New to shrimp

[endowarrior21]

Hello all I've been keeping fish for over 30 yrs but I would love to start a shrimp only tank. So far I have a 20L that I think would be a great shrimp tank. Plus I have a sponge filter that I could use and a 200w heater. I would love to plant it too. But no extra lights so need to get that. Now here are my questions.

1.) What is the best plants for shrimp?

2.) What substrate is best for them?

3.) What food do they need?

4.) What water parms do they need my tap water is very hard I use Prime as a water treatment for my other tanks is that fine for shrimp?

5.) What shrimp should I start out with?

Thank you for your time

 

[daileene]

Following this thread. ....

Sent from my SM-G900V using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[TMaier]

This is my snail/nursery tank.

I started a 10g QT tank last year and ended up using it as a hatchery for my mystery snail eggs. Sand bottom, HOB filter and all the young plants I was growing but had removed from my main tank. Once most of the snails were off to new homes I found a person on Craigslist selling RCS for $1 each. By the time I contacted her she was out. But we began correspondence and she and I swapped plants and I gave her some snails. A month or so later she gave me 10 shrimp about 1/2 long. This was October 2016. In December I decided to move the nursery from the 10g into the 20g in the photo. All of the plants and rock moved over into the new tank, new sand but a mature canister filter with prefilter sponge. At that time the female shrimp were carrying eggs. I now have lots of shrimplettes running around.



I have to say that I have read so many differing suggestions on the internet on how to set up an environment, temps, water parms etc that I was terrified to spend $5 a shrimp/$50 for 10 and have them all die. So the $1 a shrimp approach succeeded and now I have some confidence that my local water treated with Prime is ok for them.

They love plants and woods and rocks and sand. And it needs a little age on it. They pic at it constantly.

I feed a mix of hikari crab pellets and algae/spirulina pellets.

And so far so good. They are very entertaining.

Good luck to you.

 

[Fresh2o]

1.) Mosses are popular. Pretty much any plant is fine so long as care for the plant does not push the boundaries for safe shrimp keeping. In other words, cater to the shrimps need first. Moss balls are a popular choice as well, though my shrimp ignore them.
2.) This can depend on the shrimp you are keeping. Many shrimp specific substrates will promote a low pH. Neocardina species (Red Cherry Shrimp, etc) are less demanding than Caridina species (Crystal Red Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp) when it comes to water parameters.
3.) They are constantly grazing surfaces for biofilm; a mature tank will afford this. Prepared foods include algae wafers as well as shrimp specific foods. I can't recall anyone recommending flake foods. Fresh (boiled) vegetables such as zucchini, peas, and carrots are readily accepted by shrimp.
4. and 5.) Depends on the shrimp. Neos are less demanding compared to Caridina shrimp. Neos are quite adaptable, pH and temperature wise (6-8 pH; 70-80 F). Hardness is a factor as well. Too soft or too hard may cause difficulties and/or death while molting. My tap is GH 9 KH 5 and that has worked out fine for my RCS. Many folks that have poor source water or are keeping more challenging Shrimp use reverse osmosis water and remineralize it. This results in ideal water conditions (similar to those that keep SW reef tanks).
I would start out with RCS. These are hardy and relatively inexpensive. Once you master these, then you may want to venture into the more challenging Caridina species.
Word of caution with neocardina shrimp: They come in a variety of hybrid colors (red, yellow, blue, orange) with varying intensities of each. When different hybrids are kept together they will interbreed. The results will include "mutts"; shrimp with less color or with a wild form brown coloration. If this is not a concern for you, then you can keep different hybrids together. Otherwise, keep them separate. Also, neocardina species will not interbreed with Caridina species.

 

[sillymoose]

Oooh! I just fell in love with shrimp too. Following for sure

 

[skrapeNKA]

1.) Mosses are popular. Pretty much any plant is fine so long as care for the plant does not push the boundaries for safe shrimp keeping. In other words, cater to the shrimps need first. Moss balls are a popular choice as well, though my shrimp ignore them.
2.) This can depend on the shrimp you are keeping. Many shrimp specific substrates will promote a low pH. Neocardina species (Red Cherry Shrimp, etc) are less demanding than Caridina species (Crystal Red Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp) when it comes to water parameters.
3.) They are constantly grazing surfaces for biofilm; a mature tank will afford this. Prepared foods include algae wafers as well as shrimp specific foods. I can't recall anyone recommending flake foods. Fresh (boiled) vegetables such as zucchini, peas, and carrots are readily accepted by shrimp.
4. and 5.) Depends on the shrimp. Neos are less demanding compared to Caridina shrimp. Neos are quite adaptable, pH and temperature wise (6-8 pH; 70-80 F). Hardness is a factor as well. Too soft or too hard may cause difficulties and/or death while molting. My tap is GH 9 KH 5 and that has worked out fine for my RCS. Many folks that have poor source water or are keeping more challenging Shrimp use reverse osmosis water and remineralize it. This results in ideal water conditions (similar to those that keep SW reef tanks).
I would start out with RCS. These are hardy and relatively inexpensive. Once you master these, then you may want to venture into the more challenging Caridina species.
Word of caution with neocardina shrimp: They come in a variety of hybrid colors (red, yellow, blue, orange) with varying intensities of each. When different hybrids are kept together they will interbreed. The results will include "mutts"; shrimp with less color or with a wild form brown coloration. If this is not a concern for you, then you can keep different hybrids together. Otherwise, keep them separate. Also, neocardina species will not interbreed with Caridina species.

The only thing I could add to this is to try and get smaller shrimp if you're picking them out locally, the juveniles seem to have a much easier time adjusting to new water than older shrimp. I probably lost half of the shrimp I purchased before 10 of them adjusted enough to start breeding... then I had over 100 Since then, there have been very few losses outside of the 10 that kicked things off, the shrimp hatched in the tank water never knew of the softer water at the store their parents came from!

Mine absolutely love hanging out in the java moss in my tank and on the sponge over the HOB intake. They also really like the wisteria and hygrophila corymbosa. Or pretty much any surface in the tank that doesn't have a strong current, they are everywhere.