Simple cherry tank

[Lam_wn]

Hello,
I'm not a fan of shrimps, but i do find them quite cute, and so does my family and the occasional visitor, so last year i decided to set up a tank for just cherry shrimp.


the shrimps multiplied relatively well, and although the scape didnt turn out so good, with all the moss overwhelming the hairgrass, and the background plants not growing as tall as i expected them to be, i still am quite satisfied with everything.



However, I have a few questions about the shrimps:
1. They all seem very small. The number of large adults can be counted with two hands, although there are always at least twice the number of smallish young ones. Do i need to feed them more? (algae wafers, i am assuming - i only feed this maybe 1-3 times a week, depending on whether i remember or not)
2. I've never had success with wood shrimps (and for that matter, any fish!) in this tank before, although the parameters are all ok, the wood shrimps (and fish!) keep dying after a while. Is the pH too low, or are there any other things which differ between the needs of wood and cherry shrimps? (e.g. Ca2+ in the water? pH too low?)
3. Should i buy more cherry shrimp (e.g. the sakura ones (they are cherry variants right?)) to expand the gene pool a little? I'm not sure if just letting them breed among themselves is very good since i started with just 8 shrimps...

Lastly, I am tempted to buy some of the cheap low grade CRS to introduce to this tank. Would this be a good idea, or are CRS more fragile and would not want to be mixed with cherries (competition?)

thanks

[dwgi32]

Hi,

Just my 5 cent worth to point number 3. If you are looking for quality instead of quatity, it would be better not to get low grade one as this will result in loss in grading among your existing good-grade cherries. However, if you are looking for numbers well you can just buy a bag of cheap cherries shrimps.

My experience with the cherries are once they start breeding, the number will keep increasing and no top-up is needed unless there are casualties. However, i come to a point where i spend time removing all the low-grade one in order to ensure that the continuation of the high grade ones.

Lastly, CRS is totally a different ball game as compare to cherries. They are more sensitive and harder to keep. It will be challenging especially the better grade ones. My last attempt failed recently with all 25 of them dieing. My advice is make sure that the water parameter is slightly acidic (6.0 to 6.9) and temp- 24-26. All the best.

Cheers