A shrimp is not a small fish
Every fish record on this site treats hardness as the field nobody checks. On a cherry shrimp record it is the field that decides whether the animal survives its own growth.
A shrimp grows by molting: it builds a new shell, sheds the old one, and hardens the new one out of minerals taken from the water. Aquarium Co-Op puts the practical consequence in one line, recommending crushed coral in the tank because these shrimp are continuously molting. Shrimp Science publishes the figure behind it, a general hardness of 4 to 10, which is the number that supplies the shell.
That is the difference from a fish. A tetra in water that is slightly too soft is a tetra in slightly wrong water. A cherry shrimp in water with no minerals in it is an animal that cannot finish the process it grows by, and the failure shows up as a dead shrimp beside a half shed shell rather than as a fish looking unwell.
Everything else about this species is easy, which is why it is sold as a beginner animal and why that is mostly fair. One requirement is not negotiable and it is the one a water report calls GH.
Why this record was blank until now
- The problem
- Seriously Fish, the reference source behind every fish record here, does not cover invertebrates
- What we did
- Left six of nine fields empty and said so on the silo page
- What was wrong with that
- The figures exist. We had not gone looking in a source that publishes them
- Now
- Shrimp Science for the parameters, Aquarium Co-Op for the husbandry, Wikipedia for the biology, all three named per field
Worth saying out loud because the silo page has been telling readers this was the thinnest record on the site. It was, and the reason was our sourcing rather than the state of knowledge about the animal.
Cherry shrimp colors, and what they are made of
The wild animal is mottled brown. Everything you can buy is the product of selective breeding, and Wikipedia lists the morphs that have come out of it: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, white, clear and transparent.
Grades, and what they mean
Within red alone the trade sorts by intensity. Shrimp Science names the tiers: Bloody Mary and Painted Fire Red at the high end, Red Fire and High Grade Sakura in the middle, and plain Sakura at the bottom, where the animal looks spotty or mostly transparent with red dots. Aquarium Co-Op describes the same spread more simply, high grade being very red and low grade not as red, and adds Fire Taiwan alongside blue and yellow varieties.
Grade is a price, not a care figure. A low grade Sakura and a Painted Fire Red want the same water, eat the same food and live the same length of time, and nothing on this page changes with the color of the animal.
Color comes partly off the plate
Wikipedia gives the mechanism: the color sits in chromatophores, and the pigment in them comes from carotenoids in the food. That is the one thing on this page that connects the feeding section to the appearance, and it is the honest version of the common claim that a certain food makes shrimp redder.
The other half is genetics, and it comes with a warning both parameter sources give. Do not mix color varieties. Shrimp Science states that crossbreeding produces a lower grade version of one of the parents, which is a polite way of saying that a tank with red and blue shrimp in it eventually holds brown ones.
The numbers, as water
Aquarium Co-Op publishes no water figures for this species at all, so the three tubes below are one source deep, and the source is Shrimp Science. Where a second source has something to say it is in the note.
A tolerance, not a target. That is 15 to 30 °C, which is the widest range on any record here, and it is the reason cherry shrimp are kept in unheated tanks in some rooms and not others.
Wider on the alkaline side than most tropical species, which fits an animal that needs minerals in the water rather than an absence of them.
Published as GH 4 to 10 and converted here at about 17.9 ppm per degree. Shrimp Science also gives KH 1 to 8 and TDS 100 to 250, which are the two figures a shrimp keeper checks that a fish keeper usually does not.
| Field | Shrimp Science | Aquarium Co-Op | Wikipedia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name used | Neocaridina davidi | Neocaridina heteropoda | N. davidi, heteropoda listed as a synonym |
| Adult size | 30 mm | 1.5 in, about 38 mm | 3 to 4 cm |
| Lifespan | 1 to 2 years | not stated | 1 to 2 years |
| Tank | 5 gal minimum, 10 preferred | not stated | not stated |
| Diet | Biofilm and algae | Algae and shrimp food | Biofilms, algae, detritus |
| Plants eaten? | not stated | not stated | Does not eat vascular plants |
Two things fall out of reading across. The size disagreement is real but small, 30 mm against 40, and it is the kind of gap you get between a care sheet measuring a body and an encyclopedia measuring an animal. The name disagreement is settled rather than open: Wikipedia records Neocaridina heteropoda, the name Aquarium Co-Op uses, as a synonym of Neocaridina davidi, described by Bouvier in 1904.
