The Red Cherry or RCS is one of the hardiest and easiest to keep of the freshwater dwarf shrimp currently on the market and a great shrimp for beginners. This is the second shrimp species I kept and started my colony just over a year ago now and I would say there are over 100 shrimp in my 20 gallon long aquarium right now. I started out with about 30 shrimp and by maintaining clean water with proper Parameters as shown below I soon had several berried females and began seeing young within 4 weeks and I started with young shrimp since they ship and acclimate to a new tank better than adults.

Red Cherry Shrimp are wonderful little shrimp and stay quite active in your tank all the time when healthy and the water is to their liking. The females will show a bright yellow saddle when they begin to reach sexual maturity and after mating the female will carry the bright yellow eggs under her tail until they hatch which usually takes from 14 to 21 days depending on water temp and conditions. The young are born as 2 to 3mm versions of the adults and often can be seen clinging to the aquarium glass feeding on bio-film.

The chart is a guideline only and these shrimp are very adaptable and will survive in much cooler water with lower or higher PH than shown, but the parameters shown are recommended for best health and color as well as breeding. As young your Red Cherry Shrimp show very little color, but as they mature the females will become a brilliant red while the males although not colorless stay somewhat clear with a red tint and are smaller than the females.

Keeping these shrimp happy and healthy is as easy as keeping the water very clean and using a sponge filter or keeping a sponge pre filter over your canister or hang on the back filter is recommended to keep baby shrimp from being sucked into the filter. The young are not much more than 3 mm long at birth and easily sucked into your average filter. As with all Dwarf Shrimp it is recommended they be kept in a shrimp only tank as most fish will eat the young shrimp, yes even guppies and the shrimp will be much more active when not worried about being eaten.

Like other Dwarf Shrimp the Cherry Shrimp's main natural food source is bio-film and a well matured tank with leaf litter and moss or other slow growing plants will naturally produce enough on it's own to support a small population. This bio-film is also very important to the young shrimp especially for the first few days after birth. RCS will also eat all sorts of prepared shrimp, crab, and fish foods, but care must be taken not to over feed as uneaten food may foul the water and even cause death. Cooked spinach and broccoli are also used to feed shrimp and they love it.

My Red Cherry Shrimp are tank raised by me and kept in excellent health and I do have some available for purchase from time to time. I prefer to sell only juvenile shrimp from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long because they ship and adapt to your tanks parameters better and live a longer life than if you are sent adults that you have no clue as to age. Your average RCS lives from 1 to 1.5 years on average so getting youngsters is a good idea. Please check my AZ Inverts Store for availability