Is anyone raising dwarf shrimp (cardinia, neocardinia)in their fry/growout tanks? I've been doing this for the past few years with positive results regarding both the fish and shrimp. Fish are all annual species. Shrimp are red cherries. I was trying to determine if my approach was unique and article worthy, or common practice. Please feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks in advance for everyone's input.

Duane Cagle #4074

I would really like to hear about what you're doing. Sounds neat. Never heard of anyone doing that.

Keith

It does sound unique and I think an article for JAKA would be worthwhile.

I'd be interested to hear whether the shrimp eat excess brine shrimp, help keep the water clean, etc.

Barry Cooper

Thanks for each of your replies. Yes, the shrimp are quick to eat dead BBS as they collect on the floor of the tanks. Better than snails in my opinion, and not as messy. They also serve as my bio-indicators of water quality, since they show signs of stress before fish do. I haven't had the nightmare of sudden fry death since going to my current system.

I will have limited access to these forums in the coming days, but I do appreciate other comments during this time.


Duane

Would the shrimp eat the eggs if they were in the water before the eggs hatched?

I only have experience with fry and juveniles of annual species. The shrimp are detritus/biofilm feeders, and I have never read reports of them eating hard-shelled killie eggs. In fact, I'm not confident the shrimp have mouthparts capable of consuming killie eggs. Maximum size of adult shrimp is less than an inch and they lack pincher type front legs.

Thanks! I was thinking of using them with eggs in mops.

They may safer than snails.

Hi,
I have some experience with cherry shrimp. I made some experiment closing shrimp with eggs and tiny Epiplatys larvae. The shrimp was at max size but did not ate these. I had a larva which hatched, but did not move and had big belly. Seemed as a failed hatch. The shrimp ate this one. I will put more and more of these into the killie tubs. I also put daphnia and snails to clean the water.
Does anyone keep cherry shrimp with some other shrimp?
Steve

Thanks for your input, Steve. Do you have any experience with the shrimp and killie eggs? To answer your question, I have only kept cherry red shrimp, but the requirements for most neocardina and cardina species are similar. I think yo will find, however, that the red cherries are the most adaptable.

Duane

Hi,
I only put non annual eggs with the shrimp, but need further experiments. Somewhere I read on the net that others use also shrimp and they clean eggs and ate fungused ones. However 2 days ago I observed this. A tiny cherry shrimp (1/4 inch maybe) grabbed a planaria from the glass about its own length and was able to hold it and ate it. This made me wonder about lack of pincers (what I read), but the shrimp is able to grab and hold with its leg firmly. This made me think how safe they are with smaller fry. Also as i said, I never see them ate fry. Any other observation or wisdom? Steve