Shrimp & snail tank questions

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Inkdork

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
36
Location
California
I have a 5.5 gallon tank that is currently home to 5 small snails, but I want to add shrimp in a few days. The tank is moderately planted but I would be adding a few more plants.

How many shrimp would be a good number? And how often should I do water changes? Weekly, like for fish? Would a female betta be safe to add to the tank?

ETA the snails are 4 mystery snails, and 1 nerite snail.
 
For five gallon you can add 40 to 50 shrimps easily. Please don't add any fish. Fish will definitely nip your shrimps and will eat shrimp babies. Let it be shrimp and snail only tank. Your shrimps will hang around fearlessly. Also more breeding will be. For shrimps make sure you have Moss in tank. Any Moss will do but Christmas or flame Moss is best. You can make Christmas Moss tree on a driftwood or many possibilities with Moss but Moss is very good for beneficial bacteria and baby shrimps to reside. Shrimps keeping is very addictive and amazing hobby so I suggest to don't add any fish and just keep these gorgeous little guys with snails. Good luck.
 
For five gallon you can add 40 to 50 shrimps easily. Please don't add any fish. Fish will definitely nip your shrimps and will eat shrimp babies. Let it be shrimp and snail only tank. Your shrimps will hang around fearlessly. Also more breeding will be. For shrimps make sure you have Moss in tank. Any Moss will do but Christmas or flame Moss is best. You can make Christmas Moss tree on a driftwood or many possibilities with Moss but Moss is very good for beneficial bacteria and baby shrimps to reside. Shrimps keeping is very addictive and amazing hobby so I suggest to don't add any fish and just keep these gorgeous little guys with snails. Good luck.

I was mostly just curious about adding a fish to the mix - I love my snails and shrimp are fun to watch as they are.

Moss I have. :) and wow! That many shrimp? Lol I was thinking like ten or fifteen!
 
I was mostly just curious about adding a fish to the mix - I love my snails and shrimp are fun to watch as they are.

Moss I have. :) and wow! That many shrimp? Lol I was thinking like ten or fifteen!
That's great. Yes shrimp rule is ten shrimps per gallon. Really shrimps don't have high bio load. Just keep checking your water parameters.
 
Okay so I need to drop the temp a few degrees. :) that's easy enough. Thanks!
Please read everything about shrimp keeping. With shrimps there are many things which are not with fish in general like cold temperature and watee changes very less. Once or twice a week and only like twenty percent. Don't overfeed. Feed them alternate days or even more gap. There are many and many videos on YouTube on shrimp hobby and good material to read on Google.
 
Please read everything about shrimp keeping. With shrimps there are many things which are not with fish in general like cold temperature and watee changes very less. Once or twice a week and only like twenty percent. Don't overfeed. Feed them alternate days or even more gap. There are many and many videos on YouTube on shrimp hobby and good material to read on Google.

That's why I'm here. :)

YouTube isn't the best option for me as my connection is rarely fast enough to stream video.

I feed the snails an algae wafer every couple of days, I assume a similar schedule would be fine for shrimp?
 
That's why I'm here. :)

YouTube isn't the best option for me as my connection is rarely fast enough to stream video.

I feed the snails an algae wafer every couple of days, I assume a similar schedule would be fine for shrimp?
Yes that is good. Shrimps will eat same algae waffers if you like to keep it simple or there are special shrimp foods available.
 
Yes that is good. Shrimps will eat same algae waffers if you like to keep it simple or there are special shrimp foods available.

The selection is fish and invert foods can be overwhelming! When I bought the algae wafers, they had like ten different types.
 
The selection is fish and invert foods can be overwhelming! When I bought the algae wafers, they had like ten different types.
Your staple food should be vegetable based like pure veggies waffers. Shrimps should not have high protein food. Rotate there food. Try to find which doesn't have fish meal in ingredients. Dennerle shrimp king complete is a nice staple food or glasgarten shrimp dinner is also a nice staple food or just normal veggie waffers or pellets or sticks are ok if you want to keep it simple. Protein based you can give like once a week.
 
