MyFishkies

I have 2 questions...

First, I bought 5 cherry reds from a store along with java moss and put them in my tank with my fish. I never saw all 5 at once but I did see 2-3 at a time every now and then. Then I found a dead shrimp, then I would see 1 or 2 at a time. After a month, I had (I think) one male and one female for sure. Then I moved and had to move my aquarium (long story) and I found the male dead, no sign of the female. However I did acquire an unmanageable snail population. I found the only way to get rid of the snails was to start a new tank.

In the old one, I was keeping the right temp, and they would hide in the java moss, so, did the fish eat them or did I do something wrong? The reason I want to know is I now have a second tank that I just set up, and I want to use it just for cherry reds... But I also want to be able to use it as my timeout tank (QT). But if I put, let's say, my very pregnant Molly in there, I don't want her to eat my shrimp.

enthusiast

welcome to fishlore.

this post bothered me when i seen the title, because i too have a 10 gal tank full of red cherry shrimps and i love them. I actually breed them now for surrounding LFS.

anyways straight to the topic, i would bet that the fish probably ate them. If you want the RCS to live and strive, your best bet is to place them in a tank on their own, with absolutely NO fish. Like this with plants added these shrimp will reproduce like guppies, having babies every month! This is just impossible to do in a tank with any fish in it, as the babies are miniature versions of the adults, they look just like a shrimp, but they are literally the size of a large Sea Monkey!!!

I do know from watching my shrimp firsthand that the shrimp DO eat snails. I've never seen them eat any live snail (which is close to half the shrimps size), but they will swim around the tank and pluck the baby, undeveloped snails straight from the eggs planted around which would be an explanation as to why your snail population exploded, while your shrimps died off

MyFishkies

Thank you for the reply. I have a new 5G and a 10g waiting for residents...I'll probably make the 10 my new shrimp tank and the 5 my timeout tank.


Thanks!

Shawnie

welcome to fihslore!!! im sorry for the loss of your shrimp do you know what the tank water parimeters are?

you cant post in there or any other thread about b/s/t until after 50 posts ..if you read the print at the top of the b/s/t section, it explains it all

Tony G.

The reason you cannot access the Buy, Sell and Trade section, is because you are new. You need a certain ammount of posts to be able to access that section of the forum

SHAWNIE!!!
you are BAAAD!!!

MyFishkies

Thank you for the replies.

My water parameters are in my info...don't remember all of them but they all seem to be okay. But I am using test strips which I've read here may not be accurate...

Next question: can I add shrimp to an uncycled tank? Brand new, set up 2 days ago and the parameters are all the same as my fish tank.

Shawnie

Your welcome ! I dont see the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings and I agree, the strips will probably give you false readings....if you can find an API liquid master kit, they are much more reliable and you can do 100's of tests....I wouldnt add anything to an uncycled tank ....its just more work for you and more stress on the babies...once you can find a true reading of the water parimeters, you then can use some of the things from your tank thats running now, if its cycled....good luck!

enthusiast

the shrimp will need the same water conditions as the fish, you cant place them in a brand new tank filled with untreated fresh water