What do I need to know about freshwater shrimps!!!

[Jan55]

Hi there!

I've got a 6ft fish tank which sits at about 26degrees and is fairly stable.

It's a community tank with fish such as platies, clown loaches, Tetras, danios, and a couple of brown aquatic frogs. I feed them a mixture of flakes, pellets, wafers and frozen food e.g. bloodworm etc.

I fancy getting some shimps but don't want to buy them until I find out a little bit about them.

Can anyone advise me which type I should get and how many? Plus do they need any special food or will they just eat whatever rubbish is lying at the bottom!

Thanks,

Jan

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i would start with ghost shrimp or cherry shrimp. i would also make sure they have java moss to hide in. if you ever used copper in the tank i wouldnt get them.

 

[Jan55]

I've not knowingly ever used copper so hopefully I should be ok!

 

[Mgamer20o0]

oh and they eat anything. what i would do would be set up a 5-10 gal tank. get 10-20 cherry shrimp and start breeding them. once you have greater numbers put them in your bigger tank.

 

[Jan55]

Jeez-oh! That sounds like a lot of shrimp!

My tank is 6ft by 1.5ft by 1 ft so it's a decent size!

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i put 10 shrimp in my 120 gal tank.... didnt see them for a month.

Width: 72" (182.88cm)
Height: 18" (45.72cm)
Depth: 12" (30.48cm)
Your tank's volume is approximately 15552 cubic inches or 67.32 U.S. gallons

people keep 100 or so in 10 gal tanks.

 

[nickmcmechan]

i wouldnt keep them with loaches...in the wild loaches eat inverts....

 

[mellowvision]

the lfs claims to have 1000 amano shrimp in their 6 foot tank... I don't know if I believe it, but there are certainly hundreds.

 

[Jan55]

My clowns are still quite small at the moment so they might be ok. I've also spotted clams as well.

Can you tell I'm looking for something a wee bitty different and interesting to put in with the fish!!!

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i really like my shrimp. if you have a breeding tank set up you wont have to worry so much about the shrimp becoming a snack.