# Red Cherry Shrimp Compatibility?



## Sugar Cone

Im thinking of getting some CRS (or would Amanos be better? I just want some freaking shrimps, okay?!) and Im curious about them being compatible with my fish. Ive currently got a 55 gal with 3x gold gourami, 2x opaline gourami, 16x rasbora het., 1x assassin snail. I'll be getting more of the rasboras.

I expect that the rasboras are too small to eat these guys, but the gouramis make me wonder. These guys are probably four inches long. Im pretty sure they will eat ghost/glass shrimp, if that tells you anything.

I want a few dwarf albino cories, will that be too much competition for the food? I wouldnt want the cories to just bully the shrimp for the food. 

Some kind of tetra is on the horizon for me also. Maybe lamp eye, glow light, or bloodfin. Is there any specific tetra thats not good for living with shrimp?

Id appreciate any insight. 

Thanks.


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## Newt

Did you want them to have baby shrimplets?


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## Sugar Cone

lol.. I say yes now, but who knows what Ill think in six months when I have 1,000 of them running around in my tank. Lets just say that aspect isnt important for right now. Are all these fish/inverts even compatible? If I decide I dont want babies, are the Amanos compatible? Is there another variety of shrimp I should be looking at?

Ive got some flame moss, fissidens, parrot feathers, driftwood "caves", sone other kind of moss, (and other various plants) for cover and medium-high light if that changes anything..


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## PlantNewbie

With those gouramies there is no chance you will get 1000 shrimplets. If you want the babies get a new tank for the cherries.


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## Newt

^^^ That was my point ^^^

The babies are very tiny when first hatched.


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## Sugar Cone

Aw, man.. Alright. Thanks, yall. I just dont have ~$100 just for shrimp.


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## Asgard

CRS: 
pro: will reproduce, when population is big enough & enough shelter is availlable, pop. is sustainable even when some shrimplets are eaten.
con: non really

Amano:
pro: Great algae eaters, big enough not to get eaten.
con: do not reproduce, every now and then you'll have to buy shrimps

other options: nothing cheaper then RCS or it must be "mini" amano's, so imho if you start with shrimp, start with RCS.


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## Sugar Cone

Thats kind of what I was thinking.. EVen if the babies ALL get eaten, Im no worse off than buying Amanos which simply wont breed, and CRS are cheaper than Amanos, lol. 

Ill give it some thought.

Thanks for the input.


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## PlantNewbie

I'm pretty sure the gouramies will snack on the adults. There is also a very high chance of them getting eaten as soon as you drop them into the tank before they even hit the bottom.


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## Sugar Cone

PlantNewbie said:


> I'm pretty sure the gouramies will snack on the adults. There is also a very high chance of them getting eaten as soon as you drop them into the tank before they even hit the bottom.


Thats probably my biggest concern. I dropped an assassin snail in the tank yesterday and probably 10 different individuals had to peck at it on the way down. I can only imagine the same would happen to the shrimp.


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## Nymsley

Sugar Cone said:


> CRS are cheaper than Amanos, lol.


Wow, whats your shrimp source? Around here, amanos are $1-2, CRS quite a bit more than that. (Sometimes you can find better internet prices but not often.)

Oh wait, I see now... acronym mix up 

CRS = Crystal Red Shrimp (_Caridina cantonensis_)
RCS = Red Cherry Shrimp (_Neocaridina heteropoda_)

I wouldn't try RCS unless the tank is very densely planted or had some other shelter for the shrimps to hide in.


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## Sugar Cone

You think Crystals would be safer in the tank than the Cherries? Like I said before, If I cant have cherries, what can I have? I just want some damn shrimps.


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## Nymsley

CRS probably don't have an advantage over cherries. You could try amanos or maybe some _Atyopsis_? They are filter shrimp and get bigger than dwarf shrimps. Big enough so the gouramis don't see them as snacks.

(I'm not sure about amanos and gouramis, never had them at the same time before.)


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## Asgard

Nymsley said:


> Oh wait, I see now... acronym mix up
> 
> CRS = Crystal Red Shrimp (_Caridina cantonensis_)
> RCS = Red Cherry Shrimp (_Neocaridina heteropoda_)


You are so right, Red Cherry Shrimp is what I was talking about.

about the gouramies, they would probably also (at least try to) eat the adult RCS, I have RCS with roundtailparadise fish (Macropodus ocellatus) & White cheek gobies (Rhinogobius duospilus) and have a sustainable and growing RCS population. The key is hiding places and a good number of shrimp to start with, I btw do have 'reserve' shrimp populations in other tanks.


