Cherry shrimp: description and content in the aquarium

Among lovers of aquariums, cherry shrimp are very popular - they are unpretentious and undemanding creatures with a calm disposition, ease of breeding and excellent vitality. Such shrimps are bright and colorful, they can become a worthy decoration of any artificial reservoir.

Such red shrimps are also known among aquarists as cherry, their progenitors were whitish and even transparent, but the breeders, as a result of a long and careful selection, have bred the newest breed with a rich shell color. The size of cherry reaches 2.5-3 cm, specimens 4 cm long are less common, while females are slightly larger than males.

Shrimps have an elongated elongated body, which, like other crustaceans, consists of a cephalothorax and an abdomen. The body itself is light, and the back has a pronounced reddish-pink color. Small whitish spots are noticeable on the paws and claws, the whiskers are painted in pale pink tones. During their life, cherry shrimp change their chitinous cover many times. The saturation of the colors directly depends on the characteristics of the content: the feed used, the intensity of illumination, the temperature of the water and from the neighbors. Such shrimps can literally change their color before our eyes.

The life expectancy of individuals is small - only 1-1.5 years, therefore, it is not recommended to purchase adult shrimps, since you will not be able to determine their exact age and it is possible that the shrimp will die soon after purchase.

As in the wild, arthropods in artificial reservoirs become easy prey for predators and die, since they have absolutely no protective behavioral mechanisms. Even the smallest fish can harm cherries. Despite this, few aquarists keep shrimp alone - everyone wants the pond to look beautiful and effective, therefore it is important to choose the right neighbors for your pets.

Best of all, cherry shrimp get along with small fish. - neons, guppies, mollies, corridors, as well as ototsinklus. These pets are characterized by a peaceful disposition, so they will not show aggression towards other inhabitants of the tank.

Shrimps are extremely unpretentious to living conditions, so they quickly adapt to life in aquariums. Keep in mind that cherry shrimps belong to schooling creatures, therefore they feel best in a rather large flock with "fellow-thinkers". If the shrimp lives alone, then it will constantly hide among the thickets of aquatic plants, and you will not be able to enjoy its appearance. To keep cherry, aquariums of 20 liters or more are required, the water must meet the following requirements:

• temperature - in the range from 15 to 30 degrees;
• acidity - 7-8 units.
• hardness - 3-10.

Once every 7-10 days, the water must be changed by 15-20%, topping up with excessively soft water is undesirable, since in such conditions the quality of the chitinous shell of shrimp deteriorates. There are several taboos when caring for cherries:

• it is forbidden to change the conditions of keeping shrimps too drastically;
• you cannot change the water by more than 20% of the total volume of the liquid;
• do not feed the shrimp too abundantly;
• it is not recommended to populate many new inhabitants at once, the shrimps should have free space.

Cherries prefer an aquarium with live vegetation, it is advisable to plant cladophora algae, Indian fern, Javanese moss, as well as any plants floating on the water surface.

In the presence of dense plantings of plants, the absence of an additional filter is allowed, aeration occurs naturally, although it is still better to turn on the compressor at night. When keeping shrimps, breeders often have a problem - "cherries" lose the brightness of their color, there may be several reasons for this:

• cherry trees were bred selectively, therefore, in the absence of artificial selection and culling of pale individuals, they tend to return to a colorless form, you need to carefully select bright individuals when breeding these creatures;
• from time to time it is necessary to "dilute" the existing flock with new, saturated shrimp, and it is best to contact a new supplier;
• the color is influenced by the food used - for example, cherries fed on foods containing spirulina or carotenoids will be much brighter.
• cherry color depends on the background, for example, if you use a dark background and a black substrate in a pond, then the shade of shrimp will be more saturated.

In artificial conditions, cherry prawns are able to eat any type of food, they are omnivorous and can even eat the corpses of their relatives and other neighbors, although by their nature they belong to peaceful creatures. If the cherry lives with the fish, then it is not worth feeding them separately, since they will eat up everything they see nearby. If cherry trees live in a separate tank, then they can be offered:

• frozen bloodworm;
• leaves of fruit trees;
• seaweed;
• vegetables;
• fish food and much more.

However, remember - if you feed the shrimp only frozen food, the shade of the shell will become more saturated, and with frequent use of flakes, on the contrary, the integument will turn pale. If the individuals feed on the whole flock, therefore, the food came to their liking, since the dissatisfied individuals usually hide. Cherry prawns are ready to eat 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, however, they only need to be fed once a day, while the batch size is determined based on the fact that all the proposed feed should be eaten in a couple of hours.

Breeding cherry shrimp is a snap. Since cherries are invertebrates, they easily reproduce without human intervention - for this, it is enough just to place females and males in a common reservoir. You can distinguish between males and females by colors and manners. So, in females, the abdominal line is more rounded, in addition, they are much brighter than males, which are small, faded and very nimble. At the age of 2-3 months, females have a saddle - it is intended for bearing eggs.

When the female is ready to mate, she begins to release her pheromones into the water, signaling to the males that she is ready to reproduce. Males, having felt this aroma, begin to look for a partner, and rapid mating occurs. Immediately after this, the animals move the eggs to the saddle, as a rule, the female bears eggs for about 15-20 days, during this time it is extremely important to keep the container clean and the presence of air. Eggs are greenish or yellow in color, but as they grow, they begin to darken. Small shrimps no larger than 1 mm appear from them, but even in this form, they are very similar to their parents in appearance.

Aquarium "cherries" often encounter diseases, however, they are not cured, so the affected individuals usually die. The following are considered the most common cherry problems.

• Attack of the chitinous cover by pests. This leads to damage to the gills, muscles and heart, which inevitably leads to the death of the animal.
• Fungal infections occur when infected newcomers move in. To avoid such an outcome, newly purchased shrimp must be quarantined for at least a month.
• Poisoning with copper or nitrates occurs due to the use of untreated and untreated water, as well as uncontrolled breeding of the inhabitants of an artificial reservoir. Under these conditions, overpopulation often occurs, and accordingly, the volume of waste products containing nitrogen increases.

About cherry shrimp - their reproduction, keeping, feeding and compatibility with fish in the aquarium, see the next video.