:help::help:I have had shrimp one time with no success. I would and will be getting some soon. I have several cycled tanks in various sizes from 5 to 29 gallons. The shrimp will be the only thing in the tank. What plant material food cover wood etc. should I add to the tank for them? Is a 5 gallon the right size to start with? Thanks in advance for the help.
SHRIMP
- Thread starter REDKAHUNA
- Start date
I am not 100% sure what you are asking. What shrimp did you try the first time?
If your tanks are cycled you could start with any of them I suppose. I have 2, 10 gallon shrimp only tanks that are also planted. They eat a variety of foods. Mostly they graze on the plants, but also eat flake & sinking algae tabs. Have to be careful with overfeeding shrimp. I've kept ghost shrimp in my community tanks. I also have Macro shrimp which are larger than dwarf shrimp and very aggressive. I should say they are very oppertunistic and will eat other shrimp. There are all kinds of shrimp, did you decide on one yet? Are you wanting to establish a colony? If that is the case I guess RCS are good starter shrimp.
Anyway I have a 5 gallon planted Macro tank and the 2, 10 gallon planted shrimp tanks 1 is RCS the other is yellows and blue/blacks. I've always heard a 10 gallon is a good starter tank because anything smaller isn't as stable and easy to keep the water parms in check.
I have a bamboo shrimp in my community tank as well as a couple ghosts. I like ghost shrimp they are a good clean up crew and take care of anything my tetras, gobies, and mollies don't eat.
If you want a cheap shrimp to start out with you can get ghost shrimp anywhere from $.10-.50/ea and they are pretty hardy. I get mine from Walmart. They are generally sold as feeders. Also RCS seem to be pretty cheap to start with if you want to try dwarfs. You can check around the classifieds section a lot of the members sell them.
Without being more specific I am not sure how to further answer your question. Good luck on your quest.
If your tanks are cycled you could start with any of them I suppose. I have 2, 10 gallon shrimp only tanks that are also planted. They eat a variety of foods. Mostly they graze on the plants, but also eat flake & sinking algae tabs. Have to be careful with overfeeding shrimp. I've kept ghost shrimp in my community tanks. I also have Macro shrimp which are larger than dwarf shrimp and very aggressive. I should say they are very oppertunistic and will eat other shrimp. There are all kinds of shrimp, did you decide on one yet? Are you wanting to establish a colony? If that is the case I guess RCS are good starter shrimp.
Anyway I have a 5 gallon planted Macro tank and the 2, 10 gallon planted shrimp tanks 1 is RCS the other is yellows and blue/blacks. I've always heard a 10 gallon is a good starter tank because anything smaller isn't as stable and easy to keep the water parms in check.
I have a bamboo shrimp in my community tank as well as a couple ghosts. I like ghost shrimp they are a good clean up crew and take care of anything my tetras, gobies, and mollies don't eat.
If you want a cheap shrimp to start out with you can get ghost shrimp anywhere from $.10-.50/ea and they are pretty hardy. I get mine from Walmart. They are generally sold as feeders. Also RCS seem to be pretty cheap to start with if you want to try dwarfs. You can check around the classifieds section a lot of the members sell them.
Without being more specific I am not sure how to further answer your question. Good luck on your quest.
You can pretty much start with any size tank you want, I have some in a 5 hex and some different ones in a 29gl. They enjoy plants of pretty much all kinds I guess, I haven't been able to tell a difference between their likings, lol. I do notice mine alot of the time hanging out on my malaysian driftwood, they look awesome on it too b/c they are blue pearls and it is very dark.
You just have to remeber in a shrimp tank to NOT OVERFEED, this is pretty much a killer for the shrimp, feed every other day. In nature they are scavengers and are not use to an everyday meal. Plus if they get hungry there is plenty of bio stuff and algae to eat in an established tank.
# 1 to shrimp IMO is tank stablity. If your water isn't they will die off pretty quick. They are highly sensitive to ammonia and nitrite. They can't take very high nitrates either. Cherries seem to be very prolific breeders so be ready for babies if you go with them.
As for food pretty much anything that a bottom feeder will eat, they will to plus fallen flakes. Or you could buy some expensive just for shrimp food.
You just have to remeber in a shrimp tank to NOT OVERFEED, this is pretty much a killer for the shrimp, feed every other day. In nature they are scavengers and are not use to an everyday meal. Plus if they get hungry there is plenty of bio stuff and algae to eat in an established tank.
# 1 to shrimp IMO is tank stablity. If your water isn't they will die off pretty quick. They are highly sensitive to ammonia and nitrite. They can't take very high nitrates either. Cherries seem to be very prolific breeders so be ready for babies if you go with them.
As for food pretty much anything that a bottom feeder will eat, they will to plus fallen flakes. Or you could buy some expensive just for shrimp food.
I will start with RED CHERRY SHRIMP I want to try breeding them. I started breeding cories with the easy and moved up lets start with easy shrimp. Thank you for all the info I bet I overfed the first ones. I fed them along with the guppies. Thanks again.
Good luck with your cherries they are very fun to watch! Don't forget to post pix!
Be sure to get your cherries from someone on this forum!
I used to get them from my LFS for about $4 each.
And they would NEVER breed and I could never figure out why.
Then I learned that the really red ones are females, and many stores only sell females because people like the way they look.
So I had no males, just females. Not going to get much reproduction that way.
I got about 10 from someone on the forum for much less money and now I literally have hundreds because they breed so much.
I used to get them from my LFS for about $4 each.
And they would NEVER breed and I could never figure out why.
Then I learned that the really red ones are females, and many stores only sell females because people like the way they look.
So I had no males, just females. Not going to get much reproduction that way.
I got about 10 from someone on the forum for much less money and now I literally have hundreds because they breed so much.
I'll trade ya red! I can give you about 20 red cherry shrimp, juveniles and adults of both sexes mixed in. I love the cories I bought from you a month ago, they're so active and healthy! Wouldn't mind gaining a few more from a trade. I also have heat packs if it's cold in your area.
think you should start from the beginning. cycled tank with only shrimp. feed them a couple times a week. use live plants to keep it the water clean.