| Parameter | Shrimp Science | Aquarium Co-Op, care guide | Shrimpy Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 59 to 86 °F | 60 to 82 °F, best 72 to 76 | 65 to 85 °F |
| pH | 6.5 to 8.0 | 6.5 to 8.5 | 6.5 to 8.0 |
| General hardness | 4 to 10 | at least 6, about 110 ppm | 7 to 14 |
| Carbonate hardness | 1 to 8 | at least 2, about 40 ppm | 3 to 7 |
| TDS | 100 to 250 | not stated | not stated |
| Minimum tank | 5 gal, 10 preferred | 2 gal holds them, 10 for a colony | 5 gal |
| Shrimp per gallon | not stated | not stated | 5 to 10 |
Reading down those columns is the point of printing them. The pH band is effectively settled, two sources identical and the third half a point wider at the top. Hardness is not settled at all. Shrimp Science publishes 4 to 10, the Aquarium Co-Op care guide sets a floor of 6 and no ceiling, and Shrimpy Business publishes 7 to 14. The three bands overlap only between 7 and 10, and that overlap is the narrowest honest answer this record can give you.
Two cautions about the tank column. Shrimp Science arrives at five gallons through a general rule for freshwater dwarf shrimp rather than by measuring this animal, so it is a category figure and not a species one. And only Shrimpy Business puts a density on the tank at all, at five to ten shrimp per gallon, which is a figure worth carrying into the stocking calculator rather than treating as a ceiling.
The full record
| Field | Recorded | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum tank | 5 to 10 gal | Shrimp Science: 5 gallons minimum, 10 gallons and larger recommended. Aquarium Co-Op states no tank size for this species. |
| Temperature | 59 to 86 °F | Shrimp Science, as 15 to 30 °C. It is a tolerance rather than a target, and the widest range on any record here. Aquarium Co-Op states no temperature. |
| pH | 6.5 to 8.0 | Shrimp Science, 6.5 to 8.0, and Shrimpy Business gives the same band. The Aquarium Co-Op care guide runs half a point higher at the top, 6.5 to 8.5. The Co-Op breeding article states no pH figure. |
| Hardness | 71 to 179 ppm | Shrimp Science publishes GH 4 to 10; converted here at about 17.9 ppm per degree. Two further sources disagree upward: the Aquarium Co-Op care guide sets a floor of 6 degrees, about 110 ppm, with no ceiling, and Shrimpy Business publishes 7 to 14. The three bands overlap only between 7 and 10. |
| Adult size | 1.2 to 1.6 in (30 to 40 mm) | The span across three sources: Shrimp Science 30 mm, Aquarium Co-Op 1.5 inch, Wikipedia 3 to 4 cm. |
| Diet | Algae, biofilm and detritus | All three sources. Wikipedia adds that they do not eat vascular plants. Aquarium Co-Op adds crushed coral for the calcium a continuously molting animal needs. |
| Water column | Substrate | Ours, from the behavior all three describe: it grazes every surface it can climb, which is the floor, the wood, the moss and the glass. |
| Lifespan | 1 to 2 years | Shrimp Science and Wikipedia, independently, with the same figure. Aquarium Co-Op does not state one. |
| Growth rate | Mature at about two months | Wikipedia. It is a maturity figure rather than a growth curve, which is the only thing any of our sources states. |
The same nine fields for every animal on this site are in the A to Z index.
Where our sources disagree
The disagreement on this record is not about the animal, it is about who publishes what. One of our three sources gives every water figure and one gives none, which is worth knowing before you trust a care guide that reads well.
Shrimp Science
5 gallons minimum, 10 and larger recommended. 15 to 30 °C. pH 6.5 to 8.0. GH 4 to 10, KH 1 to 8, TDS 100 to 250. 1 to 2 years.
Aquarium Co-Op
No tank size, no temperature, no pH, no hardness and no lifespan. Crushed coral, because they are continuously molting, and bettas are notorious for going after shrimp.
