How to breed cherry shrimp

Breeding guide · About 5 minutes to read · By Andy · Updated Oct 26, 2026

Cherry shrimp breed on their own in almost any stable, mature tank. Ten shrimp can become a hundred in a few months. To get there, the tank needs to be steady, safe for babies, and free of fish that eat them.

A group of red cherry shrimp on bright green aquarium plants — A cherry shrimp colony in one of my tanks.

I've bred shrimp in my own tanks, and they're one of the easiest animals to start with.

The basics

Start with 10 or more so you're sure to have both males and females.
Females are bigger and more colorful, with a rounder belly. Males are smaller and paler.
A "saddle" is the yellow-green patch behind a female's head: eggs waiting to be fertilized.
A "berried" female carries eggs under her tail, fanning them for about 30 days.
Babies hatch as tiny shrimp, about the size of a grain of rice cut in half, ready to graze.

A tank where babies survive

A mature tank. Shrimp do best in a tank that has run for a few months, with algae and biofilm to graze. See how to cycle a fish tank.
Steady water at 70–78°F with a pH of about 6.5 to 8. Sudden changes hurt shrimp more than the exact numbers.
Moss and plants, like java moss and floating plants with long roots, for babies to hide and graze. See easy aquarium plants.
A sponge filter or a sponge over the intake, so babies aren't sucked in.
No shrimp eaters. Most fish eat baby shrimp. A shrimp-only tank, or tiny fish like pygmy corydoras and otocinclus, works best. Check a mix with the fish compatibility checker.

Feeding

Shrimp graze all day on biofilm. Add a small pinch of shrimp food or a piece of blanched spinach a few times a week, and remove leftovers after a few hours. Overfeeding fouls the water fast in a shrimp tank. See cherry shrimp care.

Water changes for shrimp

Change about 10 to 20% a week, and add new water slowly, ideally dripped in, matching the temperature. Always use a water conditioner. Large, sudden changes can cause failed molts. See the best water conditioners.

Better colors

Cherry shrimp come in grades, from pale "cherry" to deep red "fire red" and "painted". To keep color strong, remove the palest shrimp to another tank as the colony grows. Mixing colors like red and blue neocaridina usually gives brown, wild-looking babies within a few generations.

Shrimp breeding picks

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