Best Way To Clean A Shrimp Tank

[pixelpefekt]

Hi all.

I'm hoping to set up a Cherry shrimp tank. What I'm curious about is, what's the best way to clean the tank - especially when there are tiny baby shrimp in there. At the moment I do bi-weekly water changes on my fish tank. Whilsy doing that I vac the substraight but will I be able to do this when loads of tiny shrimp are running around?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Snails.

You can take water off of the surface or below it, and you should check in the bucket to make sure you have not taken any shrimplets out by mistake.

 

[pippoodle]

Snails.

You can take water off of the surface or below it, and you should check in the bucket to make sure you have not taken any shrimplets out by mistake.

as long as you dont have any amano shrimp cos they kill snails

i very rarely hoover the gravel in my shrimp tank i do it about once every 6 weeks and its fine as long as you dont over feed you shouldn't get that much waste and you shouldn't remove the skeletons (shedded ones) from the tank cos the shrimps get nutrients from them .

When doing the water changes i do them from the top of the tank only and use a white bucket so i can see any i sucked up accidentaly and also when getting rid of the water i put it through a sieve -- some of the very young shrimplets are neally see through and might even get missed in the bucket .

try that see how you go

 

[pixelpefekt]

"Snails"
- Never heard of that before. What type? How many?


"i very rarely hoover the gravel in my shrimp tank... ...you dont over feed you shouldn't get that much waste... ...shouldn't remove the skeletons... ...white bucket/put it through a sieve..."
- Interesting advice! When you say not much waste, surely the shrimp make their own waste on the bottom. Is this what the snails clean up?
- leave the skeletons. Didn't know that. Guess it makes life simpler too.
- white bucket and sieve. Thats a great idea. Simple but I bet it gives you peace of mind.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Any of the 'pest' snails will do a good job. MTS, pond snails, ramshorns, etc. Just get a couple and their population will increase to fit the amount of food available.

Yes, the shrimp make their own waste(as do all living things), however it is not very much. A single shrimp is a tiny addition to a tank's bioload.

 

[~T~]

Snails.

You can take water off of the surface or below it, and you should check in the bucket to make sure you have not taken any shrimplets out by mistake.

as long as you dont have any amano shrimp cos they kill snails

i very rarely hoover the gravel in my shrimp tank i do it about once every 6 weeks and its fine as long as you dont over feed you shouldn't get that much waste and you shouldn't remove the skeletons (shedded ones) from the tank cos the shrimps get nutrients from them .

When doing the water changes i do them from the top of the tank only and use a white bucket so i can see any i sucked up accidentaly and also when getting rid of the water i put it through a sieve -- some of the very young shrimplets are neally see through and might even get missed in the bucket .

try that see how you go

Amano shrimp killing snails? Thats news to me. I have 4 amanos and 11 young apple snails, baby trapdoors, mts and the pest kind (tadpole/pouch). I can honestly say that the only time I see them messing with the snails is taking the odd ride on them. Do you mean ghost shrimp?

pixelpefekt, if your tank is a planted setup then its best not to hoover the sand/gravel and just take from the surface. If you have to then the sieve method will work. Also if you have an outside water butt then put your waterchange water in there(maybe even throw in a bunch of pondweed)and you might end up with a shrimp colony living there(they can take pretty low temps).

 

[Shrimper]

The amount of snail i used to have proves Amano don't eat them... Snail eatng snails do though

As for cleaning the tank i find taking water from the surface and moving the gravel cleaner around lots when near the bottom of the tank scares the shrimplets out the way!

 

[pixelpefekt]

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[pippoodle]

The amount of snail i used to have proves Amano don't eat them... Snail eatng snails do though

As for cleaning the tank i find taking water from the surface and moving the gravel cleaner around lots when near the bottom of the tank scares the shrimplets out the way!

it proves your shrimp didnt eat them lol

i said in another post that the snails were a couple of years old so wether they were on their last legs and the shrimps finished them off
but they deffo ate them they dragged them out of the shells and then ate them i was upset lol

 

[~T~]

The amount of snail i used to have proves Amano don't eat them... Snail eatng snails do though

As for cleaning the tank i find taking water from the surface and moving the gravel cleaner around lots when near the bottom of the tank scares the shrimplets out the way!

it proves your shrimp didnt eat them lol

i said in another post that the snails were a couple of years old so wether they were on their last legs and the shrimps finished them off
but they deffo ate them they dragged them out of the shells and then ate them i was upset lol

If they were able to be pulled out of their shells then they were indeed already dead

 

[RadaR]

My thoughts exactly, T.

 

[GShorty1981]

Armano Shrimps are Algae eaters,why would they eat a snail for? i smell BS

 

[MasterP]

put some type of mesh over the end of the tube in the tank when you do water changes. This will prevent the shrimp from getting sucked into the bucket

 

[Syphoniera]

Armano Shrimps are Algae eaters,why would they eat a snail for? i smell BS

I've heard that if really hungry they'll make a grab at live fish.
If I was hungry enough, I suppose so would I.

http/www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=amanoshrimp

'... Caridina Japonica are known to eat algae, anyway remember they are not a solution against algae proliferation because they are too small and do not eat that much, moreover they like just some kind of algae and ignore others. The only one solution to algae problems is to control the aquarium balance: lighting period and quality, filtration work, fish and plants number.

'Living on the ground, Caridina also eat the rests of the fish food, and sometimes also other organic refuses. Even if they eat algae they rarely eat plants, both living or dead; while they often like dead fish, a medium group of Caridina can clean the fish carcass really fast.

'Even if they can find food almost everywhere in the tank, once a week or so, feed them with specific food or with fish pellets, some of them seem to appreciate a lot spirulina pellets. ...'


I'm a meat-eater, but if I didn't eat my veggies, my mummy would smack me silly, lol.
Variety spicing life and all.

 

[Shrimper]

Other shrimp such as the long arm macro species are known to attack live fish, but Amano shrimp are peaceful and will struggle to kill a fish with their tiny claws.

The quote you posted says nothing about them killing live fish, just eating those that are already dead.