Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var. Red)

by

Ashley Leow

Vancouver, Canada.

Red Cherry Shrimp or RCS is one of the most popular in the freshwater dwarf shrimp hobby.

They are versatile, adaptable, hardy and fun to watch. Red Cherry Shrimps also cleans your

aquarium of algae.

Cherry shrimps have a completely suppressed larval development stage and that is they give

birth to baby shrimps. Mothers keep the eggs under their bellies till the eggs hatch; this process

usually takes 3 to 4 weeks when eggs are visible.

Baby shrimps are really really small and you might want to get a magnifying glass. Newborns

have a size of approximately 2-3 mm. Adult shrimps have a maximum size of approximately 1

inch or 2-3cm. Female shrimps are generally a little larger than male shrimps.

Water Parameters / Living Conditions

Temperature: 70°F - 80°F or 21°C - 27°C (I keep mine at 77°F or 25°C)

pH: From slightly acidic to slightly basic.

6.6 – 7.6 (Mine is 7.0)

GH & KH: I keep mine at 5 dGH and 3 dKH.

Ammonia & nitrite: both 0 mg/L or 0 ppm.

Nitrate: Around 10 to 20ppm.

Filtration: Sponge filters seems to be the most used among shrimp hobbyist, I myself

use hang on back filters but I tie a cut stocking over the water intake of the

filter to prevent baby shrimps from being sucked in.

Water changes: I do 10 to 20% water change every week.

Buffering: I put a small stocking of peat moss into my HOB filter to help keep the

water buffered to prevent sudden changes in water parameters.

Plants: Shrimps like a lot of hiding places. A planted tank, driftwood, rocks, and

also moss will serve this purpose.

Shrimp Food / Nutrition

Red cherry shrimps eat basically everything. I personally feed them a variety of food. These

include algae wafers, mixed flakes, bloodworms, blanched vegetables, dried leaves especially

almond leaves, shirakura wafers, cyclop-eeze etc…

But don’t overfeed!! As in overfeeding, this is hard to say because it depends how many shrimps

are there to feed. I myself only feed them once a day in the evening and the amount of food

should be consumed within 30 minutes to 1 hour. Don’t worry too much about the shrimps

getting hungry because if you have lighting there will be at least some algae growth and shrimps

will find and eat them.

Tank mates

Different hobbyists have different tank mates with their red cherry shrimps. You can experiment!

I have kuhli loach with my RCS. I also have a trained (does not eat shrimps) dwarf puffer in the

same tank to help snail population. In another tank, I have Galaxy Rasbora (Celestial Pearl Danio)

with my shrimps.

Red Cherry Shrimp Sex Differentiation

Notice that the female has a yellowish saddle right behind the head on its back. The male is

usually a little smaller than the female; the male shrimp also has a thin horizontal strip that is

transparent extending from the back of the head to the tail in the middle of the body.

When the female red cherry shrimp gets pregnant, the yellowish saddle disappears and eggs

appear below the belly of the female.

Feeding time

Have fun keeping Red Cherry Shrimps!

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