New to Shrimp Raising in the Office

[tonysss]

Hey guys,

I keep a 55 gallon community tank at home that I started about 3 months back and now I'm thinking about setting up a shrimp aquarium for the office. I bought a 5 gallon tank, and I'm in the process of buying red cherry shrimp for it.

I would love to hear your recommendations on what kind of substrate, decorations, extra supplements, and plants especially would fit this kind of tank. There is only a led light that came with the tank and I don't plan on overinvesting in it.

I guess my biggest question is that is this feasible? I plan to buy an auto feeder but during holidays there will be extended periods (1 week about) when I won't be in the office.

thanks!

 

[toddnbecka]

With minimal lighting I'd toss in a little duckweed and forget about other live plants. Substrate is optional, sand or gravel, whichever you prefer. Cherry shrimp don't need an autofeeder, just toss in some dead leaves and they'll be fine. My last house had a small pond in the back yard, and I grew water lilies. Cherry shrimp loved dead water lily leaves, would completely devour a good-size leaf in a day. Oak, maple, whatever else is handy also works, though they last longer since they're not as spongy as dead water lily leaves. They'll also eat vegetables, I used to feed them canned green beans along with my BN pleco's occasionally. I used a bit of crushed coral mixed with gravel for substrate, kept the water hard/alkaline which suits them well.

 

[tonysss]

With minimal lighting I'd toss in a little duckweed and forget about other live plants. Substrate is optional, sand or gravel, whichever you prefer. Cherry shrimp don't need an autofeeder, just toss in some dead leaves and they'll be fine. My last house had a small pond in the back yard, and I grew water lilies. Cherry shrimp loved dead water lily leaves, would completely devour a good-size leaf in a day. Oak, maple, whatever else is handy also works, though they last longer since they're not as spongy as dead water lily leaves. They'll also eat vegetables, I used to feed them canned green beans along with my BN pleco's occasionally. I used a bit of crushed coral mixed with gravel for substrate, kept the water hard/alkaline which suits them well.

Awesome thanks for the detailed response.

 

[icydeath]

Also, you should have a few caves. PVC works.

As for substrate, have some aragonite in there to bring the pH up for the cherries

Using Algae Tabs and Shrimp Pellets are pretty useful when feeding a colony of cherries.

Not sure about the leaves, but those might work too.

 

[Fishfur]

If you can get some clean, dry oak leaves, or almost any hardwood leaf, boil them for a few minutes, then cool. Place in tank. Remove when they're down to skeletons. Be sure to collect only from areas where no pesticides or herbicides have been used.

Oak leaves are my personal fave for hardwood leaves because you can often find them still on the tree, after they go brown. This keeps them much cleaner than if you have to take them off the ground. Once they are bone dry, they store well in a paper bag, you can keep them as long as you want to use as needed. I lay them out flat to dry, so I can stack them to store them neatly. Takes very little time.

Indian Almond Leaves are really great for this too, if you have some or can get some, as they break down very quickly, and only need to be soaked briefly, not boiled. All these leaves, as they break down, provide food for shrimp, as there are colonies of bacteria shrimp can feed on growing on the decaying leaves.

Leaves can also turn the water dark, like brewed tea, for awhile, as the tannins leach out. Once you've done a couple of water changes, most of the colour goes. Or you can boil all leaves until most of the colour is gone if you don't care for how the darker water looks.

You'll want a sponge filter or some small filter, to keep the water good especially if you won't be there for periods of time. Shrimp have a pretty low bioload, but filtration is still needed. Shrimp will also feed off the sponge, which will grow colonies of bacteria, once it is mature.. that is, established with enough of the ammonia/nitrite eating bacteria to provide effective biological filtration.

Since you have a tank running at home you can put a sponge filter into it and let it run for a few weeks, which will seed it and establish it.. then keep it wet while you transfer it to the shrimp tank. Sponges only need to be squeezed out periodically to clean them, in used tank water.

With an established filter, once the tank's been running for a few months, you could leave it without feeding at all for weeks at a time and the shrimp will be fine. They can live for a long time simply eating biofilm, which takes awhile to grow on the gravel and glass and decor, like rocks. But once it's there, it's a ongoing food source as well.

 

[icydeath]

Also, make sure they aren't exhausting the supply. Since you are keeping cherries, you could get a nice plant light for a larger tank and leave it on for an extra thirty minutes to an hour once the colony gets established to give them some algae.

This can be unsightly, so you can void that and just supplement once a week or twice a week once the colony gets large. However much you feed will limit the population.

Be sure you don't have them overstock it too quickly and try to mix in some new blood every once and a while.

 

[JohnRoscoe]

It might look cool to put a single anubia in the middle of the tank, wouldn't require any special attention in my experience. I'd definitely do a black substrate as shrimp are pretty clean and it would look sharp.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Rebel1970]

Can anyone tell me what type of leaf this is? It measures 11 3/4 x 7.

 

[Fishfur]

MIght be catalpa, possibly.

 

[treemanone2003]

MIght be catalpa, possibly.

Not possibly, definitely !!


Sent from my iPhone that doesn't like me. Or you.

 

[Fishfur]

Such pretty trees, at least when they aren't cut back into grotesque pseudo topiaries.

It's not that common to see one around these parts that's been allowed to grow naturally. Most are severely pruned back, to appear like a ball on a stick, which doesn't really suit them at all.