Shrimp Tank

[Babakapusta]

I did it! I finally had the chance to get together with my grand-daughter and go to the fish store. I got 7 red cherry shrimp and some endlers. I'm concerned with the endlers. I think I saw one nipping on the shrimp. I thought they wouldn't bother them. I bought some plants but I need more.

The shrimp are so small they are hard for me to see. My eyesight isn't too good these days.

I do like them. I hope they breed.

We also worked on my 40 gallon tank. I thought she would want the glofish but without my even suggesting them, she wanted fancy guppies. So I bought 2 pair and added them to the feeder guppies I had in the tank. Now I have enough. The tank is always busy with the guppies constantly swimming around and when there are too many, I have a big tank with big fish waiting for the excess.

 

[mrvincent]

You must provide rocks, or decorations where shrimps can hide from predation.

My tetras neons/cardinals will eat my RCS if I don't feed them enough.

 

[Babakapusta]

Yeah, they have plants, and decorations to hide in. problem is so many hiding places and only 7 shrimp. I've hardly seen them.

I'm probably overfeeding the tank. I have to pare it down quite a bit.

 

[Fishfur]

Shrimp only need feeding a few times a week, and for seven shrimp, a bit of food so small you can hardly see it is enough. They graze on biofilm a lot. You can put a nice brown oak or beech leaf in the tank if you wish, it will grow some bacterial colonies you won't be able to see, but that the shrimp will like very much. Once the leaf becomes a skeleton, replace it. Boil it for ten minutes or so first, it will soften it and help it sink.

Endlers are eager feeders that love live food. So baby shrimp will be snacked on if they find them. They are quite happy to feed from the bottom, the middle or the top of a tank. But they are small fish, so only baby shrimp are at risk. The more hiding places they have the better.

Also, feed the Endlers only floating foods, nothing that sinks fast, which might help encourage them to seek food from the surface rather than the bottom of the tank.

I'd suspect that whatever foods the Endlers miss would be enough for the shrimp at least until they have a few broods to increase their numbers.

 

[Babakapusta]

That's what I was thinking of doing. I have an old sponge filter that sits on the bottom of the tank. By the time I have any baby shrimp that sponge will have enough bacteria on it to feed them. It is also slightly off on one side so the babies can hide under it and the endlers are still too big to get to them easily.

I may move the endlers to my eel tank if they don't behave properly. I think the eel is eating small guppies but it may be the bigger guppies eating them. It is a big tank and there are plenty of places to hide so I still have some guppies that reach adult hood.

When there are too many in the tank then they will go into the 125 and they won't last 5 minutes.

 

[Legit Fish]

and watch out because many pet stores sell only females because they are bigger than males and have brighter colors