Cherry Shrimp Neocaridina davidi

Quick Stats

Tank Setup

The Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi, formerly Neocaridina heteropoda) is the gateway shrimp for a reason — it tolerates a wider range of water parameters than any other aquarium shrimp, breeds readily in almost any mature tank, and comes in dozens of stable colour morphs (red, yellow, blue, green, black, white, Rili, Carbon Rili). A 5 gallon tank is enough for a starter colony of 10; a 10 gallon is more forgiving and lets the colony grow to 80+ before you need to start culling. Bigger is always better with shrimp, because stability scales with volume.

Water parameters: temperature 18–26°C, pH 6.5–8.0, hardness 4–15 dGH. That range covers almost any dechlorinated tap water on the planet. They breed fastest at 22–25°C and pH 7.0–7.6 with 6–10 dGH; outside that band they survive but reproduce more slowly. I run my Cherry Shrimp colony at 24°C, pH 7.2, GH 8 — straight tap water, no RO, no active substrate — and a colony of 10 became 60 in five months. Avoid sustained temperatures above 28°C, which suppress breeding and shorten lifespan from 18 months down to 9.

Set up the tank with a dark sandy substrate (black or dark brown shows off the red), driftwood, and plenty of plants — Java moss is non-negotiable because shrimp fry hide and graze in it. Add Java fern, Anubias, Marimo moss balls, and floating plants (Salvinia, frogbit) for cover and biofilm surface. A sponge filter is the ideal filtration because no intake can suck up shrimp. The single most important rule: every plant fertiliser, every medication, every water conditioner must be copper-free. Copper is lethal to shrimp at levels fish tolerate without noticing — check the label of anything you put in the tank.

Tank Mates

Cherry Shrimp are peaceful and completely defenseless. Any fish large enough to fit a 1 cm juvenile in its mouth will eat it — and even small fish will pick off shrimplets one at a time. The safest setup is a shrimp-only tank; the next safest is housing with small peaceful fish that have tiny mouths.

Compatible tank mates: other Neocaridina colour morphs of the same colour (do not mix colours — see the Diet & Feeding section for the no-mixing rule), Amano Shrimp, snails (Nerite, Mystery, Ramshorn, Malaysian Trumpet), and tiny peaceful fish (Pygmy Corydoras, Ember Tetras, Chili Rasboras, Celestial Pearl Danios, Otocinclus). A single Betta can work in a 10 gallon with dense planting, but bettas are individuals — some ignore shrimp, some hunt them relentlessly. Test the betta with cheap shrimp before adding expensive ones.

Avoid: any fish large enough to eat a shrimp (goldfish, rosy barbs, angelfish, gouramis, tetras larger than Ember), all loaches (clown, kuhli, yoyo — they all eat shrimp), and all cichlids including Apistogramma and rams. Even 'peaceful' community fish will pick off shrimplets one by one. If you want a self-sustaining colony — where females carry, hatch, and raise young without you rescuing them — keep them shrimp-only.

Diet & Feeding

Cherry Shrimp are omnivores and scavengers. They graze constantly on biofilm, algae, detritus, dead plant matter, and the microscopic organisms that live on every surface in a mature tank. In an established tank you can technically stop feeding them and they will not starve — but you will also not see them, because they will spend all day grazing instead of congregating on food. Feed 2–3 times per week with a shrimp pellet (Bacter AE, Shrimp King, or Sera Shrimp Natural) and a small slice of blanched vegetable (spinach, zucchini, kale, cucumber) dropped in and removed after 24 hours.

Calcium matters for molting. Maintain GH at 6–15 dGH or supplement with a calcium source — cuttlebone, crushed coral in the filter, or mineral stones. A shrimp that cannot molt properly dies stuck in its old shell; you will see failed molts as dead shrimp with the carapace split but the body still inside. Watch for white 'ghosts' of molts in the tank — they mean the colony is healthy and growing. Do not remove molts; shrimp eat them for calcium.

The no-mixing rule is the most important thing to know about Neocaridina colour morphs. All Cherry Shrimp colour variants (red, yellow, blue, green, black, white, Rili, Carbon Rili) are the same species — Neocaridina davidi — and interbreed freely. Mixed colours produce 'wild-type' brown offspring within two generations. If you want to keep yellow shrimp yellow and red shrimp red, you need a separate tank for each colour. The one exception is grading within a single colour — cherry, sakura, fire red, and painted fire red are all red, and breeding them together is fine (and is exactly how you upgrade a low-grade colony to high-grade).

Common Health Issues

Cherry Shrimp are hardy when water parameters are stable. The main health issues are molting problems (soft water — fix with calcium and higher GH), bacterial infections (often introduced with new shrimp — quarantine new arrivals for two weeks), and pesticide poisoning (never use insecticides, bug sprays, or air fresheners in the same room as a shrimp tank — aerosols drift into the water and kill shrimp at trace levels).

They are extremely sensitive to copper. Many fish medications contain copper (Cupramine, Malachite Green formulations, general 'ick cures'); many plant fertilisers contain copper as a micronutrient; tap water in older houses with copper pipes can carry trace copper. Always use a dechlorinator that neutralises heavy metals (Seachem Prime, API Stress Coat+) for water changes, and never dose a copper medication in a tank containing shrimp. Shrimp-safe alternatives exist for almost every treatment.

Colour grading is worth understanding if you want to upgrade your colony. Within the red morph, four grades exist: Cherry (translucent red with lighter legs), Sakura (more solid red, still some clear on the body), Fire Red (fully solid red, no clear patches), and Painted Fire Red (solid opaque red including the legs). Breeding Cherry to Cherry produces Cherry; breeding Painted Fire Red to Painted Fire Red produces Painted Fire Red; but culling low-grade offspring each generation will slowly upgrade a Cherry colony to Fire Red over a year. Lifespan is typically 1–2 years.

Breeding

Cherry Shrimp are among the easiest aquatic animals to breed. Females carry eggs under their abdomen for 3–4 weeks, fanning them constantly with their swimmerets. When the eggs hatch, fully-formed miniature adults emerge (no larval stage) — they immediately start grazing and are self-sufficient from day one. There is no parental care, no special food, no intervention required beyond keeping the water clean.

Sexing: females are larger, deeper red, and have a curved 'saddle' of developing eggs visible through the back of the carapace when they are ready to breed. Males are smaller, paler, and thinner. A colony of 10 shrimp with both sexes will breed indefinitely. Females carry 20–30 eggs per brood and produce a brood every 4–6 weeks once they hit maturity (about 3 months old).

Population grows to match available food and space. A 5 gallon tank can comfortably hold 50–80 adult shrimp; a 10 gallon holds 150+. Excess shrimp can be given away, sold to local fish stores (most stores take them as trade credit), or fed to snail-eating fish like puffers or loaches. The colony self-regulates — if food is scarce, females carry fewer eggs and some shrimplets are eaten by their tank mates. If you want to upgrade colour over time, cull (remove) the palest and smallest adults each month and either move them to a separate 'cull tank' or feed them off. Within a year you will have a colony visibly darker than the one you started with.

Frequently Asked Questions