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## Six

Asgard said:


> I have RCS with roundtailparadise fish (Macropodus ocellatus) & White cheek gobies (Rhinogobius duospilus)


Impressive! These fish are much more aggressive towards inverts than a gold gourami will be.

Also, if you're adding the shrimp in before the gourami, they can become acclimated and adjusted without harm. Adding shrimp to a well established tank can lead to "expensive dinner" issues. :faint2: 
Also, if the tank is WELL planted, shrimp know how to hide. That may also mean you don't see them often, but that's what happens when mixing compatability/experimenting.

I'd definitely do cherries first. just my .02


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## Sugar Cone

Cool. Thanks.

Im on the verge of tearing down the tank to replace the substrate anyway. Maybe Ill add the shrimp first, let them all go hide, and then introduce the gouramis. Its a thought. And honestly, as long as enough babies survive to replace the parents, Ill be happy with that.


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## Six

There are many cooler gourmai species that are shrimp-safe.

http://www.franksaquarium.com/gouramies.htm
also: pearl gourami, eyespot gourami to name a few. pearls get good sizd and are very tame towards other fish. great plant tank fish.


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## Sugar Cone

Im not going to get rid of my fish just because they dont get along with the shrimp. Id rather not get the shrimp. Ive had a couple of those Gouramis for over five years! They arent going anywhere. lol.


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## PlantNewbie

You can get shrimps after your fishes reach their expiration date they are more than 5 yrs old each right?


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## Sugar Cone

A couple of them are, yeah. And yeah, I can. Even if I still have three gouramis, thats still more chance for shrimp survival than having five. Or maybe before too long Ill have a few bucks for a little 10 gallon cube or something for them.


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## NatalieT

Sugar Cone said:


> Or maybe before too long Ill have a few bucks for a little 10 gallon cube or something for them.


I know that some people are raising shrimp in small tanks, fishbowls, plastic storage tubs, five-gallon-buckets, etc. Maybe you could set up something small and cheap to put a few shrimp in at first, and then after a while when you have more shrimp, you could put some in the main tank. (I'm thinking of cherry shrimp here, because they do breed pretty easily; not amano shrimp, which I remember you also mentioned.)


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## Sugar Cone

Thats not a bad idea. But I would still feel bad for essentially raising them to be feeders for those dumb gouramis. lol. Thats why Im thinking a small tank, at least I could watch them.


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## NatalieT

Sugar Cone said:


> Thats not a bad idea. But I would still feel bad for essentially raising them to be feeders for those dumb gouramis. lol. Thats why Im thinking a small tank, at least I could watch them.


Would that be raising them as feeders, or would it be selective breeding for shrimp that escape gouramis? Most people seem to think that with enough shrimp, some would survive 

Edit: here's a link to a thread about someone raising shrimp in bowls. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/62825-new-npt-shrimp-tanks.html


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## Sugar Cone

Thanks, Natalie. I never thought of it as a genetics/natural selection experiment. That makes it freaking awesome!! lol


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## apc789

Hi Sugar Cone I just read your thread. 

Several years back I had 2 amano shrimp in a 29 gallon with 1 large gold gourami and a bunch of tiger barbs. The Amanos are quite fast and can easily escape the gourami providing there is enough hiding space. I only had 1 so I guess that is different then a tank full of gourami's, but I think the Amano's would survive as long as you don't obtain them as juveniles.

My Amano's even made egg clusters and released them into the water, but it is to my understanding the juve's need to be raised in brackish water if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps!


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## Sugar Cone

Its not really a tank full of them, but theres five. Im prolly gonna give it a go as soon as I can gather all the stuff Ill need.

How long does it take for babies, given theres no fish in the tank?


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## apc789

I'm not too sure. One of them made egg clusters and carried them around underneath her little flappers on her underside. Forgive me, I don't know the correct terminology. One day she released them but they never hatched. Now this was 5-7 years ago so I am not 100% but I think the eggs/juveniles need to be raised in brackish water.


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## Sugar Cone

Oh, my bad.. I was still talking about cherry shrimp.


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## James He

I vote for Amano.

Because Amano is much bigger than RCS. at one time I have ghost shrimp and Amano in the tank with Gourami (2" in size).

All the ghost shrimps are gone within weeks. my Amano survived.

Regards
James


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