly hatch shrimps are only like 1/16 inch long.


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## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

hey shalu, 

yeah, whikst surfing for info, i found your thread on another forum, describing the process! sounds exciting man! cannot wait. am going to set it up this weekend. What plants do you have in yours? I'm going to do this one without CO2 as well, so was wondering what you are using. 
do you know if hemianthus callitrichoides will grow without CO2? I'd quite like to use it in this tank. 

keep me upto date on any developments! good luck


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## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

wait, in that picture, appears to be glosso. Without CO2???!!


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## imported_shalu (Feb 13, 2004)

I posted more pics in
this thread.

I am trying many plants in the tank. but the main plant and the ones grow the best are:
weeping moss(or many other moss out there), sunset hygro, H. micranthemum, potomegeton gayi, lagarosiphon madagascariensis, najas, star grass, anubias, windlov java fern, ludwigia arcuata... I have hemianthus callitrichoides in there mixed in glosso, grows fine, but too much light is being blocked by taller plants right now. Glosso grows fine, but spreads slowly(see my pic), just the effect I want. I can't maintain glosso in a "fast" tank long term.


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