Cherry Shrimp In Australia

jeej · Jan 27, 2008

Well I will see how this first batch goes. But I think I will look to have a larger tank of just Red Cherry Shrimp. I cant be the sole provider because I bought them from Wet Petz yesterday! But I may start to sell them, I don't know yet.

Snooks1! · Jan 27, 2008

Well...Breed them like crazy, then sell them for cheaper than wet petz. Monopolize the market!

jeej · Jan 28, 2008

Another tip for these shrimp:

Get the water right and stable before you add the shrimp - will lessen the chance of stressing them out. Mine got really stressed, shed their exoskeletons and are now in hiding. When they shed and are stressed, they are at their most vulnerable, so they could die. It is best to do frequent small water changes at this stage, like 10% a day or every other day. The shrimp will then only pop out occasionally until a couple of weeks have passed and they have grown new shells.

It is really best not to have them in a tank with other fish. Not until you have built a strong colony anyway and can afford some losses.

merry78 · Mar 28, 2008

jeej said:
Another tip for these shrimp:

Get the water right and stable before you add the shrimp - will lessen the chance of stressing them out. Mine got really stressed, shed their exoskeletons and are now in hiding. When they shed and are stressed, they are at their most vulnerable, so they could die. It is best to do frequent small water changes at this stage, like 10% a day or every other day. The shrimp will then only pop out occasionally until a couple of weeks have passed and they have grown new shells.

It is really best not to have them in a tank with other fish. Not until you have built a strong colony anyway and can afford some losses.

There are plenty of places in Oz/Brisbane to get cherry shrimp, you can get them from 2 different members of an Australian forum for $15-$20 each, and Pet City at Mt Gravatt has them for $20 each. Not knocking Wet Petz though.

pat3612 · Mar 28, 2008

Wow thats alot of money you can usually get them on aquabid for around 1.00 each Iam breeding them now and will be shipping in the summer.There are people on aquabid who ship around the world. Hope this helps Pat

matchstickgeezer · Apr 7, 2008

That is MAD prices to pay for Cherry Reds.

YOu will easily be able to breed them now though.. is started with 8 and have well over 120 now even after selling some (in the UK i sell them at about £1.80 each hehe!))

Colin_T · Apr 7, 2008

the reason they are so expensive in Australia is because they are illegal imports and would have been smuggled in. The breeder is simply making money from a rare commodity. If people want them they pay the price.

Mikaila31 · Apr 7, 2008

WOW that is really steep for cherries IMO. I get them for around $1 each as well. I always buy from other hobbiest, the closest store here sells them for $8 each. I live really close to a aquabid seller and have bought all of mine from him. If you are wanting to breed them it is best to give them their own tank w/o fish. I started with 20 and the population stayed stable for over a year with fish in the tank. The fish developed ich, so I removed all the fish and let the tank sit fishless for 2 months. During that time the shrimp population increased tenfold, from 20 to 200 :lol in a 20gal tank. I pulled 60 young out of my fuval 2 once. I have sold a lot of them and added some fish back to the tank and the population stays stable at around 50 now.

So the question is how good is Australia's customs :look:

, Mexico and the US aren't that good IMO. Last time I had some live plants go through customs, they wrote that the package contained "soft toys". IDK how they came up with that.

Colin_T · Apr 7, 2008

Australian Customs and Quarantine Inspection Services are pretty good but there are always ways around them. Most people simply bring things in on their clothing they are wearing. A small phial with some plant matter or a couple of small plastic bags with shrimp in. As long as you don't act unusually or attract the attention of the sniffy dogs you are normally fine. But not always. And if you get caught you get to share a cell with bubba

jeej · May 6, 2008

A little update for everyone, it has been a while!

First off, I wasn't aware of any other avenues you could take in Brisbane to obtain shrimp, but I haven't been in Brisbane that long and I don't go to many aquatics places.

In the little 8gal tank I had I managed to make a cardinal sin. I had green rocks in the tank that were leeching copper into the water. I lost a few shrimp because of this.

Seeing a shrimp flick across the tank because of copper poisoning is horrible. Made my stomach churn every time I saw it happen.

Anyway, I now have the shirmp in a 12gal tank and they are doing great. I use a dark small stone substrate and have a sponge filter. There are a couple of bits of driftwood in the tank, a terracotta urn and some volcanic rock. There is java moss growing on EVERYTHING and the shrimp love it.

I currently have 2 mature males and 2 mature females. But I also have about 30 babies swimming about (reckon bout 5 weeks old now) and the 2 mature females are due to drop in around 2 weeks time. So it's all going well.

I have had great success using Prime as my water dechlorinator and also using Geo Liquid for invertebrates after water changes. That stuff creates a nice balance in your water chemistry and also leaves it crystal clear. My shrimp have never looked better.

Next shrimp I am looking at getting are Indian Zebras.

Oh, if anyone knows where I might be able to get some baby Angel fish in Brisbane, please let me know (not for same tank as the shrimp tank!).

merry78 · May 6, 2008

jeej said:
Oh, if anyone knows where I might be able to get some baby Angel fish in Brisbane, please let me know (not for same tank as the shrimp tank!).

I wish i had known you wanted baby angels last week, i gave away my last 5 on saturday.....

btw, are you sure you dont mean CRS (is crystal reds?)? they are worth a lot more (around $100) here than cherrys, which are worth about 15-20 bucks.

jeej · May 6, 2008

merry78 said:
jeej said:

Oh, if anyone knows where I might be able to get some baby Angel fish in Brisbane, please let me know (not for same tank as the shrimp tank!).

Click to expand...

I wish i had known you wanted baby angels last week, i gave away my last 5 on saturday.....

btw, are you sure you dont mean CRS (is crystal reds?)? they are worth a lot more (around $100) here than cherrys, which are worth about 15-20 bucks.