Fire Red Cherry Shrimp

Common Name: Cherry Shrimp, Red Cherry Shrimp, Fire Red Cherry Shrimp
Scientific Name: Neocaridina davidi "Fire Red"
Genus: Neocaridina
Wild Origin: Taiwan
Adult Size: 0.75-1.25 in

**Note: All livestock orders will come carefully packaged with solid wall Styrofoam insulation and shipped via 1-day shipping only. No additional insulation is needed for your livestock.

The Fire Red Cherry Shrimp is a premium, higher-grade variant of the classic Red Cherry Shrimp found in tanks worldwide. Unlike standard grades, which may have patchy or translucent coloration, the Fire Red strain is the result of rigorous selective breeding and meticulous culling. This dedication consistently produces specimens with opaque, deep-red bodies that carry color all the way through their legs. As aquatic pets, they offer one of the most striking visual contrasts available, popping brilliantly against dark substrates or lush green aquatic plants.

As members of the Neocaridina genus, Fire Red Cherries are the ultimate choice for those new to the hobby. They are famous for their tolerance of a wide range of water parameters and can often thrive in standard tap water conditions. These freshwater shrimp are hardy, active, and social, making them a low-maintenance yet high-impact addition to any shrimp tank. Whether you are building a dedicated shrimp aquarium or looking for a colorful clean-up crew for a community tank, the Fire Red is the gold standard for reliability and color.

The Fire Red Cherry Shrimp is an active scavenger, continually feeding on detritus and decomposing plant material within the aquarium. This constant grazing means they’re constantly cleaning, and they’re an excellent addition to a tank’s clean-up crew. Its diet consists of algae, biofilm, and decaying organic matter, and can be further supplemented with commercial vegetable-based shrimp pellets or wafers. Adding hardscape elements like lava rock to the aquarium encourages the growth of biofilm and algae due to the rock’s rough texture. This provides increased surface area and an extra food source for the shrimp to feed on.

Check out our guide on the different substrates that can help achieve ideal water parameters for these shrimp: Best Substrate for Shrimp

Key Features & Important Notes

• Tank-raised specimen
• Deep, solid red coverage that surpasses standard cherry grades.
• Shrimp are excellent scavengers and will happily feed on biofilm, decaying plant matter, and algae
• To increase survival rates, please allow 2-3 business days after an order is placed to properly prepare live animal shipments 

Recommended Water Parameters
Listed information should be treated as general guidelines only. We encourage you to do thorough research before committing to keeping any livestock.

• Temperature Range: 65-80 °F
• pH: 7.2-7.6
• TDS: 250-300     
• GH: 8
• KH: 8

Recommended Tank Size
5+ gallons, minimum. Tank size is relative, and various factors should be considered when determining tank size. These shrimp are very active; a 10-gallon tank or larger is ideal for maintaining stable water quality and allowing a healthy colony to flourish.

Diet
Algae, biofilm, diatoms, decaying plant matter, spirulina powder, bee pollen, vegetable matter-based shrimp pellets/wafers, blanched vegetables

Breeding
Fire Red Cherry Shrimp are among the easiest aquarium shrimp to breed. Sexing is straightforward once they reach maturity; females are larger, have a deeper underbelly, and display a visible yellow "saddle" behind the head. To ensure a thriving colony, we recommend starting with 8–10 specimens to guarantee a mix of males and females.

When a female has eggs available for fertilization, she will molt and release pheromones that signal to surrounding males that she’s ready to breed. Once the shrimp breed, the eggs will gestate for about 2 weeks. The resulting shrimplets will feed from the same food sources as their parents, and they will molt frequently during their early life stages. It’s advised to leave molted shells in the tank, as the shrimplets will consume them for extra minerals like calcium. These trace minerals only help to expedite their growth. 

A line is established when a breeder selects specimens with the highest amounts of red, breeds them together, and then re-selects from the offspring for those with the most red, with the intention of breeding superior shrimp to one another again. The breeder repeats this process with the resulting offspring across generations until opaque red shrimp are consistently produced.

Solid red shrimp are considered higher grade and more desirable, therefore commanding a higher price than a patchy-colored shrimp. Note that lower-grade shrimp aren't "worse" or less healthy than high-grade specimens; they're simply less pretty.

Check out our blog article to learn how to breed freshwater shrimp.