What we record: we take the parameters from the source that publishes them and the husbandry from the source that publishes that. Neither page is wrong; they answer different questions, and a reader who only found the second one would come away without a single number. This record names which source each field came from for exactly that reason.
The surface it lives on is every surface
A cherry shrimp does not hold a layer the way a fish does. It works over whatever it can climb, which is the substrate, the glass, the wood and the plants, and it is on all of them at once in a mature tank.
Aquarium Co-Op names the furniture that makes this work: cholla wood and moss make great hiding spots. Hiding is not decoration for a shrimp colony, it is where the newly molted animals wait while their shell hardens and where the young stay out of the way of anything larger.
What do cherry shrimp eat, and what they will not touch
Shrimp Science, the Aquarium Co-Op breeding guide and Wikipedia agree on the base of the diet and use almost the same words for it. Wikipedia: biofilms, algae and detritus. Shrimp Science: biofilm and algae in a mature tank, supplemented with algae wafers, bee pollen, shrimp pellets and blanched vegetables. Aquarium Co-Op: algae and a high quality shrimp food, naming Hikari Shrimp Cuisine, and describing them searching for tiny bits of bacteria and fish food.
The one thing they do not eat
Wikipedia states it plainly: they do not eat vascular plants. That answers the question every planted tank keeper asks before buying invertebrates, and it answers it in the useful direction. A cherry shrimp will graze the film on a leaf and leave the leaf.
Calcium is food too
Aquarium Co-Op asks for crushed coral in the tank because these shrimp are continuously molting. It is the same requirement as the hardness figure above, arriving through the substrate instead of through the tap, and it is the cheapest insurance on this page.
This record shares its water with the coldest animal on the site and should not share a tank with it. Our axolotl record runs 61 to 64 °F, inside this record's 59 to 86, so the heater is not the problem. The diet is: Wikipedia's account of what a wild axolotl eats names other arthropods such as crayfish, and a cherry shrimp is an arthropod that fits in its mouth.
One record on this site names this animal as food without qualification. Our african dwarf frog record carries Aquarium Breeder saying that african dwarf frogs will eat all your dwarf shrimp, and that it is simply inevitable. A cherry shrimp is a dwarf shrimp. The same source gives amano and ghost shrimp a chance because they reach two inches, which is the size of the frog.
A new record here answers the shrimp question three different ways at once. Our assassin snail record carries three sources that all say yes with a condition: Aquarium Breeder says it eats only the weak, the sick, or the ones that are molting; Aquarium Source names shrimp fry among its foods; AquaticMotiv says only smaller or baby shrimp, with larger adults typically safe. A healthy adult Neocaridina is safe by all three conditions and every shrimplet in the tank is safe by none, which is why our tank mates grid marks that pairing a caution and prints all three sentences. The molting clause is the one worth remembering, because it applies to every shrimp in the colony on a schedule nobody controls.
The feeding half of this record now has a guide behind it. Our what do shrimp eat guide reads this record’s diet row against the amano and ghost shrimp rows, and it collects what our sources publish about the parts a diet row cannot hold: biofilm, which Aquatic Arts calls a primary food source and forms on any submerged surface within a few days to a few weeks; the calcium behind the crushed coral this record already asks for, at 30 to 50 percent of a shrimp shell by Aquarium Breeder’s figure; and the blanching method for the vegetables. It also carries the finding that complicates the whole subject: Aquarium Co-Op says amano shrimp prefer not to eat algae when better food is available, so a well fed shrimp is a worse algae eater.
A new guide here carries the most unanimous warning any of our sources has produced about this animal. All three care sources on our apistogramma guide say the same thing without qualifying it: Aquarium Co-Op says they will hunt down your dwarf shrimp, baby fish, and any other small creatures, and Aquarium Store Depot puts dwarf shrimp on the avoid list because they will be hunted. No condition, no size threshold, no molting clause, which is unlike our assassin snail record, where three sources say yes and each attaches a different condition. A dwarf cichlid is not written here as a record yet, so the tank mates grid cannot hold the pairing, and the warning lives on the guide instead.
