# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Yet another shrimp question



## rssjsb (Sep 8, 2003)

Has anyone else had a problem keeping cherry red shrimp alive? I've never had them last longer than a few months, which makes me sad because I think they're the best-looking freshwater shrimp around, and I've always read that they're easy to keep and even breed.

I've kept them in a small tank with four amanos, and the cherries always die. I was concerned about my soft water (kh is 2 out of the tap), so put a chunk of limestone in the tank with them. This seems to have stabilized my ph and raised the kh to around 5. However, I just lost my last cherry shrimp earlier this week.

The amanos, on the other hand, are thriving, molting and even breeding in this tank. I've got one female and three males. The female seems to constantly have eggs. One of these days, I'll move her to another (non- or minimially planted) tank and experiment with raising the salinity to see if the larvae can survive, but that's another topic.

Could the amanos just be out-competing the others for food? I've been feeding them New Life Spectrum sinking wafers (which is what they're fed at Albany Aquarium, where I bought them) and thread algae from my other tanks. 

Do the cherry reds have different requirements? 

Thanks!


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## rssjsb (Sep 8, 2003)

Has anyone else had a problem keeping cherry red shrimp alive? I've never had them last longer than a few months, which makes me sad because I think they're the best-looking freshwater shrimp around, and I've always read that they're easy to keep and even breed.

I've kept them in a small tank with four amanos, and the cherries always die. I was concerned about my soft water (kh is 2 out of the tap), so put a chunk of limestone in the tank with them. This seems to have stabilized my ph and raised the kh to around 5. However, I just lost my last cherry shrimp earlier this week.

The amanos, on the other hand, are thriving, molting and even breeding in this tank. I've got one female and three males. The female seems to constantly have eggs. One of these days, I'll move her to another (non- or minimially planted) tank and experiment with raising the salinity to see if the larvae can survive, but that's another topic.

Could the amanos just be out-competing the others for food? I've been feeding them New Life Spectrum sinking wafers (which is what they're fed at Albany Aquarium, where I bought them) and thread algae from my other tanks. 

Do the cherry reds have different requirements? 

Thanks!


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## Plant idot... (Jul 6, 2003)

I would be interested in responses to this topic.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

I couldn't say as I've only had my Cherry Reds (also from Albany Aquarium) for a month. My problem is trying to take a head count of my shrimp to know if they're all still alright









I know for sure that I've lost one Cherry and two Amanos, but two of those three deaths were to extra-aquaria activities as I found them dried up on the floor. There's just so many places for them to hide in the tank that I've never been able to count more than half of them at any one time.


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## rssjsb (Sep 8, 2003)

Thanks for the bump, Plant idot.

Yeah, Bill, it's amazing how efficiently they can hide. Even in this tiny tank, my Amanos have gone missing for days, only to reappear good as new. I'm guessing this is when they're molting.


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