Does H. rubra hate light?

[Black Beard]

I'm a newbe who's been bitten by the shrimp bug, and I'm in the process of setting up a tank for H. rubra. The tank is a 3g Picotope with a black gravel substrate and several pieces of volcanic rock. The SG is about 1.012 and the tank is in the process of cycling (shrimp have not been ordered yet). I read in a different website (from a vendor) that these shrimp hate light and that they should be provided with dark areas in the aquarium. Is this tue? The reason I'm asking is that the rocks in my aquarium are arranged so that there are plenty of crevices and overhags but no actual dark areas or caves. Is this OK or should I rearrange the rocks to include some caves for the shrimp, or perhaps add other shelters where they can hide? I attempted a search earlier, but was unable to come up with a definitive answer. Thanks in advence.

[badflash]

They prefer to be able to hide. I made the mistake of using an undergravel filter. Guess where mine all go?

[pixl8r]

badflash
Lol, I also used to use undergravel filtration.

Black Beard,
If you haven't already, read these great articles about keeping shrimp http://www.petshrimp.com/articles.html.

FYI, natural sea sponges, cut into a 2" to 3" inch chunk will help with hiding places, and provide an excellent media to grow food for the shrimp.

[Black Beard]

Thanks for your responses, and yes I've read the articles about keeping shrimp. In fact, it was when I was first browsing through the "shrimp varieties" section that I became interested in keeping H. rubra. I was just browsing around some more, and I belive I found the answer to my question in a previous post titled "interesting shelter idea". It seems that caves may not be absolutely necessary. However, I'll keep an eye on the behavior of my shrimp once they arrive before I make a final decission about additional shelters.

[Mustafa]

I read in a different website (from a vendor) that these shrimp hate light and that they should be provided with dark areas in the aquarium. Is this tue?

Not true at all. Although they prefer a little "private" area where some of them can retreat to recover from such things like molting and where ovigerous females tend to hang out a lot, they don't "hate" light. In fact, light (and lots of it) is absolutely necessary for the well-being of this shrimp as the light grows what these shrimp feed on in the tank (i.e. biofilm).