Keeping Cherries as a colony for feeders.

[TekFish]

Hi guys,

I got a new tank recently and I finally decided on the fish that I'll be keeping. CPD, Microdevario kubotai and Scarlet Badis. I want to keep a colony of Cherry Shrimps as a feeder colony and I would prefer to keep them in the same tank as the other fish. It is very heavily planted, but I have a sneaky feeling it probably won't matter. I do have another tank, but it's one of those starter plastic ones. I bought it as a breeder since it has an inbuilt sponge filter. Do you think I would have any success breeding them in the main tank? Or should I use the breeder?

Details are below.
Main Tank
45x45x45cm ~90L
Heavily planted - Anubias Nana, Echinodorus Ozelot Red and Gabrielii, Limnophila Aromatica, Bacopa Ampleicaulis and 'Compact', Alternanthera Rosaefolia and Cardinalis, Cryptocoryne Becketii, Ceratopteris Siliquosa, Juncus Repens and Eleocharis Acicularis.

Breeder Tank
Probably about 25L or so, not really sure. One of the starter ones you see in PetsAtHome (UK) or PetSmart, for you Americans .

The water for both is around pH 7.3, 230~240 ppm CaCO3.

If you think the breeder would be better could you give me some idea of the type of plants/rocks/wood that should go in there to make a nice breed-worthy tank.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[StevenF]

I got a new tank recently and I finally decided on the fish that I'll be keeping. CPD, Microdevario kubotai and Scarlet Badis.

These are all very small fish. A fully gown cherry shrimp will be about the same size. Other then nipping at the antenna, arms and legs the fish will not be able to eat the adults. Of corse that said if the fish eat all the lies the shrimp will die. However that said well feed fish may ignore the adults.

So I would think that if you have enough ugly grown large shrimp you could develop a beading colony in your large and the fish will only go for the smallest juvenal shrimp. I have never done this so I am just guessing that that could happen. Then again the fish might just ignore all the shrimp. I have seen a video of a tank with tetras that was overrun by carry shrimp. The fish just appeared to ignore them.

The other option is to stock fairy shrimp in the small tank:
http://www.vernalpool.org/inf_fs.htm

I have not tried racing these but they only grow to about 1/2" long. I have seen information indicating some varieties only grow to 3/8" long So the fish could eat the adult. Once breading begins you could transfer the excess from the small to the large and the fish would probably eat them. For the small tank a dens ground cover such as Java moss or baby tears would probably work well the

You wan to take precautions to insure the fry don't get sucked into the filter. So use a sponge filter on the filter intake. The other option would be to use an under gravel filter (a screen suspended 1/4 to 1/2" above the tank bottom with gravel on top. You could use the standard ones that use air pumps to crate water flow through the filter. Or you could use a pump that would remove the water under the gravel and then discharge the water through a spray bar into the top of the tank. The gravel would serve as your filter media and if the gravel is small enough the fry would not be sucked into the pump. Positioning the spray bar above the tank surface would also well aerate the water.

 

[NickAu]

Perfect filter for shrimp.
https://www.buyincoins.com/item/38873.html