Introducing The Snowball Shrimp

[milalic]

Hi there. This is one of many freshwater shrimp I currently keep. It is better know as the snowball shrimp. Here is some information on snowball shrimp and what has been successful for me in keeping and breeding them. They are a very active shrimp from the neocaridina family. Their scientific name is Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis "white".

My tank parameters are as follow:

-Ph: 7.6
-Ammonia: 0
-Nitrites: 0
-Nitrates: 10ppm
-GH: 7dKh
-KH: 3dKh
-Temp: 73-75F (I have air conditioning on all day long and this is the temp variation in the tank)
-No fertilizers and no CO2
-Lights are provided by two shop lights from Home Depot: 160watts

The shrimp are housed in a 75G tank and share the tank with:

-red and blue ram shorn snails
-olive nerites
-orange dwarf crayfish


The flora of the tank consists of:

-X-mas moss
-Najas grass
-Java Fern
-Egeria Najas

The substrate that I used was a 50lb bag of Soilmaster Select Red. Soilmaster select is used for golf courses and is an inert gravel.

What the shrimp eat?

-HBH Crab and Lobster Bites
-Hikari Crab cuisine
-Shrimp Pellets
-Zucchini
-Occasional algae wafer
-Algae

Hope this information helps out in setting a tank for snowball shrimp. Enjoy the picks and hope to see questions and comments.

Cheers,
Pedro


Here are pictures of a pregnant snowball shrimp in the tank:

These are photos of baby snowballs and other snowballs I have in the tank:

 

[iSnail]

Hi Milalic

Welcome to the forum. I read your posts in the other shrimp forums and I'm sure members here will benefit from your shrimp keeping experience.

Here in the UK, dwarf shrimps are still not as widely available but in the last few months, more and more LFSs have become aware of the interest and demand for them. Hopefully one day I will get my hands on some snowball shrimps like yours

Thanks for sharing your nice pics and please keep posting.

 

[three-fingers]

Thats so cool! I never heard of snowball shrimp or orange dwarf crayfish until now!

If i could find these anywhere, they would be perfect for the 5gal planted tank i'm thinking of setting up when i move rooms .

Great pics too.

 

[iSnail]

I know..... they look really cool. I was drooling the first time I saw them on a German (I think it was German ) website some many months ago. Hopefully we will see some more nice dwarf shrimps being sold in LFS in the UK in the near future

 

[wendywc]

Neat!

 

[severum boy]

If i could find these anywhere, they would be perfect for the 5gal planted tank

Watch out Fingers, they will almost cirtanly be illegal where we live! Typical

Anyway, beautiful shrimp, how much did you pay when you originally bought them?

 

[three-fingers]

The crayfish are illegal, but I could get a permit.....if I had enough patience .

The snowball shrimp are OK though, and I now know where to get both the shrimp and the crayfish.

Unfortunately between when I made that post and now, I created my 5gallon planted nano, and watched it be destroyed by my fish .

I'll be refurbishing it during the summer and those snowballs are now an option .

 

[Invader Xan]

Wow... Those shrimp look tiny. And adorable.
So where do you suppose these little guys are available in the UK...?