Mostly Shrimp Tank

[NinjaSmurf]

I recently gave my brother my 20g long to use, as he wants to set up a tank. The filter is good for up to forty gallons, and he will have thirty watts of lighting for the tank. It is not set up at the moment, but when it is I will be giving him the entire filter pad from my 30g to use so he won't have to cycle.

He wants to have a mostly shrimp tank, with maybe a school of neons or other small fish. I told him not to do a planted tank, as his budget is limited and this is going to be his first real tank setup. I did tell him he could probably have some Java on some rocks or driftwood, as these have always been very easy for me to keep in that tank with that lighting.

At the moment he is going to be searching the internet for various shrimp info and writing it down on paper, so he can compare sizes, diets, types of feeders (i.e. filter etc.) and figuring out what he thinks he could deal with. On my end I will be trying to find out what shrimp I can get a hold of at reasonable prices, as where he lives has only one fish store within twenty miles, and he doesn't drive yet.

I figured maybe I could help him out a while with some things and ask if what kinds of shrimp would cohabitate well together, and if his idea of a school of neons would be ok, or if he should try to find another schooling fish of equal or smaller size, because I've never kept schooling fish or tetras before.

I want him to have an awesome experience with this tank, so any help would be appreciated.

 

[llamalord305]

Try to get moss balls, they act like little filters and the shrimp sit on them and eat the debris that accumulates in them. A in tank powerhead style filter would be good, since the shrimp could sit on the filter sponge and pick out stuff in there. I have seen this done with good results in nmonks planted tank. Maybe PM him for pics or go to his webpage.

A shoal of Endlers would look nice, and they aren't as picky with water as neons are.

Good Luck!

 

[lordofthesea]

ok, plants will be good, shrimps ... seem to need them really. but, be VERY VERY VERY cautious of plants. many are treated with copper. which will kill shrimp like that.which is really very distressing. for you and them. anyway, be careful too with the fish you chose. some will hurt shrimp. fan shrimps will be trickier to eep but very rewarding. they need liguid food. i feed liquid fry food. neons should be fine. amano and cherry shrimp are good to start with, then maybe bee or snowball shrimp and finally maybe crystal and red nose shrimp. make sure he doesn't let ANY copper into the tank. not even to treat the fish if they get ill. the best places to get shrimp if he can't travel far are ebay, a site called rareaquatics.co.uk, and tri-mar aquatics in cornwall. they have a website with stocklists. I've used all of them with great success. it's definately worth it if the local LFS is no good. as for food, most shrimp eat similar food. i feed mine Hikari shrimp cuisine, JBL novoprawn a few pellets a day,and boiled lettuce or cucumber about once a week. thay need more regular water changes than fish and make sure to use a good de-chlorinator.

hope your bro has a good experience and that the info helps. tell him to try planetinverts.com

 

[myenigmaself]

I just bought a dozen red cherry shrimp off e-bay yesterday. They were quite reasonably priced and came well packaged and all alive. I have an 84g system, 55g main tank with 29g sump, and the sump is my shrimp tank. It's got 2 ghost shrimp and the dozen rcs I just purchased, along with a plethora of mts and various pond snails. So far the rcs are much more active and more attractive than the ghost shrimp. I would definitely recommend them. Good luck!

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Well, we're in the US, so kinda can't do the UK thing lol. Shipping might be iffy right now, we're having twenty degree weather, and he doesn't have paypal or a bank account (under 18) so aquabid is out for now. I know I can get him certain shrimp (ghost, cherry, vampire and a small number of others) at my lfs, but some of the prices are nuts (cherry are almost 4 dollars, vampire are 13!) so it looks like ghosts (for 12 cents) and maybe a few cherries if he's got some extra cash might be the way to go now, unless he can special order from his lfs for cheaper. I'll let him know about the moss balls, I think he might get a kick out of them.