Contacts who understand invertebrates
An emergency contact plan for a cherry shrimp starts with people, chosen with one extra filter: they need to understand that shrimp are not small fish. List yourself first, then a backup person who can reach the tank, then your aquatic shop — ideally the one the colony came from, whose staff know invertebrate care — and an aquatic veterinarian who accepts invertebrate cases if you have one. Beside the shop's number, write the sentence that protects the colony: always tell them this is a shrimp tank before accepting any advice or product.
The colony described for someone who has never kept shrimp
A cherry shrimp plan should describe what the helper is looking after in plain terms: a breeding colony of small red shrimp, roughly how many, living among moss and plants, grazing constantly on surfaces. Explain the sights that alarm newcomers. An empty, translucent shrimp-shaped shell on the gravel is a moult, not a corpse — shrimp shed their shells to grow, and the old shell is normally left and later eaten. A shrimp sitting still for a while is resting, not dying. Writing these three explanations into the plan prevents nearly every false alarm and every unnecessary intervention a cover person might make.
Water routine: small, slow and matched
The routine section of a cherry shrimp plan must stress how this colony's water is handled, because shrimp tolerate far less sudden change than fish do. State the normal recent readings as a reference, the small size of the usual water change, and the slow way new water is added back — trickled or dripped rather than poured — with temperature matched as closely as the household allows. Tell the helper where the dedicated shrimp bucket and jug live, and that no other household bucket is substituted, because a container that has held cleaning products is a colony-ending accident. Feeding goes in the same section: what food, how little, how often, and that uneaten food is removed rather than left to rot among the moss.
The treatment warning, in the largest writing on the page
One warning outranks every other detail in a cherry shrimp emergency plan: nothing is added to this tank without checking it is safe for invertebrates. Many common fish treatments, and anything containing copper, can kill shrimp quickly even when they help fish, and plant treatments and household sprays used near the tank carry the same risk. The plan should forbid aerosol sprays in the room, forbid the helper from treating sick fish in this tank with anything at all, and route every illness question to a phone call with you or the shop. If the shrimp share the tank with fish, that rule needs repeating in the fish's own instructions too, because the person dosing the fish may never read the shrimp page.
Power, temperature and the quiet emergencies
Cherry shrimp emergencies are usually quiet ones: a heater stuck on in a small tank, a filter stopped overnight, a hot room in summer. The plan should identify the filter and heater plugs, give the morning and evening checks — shrimp grazing normally across the plants is the simplest good sign — and say what to do if the power fails: keep the lid on, keep hands and nets out, and phone if the outage stretches on, since a planted shrimp tank with low stocking breathes easier than most fish tanks in the short term.
Keeping the colony plan current as the colony grows
A cherry shrimp colony changes faster than most pets — numbers multiply, plants grow in, a second food joins the rotation — so refresh the plan whenever the colony's size or the tank's equipment changes, and update the rough headcount. Keep the printed copy with the shrimp food, give one to the backup person, and walk them past the tank once so a moult and a berried female are sights they have actually seen. Gathering the contacts, water routine and safety warnings into a KinsLe Pet Passport holds the whole cherry shrimp plan in one portable packet, so the colony's rules travel intact to any sitter, shop or new keeper.