# Red Cherry Shrimp Questions



## King James (Jan 30, 2012)

Wow, have been reading several threads on RCS and they sound so interesting to keep. I have never had any and have several questions....
I have currently 6 tanks from 75 down to 10 gallons. Most of my tanks have fake plants and lots of driftwood and a few live plants. 

Do they have to have live plants to survive or will they do ok with a LOT of cover, but in form of plastic plants instead of real plants and I have a lot of Mopani driftwood too? I would like to get some of these and learn what I can about them.

My 75 gallon has fish that will undoubtedly eat them, but it also has a lot of cover as I always have a few platy babies that survive. I have angelfish, neons, rummy nose and several platys as well as 4 albino corys. I have other tanks with just fancy guppies in them and some fry tanks, but not a lot of cover in fry tanks, just driftwood with bare tanks in 3 of them used for guppy fry to grow. I think they will survive in big tank where there is a lot of cover, but undoubtedly a few will get taken I am sure by the fish. 

I read through a lot of the posts the past couple weeks and gleaned a lot of knowledge, but want to know if they absolutely have to have LIVE PLANTS and do they eat fish food same as fish too?
Thanks in advance for any advice from anyone?


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## jbrown5217 (Nov 9, 2011)

They love moss. They would be fine with fake plants. I would just provide some java moss for them.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

King James said:


> 1. Do they have to have live plants to survive or will they do ok with a LOT of cover, but in form of plastic plants instead of real plants and I have a lot of Mopani driftwood too?
> 
> 2. I have angelfish, neons, rummy nose and several platys as well as 4 albino corys. I have other tanks with just fancy guppies in them and some fry tanks, but not a lot of cover in fry tanks, just driftwood with bare tanks in 3 of them used for guppy fry to grow. I think they will survive in big tank where there is a lot of cover, but undoubtedly a few will get taken I am sure by the fish.


1. They will survive, but they won't be very happy. Live plants offer much more foraging opportunities for the shrimp.

2. The angels will be the biggest problem, but I kept about 70-100 RCS in a 29 tall with a koi angel and 10 tetras and they were breeding and doing just fine. The angel did eat a few though. In addition, the smaller fish like guppies will eat the RCS babies. If you want to breed them, consider getting a separate 5-10 gallon with a sponge filter, heater, and good light, some Eco-Complete substrate, and live plants (especially moss), and put any berried females in there. You'll have about a hundred babies from one berried female in 4-6 months if all goes well.


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