The most precise shrimp answer any source on this site has given is on a new record. Aquarium Co-Op, on our clown killifish record: clown killifish do not seem to eat adult dwarf shrimp, but baby shrimp are fair game. Both halves of that sentence apply to this record at the same time, because the adult here is 30 to 40 mm and the young hatch at about a millimeter, so a colony persists while each generation is thinned. Read it beside the other answers this site holds and the range of certainty is the point: three conditions on our assassin snail record, no condition at all on our apistogramma guide, an outright refusal on our betta record, and five sources saying nothing whatever on our clown loach record.
What a shrimp tank needs and a fish tank does not
Three things this record asks for that a boxed nano tank does not include.
- Crushed coral, or another mineral sourceGH 4 to 10
- A GH test, not just pHthe field that matters
- Cholla wood and mosscover while molting
Every item our records ask for is gathered on the tank setup topic.
Nothing here is a paid link. It is the shortfall between what this record asks for and what a boxed kit contains.
How this record was compiled
- By
- Verified
- Sources
Shrimp Science, Aquarium Co-Op, breeding guide, Wikipedia, Neocaridina davidi, Aquarium Co-Op, care guide and Shrimpy Business
- Conflicts
Printed above: one source publishes every figure and one publishes none
- Not recorded
A starting group size, acclimation, and how to diagnose a death, none of which our sources state
A mature tank feeds them. A new one does not, and that is where a first colony is lost.
Company, when you are the size of the food
Two of our sources address tank mates and both frame it as risk rather than compatibility. Shrimp Science: small fish such as neon tetras are a risk, and the risk is higher for baby shrimp. Aquarium Co-Op: shrimp can coexist with larger fish given hiding spaces, but there will always be a risk.
Can cherry shrimp live with betta?
Bettas are notorious for going after shrimp.
What goes wrong, in order of frequency
Water with no minerals in it
GH 4 to 10 is the requirement, and reverse osmosis water or naturally very soft tap water sits under it. An animal that rebuilds its shell continuously cannot do that out of water that has nothing in it. Crushed coral is the stated fix.
A brand new tank
Biofilm is the base of the diet on every source that describes one, and biofilm is a thing a tank grows rather than a thing you add. A colony introduced into a tank set up last week is being asked to eat something that is not there yet.
Two colors in one tank
They interbreed, and the offspring are a lower grade version of one parent. Nobody notices for two generations and then everything is brown.
A fish that was going to be fine
Our sources name one predator outright and describe every other fish as a risk that rises for the young. The shrimp you count are the adults; the ones you never see are the answer.
The shell is a thing they throw away, and then eat
The hardness figure two stations up is not a preference. It is a building material. A cherry shrimp does not grow inside its shell, it grows out of one and into the next, and it does that for its whole life. Everything in this station follows from that single fact, and it is the part of cherry shrimp care most often mistaken for a death.
How often it happens
Only one of our five sources puts an interval on it. Shrimpy Business records young shrimp molting every one to two weeks and adults every three to four. Wikipedia states that juveniles molt more often than adults without giving a number. Neither Shrimp Science nor either Aquarium Co-Op page gives a frequency at all, so treat roughly one a month per adult as the shape of the thing rather than a schedule.
A shed shell, and a dead shrimp
This is the most useful thing our sources handed us for this record, because it answers the question most people arrive with. The Aquarium Co-Op care guide separates the two on appearance alone:
- A molt is clear and translucent, with a split across the middle of the back where the animal came out of it.
- A dead shrimp is fully opaque. Color is the test, not shape, and not where it is lying in the tank.
- Wikipedia adds one caution: a shed may carry a whitish coloration, so white on its own is not a death.
The white ring of death
Our two newest sources describe this failure from opposite ends, and together they make one thing. The Aquarium Co-Op care guide gives the marker: a dead shrimp with a white band or gap behind its head. Shrimpy Business gives the mechanism: the exoskeleton splits in two, the animal gets stuck inside its own shell, and it dies there. Shrimpy Business attributes it to poor water quality, which on this record means the hardness and mineral figures rather than anything exotic.
The Aquarium Co-Op care guide names the fix as a mineral supplement rather than a water change: crushed coral to lift carbonate hardness, and Wonder Shell or Seachem Equilibrium to lift general hardness. We do not sell any of it and we are not recommending a brand. We are recording that a source names them, which is a different claim.
