How quickly and easily do these cherry shrimp multiply? I am setting up a 33 gal. tank and I don't know how many to get. I will be putting rainbowfish in with them and I'm worried that they might eat the fry?

thanks!

I dont know anything about rainbow fish but I have cherries with tetras, rubber mouth plecos, a false SAE, a lonely danio:-), and some ottos. The shrimp breed like crazy. I do 50% WC's weekly and add tap directly to the tank and treat with seachem prime. When I've had issues and had fish die I have lost very few cherries. They seem to be very hardy to me. I bought a package of 20 a few months ago and I have well over 100. I've given some away and I know many have fell victim to my canister filter. I would think 10 or so in a 33 would be more than enough. You'll soon have 90 anyway! They are usually dirt cheap to.

I can tell you that angel fish will eat them readily.
Just bought 20 and the larger angels (2") got after them .
Bought 12 Amano shrimp and also were eaten.

Surprisingly, there still are 2-3 of each hiding in the plants.

Lots of info on this shrimp, and many others at Petshrimp.com

Thanks for the shrimp info.
raul

If you're trying to breed them it's probably best to keep them by themselves. Chances are when you get the shrimp they will be pretty small and possibily an expensive treat for your fish. I've had some lemon tetra's that have gotten hungry and eaten all my baby shrimp. Once the shrimp are full grown they become harder to snack on, but sometimes they still can get picked off by bigger fish.
In my experience you can get a batch of babies every 2 weeks from RCS.

this is nice to know, just got cherries myself and planning to breed them.. by the way, wont more than 50% WC mini cycle the tank? i better keep my WCs lesser to help stabilizing the tank and my shrimps happier.. just my two cents..

I have cherry red shrimp breeding like crazy in my tank. I even find large and small shrimp in both of my filters when I clean them.

Which leads me to another question, what is too many cherry red shrimp for a tank? Will cherry red's eat plants?

Some people recommend up to 5 RCS per gallon! I think you are safe ... for now.

They do not eat any plants that I know of ... at least not live plants. It wouldn't surprise me if they eat decaying leaves, since some people boil spinach and put it in with them for a healthy treat.