Well, I took the plunge last month and set up a tank for crystal red shrimp. I've wanted a shrimp-only tank for a while now, and love the look of the crystal reds. Never kept shrimp before, so I was a bit nervous about starting with the crystal reds, but my tapwater is well-suited to them (pH 6.7, KH 1, GH 1).
I was going to let the tank mature a while before adding the shrimp, but then wm_crash advertised some here for a great price and I couldn't resist. So my shrimp went into a fairly newly set-up tank.
I wasn't as bad as it sounds, though. The tank was set up with coarse sand, plants, driftwood, and a rock from my established tank. It was running for two weeks with trumpet snails, a large brig, and filter media from another tank. It had a silent cycle and never registered any ammonia or nitrite. Nitrates rose, slowly as expected for the very light stock.
So the tank was set up on Sept 12 and the shrimp went in on Sept 24. There were 29 shrimp in the package, there were no losses in shipping, and I have not had a single death in my tank. Yay!
The shrimp are getting berried! One came to me berried, but I've recently seen three at once, so at least two happened in my tank. And several more are showing dark saddles.
And on Oct 7, I saw the very first BABY!
[YT]QU0H7NGIDoU[/YT]
It is TINY, less than 1/16" long. I'm surprised I was able to get it on video at all! Pure luck that I had the camera in my hand, already set to video, when I saw the baby.
Water changes are done with straight tap water with Prime. For my own future reference:
hardware:
10 g tank
sponge filter with powerhead instead of airstone
heater
fluorescent light/hood
coarse river sand substrate
plants:
3 Anubias plants on wood and rock (nana, petite, and another variety in between them in leaf size)
1 Windelov java fern on driftwood
java moss (on the rock with anubias)
subwassertang (on the driftwood with 2 anubias)
1 crypt (don't know variety, probably wendtii)
1 sword(?)
1 bare driftwood
livestock:
29 (now 30!) crystal red shrimp
1 brig snail
1 Juga plicifera snail
Malaysian trumpet snails
I was going to let the tank mature a while before adding the shrimp, but then wm_crash advertised some here for a great price and I couldn't resist. So my shrimp went into a fairly newly set-up tank.
I wasn't as bad as it sounds, though. The tank was set up with coarse sand, plants, driftwood, and a rock from my established tank. It was running for two weeks with trumpet snails, a large brig, and filter media from another tank. It had a silent cycle and never registered any ammonia or nitrite. Nitrates rose, slowly as expected for the very light stock.
So the tank was set up on Sept 12 and the shrimp went in on Sept 24. There were 29 shrimp in the package, there were no losses in shipping, and I have not had a single death in my tank. Yay!
The shrimp are getting berried! One came to me berried, but I've recently seen three at once, so at least two happened in my tank. And several more are showing dark saddles.
And on Oct 7, I saw the very first BABY!
[YT]QU0H7NGIDoU[/YT]
It is TINY, less than 1/16" long. I'm surprised I was able to get it on video at all! Pure luck that I had the camera in my hand, already set to video, when I saw the baby.
Water changes are done with straight tap water with Prime. For my own future reference:
hardware:
10 g tank
sponge filter with powerhead instead of airstone
heater
fluorescent light/hood
coarse river sand substrate
plants:
3 Anubias plants on wood and rock (nana, petite, and another variety in between them in leaf size)
1 Windelov java fern on driftwood
java moss (on the rock with anubias)
subwassertang (on the driftwood with 2 anubias)
1 crypt (don't know variety, probably wendtii)
1 sword(?)
1 bare driftwood
livestock:
29 (now 30!) crystal red shrimp
1 brig snail
1 Juga plicifera snail
Malaysian trumpet snails
