Some questions about keeping shrimp in your tank..

[illuminum]

I apologize if some of these sound like stupid questions, but I'd rather ask than make a mistake.

What's the rule of having shrimp in the tank? Does the ever so popular one gal/inch of fish also apply for inverts such as shrimp?

Also, do any type of shrimp require a special diet? I keep 2 types of shrimp right now and they're doing just fine scavenging the gravel,rocks, and plants for food.

Do shrimp and snails get along alright?

Does having shrimp slow the accumulation of nitrates at all or does or make it worse?
TIA

 

[Allivymar]

You can add more shrimp then fish; besides the fact the 1 inch = 1 gallon thing is a crock, shrimp offer a much lighter bio-load then fish.

As for diet, depends on the shrimp. Some are scavengers, some are algae eaters, some require microorganisms, still others are predators and eat the fish.

Snails and shrimp pretty much ignore each other.

I don't think shrimp have any real effect on nitrates.

What kind of shrimp do you have?

 

[thatlouguy]

Don't mean to step on your question illuminum, but Allivymar said

besides the fact the 1 inch = 1 gallon thing is a crock

and I wanted to know if he had a better rule of thumb. If I go by the standard rule, my tank is maxed out but watching the way my fish interact and behave, they don't a room problem. What do you think?

Thanks illuminum

 

[Allivymar]

*giggles* SHE!! I'm a she!

There is no one hard and fast rule. Problem is, there are too many variables. The problem with the 1" = 1 gallon rule is it doesn't take into account surface area of the tank, territorial needs, active swimmers, effect on bioload, mass of the fish and a host of other things.

For example, 10 1" neons would do fine in a 10g tank; you wouldn't want a 10" oscar in there tho. Same total length of fish; very different tank needs.

A 4 inch goldfish and a 4 inch angelfish both need around 10 gallons EACH. Why? Adult angels need a lot of space to provide room for those big fins, and are very territorial once they mature. Goldfish don't need a lot of room for fins and aren't terribly territorial, but kick off massive amounts of waste.

So as you can see, the 1" = 1 gallon "rule" is pretty useless for the most part; bout the only time one can use it is for small bodied fish which don't get over 2 inches or so as adults.

If you really need a formula to help determine bioload, one which takes into account surface area is a little more helpful. Don't forget, surface area is where O2 exchange takes place; the more surface area, the more oxygen you can get into the tank and the more fish (taking into account all the other factors) the tank can hold safely in terms of enough to breathe.

Its generally 1 inch of fish length (adult size of course) to 24-30 square inches of surface area. Theres a nice article from AquariumFish magazine about it here: http://www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29147.htm .