# My pride and joy! Brand new RCS!



## Mollicus (Jun 6, 2010)

I finally got my order of red cherry shrimp! They're settled in, and I had to get some pictures! The largest of the group might be 1/2" - 3/4" tops... to throw in a question, about how far from breeding age would you shrimp people guess they are? Can anyone tell the sex by my pictures? Aren't they absolutely adorable??

 Thanks for looking!




























A full pic of the setup will be coming later!


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Mollicus,

It looks like they are acclimating well; what size tank did you put them in?


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## Mollicus (Jun 6, 2010)

I have 11 of them in a 5g tank. For such a small tank, it looks so BIG even with that amount in there!!


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Sorry for getting side-tracked, but your camera takes some AWESOME pics.

Anyway, the females will be darker in color and the males will be kinda splotchy, but still red. They look like they are about breeding size...you'll just have to wait and watch for the females to get "berries". 

You'll be surrised how many shrimp can fit themselves into your tank (if you plant it thick enough). I've got a 3 gallon at my office, started with 5 females and 1 male, and there are easily over 100 now. I take out as many as I can catch, but I just can't keep up with them.


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## Red Fern (Apr 29, 2010)

ooo they are pretty little things! I hope they breed like crazy for you. (funny: two of my shrimps are named "Pride" and "Joy" respectfully)


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## flowmsp (Feb 16, 2010)

All look like males to me from what i can see. Nice shrimp, and they will be breeding in no time.


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

IMO, they're still juveniles and it's hard to tell at this stage. Once they mature, you'll see a white saddle behind the carapace - that means the shrimp is a female.


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## DBL TAP (Apr 21, 2008)

I second what Crispino said, the Saddle is the female marker to look for. One piece of advice: Don't overfeed.

Good luck!


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

congrats usually i don't acclimate my shrimp or fish, i just toss them in and leave, none have ever died so far of my 3 years heck i don't even cycle my tank >:O it seems unorthodox but hey it works for me and saves me a buttload of time. i suggest you get bushy plants like foxtail, camboba, pellia, along those lines because they grow super red and large fast, i put in a juvie and then next time i saw it it was HUGE and such a deep red i was astounded. i just feed when i remember (not that often) but i they're in a planted tank so no biggie :/ but yeah actually i take back what i said about acclimating the only fish i've every done it properly for is the otto because it's just so fragile...and the people at petsmart were getting pissed off at me for exchanging them so often. i'd say they're male but who knows...dang your camera is good i can't go that close and take a clear picture with mines but i got it at walmart on black friday...you get what you paid for... don't use alot of chemicals plant ferts are okay, water conditioner but don't put random fish chemicals like stress coat and stuff it won't do them any good and it might upset their breeding. also cover your filter intake with like screen door material or cheap free stockings you get that the women section for shoes
btw some of my shrimps turn blue when they are stressed...happen to you?


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## Mollicus (Jun 6, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments on the photos! I'm really happy with how the macro function works on these little guys. They're so cool and it's awesome to be able to get close enough to see their juvenile colorations and such. That's stuff you just can't see with the naked eye! Check your camera to see if it has a macro setting... they're really the only option for point-and-shoot cameras for getting close-up shots like that.

I use water conditioner on my tanks, and I just started using Flourish Excel at the recommendation of prior commenter, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it helps things along!

I feed my cherries a small part off of a pressed spinach pellet, and they go nuts over it 

Sometimes when they're stressed, I do notice that they lose all their color and look either clear or have a blue tint. They have a slight color-change ability kind of like anoles, so it's not too surprising.

I use a homemade sponge filter so there's no risk of any injury:










Here are some updated shots of how they're growing:



















And this is their revamped tank, replaced substrate with eco-complete and have added in an extra strip-light (this was taken before topping off the tank, replacing shrimp and lights:


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

the gravel looks nice what kind is it?
i've bought black gravel before because supposedly it brings out more redness but i bought it from walmart and after washing them i ended up with gray rocks... is that what your tank is going to look like or is it just for settling in?


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