Neocaridina Shrimps, which has the common name of Cherry Shrimps, are known to be mostly peaceful. So, are these pet inverts capable of attacking each other? You can find out in this article from Aquarium Blueprints.
Based on our experience, Cherry Shrimps will attack each other when they are extremely hungry. Without enough food around, they may end up becoming cannibalistic. So, if they can’t find any dead shrimps to feed off of, then they will eventually start to attack each other.
How to prevent your shrimps from attacking each other
If you want to stop the in-fighting between your Cherry Shrimps, then we recommend that you take the following steps:
1. The easiest way to stop the shrimps from attacking each other is to make sure you have enough food to go around. Thus, you can try feeding your colony more than before if you see in-fighting.
It is also important to note that Cherry Shrimps require a balanced diet of protein and essential minerals. A lot of newcomers to shrimp-keeping tend to neglect the protein part of the meal, which will lead to their pet inverts needing to search of meaty food.
If you think that you have a protein deficiency when it comes to feeding your Cherry Shrimps, then we have a lot of success using Bacter AE. This product will grow biofilm all over your fish tank. These biofilms contain live bacteria that your shrimps will consume for protein.
We also feed our pets Shrimp King Complete, which provides a balanced mix of proteins and minerals.
2. If your tank is overcrowded with shrimps, then you can try removing some of them from the tank.
By doing so, there will be less competition when you drop food in your tank. Since there are more food to go around, they will be less likely to attack each other.
3. You can also provide more hiding places for your Cherry Shrimps. You can do so by adding live plants, creating rock piles and/or putting in more décor.
By creating for safe spaces, the shrimps should have a harder time finding each other. Therefore, they won’t fight as often.
Keep in mind that Cherry Shrimps are especially vulnerable when molting; thus, you should give them a lot of hiding spaces so that they molt without having to worry about getting attacked by their own kinds.
