Cherry Shrimp

[SparklyOnTheInside]

Does anyone know about cherry shrimp? I have an old tank (14 litre) that's too small for fish but I wondered if I might be ok with a handful of shrimps in it..

Not sure if they'd be ok on gravel or if they need to be on sand?

I have some plastic plants I can use too, does this sound like it might work?

I am trying to persuade a colleague that shrimps would be a much better classroom pet than a poor goldie! The shrimps would live with me but will have a term visiting the class.

Thanks for any fishy/shrimpy knowledge

Cherry shrimp are lovely and great fun to watch. 14 litres is too small for them really, they are titchy but quite sensitive to poor water quality.

Some triops would be a good choice, they don't need a filter either.

Sorry, DD2 was dragging me away as I was typing

Anyway, cherry shrimp do need a filter and a heater so they'd be fiddlier. I had some in a 25 litre once and I was doing 2-3 water changes a week to keep the water in good nick. 14 litres you'd need to be changing every day probably.

Triops live in puddles in the wild so much less fussy.

Ok thanks

I'll look into triops for the little tank and save the cherry shrimp for my 30litre biorb, that should be big enough?

Yes, they should be fine in there. They do like live plants and live plants don't generally do well in the biorb substrate but you could get a mossball and maybe a bit of bogwood with some moss or java fern growing on it, they would love that.

Most people I know with 30 litre biorbs have given up trying to keep fish in them and switched to small shrimp and it seems to work pretty well.

Yes, I didn't buy the biorb - it was given to me with 3 fish in it when the previous owner moved house.

One of the fish was a 10cm common goldfish!

Hopefully I can sell triops as a nice class pet (although I've heard they eat each other) and use the 14l for that then keep some nice shrimps at home for me

(The goldfish lives outdoors now and is still in good health)

I'm quite keen to be the person who "sorts out" the class pet as colleague B will keep saying daft things about goldfish and tiny tanks being ok because she "had a goldfish in a bowl and it lived for two whole years" hopefully triops will be groovy

Two years! Does she know the life expectancy of a goldfish? That'd be like patting yourself on the back for getting a dog to live for a year.

Triops are so cool, they are like something from Jurassic Park. Not the raptors.

I had a big chat with the "2 year goldfish" lady and she does know about goldfish lifespan.. the trouble is she doesn't really equate fish with "proper" pets like dogs. She is still suggesting that goldfish are lovely school pets to keep in tiny tanks etc etc

But I suspect I can win over the kids with dinosaur-shrimp-triops as a concept..

They are proper pets in the eyes of the law now, the animal welfare act 2006 covers all vertebrates. So people can't use the 'it's only a fish' defence any more! Not really teaching the children a good lesson either.

Bung in a couple of dinosaur ornaments, the triops will feel right at home

Excellent idea.. dino-tank for the new year!