Cherry Shrimp General Questions

[Puffer_Nat]

Hi, I'm sure most of my questions have been asked before but please forgive me, I'm new and I'm not navigating the forums so well!
 
Anyway, I'm looking into setting up a shrimp tank and after a little looking around I'm quite taken with cherry shrimps but I have a few questions which my internet searches don't seem to be answering so I figured you guys might be able to help
 
What's the minimum size tank you'd house them in? Ideally I'd like at least ten but nothing I've read gives any indication of both minimum tank size and how many shrimp to keep in it
 
Is there any way to prevent them from breeding? Nearly everything I've read gives tips on how to encourage them to breed and it seems they breed reasonably easily but I don't want to end up with loads of extra shrimps that I don't have room for, that's not really fair on the poor little shrimps
 
Is there any reason other than them hybridising not to keep the different colour morphs together? Lots of stuff I've read says not to keep different colours together because they'll hybridise, does this cause problems other than the offspring being "undesirable" colours? Or is there something I'm missing?
 
I think that's everything that was confusing me for the time being but I'll probably be back with more questions as I remember them
 
Ooh also, are there any general freshwater shrimp/crustacean/invert books that anyone can recommend? I don't have a lot of experience with freshwater stuff so it wouldn't hurt for me to have something to refer to
 
Thanks in advance

 

[Baccus]

Many people keep shrimp in nano tank, something that can work really well for them because shrimp (well the dwarf species of  shrimp) don't take up much room and have a small bioload. The down side of having a nano tank is that the water parameters are more prone to drastic fluctuations, especially temperature which in turn can kill your shrimp. I would personally not want to go any smaller than a 20L (sorry my computer is playing up so I can not get the usual conversion rates), because at this size when something goes wrong with the water it can go wrong very quickly and before you know it your shrimp have all died or are in the process.
 
The reason that every where says not to keep different colour morphs together is because to develop a new consistant colour morph has often taken years at great personal expense to the person undertaking the project. The trouble with allowing different morphs to breed is that they have then diluted to once "pure" strain of the morph and generally the offspring will be less desirable colourwise. With cherry shrimp especially they tend to start reverting and throwing more wild type shrimp which are nothing like the reds everyone has grown to love.
 
I cant really recommend a book off the top of my head but almost any good aquarium book will give you the general details regarding tank set up, maturing filters, stocking and the importance pH and gH in a tank.

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Thank you, that helps a lot
 
20l would probably be the perfect size second tank for me at the moment and I see what you mean regarding the colour morphs. Ideally I'd like them to not breed but if they're gonna be difficult to stop from breeding (which it sounds like they might be!) then I guess I'll stick with just the one colour
 
Books wise I was looking for something more specific, more about the animals than the tank side of things if that makes sense (I'm well versed in tank set, it's just that most of my experience is with marine animals rather than freshwater)

 

[Baccus]

With fresh water shrimp you may find your marine experience helpful, in that by altering the gH and pH of the water you can enhance and intensify the colour of your shrimp, RO water and various shrimp dedicated mineral additives will come in very handy. I cant really help you with any book titles most of mine have been chance finds, but if you do some searches online I am sure some suitable book titles will be found. To help judge the usefulness of a book I tend to find one or two less common species and if the book has a detailed write up on those species then I will favour it over a book that ignores the less known species and only concentrates on the common types.
 
Since in cherry shrimp the females tend to show the best colour (unless you start getting into the high grade types) then your best bet would be to get a heap of nonberried females and not add any males that way you could even mix the colours. But by not having males in the tank the shrimp would eventually die out unless you kept restocking. Or you could look at keeping some micro fish in with the shrimp, the micro fish should eat any shrimplets they find and will help keep the cherry shrimp populations in check. Failing that most shops are happy to sell any shrimp you can produce, they may not give you much for them, but something is always better than nothing, but if going for the selling option I would get the highest grade shrimp you can afford and breed from them.
 
Alternatively you could get Crystal Red or Crystal Black shrimp, the red A grades in these remind me of Christmas candy canes. Crystal shrimp generally do not have as many offspring as cherry shrimp and can be just that little bit more difficult to keep, but still easy enough to make them an interesting option. You can keep crystal shrimp and cherry shrimp together without fear of them cross breeding, but you will have to strike a happy medium for the preferred temps and pH for these two types of shrimp. Many keepers strive to keep the crystals happy in the tank and just allow the cherries to make do in such a mix.

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Oooh I just did a quick image search for the crystal shrimp and they're rather lovely too! That's definitely something to look into

The female only route sounds interesting but I'm not sure how must I trust sellers to get it right. If I could be sure I was only getting females then I'd be happy to go with that and restock as necessary

Thank you for all your help!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Here is a little information for you regarding Shrimps, do be aware that Red Cherry Shrimps are good for beginners and they are pretty hardy and most LFS tend to stock these are are relatively inexpensive.
 
As you go for the more attractive or desirable shrimps, you may find that prices start to climb, especially with higher graded shrimps and with higher graded shrimp a little more care is needed for these guys.
 
So a little research and knowledge about these guys goes a long way.
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/261585-shrimp-care-guide/
 
http/www.planetinverts.com/Red%20Cherry%20Shrimp.html
 
Hope that helps a little for you and good luck, hope you can let us know how things get on and a couple of pics as you go along would be really good.

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Thank you, I'll go check those links out now
 
I won't be setting up a shrimp tank for quite a few months yet, possibly not until summer (lack of money plus I'll be moving house in July so will probably wait) but I'll definitely keep you all informed as I go

 

[fluttermoth]

There are also a lot of shrimps that won't breed in freshwater, as the shrimplets need brackish conditions to mature (amano, rhino, ninja), so they might be an option, if you don't want them to breed at all.

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Now that's an interesting idea! Something else for me to look into, thank you