Cherry Shrimp as self sustaining food source??

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professor_rob

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 26, 2010
306
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Brisbane, Australia
First of all, sorry if in wrong section was not sure if I should post in General/Invertebrates/Breeding/Projects & Ideas etc.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with breeding cherry shrimp as a live food source. I can get 100 cherry shrimp for au$39 off a breeder and was wondering if I could put them in my 650g tank and have them as a self-sustaining food source for the fish (not the only food source btw)

The tank will be 650g, and filled with stacks of driftwood, and hiding places. It is not built yet (hopefully this weekend) I will only have 1 turtle in the tank for the first couple of weeks. After a few weeks I may take out the turtle (just a temp house for him) and the 650g will be stocked with 1 NTT datnoid (3"), 2 bala sharks (10"), about 5 more bala's (4"-6"), 1 Pearsei (10"+), a couple geo surinamensis' (3.5") then maybe a group of tinfoils and a lemon barb, and maybe a few butterfly plecs (L168)

My main questions are;
-is there much or any nutritional value in cherry shrimps?
-the tank is not the most heavily stocked, would a self-sustaining colony of feeder shrimp be possible? Or is my stock-list too small and the shrimp will breed like crazy (will most likely add more fish as it is hard to resist)
-do bala's and tinfoil's eat them?
-would I need anything special for them to breed? (never bred them, heard they breed fairly easy - there will be plenty of hiding places)
-the filtration system will be a weir overflow -> sump - would this just get jam-packed with shrimp? and is there a practical way to prevent this? (a net over the intake, would have to be very fine which would lead to clogging)
-the tank will be 90cm / 36" would the shrimp get that high into the overflow?
-is this whole idea plausible or just a pipe dream?

Any expert opinions would be great, feel free to add any input if you think I have missed something, all info is good info.

I will post updates on how it goes if I go through with it (pending advice here:naughty:) if anyone is interested.

Thanks:)
 
i know when i buy ghost shrimp for clean up crews in my tanks they dont last more than a couple hours. Ofcourse i have larger american cichlids and not a ton a hiding spots either.
I would say it would be an alright supplement to regular feedings but i dont think it would be the tank sustained indefinately.
 
professor_rob;5094466; said:
Do you know why they would not breed?


Someone must know if bala's or tinfoils eat them
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Mainly because they are scared sh****ss... they have all these predatory fish swimming around them.. I don't have any dought that bala's or tinfoils would have a problem downing some cherry shrimp...
 
A few months ago, I got about 6 or 7 cherry shrimps with a bunch of snails that were given to me, and now I have hundreds!

I have them in a 40 gallon breeder with guppies, and marble crays.

IMO, I don't think they would last very long.
 
First question is, won't the turtle effect the water parameters quite a bit? since i always thought they were quite messy?

As for the shrimp, they actually prefer cooler waters (under 24'C) and at least some sort of substrate and plants / moss... so if your not planning on putting a substrate in, or plan on keeping the tank temps quite warm it may not work...

Last thing, with such large fish, i'm not sure they would pick the cherries off? i mean depending on the size of the fish, they may ignore them as a food source unless pretty hungry?
 
Fat Homer;5095454; said:
First question is, won't the turtle effect the water parameters quite a bit? since i always thought they were quite messy?
Click to expand...

The turtle will only be there for a few weeks, as his usual tank I am using for my Dat trying to eventually get him off live food (that is all he eats). The turtle will go back to his usual tank when I move fish to the 650g.



Fat Homer;5095454; said:
As for the shrimp, they actually prefer cooler waters (under 24'C) and at least some sort of substrate and plants / moss... so if your not planning on putting a substrate in, or plan on keeping the tank temps quite warm it may not work...
Click to expand...

I will have black diamond quartz in the tank I think it will be about 2mm in size. I usually keep the tank heaters at 24, but being in Queensland the tank stays around 26-28 10 months a year. Wont have plants but as mentioned will have lots of driftwood logs and places to hide.


Fat Homer;5095454; said:
Last thing, with such large fish, i'm not sure they would pick the cherries off? i mean depending on the size of the fish, they may ignore them as a food source unless pretty hungry?
Click to expand...

The pearsei may not eat the shrimp, although he does eat really small granule food, he eats anything he sees float in front of him, he is generally peaceful though. I mainly wanted the food source for the dat, but am sure others may eat them as well. If i put in feeders in the tank, I think the pearsei and others will eat the majority of them before the dat realises they are there at the moment.

Cherry shrimp have a max size of 1.3 inch or 3 cm, so I am guess the larger fish may see them as food.

Do you know how much nutritional value the shrimp have, would they help the dat grow much, or would feeder fish be better.

Thanks heaps
 
^ Honestly, i don't think shrimp, especially ones that small have much nutritional value... if you wanted to go the shrimp route, might i suggest de-frosted market prawns used for human consumption? since surely that would be more nutritious?

As far as feeder fish goes, personally speaking, i'm pretty much against them unless its for a piscivore, and even then i'd be very careful which fish to use to avoid fatty liver disease...

As for the temps, just keep an eye on the shrimp, coz in the past when i kept them at warmer temps i did have problems with some of them dropping dead randomly as they do prefer cooler temps normally which is why i kept mine right next to an air-con to help keep the temp down...
 
I think they would all disappear pretty quickly. Small crustaceans are on the menu for virtually every type of fish. They breed readily with no special help needed, but it still takes them time to grow. I imagine most of the initial stock would get picked off before they even breed, and even if some did manage to hatch, they would probably get eaten before they reached adult size. Even if a few did survive in cracks and crevices, I doubt they would breed to an extent that would make a sigificant impact on the diet of the fish. As for getting stuck in the sump, they probably wouldn't make it to the overflow as any shrimp out in the open water would probably get picked off immediately.
 
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