The best beginner aquarium shrimp — hardy, brightly coloured, endlessly breeding and a tireless little cleaner; perfect for a planted nano tank.
🟢 Best beginner shrimp🍒 Bright & breeds readily🌿 Nano-friendly cleaner⏳ 1–2 years
Care level
Easy
Cost
£2–£4 each
Adult size
2.5–3.5 cm
Lifespan
1–2 yrs
Min tank
20 L+
Care
Easy
📋At a Glance
Cherry shrimp (a colour form of Neocaridina) are the best beginner aquarium shrimp — small, hardy, brightly coloured (red, and also blue, yellow, green and orange 'velvet/dream' forms), and they breed readily in freshwater without any special effort. They graze algae and biofilm all day, tolerate a wide range of stable water, and are ideal for a planted nano tank (alone or with tiny peaceful fish). The main rules: keep a group, avoid copper, provide a mature planted tank to graze, and a calcium source for their shells. A colourful, active, easy, self-sustaining little cleaner.
Best for: a planted nano or peaceful community tank — as a hardy, colourful, self-breeding cleaner colony.
💷Costs & Getting Hold of One
The animal
£2–£4 each (higher-grade colours more); buy a group of 10+ to start a colony.
Very low — occasional shrimp food, a little calcium, dechlorinator.
Availability
Very easy — widely available and easily bred.
These are minimums, not budgets. The low end still has to meet the animal's needs — proper UVB, a heat gradient, space and filtration are not optional extras. A vivarium alone can cost £250–£300+, and a tortoise's UVB lamp alone is often ~£100. Price the whole setup before you commit to the animal.
Buying tip: Choose active, well-coloured shrimp grazing in the shop. Buy 10+ (a group breeds and colours up better). Add only to a mature, cycled, copper-free planted tank.
🦐Tank & Where to Keep It
A mature, planted nano tank with a gentle filter suits these little grazers.
Tank size
20 litres+ — great for nano tanks; bigger is more stable.
Gentle filter
A sponge filter (or a guarded intake) — powerful filters suck up shrimp and shrimplets.
Group
Keep a group (10+) — they're social and breed into a self-sustaining colony.
Décor
Densely planted (moss, plants) with biofilm to graze and cover for shrimplets; a lid.
Cycle the tank first, and keep copper away. Establish the nitrogen cycle before adding inverts, and dechlorinate tap water. Critically, aquatic invertebrates are highly sensitive to copper (found in some fish medications and plant fertilisers) — always check products are invert-/shrimp-safe.
💧Water, Filtration & Environment
Temperature
18–26 °C — hardy across a wide range; happy at room temperature.
Water parameters
pH ~6.5–7.5; adaptable (they like some hardness for their shells); 0 ammonia/nitrite, low nitrate; stability matters most.
Copper
Avoid copper entirely — check meds/ferts are shrimp-safe.
Calcium
Some hardness/a calcium source supports their shells and moulting.
Stability over chasing numbers
Neocaridina are very adaptable — a stable, mature, cycled, copper-free tank matters far more than hitting exact parameters.
🍽️Diet, Supplements & Feeding
A grazer/omnivore/scavenger — mostly algae and biofilm, lightly supplemented.
Graze
Algae and biofilm on plants, wood and glass — their main food.
Supplement
A little shrimp food, blanched veg (courgette, spinach) or the odd algae wafer — sparingly.
Calcium
A calcium source (or harder water) for shell and moulting.
Feeding
Tiny amounts every few days — overfeeding fouls water and causes problems.
They mostly feed themselves in a planted tank — feed lightly and remove uneaten food to protect water quality.
🧽Tank Maintenance & Health
No grooming — keep the tank stable, mature, planted and copper-free, with a gentle filter and a calcium source. Like all inverts they moult to grow (a shed shell in the tank is normal — leave it, they eat it for calcium); a shrimp stuck mid-moult usually signals a water/calcium issue.
Two rules keep cherry shrimp thriving: no copper, and stable water (avoid big/sudden changes). Get those right and they're one of the easiest, most rewarding aquatic pets.
🐠Temperament & Tankmates
For watching, not handling — peaceful, tiny and reef-of-the-freshwater-world cleaners. Safe with other shrimp, snails and tiny peaceful fish (larger fish eat them or their young).
Acclimatising & adding tankmates
Acclimatise slowly — inverts are sensitive, so drip-acclimatise or add small amounts of tank water over ~45–60 minutes before gently releasing them.
✅ Do
Keep a group of 10+ in a mature planted tank.
Use a sponge filter; keep water stable.
Provide biofilm/algae plus a calcium source.
Keep strictly copper-free.
Choose tiny, peaceful tankmates (or none).
⛔ Don't
Don't add to a new, uncycled tank.
Don't use copper meds/ferts.
Don't house with fish big enough to eat them.
Don't overfeed.
Don't do big, sudden water changes.
🦎Fun Facts
A colour form of Neocaridina — red, blue, yellow, orange, green.
The best beginner shrimp — hardy and self-breeding.
Graze algae and biofilm all day.
Very copper-sensitive (as are all shrimp).
Breed readily in freshwater — a colony sustains itself.
⭐Overall Verdict
The best beginner aquarium shrimp — hardy, brightly coloured, self-breeding and a tireless cleaner. Keep a group in a mature, stable, planted, copper-free nano tank with a gentle filter and a calcium source, feed lightly, choose tiny peaceful tankmates (or none), and cherry shrimp reward you with a colourful, active, self-sustaining colony.