Orange Australe & Cherry Shrimp

[gary35111]

Hi all! I intend to have some cherry shrimps in my two feets tank. I heard that they are one of the best and most beautiful shrimps scavangers around. Btw, are they compatible with orange australe?

Gary

[hwchoy]

be prepared to lose shrimps through jumping when they get harassed by fishes like killies and tetra. provide as much thick undergrowth for them to hide as possible.

[Pconnieae]

Hi,

you won't see your shrimps very often Gary because they will be afraid by your A. australe. Your killies may try to eat your shrimps at the beginning. If they don't succeed in eating them, they may ignore them. But they will certainly eat all the shrimplets if there are any.

[TyroneGenade]

I have to agree... Things are looking grim for your shrimp. I had quite bigish shrimps with my killies and they didn't hold up too well against the killies.

The shrimp should be fine with small fish like annulatus and blue-eyes.

Regards

[hwchoy]

in fact even very small fishes like Boraras sp. are at risk from the killies such as Nothobranchius sp.

[gary35111]

Hmm...right. But wouldn't that be cool? To have these shrimps clean my tank algae, left-over foods and produce shrimps larvae as occassional live-foods for killies. Haha, that will save me the trouble feeding the killies any live-food like baby brine shrimps.

[keehoe]

Gary, Just in case no one told you before. New born Cherry shrimp is of the size of BBS. Not enough to fill the teeth gap of any killie. Unless if it survife for a month, then it still worth a bite.

[whuntley]

I have always had a problem with shrimp-like critters with fish.

Crayfish can do plenty of damage to baby fish, but they get eaten, in return, because they have to molt, periodically.

Right after the molt, they are a "soft-shell-crab dinner" for any fish big enough to take a bite.

I'm sure the same thing applies to shrimps, so build complex rock structures with lots of small hidey-holes if you want any to survive in a tank with toothed fishes.

Wright

[gary35111]

I have earlier bought cherry shrimps but have not keep them together with killies yet. Was asking around for more information on killies compatibility with shrimps. Now, I have just put my eight cherry shrimps into the tank and I have like half of them dying! Some are like lying motionless on the gravel, then suddenly jerking, look normal, swimming around then all of the sudden look as if it was dead.

I thought one was dead and just when I was about to remove it, it jerked. Now, I just leave those looking dead alone, hoping that they will survive. The water is clear, there are live plants, sponge-filter (I changed my box filter especially for the cherry shrimps) and I had Nutrafin CO2 for the plants so that they can produce natural Oxygen. These cherry shrimps cost me some $ and I really want them to be in my tank but they are like dying one by one.

And the kid killies, it is impossible for them to be picking on the cherry shrimps as of now. I am a little confuse . If my water condition is bad, then why my Ottos are not affected but only those poor little shrimpy fellows?

I also added Guardian solution to my water to remove any Chloramine/Chlorine and heavy metal , hopefully it will reduce the shrimps' stress. I read from somewhere that these shrimps prefer water with a little salt, and so I added some Marine Salt into my aqaurium. The Ottos are fine, but the shrimps are still the same, like dying.

Please, give me some advice. I need helps.

Gary.

[keehoe]

Normally Cherry is quite hardy. Could it be the temperature changes as you drop them into the tank?

[Pconnieae]

I read from somewhere that these shrimps prefer water with a little salt, and so I added some Marine Salt into my aqaurium.

Where did you read that? I have never heard of such a thing. On the contrary a friend of mine told me all his Neocaridinas died after adding salt. Moreover most aquatic plants don't tolerate salt. I have never added salt and have no problem to breed my Cherry shrimps.

[gary35111]

It is 2 am here. I am keeping a watch at my cherry shrimps. Now, only 3 survive. The rest are all dead. The third one is like dying. Only a pair is swimming.

The website that say cherry shrimps prefer salt in the water is here

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug%...d%20Shrimp.htm

Or you may just type 'cherry shrimps' under yahoo search (International) and click on the result with this website -http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug%2C%20Cherry%20Red%20Shrimp.htm

Btw, how do you differentiate male and female cherry shrimps? I do not think that by size is accurate as some male may be bigger than female due to foods which they eat and vice versa. The promising pair of survivor are a dull red (smaller one) and a pale almost no colour (like mini Yamato Shrimp).

Are cherry shrimp similar to killie with the male having more colour and the female pale? The other "cherry" shrimp is real pale. I almost thought it to be a ghost shrimp. It got a little bit of light dull brown tinge on its body.

What dat **** ?! Marine Salt will kill my aquatic plants?! I did not add too much. I thought that there should at least be sorta minimum amount of salt in wild (natural) tropical water Maybe I am really a klutz at aquariumm keeping. :P

I'll go check on my cherry shrimps now. Pray hard that I don't have to remove another dead shrimp. *yawn* So tired. If only the dead don't decompose... ah...nature.

[stormhawk]

Gary, first of all shrimp husbandry requires the following items:

1) Preferably slightly alkaline water (ph 7 to 7.6) with some coral chips in it.
2) Aged water free of heavy metal poisoning
3) Cool temperatures (anything below 26 degC will do)
4) Lots of plant cover
5) Good but manageable algae growth
6) Proper nutrition (i.e. algae wafers, pellets etc.)

The salt in the article given in your link refers to the lime or calcium carbonate , in the author's Des Moines, Iowa, tapwater which allows the little fellas to form their hard outer shells.