Leave it where it falls
Two of our sources state this independently and identically, which almost nothing else on this page does. The Aquarium Co-Op care guide notes that many keepers leave the old exoskeleton in the tank because the shrimp will consume it for the calcium it needs for the next molt. Wikipedia states that they consume their exoskeletons to recover the nutrients they contain, and that molts should not be removed. A shed shell on the substrate is neither waste nor a warning.
The same requirement is why the nerite snail record turns on hardness too. A shell is a shell, whoever is building it.
Questions about cherry shrimp
What is the cherry shrimp tank size?
Five gallons as a minimum and ten or larger preferred, per Shrimp Science. Aquarium Co-Op states no tank size at all for this species. Five gallons is a real minimum rather than a comfortable one: a colony grows, and the parameter stability these animals want is easier to hold in more water.
What is the right cherry shrimp temperature?
Shrimp Science records 15 to 30 °C, which is 59 to 86 °F. That is a tolerance rather than a target, and it is the widest recorded range on this site. In a room that stays inside it, a cherry shrimp aquarium does not need a heater; what it does need is for the number to stop moving.
What do cherry shrimp eat?
Biofilm, algae and detritus, on Shrimp Science, the Aquarium Co-Op breeding guide and Wikipedia. On top of that Shrimp Science names algae wafers, bee pollen, shrimp pellets and blanched vegetables, and Aquarium Co-Op names a high quality shrimp food, Hikari Shrimp Cuisine, plus crushed coral for the calcium a molting animal needs.
Do cherry shrimp eat plants?
No. Wikipedia states they do not eat vascular plants. They graze the biofilm and algae growing on a leaf, which looks like eating the plant and is the opposite of it.
What are the cherry shrimp colors?
The wild animal is mottled brown. Selective breeding has produced red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, white, clear and transparent morphs. Within red, the trade grades by intensity: Sakura at the low end, Red Fire and High Grade Sakura in the middle, Bloody Mary and Painted Fire Red at the top. An orange cherry shrimp is the same animal with the same requirements as a red one.
How do you tell cherry shrimp male vs female?
Females are larger, with wider tails for carrying eggs and richer, more opaque color; males are smaller and less colorful. Both Wikipedia and Aquarium Co-Op describe the saddle, a marking behind the head where developing eggs are visible through the shell. Aquarium Co-Op adds that the female is the brighter of the two, which is the reverse of what most fish keepers expect.
Can cherry shrimp live with betta?
Our record says no. Aquarium Co-Op states that bettas are notorious for going after shrimp, Shrimp Science calls small fish a risk that rises for baby shrimp, and Wikipedia records that the young hatch at about a millimeter. The combination is kept successfully in heavily planted tanks, and what makes it work is losses you do not see.
What does a berried cherry shrimp mean?
She is carrying eggs. Aquarium Co-Op describes females getting berried up with eggs held under the belly. Wikipedia gives the numbers: 20 to 30 eggs, two to three weeks to hatch, and the young emerge as miniature adults about a millimeter long rather than as larvae.
How long do cherry shrimp live?
One to two years, and this is one of the few fields on this site where two independent sources give the same figure. Shrimp Science and Wikipedia both record 1 to 2 years; Aquarium Co-Op does not state a lifespan.
Why do I have a dead cherry shrimp?
Our sources do not diagnose deaths, so this record will not either. Two of them do give you a way to tell a death from a molt, which is the question usually hiding behind this one: the Aquarium Co-Op care guide states that a shed shell is clear and translucent with a split across the middle of the back, while a dead shrimp is fully opaque, and Wikipedia adds that a shed may carry a whitish coloration.
Past that, the two failures most likely to be behind a real death are the ones this record already names: water without the minerals a continuously molting animal needs, and a tank too new to carry the biofilm that feeds them. Both are stated requirements rather than theories, and both are cheap to check.
How many cherry shrimp should I start with?
Not recorded as a number. Aquarium Co-Op states only that breeding needs at least one male and one female, and Shrimp Science does not give a starting count. What is stated everywhere is that they breed readily in stable water, so a small starting group in a mature tank becomes a colony without help.
Where to buy cherry shrimp?
We do not rank shops and we are not going to pretend to. What is worth asking wherever you buy, chain store or specialist, is the hardness of the water the shrimp were kept in, because that is the parameter this record turns on and the one most likely to differ from yours.
What does cherry shrimp care come down to?
