Cherry/amano shrimp as feeders?

[Mr_Knightley]

Hey y'all, I am curious if anyone has tried this.
When feeding live foods to predator fish, we usually use freshwater ghost shrimp and freshwater mollies/guppies since their saltwater alternatives are much more costly and can bring in disease (in the case of fish). I'm curious if anyone has used cherry/amano shrimp, or other freshwater species, as feeders for small predators? The bright colors may be good for picky eaters like small scorps and frogs, and their rapid reproduction would be very convenient.
Would there be any large roadblocks with feeding these shrimp? Is the euryhaline nature of the ghost shrimp important?
Interested to hear thoughts on this. Will be setting up a cherry shrimp tank this year and thought about feeding my reef with the extras haha.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Good question. Maybe @lion king would have some thoughts?

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Bump!

 

[litsoh]

Following, I have a cherry shrimp tank as well so maybe I can put my wild type/culls here instead of moving them to my betta tank or leaving them in to mess with the gene pool

 

[MrGisonni]

Not a problem I see. As long as they are well fed, as live food, they would be great.

 

[nereefpat]

Amano shrimp wouldn't be a realistic option, because they are difficult to breed. I think eggs have to hatch at brackish salinity?

Cherry seems like a good idea to me. I've thought about it before. The downside is that they are so small. I'd say, for sure, if you are raising cherries, throw your culls in the salt tank to be eaten.

 

[litsoh]

At $4-8 a shrimp depending on the color I'd cry at the thought of throwing in anything but the culls

 

[Mr_Knightley]

All good thoughts!
I wonder if amano shrimp could be acclimated to full saltwater? Since their eggs need salt to hatch, it could save a lot of work to keep them in constant higher Salinity... Not exactly sure how that would work.

 

[litsoh]

From what I remember only the amano fry are able to live in brackish water. If anything you could try our opae ula since they're a complete brackish dwelling species so they might be able to be acclimated to a higher SG

 

[lion king]

I have cherry shrimp, they actually breed very easily and prolific. They do best around neutral ph and are not brackish. I have never found any information that would suggest them being a good food source for marine predators. I have no nutritional info or any info on the digestibility. One small juvi lion could devour over 50 of these in a week's time, so I find their small size limiting. There is no history of any success using these as food, the other food that I recommend like ghosties, guppies, and mollies do. And yes likely the euryhaline nature of the Palaemon species shrimp do make them a good food, as they are likely related to the same species of shrimp they would eat in the wild. Same as guppies and mollies being related to the Atherinidae species of fish that lions eat in the wild. Others have tried other species of fish that also have no history of long term success, even saltwater fish like cardinals which some hobbyist breed. Cardinals are pelagic fish and the variety of predators we are taking about, eat benthic fish. Just some of the notes you could consider when introducing a new food. Personally I wouldn't bother with them, I would learn how to breed a Palaemon species.

 

[MoshJosh]

I have amano shrimp, they actually breed very easily and prolific. They do best around neutral ph and are not brackish. I have never found any information that would suggest them being a good food source for marine predators. I have no food nutritional info or any info on the digestibility. One small juvi lion could devour over 50 of these in a week's time, so I find their small size limiting. There is no history of any success using these as food, the other food that I recommend like ghosties, guppies, and mollies do. And yes likely the euryhaline nature of the Palaemon species shrimp do make them a good food, as they are likely related to the same species of shrimp they woud eat in the wild. Same as guppies and mollies being related to the Atherinidae species of fish that lions eat in the wild. Others have tried other species of fish that also have no history of long term success, even saltwater fish like cardinals which some hobbyist breed, cardinals are pelagic fish and the variety of predators we are taking about, eat benthic fish. Just some of the notes you could consider when introducing a new food. Personally I wouldn't bother with them, I would learn how to breed a Palaemon species.

Most articles I have read indicate Amano shrimp require brackish or salt water to successfully raise the young (larva? fry?) are you saying you have breed and raised amano shrimp entirely in freshwater? Or are you taking about cherry shrimp (the ones pictured)?

 

[Gribbles]

My understanding is amano are very difficult to breed, even if you are able manage the salinity well. The freshwater side of this hobby has been trying to breed these for years as they are very prolific algae eaters. If it was feasible, then please let everyone know how it's done.

I honestly am a bit skeptical to anyone saying they breed these at home.

 

[Tired]

Amano shrimp require brackish water to breed, yeah. If you have shrimp breeding in freshwater, those aren't amanos.

Those photos are of cherry shrimp. Palaemon are prawns- amanos are Caridina multidentata.

 

[lion king]

Most articles I have read indicate Amano shrimp require brackish or salt water to successfully raise the young (larva? fry?) are you saying you have breed and raised amano shrimp entirely in freshwater? Or are you taking about cherry shrimp (the ones pictured)?

Whoops, sorry, read the title cherry/amano got them swapped, 2 different species. I would still stay with a Palaemon species.

 

[litsoh]

Maaaan I've been trying to get my blue velvets to breed. They're such a nice shade of blue. I have blues and reds all in one tank and just have been hoping that the right ones pair up when the female starts to saddle, but so far I've only had culls

 

[litsoh]

https://www.theshrimpfarm.com/posts/opae-ula-shrimp-care/

If acclimated correctly these may be able to be fully marine, but as a food source I'm not all that sure they'll breed fast enough to be regularly harvested. Unless of course you're raising them by the hundreds

 

[Tired]

I keep opae ula. They wouldn't make good feeders, I don't think- they breed pretty slowly, grow slowly, and barely get larger than your average mysis shrimp. Mine also stopped breeding when I acclimated them to full marine salinity as an experiment, though I'm not sure if it was the salinity or some other factor.