Sexing them means looking at their swimmeret or the moving legs area close to the tail. If you see a hollow area enclosed by a layer of shell, then it is a female. If not, then its a male. Males are generally smaller.

The red colour intensifies when they are given proper foods containing red or carotene pigments. Feeding them on those sinking carnivore pellets can enhance their reddish colour, as will feeding them with frozen or live bloodworm and even tubifex worm.

You should not add marine salt to your water unnecessarily. It will and can kill your aquatic plants. Not to mention kill some sensitive shrimp and fish as well.

Not to say you're a klutz but do some research before you try keeping something. Compare all known information and make your own decisions from there.

[whuntley]

Chloramine removers are famous for killing most small invertebrates, so I would not be too surprised if shrimps are like Daphnia, etc. and are intolerant of the formaldehyde-like compounds required to sequester both chlorine and ammonia (chloramine).

Wright

[Pconnieae]

It is very easy to make the difference between males and females with Cherry shrimps.

Here is a male:

Is is little colored, nearly translucid.

Here is a female:

This one is carrying eggs but you can see it is really more colored than the male.

Here is a pic of a young female:

You can see that young females have a yellow spot behind the head. In fact, these are the eggs that are not yet fertilized.

Usually females also have a white line on the back like here:

[gary35111]

I am getting more . I thought these shrimps hate heavy metal especially copper and that is why I was adding those solution to not only remove chloramine but also nutralize the heavy metals.

I have just changed 80% of my aquarium water to hopefully ,if not clear completely away, dilute that bits of marine salt I added yesterday. I also added the chloramine/chlorine remover solution. It was to safeguard my fishes. I have moved my last dying cherry shrimp to a solitary container. It look quite healthy to me now. I have not add him or her to the tank yet.

So, should I add the cherry shrimps like hours or days after I have added the chloramine remover solution?

And (Miss or Mr?) Pconnieae, Merci for those picture! They are great! Are they your cherry shrimps? Wow, those pictures make me even more want to have my very own healthy cherry shrimps. I might go to my LFS to get a few more. Maybe just 4 or 5. Hmm...so it is like vice versa on cherry shrimps, with the male less attractive. Am I right?

Merci Beaucoup for those pics and info on sexing
Au revoir! go check out cherry shrimps

Gary

[whuntley]

I am getting more . I thought these shrimps hate heavy metal especially copper and that is why I was adding those solution to not only remove chloramine but also nutralize the heavy metals.

So, should I add the cherry shrimps like hours or days after I have added the chloramine remover solution?

The dechloraminators I know of do absolutely nothing to remove heavy metals.

[There are still some old-fashioned dechlorinators using photographer's hypo (sodium thiosulfate) that can sequester some heavy metals. If used on chloraminated water, they will release a potentially lethal burst of ammonia (depending on your pH). Don't even think of using them if your pH is much above 7.]

From what I have seen, so far, I can't suggest that you should ever add the shrimp. Chemically, the tank should be the same in a few minutes or a few weeks. The chemicals are quite stable, long term.

I think we first need to determine, for sure, what was killing the shrimp.

We may never know that, unless we can find out exactly what is in your particular dechloraminator. Even then, we may be guessing if the formaldehyde-like stuff was the guilty party. I know it kills Daphnia, Hydra, Mosquito larvae, Ostracods and most other small invertebrates, but have no idea what it does to shrimp.

Another thing that is a sure killer for small crustaceans is lack of any iodides in the water. Be sure you use iodized salt, but only the kind without silicates to keep it from clumping. Sodium ferrocyanide is quite safe, but usually on the label as the medeival name Yellow Prussiate of Soda to avoid frightening the chemically illiterate.

Iodized salt generally will not hurt your fish, if the other essential electrolytes are present (i.e., your water isn't unhealthily soft). The glass-like silica gel will do great gill damage, though, and probably is why iodized salt is so shunned in the aquarium literature. Get the cheaper grocery-store brands. The premium brands all use the silica gel.

Iodides are no more harmful than chlorides. OTOH, Iodine and chlorine are both pretty deadly.

Wright

[Pconnieae]

And (Miss or Mr?) Pconnieae, Merci for those picture! They are great! Are they your cherry shrimps?

Monsieur Pconnieae but you can call me T.H.

Yes, these are pics of my shrimps. I began with only 6 cherry shrimps in May 2004. And now I have hundreds.

Wow, those pictures make me even more want to have my very own healthy cherry shrimps.I might go to my LFS to get a few more. Maybe just 4 or 5. Hmm...so it is like vice versa on cherry shrimps, with the male less attractive. Am I right?

Yes, you're right. So, don't only buy the most red ones at the LFS if you want want to have males and females .

[gary35111]

So, I should change my water again and not add any Chloramine/Chlorine remover?

Btw, how long must I wait before adding my fishes into the tank with new tap water? Normally, immediately after I change my water, I will add the Chloramine/Chlorine remover solution and within a minute, I will add my new fishes or any fish which I have earlier removed. That never affected my fishes...I guess it is entire a different story with cherry shrimps.

Is bio-nitrifier/bio-filtration solution dangerous to cherry shrimps? I add these too and my water is always clear even after 2 weeks (the longest time I take to change water). I attribute the crystal clear water to bio-filtration solution and the sponge filter.

Gary

[SnowFox]

So, is it not a good idea to mix cherry shrimp to any kind species of killies? I thought of mixing killies with cherry at the first time, but i got a whole floor of cherry inside moss at my fish tank.
thinking of mixing with Northo. guenthi...i forgot how to spell the name