Three things, and this record holds a figure for each of them.
- Water with minerals in it. General hardness 4 to 10 on Shrimp Science, a floor of 6 on the Aquarium Co-Op care guide, 7 to 14 on Shrimpy Business. That is the widest disagreement on this page, and the overlap is 7 to 10.
- Biofilm to graze. Every source puts it at the base of the diet, and it is something a tank grows rather than something you add.
- A temperature that stops moving. Anywhere inside the recorded band, held still, beats a better number that drifts.
Nothing on that list is equipment, and none of it is what most care sheets lead with. They breed on their own once those three hold.
How often do cherry shrimp molt?
Only one of our five sources puts an interval on it. Shrimpy Business records young shrimp molting every one to two weeks and adults every three to four weeks. Wikipedia states only that juveniles molt more often than adults, and neither Shrimp Science nor either Aquarium Co-Op page gives a frequency. Roughly monthly for an adult is the shape of it, not a schedule you can hold them to.
Should you remove a cherry shrimp molt from the tank?
No, and this is one of the few things two of our sources state independently and in the same direction. The Aquarium Co-Op care guide notes that many keepers leave the old exoskeleton because the shrimp will eat it back for the calcium it needs for the next molt. Wikipedia states that they consume their exoskeletons to recover the nutrients they contain, so molts should not be removed.
Do cherry shrimp eat algae?
Yes, and it is stated by every source that describes the diet. That is not the same as being an algae solution: a colony grazes what grows, it does not clear an established outbreak, and Aquarium Co-Op still asks you to feed them a shrimp food rather than relying on the tank.
They breed whether or not you meant to
This is the opposite of the kuhli loach record, where breeding needs hormone injections and hiding places and still probably will not happen. Wikipedia records cherry shrimp reaching sexual maturity at about two months, females producing 20 to 30 eggs, and those eggs taking two to three weeks to hatch. There is no larval stage: the young emerge as miniature adults roughly a millimeter long.
No larval stage is the whole reason this species is a beginner animal and the reason a colony compounds. Nothing has to be fed a special food at a special size, and nothing has to be moved to a separate tank. Aquarium Co-Op puts the requirement at one male and one female, and stable water does the rest.
The corollary is the part people are unprepared for. A tank that suits them produces shrimp continuously, and the population finds its own ceiling at whatever the food and surfaces support. That is a plan, not an accident, and it is worth deciding on before the first berried female appears.
Breeding, as stated
- Maturity
- About two months
- Eggs
- 20 to 30, carried under the female
- Hatching
- Two to three weeks
- Young
- Miniature adults, about 1 mm, no larval stage
- Requirement
- One male, one female, and water that does not move around
One caution that belongs here rather than in the color section: a mixed color tank breeds too, and Shrimp Science states that crossbreeding produces a lower grade version of one of the parents. If the colony is the point, one variety per tank is the whole of the discipline required.
The name, and where it has already escaped to
Neocaridina davidi was described by Bouvier in 1904 and originally placed in Caridina. The names you will meet on shop labels and in older care guides, Neocaridina heteropoda and Neocaridina denticulata sinensis, are synonyms of it rather than different animals, which is why Aquarium Co-Op writing heteropoda and Shrimp Science writing davidi is not a disagreement about the shrimp in the bag. The family is Atyidae.
It comes from Taiwan, eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Vietnam. It is also now recorded as invasive in Japan, the United States, Poland and Germany, and Wikipedia is specific about the cause: releases from the aquarium trade.
So the last line of this record is the one nobody searches for. An animal that breeds this readily in this wide a temperature range is an animal that establishes itself if it reaches a waterway. A colony that outgrows its tank goes to another keeper, not to a pond, and that is not an environmental slogan on this page, it is the documented history of this species outside its range.
Names, current and old
- Current
- Neocaridina davidi, Bouvier, 1904
- Synonyms
- N. heteropoda, N. denticulata sinensis, Caridina davidi
- Family
- Atyidae
- Native to
- Taiwan, eastern China, Korean Peninsula, Vietnam
- Invasive in
- Japan, United States, Poland, Germany, through aquarium releases
Three of our five sources name the animal, and they use three different names for it. The care figures on this page do not change with the label, and neither does the last paragraph.