Do you need Plants with Shrimp?

[SemperFish]

My fiancé and I are planning on getting into the aquarium stuff and came across some questions when first starting up. Does having a shrimp with your fish community make a big difference? Also does it make a difference if you have living plants vs artificial plants when having a shrimp? Because we thought that with the artificial plants they will still collect algae and for what we have researched shrimp will eat the algae. Now is that true?

 

[Mogurako]

Shrimp do best and thrive in a tank with only their own kind and live plants. When they are kept with fish they tend to hide allot. At the very least I would recommend keeping java moss with them, there are tons of easy low light plants that are very easy to care for.

 

[jcolon]

My fiancé and I are planning on getting into the aquarium stuff and came across some questions when first starting up. Does having a shrimp with your fish community make a big difference? Also does it make a difference if you have living plants vs artificial plants when having a shrimp? Because we thought that with the artificial plants they will still collect algae and for what we have researched shrimp will eat the algae. Now is that true?

What Shrimp are you thinking of? You can keep larger shrimp like Amano and or Bamboo shrimp with fish. Depending on which fish however they could become a snack. Small tetras, rasboras and or nano fish are fine with even small shrimp like red cherry which get to about 1inch as adults. However, even those fish could harass juveniles and snack on baby shrimp. Shrimp need cover from plants, DW and or Rocks in community tanks.

You can keep artificial plants, but will do better with live plants. You can go with low light plants like Anubias, Crypts, Java Fern and Java Moss with just about any aquarium light ... even stock hood bulbs.

 

[SemperFish]

What Shrimp are you thinking of? You can keep larger shrimp like Amano and or Bamboo shrimp with fish. Depending on which fish however they could become a snack. Small tetras, rasboras and or nano fish are fine with even small shrimp like red cherry which get to about 1inch as adults. However, even those fish could harass juveniles and snack on baby shrimp. Shrimp need cover from plants, DW and or Rocks in community tanks.

You can keep artificial plants, but will do better with live plants. You can go with low light plants like Anubias, Crypts, Java Fern and Java Moss with just about any aquarium light ... even stock hood bulbs.

Well to tell you the truth we haven't really thought yet what type of shrimp or fish we are going to have. Like I stated we are new to having a large community tank. When we where at collage we both had small maybe 5G tanks and now that we are moving in somewhere that will allow us to have a larger tank up to a 55G tank we thought to get one. So we went out to get a tank from PetCo and found a good priced 29G tank. But we are pretty much just trying to figure out what we might want to get in our tank and get it set up before we get our fish. I know that me and my fiancé want to get some Tetras, Platies, amd Gobbies.

Thank you though for the insight into getting some shrimp!

 

[jcolon]

In that case, decide first on the fish and then we can tell you the best shrimp to look for.
Plants, DW and Rocks would be necessary if your looking to add shrimp. Aside from Bamboo Shrimp who get somewhat large, other shrimp are likely to hide from fish.

 

[SemperFish]

In that case, decide first on the fish and then we can tell you the best shrimp to look for.
Plants, DW and Rocks would be necessary if your looking to add shrimp. Aside from Bamboo Shrimp who get somewhat large, other shrimp are likely to hide from fish.

Ok sounds good! Also thank you for the information on the shrimp! I will definitely post back on here when we lock down what fish we are going to get!