Got shrimp?

[Azhael]

Welcome to the ultimate pointless post! A post to praise and glorify the almighty red cherry shrimp
Do you have the guts to have shrimps?? Can you handle shrimp????
I´ll just say this...all the cool kids have shrimps...

Now seriously...since i got my group of red cherries (Neocaridina heteropoda) i´ve discovered a whole new world. Not only they are fun to watch, very pretty and so easy you would have to be death himself to kill them, but they are also EXCELLENT cleaners.
If you have algae problems, these are your best friends. They´ll devour algae, even the incrusted patches on leaves or the glass. They´ll also tackle dead leaves and decomposed organic matter, and will take care of excess food in the tank(bloodworms, pellets..pretty much anything)

One month after getting them i now have lots of tiny little shrimps, they really do breed like bunnies. All you need is a few adults and, BAM!!! They grow rather fast compared to other invertebrates usually used as fodder, so they are a good culture choice, plus they contain carotenes, so in addition of being nutritious they help develop the red colors of amphibians.

I´m now seeding my caudate tanks with shrimp, and can´t wait to see them explode in numbers.
One drawback they have as fodder is that they are FAST. None of my animals seem to be able to catch them. This is easily solved by hand-feeding though.

Anyway that´s it...xDD I just wanted to talk a bit about these brilliant invertebrates. I trully recommend them. These are adequate for most caudate tanks, since they can stand low temperatures, don´t care much about light, and are completely harmless. I have a feeling they won´t mix well with eggs and larvae, but i haven´t been able to test this yet.

Oh, here are a couple of pics of these shrimp, they sure are beautiful.

 

[benh]

Thanks for re-igniting my interest in shrimp Azhael! I have a spare small tank which I could breed them in, then plonk a couple in my bigger tank with my Axolotl...
Is there much difference between Ghost Shrimp and Red Cherry?? Any other species used?

It's a toss up between breeding some feeder fish, or getting some shrimp. I reckon the shrimp sound the most interesting by far - food, cleaners, entertaining to watch! Are they relatively cheap to keep and feed?
Just not sure where sells them near me... time to go shrimp hunting

 

[Yahilles]

I have them too (for nearly a year) and i agree with you - they're too fast for smaller newts (i guess that big newts as waltl, pachytriton, tylototriton(?) would have bigger chance to haul them into mouths if they want), which love to eat them when i give shrimps from tweezers, i think that's most enthusiastic reaction for food, after earthworms.

I also have bamboo shrimp with my orientalis (hah, it's now my oldest animal, 2 years gone after i bought this crustacean) and it is also safe with them as they rarely attack it and shrimp can force them to retreat without harm when it feels endangered.

If somebody worries about it, i ensure you that in my tank shrimps never interested themselves with newt eggs and i never saw shrimp doing anything with egg.

 

[Azhael]

Thanks for re-igniting my interest in shrimp Azhael! I have a spare small tank which I could breed them in, then plonk a couple in my bigger tank with my Axolotl...
Is there much difference between Ghost Shrimp and Red Cherry?? Any other species used?

It's a toss up between breeding some feeder fish, or getting some shrimp. I reckon the shrimp sound the most interesting by far - food, cleaners, entertaining to watch! Are they relatively cheap to keep and feed?
Just not sure where sells them near me... time to go shrimp hunting

Since ghost shrimp and red cherries are two different species, there are differences between them. As far as i know, ghost shrimp are significantly more difficult to breed. I only keep red cherries though so my experience is extremely limited. Maybe someone else can comment on this.

I think shrimp are a far better option than fish. Few caudates are specialized fish eaters, but all aquatic ones eat crustaceans of some form. That means it´s a more natural food for them, plus vertebrate meat is very caloric and you can´t abuse it.
I bought them for 1euro each, but since you only really need a few to start a colony they are in fact very cheap. So far i´ve fed them newt pellets, boiled veggies, fish food, algae from other tanks and home-made vegetable "cookies" (it´s just dehydrated vegetable puree, containing a large variety of different vegetables). So you see they are easy to feed. As for husbandry, a small cycled tank with lots of java moss and other live plants is enough. All you need to do is the regular water changes, just like in a caudate tank.

 

[eljorgo]

mine.

 

[blueberlin]

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I raise shrimps too but catch them (when I can) in the breeder tanks and move a few at a time to the axolotl tanks as feeders. I didn't think they would survive long enough to breed right in the axo. tanks. I'll try adding more and see what happens.

