# Cherry shrimp with a betta?



## zelilaa

Hello! I have a Betta (pinkish cellophane opaque delta-tail with silvery shine on back  ) And he lives in a HUGE two gallon bowl. Some people say this is too small, but trust me, it isn't!! He looks like a munchkin in his bowl :-D His about 2.5 inches with the tail and all. He his 100 % healthy, blowing bubbles scattered all over his bowl, and eating food immediately. I feed him 3 pellets a day, and every once in a while (randomly no more then three times a week) I feed him a freeze dried blood worm for the day instead. I do a 25 % water change every 3 days. Do not tell me that is not enough.. It has been working fine. I have no filter But I WILL be buying one with the Betta and Cherry shrimp in mind sometime THIS month. It is not heated, but that's OK because it stays at a perfect temperature of 78 degrees (Fahrenheit... if you thought I mean Celsius your a dummy :-D) 

In the bowl is a 4 inch glass whale. He loves it, and when he's not chilling by the surface he lies down on the floor and squeezes in next to his glass buddy, the whale! It's very pretty and dark blue. Please do not tell me to take out the whale because it's been in there for two weeks, my betta is perfectly healthy, and it's coloring does not leak into the water. The whale is solid glass and is completely smooth with no hard lines or anything. DON'T lecture me about the whale. I took up this whole paragraph to explain him because I do not want people lecturing me about him. Oh and uh, I also have a clear glass stick hanging off the edge of the bowl (inside, leans in to touch the wall of the bowl around the middle so its at an angle) With a red- orange ball at the end. Um.... It's about 5 inches (in the water) It's been in there one week. My Betta likes squeezing behind it. (By squeezing I'm exaggerating cause he has like... 1 centimeter of loose room in between him and the stick AND the side of the bowl. 

The gravel I use are large outdoor pebbles. They are all smooth, and and are about 1-2 centimeters wide. They do NOT hurt Spoons. ( The delta-tail's name ) I am telling you about the gravel because since my question is about shrimp I want to make sure this is OK gravel. I MIGHT be able to change it if 100% necessary, but I prefer NOT to. ALSO, I have a (sorta) plant in there. AKA, a 'Betta bulb' I just placed in there yesterday after buying from petco. It is currently just a brown hairy bulb. Very large. about 2.9 centimeters. Biggest bulb I could find :lol: 

So here's my question <grins> I would like to get two (or three) cherry shrimp. I would (duh) keep them in the same bowl and Spoons. I know they like hiding spaces one for each indivisual shrimp. I can create those easily with mini inch inch terra cotta pots from Micheals, Or get a cute fake plant at the bottom with hiding spaces. Point is... I can get those. Don't worry about that! And I realize they like heavy vegetation... But that's mostly because of the hiding spot. Like I said, I'll make those. And it's secondly because of the fact it's often their food. I will feed them! I realize they are omnivores. They eat algae (I don't have any). I read they will eat Tubifex Worms. First of all, I read a whole chapter about the history of Tubifex worms in an aquarium breeding book I found in my house library :-D. But I do not know if Spoons will want to eat them too? Please go back to the first paragraph is you already forgot what Spoons eats. :lol: Also they will eat blanched veggies. I can do that easily! 

My MAIN QUESTION is ... when it comes to feeding the cherry shrimp would be.. "HOW MUCH DO THEY EAT??" No one says this anywhere! If I feed them a blanched slice of cucumber, how thick would the slice be? How long before I take it out? What about peas? How many peas would I feed them? Or if Spoons doesn't want to touch the tubifex worms and I feed them that, how many of them will they eat? I don't want to kill them and dirty the water when it comes to feeding time. Remember, this would be TWO cherry shrimp. 

To re-cap... (yes you still have to read this part too!) I have a betta in a two gallon bowl that is plenty big. He is happy and healthy. I do 25% water changes every two days. I would like to get a couple cherry shrimp too. Can I get them with my Betta safely? And what/how can I feed them if so? Thank you! ;-)

P.S) I am also posting an identical post to this to another fish forum. I hope that's O.K
P.S.S) I can get ghost shrimp instead... That's even easier for me because my local LFS does not sell cherry shrimp so I'd have to look around more. I just want a cherry shrimp because their prettier, I can see them better, and their easier to find. :3 
P.S.S.S) PLEASE DO NOT tell me the bowl is not big enough for a Betta alone, the whale is not safe;take it out, here is a link to a place where you can buy a nice bigger tank for cheap... ETC. I'm not asking for that! I am just asking whether it's OK to add cherry shrimp and what/how to feed them.

OK I'M DONE WRITING! ROFLMAO
oops umm no i'm not :3 I'd like to apologize my stupid avatar. I'm changing it ASAP, but I'm too busy writing long silly posts like these XD


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## zelilaa

I do water changes every 3 days not two that was a typo, and uh, once i get the filter set up and running i well only do it twice a week (always 25%)


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## Welsh

Cherry shrimp are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrates, also most heavy metals so putting RCS in a tank that hasn’t been properly cycled will lead to illness and death, often within a few days. RCS are also highly sensitive to copper which is why the water needs to be conditioned before putting cherry shrimp in a tank. If for some reason your betta requires treatments in the future then be sure to read the labels before you add the medication to the tank as these too contain copper but like I said the tank needs to be fully cycled before adding the shrimp otherwise they will die and you would have ended up wasting your money but when you get your filter and cycle the tank for a month or less depending on the method you choose, then you could probably get away with about 4 -5 shrimp


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## Jupiter

Well, I know you said you didn't want to hear it, but...while a 2 gallon tank is fine for your betta, it's not enough to fit anything else in there. 

