Lost The Will To Keep Shrimp 😢

After fighting what seemed to be a losing battle with shrimp mortality I thought I may of had it sorted by adding a plant that was taking care of my nitrates, with 2 shrimp left I was thinking it may be time to increase numbers, thought I'd give them a treat of half a cappata leaf but within less than 24hrs my big red female has died, this seems to have happened twice now with regards to cappata leaves. After 8 months of trying I think when the last one dies it's going to become a fish only tank.

It's currently got a female guppy and 3 CPD's in so think I will increase the CPD's number, the guppy was a freebie in a group of shrimp I bought form a local fish stockist. If I get more shrimp in the future I will have them in there own tank. A betta does sound good but I wouldn't want the other fish to suffer.

I did read that if the betta's are introduced after other fish they don't see them as food, but I still wouldn't like to try that theory out

That's more or less what happened to me. I had the last cherry shrimp, a berried female, in my quarantine tank. I found her dead one morning with no signs of eggs, and when I started to take the tank down I found about a dozen babies.

I would be inclined to wait a few weeks to see if your new ones make it, and if they do get 2 or 3 more.

I confess I'm struggling with cherry shrimps this time round. I found 2 of the biggest, bright red males dead yesterday. The lights havent come on yet today but fingers crossed no more casualties.

Adding new stock is a good idea from the genetics point of view as well. If you do get a thriving colony, I was advised to add 'new blood' every 6 months, from a different shop so they are not related. That doesn't include a different branch of the same shop as they will use the same supplier. I just get 1 berried female as those eggs will hatch to give me lots of unrelated babies 

That's good news Fiona. My thriving colony started with the babies from the last adult I bought so if I can do it, you can.

Most shrimps eat algae, though they won't keep a tank algae free. They also eat food that ends up on the bottom of the tank. And they are cute 

In a community tank you have to choose shrimp species according to the fish in there. Small shrimps like cherries will be eaten by any fish over about 2 inches. This is why I have mine with small fish. Larger shrimps such as ghost shrimps and amano shrimps will be OK with fish a bit over 2 inches, but again they will be eaten by big fish. Amano shrimps are in the fish profiles on here as japonica shrimps, in the miscellaneous section. The downside to ghosts and amanos is they are quite plain.
The shrimps to avoid are the filter feeders such as bamboo shrimps. They may grow bigger but they are hard to feed and commonly die of starvation.

I saw one drag a whole wafer across the tank to a nook where she could eat it undisturbed.

Maybe mine are just food obsessed!

Anne

Wee fatty! Lol that sounds really funny to see actually. I'm intrigued by shrimps so I'll find out more about them and see how I feel 

I now have a thriving colony growing.

That's good to hear. You were all for giving up on shrimps a few months ago.