These little freshwater shrimp (and those "Nano-cubes") are quite the rage here in Berlin right now. There are some truly beautiful types and their prices at pet shops range from 2 euros apiece to 20! I am slowly learning more about the different types - apparently some types are "dominant" (which is not to say "aggressive") and will "terrorize" the meeker types, decreasing their reproduction as well as eating the young they may produce. Some types are also picky about water quality; i.e., fluctuations therein or hardness, etc. And some don't breed well. I can see the hobby developing into something like our salamania but since I really just raise them as food, I must limit myself to low-maintenance, high-yield varieties that won't eat each other's young.

I have what we call in German "dwarf shrimp", I assume they are forms of Neocaridina. One type is called "green", one is called "red fire", and one is just called the archtype, they are clear or grey but change colors according to what they eat. I also have Amano shrimp (in German "algae shrimp") and wish I could find more info on how to breed them. They are quite large and the females are always carrying eggs, but apparently the young need saltwater to grow. I have not been able to find any info on how to manage that, so if anyone has any tips...

Sorry for the long post but it's a topic that interests me greatly right now.

-Eva

 

[SludgeMunkey]

OK. I am sold.

I am going tomorrow to pick up a half dozen of this species.


I still like my ghost/glass shrimp though...

 

[Yahilles]

I have what we call in German "dwarf shrimp", I assume they are forms of Neocaridina. One type is called "green", one is called "red fire", and one is just called the archtype, they are clear or grey but change colors according to what they eat. I also have Amano shrimp (in German "algae shrimp") and wish I could find more info on how to breed them. They are quite large and the females are always carrying eggs, but apparently the young need saltwater to grow. I have not been able to find any info on how to manage that, so if anyone has any tips...

Sorry for the long post but it's a topic that interests me greatly right now.

-Eva

Red fire, fire red, red, red cherry - all those names are of one shrimp species - Neocaridina heteropoda "Red" (actual name, in some years ago proper name was Neocaridina denticulata sinensis) that azhael is talking about. Instead of them, you have green (or "rainbow") shrimps, Caridina babaulti, expensive Caridina cf. cantonensis "Crystal Red", "Hummel" etc, every color you want I also have some White pearl shrimps (Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis "White Pearl") - they also look lovely. Just like N. heteropoda, but white

Amano shrimps (Caridina multidentata) are big and i've heard that they're best algae eaters, but adult specimens sometimes hunt for fish and big Amano shrimp can kill and eat Apistogramma cichlid, so CFBN will be no problem for such big and agressive crustacean. And Amano shrimps are bred only by experienced keepers cause they need salt water to raise larvae, so it won't work as food source.

Eljorgo: first 3 pics are those famous ghost shrimps?

 

[eljorgo]

No, they are Neocaridina heteropoda var. Green, I also have had Caridina cf. Tyger, hummel and have Red cherrys too. I think, that younger shrimp and even adfults are Never eaten. They are like a flash. I´ve assit at dozen atacks by C. orientalis and C. e. popei and not even one time I saw a catch, al Fail! From hatch ones to adult all a big fail, So i guess no food source?
All the best,

 

[Yahilles]

I have never heard about Neocaridina heteropoda var. Green, i think you have Caridina cf. babaulti.

They are food source when you hand feed newts with them. It's easy to catch shrimp into small net and after removing from water, it's a question of catching shrimp with tweezers.

 

[caudatadude28]

I would like to buy some cherry shrimp but none of the local petshops carry them. All they carry is ghost shrimp. Do ghost shrimp eat algae?

 

[Azhael]

They are Neocaridina heteropoda "yellow". They are very interesting looking although i prefer the red variety...it´s just strikingly beautiful.
Although i think you need to feed them by catching them and offering them with tweezers, a caudate tank that contains a decent colony of shrimps is bound to offer some oportunities for the newts. Sick or old shrimp are easier prey. I´m also toying with the idea of fast freezing shrimp if i ever have a true invasion...once dead you can use them as bloodworms or any other frozen food.

PS: AJ, i got mine from a hobbyists. I have never seen them in petshops although i know some carry them. Your best option would be contacting someone who has them, cause he is bound to have an excess sooner or later, and get them from them.

 

[Bellabelloo]

AJ, I got my cherry shrimp from a seller on ebay.

