Mr Aqua 5 Gallon

Mr Aqua makes frameless tank that are a lot cheaper than most other brands. They are made from thick glass sealed together with silicone.  This is the 5 gallon which is 10 by ten inches at the base and 12 inches high and has a front with a vertical bow. Shown here with a submersible heater, Hagen submersible filter and Tom light.

I am using this one to house three dwarf orange crayfish and some red cherry shrimp. The tank seems to be a good quality for the price and displays well. Now I just need to get some plants to grow up enough to conceal the filter a bit....

Red Cherry Shrimp Pictures

Red Cherry Shrimp Q&A

Will cherry shrimp leave the water?

RCS are not strong enough to move when not supported by water. They will leave the water only under two circumstances. 1) when pursued by a predator or under extremely toxic water conditions cherry shrimp my flip themselves out of the water. 2) They may leave the water accidentally such as during a spill--the shrimp pictured to the right was pushed out of the water by bubbles from an airstone. Once out of the water the shrimp will bet trapped even by the weak forces of water surface tension. To rescue a shrimp wash it back into the tank with a splash of water. Avoid handling shrimp directly as they are very fragile.

Four things you can do to make your Red Cherry Shrimp redder

When you buy red cherry shrimp, you want them to be red, right? Well, assuming your expectation are realistic, there is nothing wrong with that. There are four main approaches you can take.

1) Genetics
Cherries are a color morph of a brown colored shrimp that are missing some darker pigments. Breeders have selected them over many generations. The redness of your shrimp will depend on the genetic line your shrimp are from. Because red cherry shrimp (RCS) lack brown pigment genes you will not tend to get brown offspring unless they cross bred with other color morphs of the same (or similar) species. however over time you may get offspring that are speckled, pink or even completely transparent rather than red or mostly red. It is wise to remove females that have reached a reproductive age and still have little or no color, and let your reddest females contribute more to the next generation. It is also wise to occasionally add introduce new shrimp from good genetic lines to keep the color of your shrimp bright and avoid inbreeding.

2) Environment
Pigmentation exists mainly to camouflage the shrimp against its background and assist in predator avoidance. Darker backgrounds such as shadowed areas, black gravel or sand, dark wood and dark plants will encourage stronger color. The presence of curious fish can also provoke previous pale shrimp to color up, although aggressive and predatory fish should obviously not be kept with drwarf shrimp. The shrimp hiding in the picture below (can you see her?) was totally colorless the previous day, but was then moved into a tank with a female betta fish.

3) Diet
The shrimp makes its pigments from components in its food. It pays to allow shrimp access to natural algae and plant matter. I would also recommend a diet that includes algae (algae wafers or spirulina powder), invertebrate diet (such as Hikari crab cuisine) and a color-enhancing fish food (such as Tetracolor).


4) Wait
In most cases fully red shrimp are old shrimp. Most shrimp will color up significantly if given time to fully mature.

Keep these thee areas in mind and you should have your red cherries living up to their name in no time!

Read more:
Why aren't my Red Cherry Shrimp red?

Why Aren't my Red Cherry Shrimp Red?

Red Cherry Shrimp are very attractive dwarf shrimp. But often people who buy them are somewhat disappointed by the color of their new arrivals. If you didn't get the bright red shrimp you expected, consider the following:

Are your shrimp young?
Most shrimp do not get their full color until they are nearly adult. And most breeders prefer to ship juveniles to their customers. Juvenile shrimp cope much better with shipping and they adapt better to new water parameters.

Did your shrimp just arrive?
Stress with cause shrimp to lose color, just as it does with fish.

Did you see the parent stock?
Not all sellers show pictures of their shrimp, but a generic stock shot. It may be that you bought from a less vividly colored line.


Did you get a lot of males?
Remember that males are typically clear with just a few bands or speckles of red. So be sure not to cull out all your poorly colored specimens, you need to leave some males!

Are your expectations realistic?
What you will see online are peoples "show off" pictures. I have one female shrimp who is all red, but she is just one of twenty. Keep in mind that pictures you see online are not usually of "typical" specimens. The reddest shrimp are adult females with eggs, and even these will usually be 'mostly' red rather than entirely red all over--like my gals shown below hanging out on top of the filter. The yellow areas are the eggs they are holding with their swimmerettes.


But if you really want to turn up the saturation on your shrimp, there are some things you can do, see this post.

Red Cherry Shrimp F1

My red cherry shrimp are living up to their reputation as being easy to breed. I have a dozen or more young juveniles in the tank now. This is despite a high pH of around 7.6 and several species of small fish (rasboras, boraras and corydoras) as tank mates.

Best Aquarium Shrimp

#4 Tiger Shrimp
Tigers come in blond (pictured) and blue coloring. They are a dwarf breed but can be more difficult to keep. This one is my sole survivor of six.

#3 Yellow Shrimp
Neocaridina heteropoda (var. Yellow) previously called Neocaridina denticulata sinensis (var. Yellow)


#2 Ghost Shrimp
This is a larger shrimp. I would suggest them for aquariums of 2.5 gallons or more. The ghost shrimp is particularly entertaining to watch.

#1 Red Cherry Shrimp