Cardinal Shrimp

[dagray]

From Lake Sulawesi in Indonesia.

A specie discovered only a few years ago (2012). I used to have a small colony, but had a die off (shrimp are more fragile than fish). I kept them in a 20 gallon tank with a Tetra Whisper hang on back filter.

I will caution anyone who tries to buy from an importer as most of these from an importer will have an 80-90% die off rate. I tried importers twice with very bad luck, and many dollars laid out. However, tank bred shrimp are very hardy and ship well. My successful colony started with 12 individual shrimp ordered from someone who successfully had babies and grew them up, and then the babies had babies.

These shrimp carry the eggs on their body, and when the eggs hatch there is no larval stage; you get miniature fully formed shrimp. It is fun seeing a 1/16th inch baby on the aquarium glass.

Here is a photo of one taken in my tank back in 2012


I might like to get more someday and try again as they are really fun to watch as their white gloved hand go whirling.

These shrimp as adults are one inch to 1.5 inches long so not big enough to serve on a plate with cocktail sauce.

[Captain Discus]

Dave,
If you wouldn't mind sometime i would like to pick your brain for information. I have wanted to start a colony of these guys for some time but really did not have the experience or knowledge.
Tom.

[dagray]

anytime. My email is dagray@centurytel.net

These guys aren't algae eaters, but they eat a film that is on the tank wall and substrate.

I had black substrate, they also look good on white substrate (easier to see). I also had some black and white chunks of lava rock so they had plenty of places to hide.

They like the warm water (high 70s to mid 80s), and they like a PH of 7.2 or higher.

Also Posso or Rabbit snails make great tank mates for these shrimp, and it is almost as if there is a symbiotic relationship between the two. Mine did better when I had the white spotted and gold spotted "Rabbit" snails in the tank.

I fed once every three weeks about a half pinch of flake ground very small, and that would create the food source for the shrimp as the flake food decayed.

Others put Indian almond leaves in the tank.

These are about as hard as Cherry shrimp to keep, but you have to keep the water parameters steady. I think what killed mine off was overdosing the water with prime. At the time I thought I needed a de-chlorinator/water conditioner, and learned my mistake.

Now for dechlination I use ground up vitamin C as it bonds to chlorine and chloramine and makes a neutral compound

Shrimp can not take copper in their water, so anything you would use to dose your tank that contains copper is out.

Calcium is also a good idea for shrimp (so a food containing calcium... there are many) as it helps the shrimp exoskeleton harden and also makes it easier for the shrimp to shed the exoskeleton as they do when they grow.

Shrimp molt about every two to three weeks.

For shrimp I found it a necessity to rubber band the toe of a woman's nylon over the filter intake even if the intake was sponge as the shrimplets could and would get stuck in the sponge pre-filter if the pre-filter was a course sponge like most of us use.

I would send you to petshrimp.com and look at the archived threads on Sulawesi shrimp as there is much better information there than what I have.

Dave