 

[eljorgo]

No you both wrong.
There are:
Neocaridina heteropoda var. wild
Neocaridina heteropoda var. red
Neocaridina heteropoda var. blue
Neocaridina heteropoda var. white
Neocaridina heteropoda var. green
Neocaridina heteropoda var. yellow

then:

Caridina multidentata
Caridina serratirostris
Caridina cf. cantonensis crystal red shrimp
Caridina cf. cantonensis Red Bee Shrimp
(...)
Caridina serrata
Caridina babaulti var. green
Caridina babaulti var. yellow
Caridina babaultivar. black
Caridina babaulti var. stripes

just as example

Being confuse between Caridina babaulti var. green and Neocaridina heteropoda var. green
is a common mistake but be careful they´re from different genus.Chip.

J.

 

[Yahilles]

Here in Poland shrimps are getting more and more common but in petshops shrimps are still even three times more expensive than from hobbyist.
Azhael, i think that for freezing you will need a really big number of shrimps which can be difficult as, for example, in 25 l tank you can't keep breeding more than ca. 30 shrimps, cause then there will be too few place for them. You tried feeding store-bought freezed mysis or krill-fein?

Eljorgo, sorry, bout this list looks somewhat unreal for me... In sociality of planted aquarium keepers i've heard about many kinds of shrimps, from Neocaridina heteropoda to Cardina gracillicostris or Caridina cf. propinqua, but i also know that babaulti shrimps are changing colours and babaulti color morph, after nominal, colour-changing is Caridina cf. babaulti var. Zebra, not stripes...
If you try google, morphs of Neocaridina heteropoda you can find are only wild, Red, Blue and Yellow, mistake with babulti is missing them with Caridina ceylanica.

 

[eljorgo]

Well, In my mind I see you are very wrong in your mind you saw me very wrong too. I think this is a very misunderstood. In my country we have a high availability of freshwater shrimp and you can check this forum (portuguese) www.aquariofilia.net in the seccion of sales and invertebrates and you will see N. heteropoda var. green, C. babaulti var. stripes all over the place. Even the "C. babaulti var. zebra" shows of in the online store www.crystalred.eu has C. babaulti var. stripes! I dont have the fault if shrimp availability in your contry is low, but here you have all these varieties very present...
chip.
J.

 

[Kerry1968]

I went to an aquatic store today and they had a few different types of shrimps. They had some bright red (cherry?) shrimps and some that had a Japanese type name Nagamoto or something similar. I asked about keeping them at room temperature but the guy at the shop said they were all tropical and need temps of around 25 degrees. I was hoping to get some to keep with my axolotls, for however long they last!

I don't really have room for a seperate breeding tank (obviously I would quarantine them first) Reading through this thread it seems that the shrimps can avoid capture by predators quite easily, would they actually bred in the axolotl tank do you think? The tank is at around 17-18 degress at the moment.

 

[Yahilles]

Kerry, i think you messed "Nagamoto" with "Amano", probably. Shrimps should work nice in axolotl temperatures, as in nature they inhabit streams so they should be prepared for low temperatures.

Eljorgo,
Poland means nothing as the country with its **** government, but our aquaristic culture (bad that no caudata culture here...) is big and strong, our aquascaper Paweł Szewczak is important man in shrimp and nature aquarium things for european scale We also have own shrimp sociality (i'm not one of them) and i assure you we are not behind Portugal... i know many people keeping and breeding all those super-expensive Bee shrimps ("grade SSSSSSSSS"), blue tigers etc. Poland also have had the biggest number of entries in International Aquatic Plant Layout Contest so don't tell me about shrimp availability

 

[eljorgo]

Well, I can say the same as you said we have also very strong Aquarium keeping with many connections to Brasil. Almost like just one country. I have meet and have friends with those SSSSSS grades, and we do have Filipe Oliveira a world wide keeper with fantastic master pieces that you can find out in thousands of blogs and sites.
I has not switching names, the names i used are valid. I mentioned the "shrimp availability" because you switched all the names.
chip.

J.

 

[pete]

As for the few comments about ghost shrimp... Yes they eat algae, and they will breed readily. I've had them a few times, and I've often seen females with eggs. The main problems, which arise are that the babies are difficult to feed (requiring an aquarium teeming with microscopic life) and I think their optimal temp. is slightly higher than a caudates. In my experience ghost shrimp reproduce much slower than Azhael's account for red cherries. Perhaps I'll have to get some.