I personally start adding a frog or shrimp at 5 gallons. 

Shrimp are very sensitive to water quality. Really, putting them in a cycled tank would be your best bet. I've never tried keeping shrimp without a filter doing regular water changes. It can work well for your betta, but i'm not sure how it would be for the shrimp.

As for how much to feed them...when I kept ghost shrimp, they'd come up during feeding time and I'd give them a betta pellet or a small chunk of brine shrimp (the same I'd feed my betta) and that seemed to do it.

If the gravel has large gaps, I'd worry about the shrimp getting stuck in there, or having food fall into the cracks where they couldn't reach it. I had a similar problem a long time ago.


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## zelilaa

Thanks! One point brought up here was the gaps in the gravel can hide food.. I'll fill those gaps with some nice smaller gravel and it will look even prettier. Umm... I definitley think the two gallon is fine for a betta and a couple shrimp. The bowl is now filtered, and I'm testing a water sample at petco sunday to see if it's ok. I will not be getting the shrimp until christmas. 
P.S) The bowl is now filtered! I put in a small 1-3 gallon whisper filter, my betta loves it. He will swim right up to where the water goes back into the bowl and try swimming against the current. He swims in circles around it and chills in the back. At first he was darting all around going, "WTF IS THAT??" But in about 6 minutes he was used to it and exploring the object all around. 
P.S.S) If Spoons decides to eat the first big shrimp, I will set up a little place for them in my other and currently empty bowl just for them and maybe a male guppy. 
Thank you all, HUGS AND KISSES, Zeli!


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## Jupiter

Just be sure to cycle it before you add the shrimp in, though it'll be done by Christmas.


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## zelilaa

Hee hee... another update! The first betta bulb in there sprouted yesterday, and it's growing like CRAZY! I can see a huge difference over night. And the second hasn't sprouted yet, but it's smaller and I put in a couple days after the first so that's so be expected.


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## Josiee

Two gallons - unsuitable for tankmates. Five gallons is really only as small as you can go if you want some other critters in there with your fish. I notice that Jupiter said the same thing, but you brushed the information aside. If you aren't prepared to listen to people's advice (and I promise, no one is trying to be mean, everyone just has the animal's best interests at heart) then there is no point in you asking.

Another thing I thought I'd bring up is that for about the first month or so, you will want to continue doing your water changes as normal. This is because the filter is new and doesn't contain any of the good bacteria necessary to do the whole ammonia > nitrite > nitrate thing just yet. It takes a while to build this up! Shrimp are also extremely sensitive to water conditions and like a mature tank.

Good luck


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## zelilaa

I'm getting a water test kit to make sure levels are O.K. Doing an In Fish cycle... Won't get the shrimp until christmas so the filter will be old enough. Also, he was moved into a new tank! Its 2.5 gallons and rectangular, so thats like 100% better =P I hear a couple of you DID say that the 2 gallons is not big enough for more then 1 betta. I hear you! But a lot of other people said its OK and I'm going by majority rule... because 4 people said its big enough for every 1 person who said its small enough. Like on the show who wants to be a millionaire. When the guy asks the audience, and 65% say its A and 35% say its B.... chances are he's going with A!!


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## andyblin1

Zelilaa,

Your tank size is big enough to support 1 Betta Fish and no other fish. This is calculated on the chemicals in the nitrate cycle. However, Shrimp do not count in this number as they consume all the rubbish so the amount of BAD chemicals they eat is great than the GOOD chemicals they consume. so never calculate shrimp into that equation. you have 2 problems which can be addressed when keeping Betta with Red Cherry shrimp. 1) Temperature, The shrimp need a temperature of 27 degrees celcius, if you can sort that, you are half way there. the second is let them hide, so you'll need a load of java moss in there. This will give the shrimp a chance but know that your betta WILL try to eat the shrimp as thats its natural diet. The moss gives it a chance, Its up to you to balance it, accept you'll lose some shrimp and try to make it work, good luck.


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## BettaBoy51

andyblin1 said:


> Zelilaa,
> 
> Your tank size is big enough to support 1 Betta Fish and no other fish. This is calculated on the chemicals in the nitrate cycle. However, Shrimp do not count in this number as they consume all the rubbish so the amount of BAD chemicals they eat is great than the GOOD chemicals they consume. so never calculate shrimp into that equation. you have 2 problems which can be addressed when keeping Betta with Red Cherry shrimp. 1) Temperature, The shrimp need a temperature of 27 degrees celcius, if you can sort that, you are half way there. the second is let them hide, so you'll need a load of java moss in there. This will give the shrimp a chance but know that your betta WILL try to eat the shrimp as thats its natural diet. The moss gives it a chance, Its up to you to balance it, accept you'll lose some shrimp and try to make it work, good luck.


please do not reply to threads that are old this thread is 5 years old you dont need to reply


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