Q's for starting my first shrimp tank

Chickadee

Chickadee

Snail addict
Dec 26, 2010
179
0
16
Traverse City, MI
I might be getting another 10g tank soon and want to get shrimp. Never had them before and I want to set it up right. My water is hard and the pH is around 8 to 8.2. What are the best shrimp for these conditions? Obviously I can't get many in a 10g, so what's the minimum amount I should have? I'll also be putting some of my mystery snails in with them. They're compatible, right? What's the best substrate to use? What plants do they like? Anything else I need to know?
 
If you're just starting with shrimp I would recommend Amano and cherry shrimp to get you started; they're hardy and therefore will be fine with harder water if introduced properly. I have always had the best success with broader-leaved plants because they seem to collect more algae to graze on, but that depends on how well your tanks collect algae - mine don't get much! In terms of numbers, I can't really help you there because it's hard to give a number for a 10g tank, but you can certainly have more shrimp than fish, and mine seem to enjoy the company of others.

Mystery snails should be fine with them, and I use sand in mine because I find it easier to keep clean, although many people keep them with gravel of various sizes, so that's your choice really.

Hope this helps but I'm sure others will give you more information. :)


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10g I'd probably have a couple amano's and then cherry's since they're cheap and will reproduce easily, 10-12 cherry's is what I'd start with, you could do more then that but that leaves plenty of room for when they breed. Substrate I'd either do black sand or a plant substrate. The shrimps color up better with the darker substrate. Plants a nice size clump of java moss or other mosses. Other plants depends what type of lighting your going with. Shrimp also like to feed on driftwood I've noticed I always see a few on my mopani munching away on stuff, not so much on the malaysian piece for some reason though. They should do fine with any type of snails you want to add.
 
Thank you both for this helpful info. I've made some notes. Hopefully I can get the tank next week. I want to get it all cycled and planted, and get some snails moved over first. They're outgrowing the 10 gal I have right now.
 
In a 10 gallon, you honestly could have up to 100 cherry shrimp. I know that sounds like a lot, but they are small. We always go by the rule of 10 shrimp per 1 gallon of water. But I would go with the other suggestions and start with a few. They certainly breed like crazy. Amano would be great ones too....I agree! Like Fish-Addict said, intro them to the hard water slowly. The Cherry shrimp we sell here are all coming from water with a PH at 7.2. So try the drip acclimation if at all possible.

Great Luck to You!!
 
Thanks ShrimpFarm. How would I go about introducing them slowly? And how does the drip acclimation work? Is there a way to control the breeding if it gets out of hand?
 
Slowly add a little bit of water into the shrimps bag at a time, add a cup wait several minutes add another. They also sell kits a hard U tube with airline tubing and a valve to do it handsfree for like $2 DrFostersmith has them. With freshwater shrimp I've pretty much always just acclimated them to the tank temp then threw them in. FW shrimps seem alot more hardy to parameter variations then salt.

If you start getting more then you want you can sell them, or use them as food for fish in another tank.
 
Chickadee, the above reply will work as well, but I think one of the safest methods is drip acclimating with a hose. In a pinch, I have used a few feet of airline tubing clipped onto the tank with a "chip click". Run the other end into a bowl or pitcher, etc. that you have poured the shrimp into. I've used a pair of vice-grips, c-clamp, etc (anything to squeeze the tube shut) to squeeze the tube shut just enough that the water would drip out about 2 or so drops per second. Let it drip for an hour at that rate and then open up the tube to where it's dripping several drips per second....do that for an hour. (Bad part about this method is the sucking of the tube to start the siphon :nilly:)

In the end, doing it that way, if one dies, you can honestly say that it had nothing to do with their acclimation. Peace of Mind!
Just my 2 cents worth.

About the breeding.....hum.....seems like I am always wanting the opposite. :) But, the thing that would make them slow down is poorer water conditions....but you don't want to do that. So selling them would be great like tl1000rsquid said.

Good Luck
 
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