You can root your cuttings by placing them on top of a good well draining soil, and watering infrequently until they show changes up top. You don't want to bury them, maybe half an inch of stem (or so). Trim longer stems to this length. Just set them up sitting mostly on top of the soil, leave them in bright shade, and within weeks to months they will start to resume growing like a normal plant.
I would advise a relatively small pot for starters, and once the cuttings get growing again you can give them more space. Containers dry out from the bottom up and so shallow pots will tend to dry out quicker. Which works to your advantage because it allows you to water more regularly during this period without fear of the soil staying wet at the bottom (not good with succulents and especially not good when rooting cuttings).
The red cacti are not going to work for you because those are a particular kind of mutant lacking chlorophyll which are not capable of producing energy without being grafted to a green host. Basically you have to graft them onto the right kind of green plant for them to keep growing.
