# Determining how many shrimp to buy?



## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

Is there a way or general rule of thumb to determine how many shrimp to add to a tank.

It would be a 50g with Tetras and about 5 Ottos.

How many Amano shrimp only? 
How many Cherry shrimp only?
How many Amano and Cherry shrimp if add both?

thanks
steve


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Doesn't Amano add like 1 (Amano shrimp) per gallon initially? The he removes most of them once the tank settles.

For a 50 I'd try to get at least a dozen Amanos and maybe half a dozen Cherrys (make sure you get both sexes so they can breed) By the time the Amanos die off you should have a breeding colony of Cherrys to take over the slack (assuming your fish are compatible with baby shrimp).


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## Marc (Oct 13, 2004)

This maybe a silly question but, i know shirmp will feed on Algae, but do they usually prefer?

Marc


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

My shrimp will eat anything they get their pincers on. If there's fish food available they'll eat that. When that's gone they'll resort to eating algae, so I guess they prefer fish food, but they never stop feeding so eventually they'll be getting to any algae in the tank.


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

In a 50 gallon tank you can put in A LOT of cherries or amano shrimp. Probably more than you would really want. Realistically, probably a dozen amanos or 2 dozen cherries would be enough to keep them visible and hard at work looking for algae. I keep about a dozen amanos and a dozen ghost shrimp along with two vampire shrimp in my 75 gallon tank, but I could put a lot more than that in there if I wanted to. Hell, I have a dozen ghost shrimp in my 6 gallon along with about 30 common guppies! They don't put much of a load on the tank the way a heavy bodied fish might.
Oh, and for the type of algae the shrimp prefer, they usually prefer the green algaes over the black beard algae. Nothing will eat Blue-Green algae, since it is poisonous.....AND STINKY!
-Aphyosemion


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Considering the price and fertility of Cherries, I would get 4 or 5 of them and wait a few months, then you'll have 4 or 5 hundred.

Amanos don't breed that easily, so however many you want, you'll need to buy.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

thanks guys

I think dwarfpufferfish sells cherries. Havent really looked into sources yet.

Am I correct in thinking that if I do get Amano shrimp and cherry shrimp, my Angelfish will have to go? Or else they will eat them? Would the shrimp be safe with Congo Tetras or Red Irian Rainbows?


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## three105 (Nov 15, 2007)

damn i wanna get amano shrimp but i have 4 small angels with about 14 cardinal tetras... let me know i need something for my algae


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Tetras will eat your RCS.


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## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

epicfish said:


> Tetras will eat your RCS.


If the shrimp can barely fit into the mouth of the fish, then it will be eaten. 

But given you feed the fish often enough so they don't go hungry and you give the shrimp places that are inaccessible to fish, the shrimp are safe.

I've seen this guy I met and his discus tank with red cherry shrimp.
However, they were juvenile discus that were well-fed. I told him the shrimp were going to be eaten, and needless to say, he forgets to feed for a day, and the shrimp disappears the following day.


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## florafan (Jan 21, 2006)

Wasserpet is right about the cherry shrimp. I put about 4 into my 10 gallon, and after a couple of months the tank was swarming with them - and they are in the tank with some guppies. With each water change I am sucking out babies that I put into a shrimp tank, but it seems every time I turn around there are more of them in the 10 gallon. They are breeding machines.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Can we check the dates?

lol

-Andrew


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