Do Cherry Shrimps Eat Their Babies?

Who doesn’t know about the cannibalistic nature of shrimp? For this reason, many shrimp owners remain afraid of keeping cherry shrimp fry with adult cherry shrimp. The hobbyists and shrimp owners often wonder- do cherry shrimp eat their babies?

Unlike other shrimp species, cherry shrimp do not eat their newborn babies. Also, these shrimps do not eat their eggs as long as these shrimp eggs are in good condition and attached to the cherry shrimp.

Surprisingly, these shrimps do not have the cannibalistic trait. Because of being opportunistic eaters, these cherry shrimp may eat their dead eggs or babies.

To quench your thirst for curiosity, you might have already sought help from various forums. You’ll get all the required information and details on this topic that you might be searching for. So, let’s dig deeper into this article.

Are Cherry Shrimp Cannibalistic?

You might have heard that all shrimp are supposed to eat anything. So, this is not unnatural to question the cannibalistic trait of cherry shrimp.

But, this is a big no in the case of cherry shrimp.

Since cherry shrimp aren’t cannibalistic, these shrimps do not eat each other. You can house multiple cherry shrimp together without any worry.

If you want to buy cherry shrimp, you can go through this article to find 13 types of different cherry shrimp.

Will Cherry Shrimp Eat Their Eggs?

The cherry shrimp do not eat their eggs as long as these eggs are attached to the cherry shrimp. When cherry shrimp discard their wasted eggs, they may eat the eggs like other food.

Generally, cherry shrimp become gravid with 20-30 eggs or more. These shrimps carry the eggs until the eggs turn into shrimp fry. No wonder, the shrimp eggs need to be hatched to become shrimp fry.

But, not all shrimp eggs become hatched. Sometimes, these shrimp eggs might rot for various factors. Such as poor water quality, breeding age range, temperature shuffle, etc.

These shrimp eggs remain visible in the saddle of the mother shrimp as long as these eggs are healthy. After a certain period, shrimp choose to abandon their unfertilized eggs.

Now, there remains no issue with cherry shrimp eating these discarded eggs. However, these discarded eggs are a good source of protein and nutrition for cherry shrimp.

You can also pay a visit to this article to have detailed care guidelines about cherry shrimp babies.

Will Other Shrimp Eat Baby Cherry Shrimp?

Although cherry shrimp do not eat their babies, other shrimp can eat baby cherry shrimp. Several shrimp will consume cherry shrimp if these babies fit in their mouths. Such voracious shrimp are Amano shrimp, Ghost shrimp, etc.

For this reason, the experts suggest not keeping different species of shrimp together. If there are different shrimp species, you should separate the baby cherry shrimp.

If you’re a beginner to breed cherry shrimp, you can go through this article for detailed guidelines.

Baby Cherry Shrimp Care Infographic

Want to get a printable version of this infographic? Click here! [If you want to use this infographic on your website, please link back to this post as the source!]

Do Cherry Shrimp Eat Their Healthy Eggs?

The answer is a big no! Cherry shrimp do not eat any eggs of good shape.

It doesn’t mean that these shrimps do not eat only their healthy eggs. Moreover, cherry shrimp do not eat healthy eggs of fish or other shrimp species.

As long as the eggs are in good shape, cherry shrimp won’t try to taste them. These shrimps consume only rotten, decaying, or unfertilized eggs that are discarded. Instead of healthy eggs, cherry shrimp prefer fungus-grown eggs.

Do Adult Cherry Shrimp Eat Their Babies?

Since Cherry shrimp aren’t cannibalistic, these shrimps do not eat their species. There aren’t any records of adult cherry shrimps eating their babies. These adult shrimps eat only the dead shrimp or fish.

Do Cherry Shrimp Eat Dead Shrimp?

Cherry shrimp tend to eat dead shrimp, fish, rotten plants, and so on. It’s their common scavenger trait. The rich minerals of the exoskeleton of the dead shrimp help make the shell of cherry shrimp stronger.

Hence, all shrimp tend to swarm around a dead shrimp when any shrimp dies in the tank. But, you should remove the dead shrimp.

It can cause an ammonia spike. Also, decaying dead shrimp contaminates the water of the shrimp tank.

Final Words

I hope this article cleared up your confusion regarding keeping your cherry shrimp with their babies. Since these shrimps do not eat their babies, you will have a blast of cherry shrimp fry, despite keeping them with adult cherry shrimp.

However, if you have a blast of cherry shrimp population, you can follow this article to control your shrimp population.

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