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I've been reading through old posts and a lot of people say they keep cherry shrimp with their Zebras. I was thinking about adding some in my tank until I read that they can reproduce very rapidly and over run your tank. Does this happen a lot? What can be done if this happens?

hi mate,

in my experience cherry's dont even breed at too high a temp so you will be ok. even if you do get them to breed they wont over run your tank in the same way snails would... if you breed too many just sell some..!

I agree. I keep RCS with my zebras as well. Everytime the shrimps start over populating, I sell them off. I also feed some to my fish in my 125 gallon tank (discus, angels, clown loaches).

crazie.eddie wrote:I agree. I keep RCS with my zebras as well. Everytime the shrimps start over populating, I sell them off. I also feed some to my fish in my 125 gallon tank (discus, angels, clown loaches).

How do you get them out without disturbing the Zebras? How often do they over populate?

I don't really keep track. I know I sold allot from both tanks over the summer. I left maybe about 50 in each tank (29 gallon and 20 gallon long). They looked scarce back then, but now they are starting to get their numbers up. I say by next summer, I should have enough to sell again.

As far as catching them, RCS are easy to catch. They stay in the nets, unlike Amano shrimps, who crawl/jump out. But no matter, the zebras get disturbed, but they just crawl back in their caves.

hmmm... I think I might stay away from them for now then. Thanks for the info! Is there anyway to tell which are male and which are female?

Actually, I started with about 10 RCS in each tank. It took about 2 years for the population to get noticed. Having a planted tank made it difficult to see a majority of them. Only during feeding time did I see how many shrimps I had, since they would all gather for the feeding frenzy.

Females are usually darker red and more fuller in color. Most males will have gaps in between the red, so it's not as dark or bright. Of course, another way to tell is the females would have eggs

If the population is getting too much, just put some cardinals, which should eat the baby shrimps.

Really? The cardinals will eat them? Hmmm that might just work then because I already have a few cardinals. Will Rummynose tetras eat them too?

Rummy nose might eat them. It's just, I have cardinals in my 29 gallon planted tank with RCS. I look, but I haven't seen any shrimplets.