Crystal Red and Cherry Red shrimp questions

[boonehillbilly]

I have been researching quite a bit the past few weeks and have a few questions as I am reading conflicting answers. I am going to start 10-20 aquariums
forthe sole purpose of select breeding Cherry Reds and Crystal reds (for now). Now for the questions
1. 10 gallon vs 20 gallon? I know in the 10 the water parm. can shift faster. But s the larger tanks really needed with say 20 shrimp in a well cycled tank?
2. Lighting, flourscent vs incandecent? Is there and benifit or disadnvangate to one vs the other?
3. If you are a breeder what is your stocking ratio of males to females?
4. Substrate? I plan on using java moss and eco complete. Would they thrive in this environment? Would you recommend a different substrate?
5. How many would you keep per gallon? (well cycled tanks for at least 4 months)
6. Water changes... I have a blue 55 gallon drum that once held soy sauce, how would you clean this to remove salts? I plan to use this as my main water
reserve for water changes as I can heat and treat the entire drum to save time.
Any help would be great and this is a helpful forum btw!

 

[cwt]

Welcome to AA.

I have cherry reds, in almost all of my tanks. 10G is quite sufficient to keep a healthy colony of shrimp; if you're looking to create huge quantities of them, maybe you need more room. Bottom substrate probably isn't that important, as they won't be down there unless they're scavenging food. Java moss and java ferns are the only plants you need for a shrimp tank; moss in particular. they will live in these plants most of the time, and feed off of the surface algae and waste on them.

Breeding: simply ensure that you have a clean tank and sufficient plants for food and shelter. I started with 2 males and 2 females, and that was all it took for me to have shrimp everywhere.

Lighting: not sure it matters, something enough the keep the plants in shape I guess. fluorescent is the more efficient way to get your tank lit.

edit: also, a relatively still tank is good; I wouldn't recommend cranking up big flow or they'll spend most of their time hanging onto things.

As for the 55G drum, I don't even know where to start with that. If there was some sort of plastic liner you could put inside it, then maybe it'd work, otherwise I'd have doubts that it would ever be clean enough for fish use.

best of luck with this project.

 

[jetajockey]

i have both cherry and red crystal shrimp in the same tank.

That particular tank has a lot of java moss and ecocomplete in it, so it sounds like you got it figured out.

 

[boonehillbilly]

Only reason I ask bout the tanks is I can get a 10g for $28 with a filter vs a 20g for $90. I have room in my spare bedroom for 50 tanks so I plan to add on with each sale of shrimp until the room is basically filled. Is a planted tank necessary for these guys?