Your staple food should be vegetable based like pure veggies waffers. Shrimps should not have high protein food. Rotate there food. Try to find which doesn't have fish meal in ingredients. Dennerle shrimp king complete is a nice staple food or glasgarten shrimp dinner is also a nice staple food or just normal veggie waffers or pellets or sticks are ok if you want to keep it simple. Protein based you can give like once a week.

Are occasional feedings of vegetables okay? I know the place my snails came from said they can also have blanched vegetables besides the dead plant matter and algae.
 
We feed our critters vegetables all the time. I've even made my own food with a puree of vegetables and some fruits held together with gelatin. Much less expense than the prepackaged stuff.
 
Are occasional feedings of vegetables okay? I know the place my snails came from said they can also have blanched vegetables besides the dead plant matter and algae.
As Nirbhao said you can feed them vegetables like spinach, cucumbere etc but make sure to wash them good by warm or boiling water so any pesticides etc will be eliminated. Shrimps will love them.
 
So apparently my snails are joyful and living it up because I definitely witnessed a little snail hanky panky yesterday. The large gold one is definitely male... Lol.

Tomorrow if all goes well, I'm going to look at shrimp, and maybe a couple teensy fish for my empty tank. More plants too, mainly for the two little tanks.

I had thought one of the bulbs I have in the snail tank was a dud but I noticed today it's got a new shoot growing. Took it a while, but its growing now.
 
Shrimp are best added after a few months of a cycled, stable tank, not that they can't be kept before that but just know a mature tank will keep the group happier and better fed.

Tiny fish best in my opinion are Dwarf Rasboras, my favorite because of the shape and spunk and color are the Chili Rasbora, Boraras Brigittae - small don't really care at all about eating any shrimp and inhabit the top 1/3 of the tank primarily. Stay under an inch, so you can get quite a few for a nice group. The other dwarf Boraras are nice too
There were a couple times a ling time ago, I was sold and paid higher price and ended up with a cheaper version. This article is helpful to ID Micro Rasboras.
Which boraras do you really have? A pictorial guide to the most common species - Invertebrates by Msjinkzd

Also Dwarf Cories - C. Pymaeus, Habrosus and Hastatus. A mature and stable tank is best for these guys as well. Especially due to the size of the tank, where fluctuations can literally kill off your tank in a day.

As an FYI, keep track of the Mystery Snails if you have those in there, I have had a medium one in one tank and a large in another over the years, die and not known about it, and almost kill the whole tank. Despite those times, even with years of shrimp keeping, once in awhile there is a problem. Life is full of learning and we try to do our best.
 
Shrimp are best added after a few months of a cycled, stable tank, not that they can't be kept before that but just know a mature tank will keep the group happier and better fed.

Tiny fish best in my opinion are Dwarf Rasboras, my favorite because of the shape and spunk and color are the Chili Rasbora, Boraras Brigittae - small don't really care at all about eating any shrimp and inhabit the top 1/3 of the tank primarily. Stay under an inch, so you can get quite a few for a nice group. The other dwarf Boraras are nice too
There were a couple times a ling time ago, I was sold and paid higher price and ended up with a cheaper version. This article is helpful to ID Micro Rasboras.
Which boraras do you really have? A pictorial guide to the most common species - Invertebrates by Msjinkzd

Also Dwarf Cories - C. Pymaeus, Habrosus and Hastatus. A mature and stable tank is best for these guys as well. Especially due to the size of the tank, where fluctuations can literally kill off your tank in a day.

As an FYI, keep track of the Mystery Snails if you have those in there, I have had a medium one in one tank and a large in another over the years, die and not known about it, and almost kill the whole tank. Despite those times, even with years of shrimp keeping, once in awhile there is a problem. Life is full of learning and we try to do our best.
What happened about mystery snail? Like his death caused water bad? Please explain.
 
Back
Top Bottom