Blue Pearl Shrimp Tank?

[AquaScaper]

I'm thinking of setting up a 5G Blue Pearl Shrimp ADA Tank. What do you think? What are the benefits of blue pearl shrimp?

 

[AquaScaper]

Here is a picture of the kind of shrimp i am talking about, Blue Pearl Shrimp

 

[JohnPaul]

I would encourage you to do some research on Blue Pearls (and their related "mother" species, the Snowball shrimp). They actually prefer basic (alkaline) conditions, not acidic, so using ADA as your substrate doesn't really make a lot of sense. An inert substrate (regular gravel, regular sand, or various planted tank substrates like flourite, eco-complete, or onyx sand/onyx gravel) make more sense for a Blue Pearl tank.

As for Blue Pearls themselves, from all reports they are pretty easy to keep, relatively undemanding, and generally prolific breeders. They are a species that belongs to the Neocaridina genus, which means they cannot be kept with other Neocaridina shrimp due to the possibility (likelihood) of interbreeding and thus producing drab brown, naturally colored offspring. Thus they should not be housed with Snowball shrimp, Red Cherry shrimp, or Yellow shrimp.

A good, brief summary of them can be found at the Blue Pearl page at Arizona Inverts.

 

[Purrbox]

Gorgeous shrimp. Now if only I had another aquarium that I could put them in. So yes, try them! Especially if you've had sucess with other shrimp like RCS already.

 

[FishEggs]

those are really nice looking. would they stand out better with a dark substrate or a light one? i know i have an extra 10 gal here somewhere. go for it!! and if you eventually have too many i'm sure you won't have a hard time finding a new home for them.

 

[AquaScaper]

I would encourage you to do some research on Blue Pearls (and their related "mother" species, the Snowball shrimp). They actually prefer basic (alkaline) conditions, not acidic, so using ADA as your substrate doesn't really make a lot of sense. An inert substrate (regular gravel, regular sand, or various planted tank substrates like flourite, eco-complete, or onyx sand/onyx gravel) make more sense for a Blue Pearl tank.

As for Blue Pearls themselves, from all reports they are pretty easy to keep, relatively undemanding, and generally prolific breeders. They are a species that belongs to the Neocaridina genus, which means they cannot be kept with other Neocaridina shrimp due to the possibility (likelihood) of interbreeding and thus producing drab brown, naturally colored offspring. Thus they should not be housed with Snowball shrimp, Red Cherry shrimp, or Yellow shrimp.

A good, brief summary of them can be found at the Blue Pearl page at Arizona Inverts.

ADA is not a substrate, it is a kind of tank. here is an image of an ada tank, it's 100% glass, no rims

 

[JohnPaul]

ADA is not a substrate, it is a kind of tank. here is an image of an ada tank, it's 100% glass, no rims

Ahh okay I thought you were referring to ADA Aquasoil Amazonia, a common substrate used for planted tanks especially where people are trying to create softwater, acidic conditions (discus tanks, CRS/Tiger shrimp tanks, etc.)

One thing to keep in mind for shrimp tanks is it's not enough for them to be simply fulled cycled. Dwarf shrimp primarily eat the (invisible to our eyes) layer of microfauna (bacteria, fungi, algae) that naturally grow on all the surfaces in a tank after it's been "lived in" for a while. Now it is true they are scavengers and will eat anything they can get their hands on, including fish foods...but it is not their natural diet and is not good in the long term.

Do you have any other aquaria? If so, the ideal thing would be to set up your ADA tank, put maybe 1 fish (a betta perhaps?) in it along with something to clean up uneaten food (a big snail, or perhaps a few ghost shrimp, etc.) Let those things live in there for maybe a month or so, and then order your shrimp and when the shrimp arrive, take out all the other occupants and add the shrimp. A 5 gallon, well-aged tank could probably support 50 shrimp without any additional feedings. I had a 10 gallon tank with 200+ red cherry shrimp that I fed with a small pinch of pulverized algae tablet twice a week, and they did fine.

 

[AquaScaper]

Ahh okay I thought you were referring to ADA Aquasoil Amazonia, a common substrate used for planted tanks especially where people are trying to create softwater, acidic conditions (discus tanks, CRS/Tiger shrimp tanks, etc.)

One thing to keep in mind for shrimp tanks is it's not enough for them to be simply fulled cycled. Dwarf shrimp primarily eat the (invisible to our eyes) layer of microfauna (bacteria, fungi, algae) that naturally grow on all the surfaces in a tank after it's been "lived in" for a while. Now it is true they are scavengers and will eat anything they can get their hands on, including fish foods...but it is not their natural diet and is not good in the long term.

Do you have any other aquaria? If so, the ideal thing would be to set up your ADA tank, put maybe 1 fish (a betta perhaps?) in it along with something to clean up uneaten food (a big snail, or perhaps a few ghost shrimp, etc.) Let those things live in there for maybe a month or so, and then order your shrimp and when the shrimp arrive, take out all the other occupants and add the shrimp. A 5 gallon, well-aged tank could probably support 50 shrimp without any additional feedings. I had a 10 gallon tank with 200+ red cherry shrimp that I fed with a small pinch of pulverized algae tablet twice a week, and they did fine.

Yes, I know, I'm still doing research in order to be prepared to set up a BPS Tank, (Blue Pearl Shrimp) Tank

 

[bs6749]

I've heard that blue pearls throw different shades of blue for offspring. Not sure if you had heard that or not but it's really the only thing I can add.

 

[AquaScaper]

I've heard that blue pearls throw different shades of blue for offspring. Not sure if you had heard that or not but it's really the only thing I can add.

Yes, I've heard of that, it's females that change to a dark blue when doing offspring/breeding, when they don't breed at all they are a light blue.

 

[bs6749]

I haven't heard that at all. I've heard that offspring are born different shades of blue and they stay that way. It's "their" color.

 

[FastFly67]

anyone link me to some good articles on shrimp tanks in general?

 

[JohnPaul]

Best 3 sources for info (articles and/or forums) about shrimp I know are:

Petshrimp
Arizona Inverts
ShrimpNow

The first link especially has several good "shrimp keeping for newbies" types articles on their articles page. There are other good sites floating out in the wide world of the web but I think those should be more than enough to get you started.