GailH
New Member
This is the tank I posted about in the equipment forum. It is well on it's way to being ready for shrimp, so you can see why I really am glad that it does not appear to be having any issues. I would not want to have to take this down and start over.
My method of cycling a tank to prepare it for shrimp will likely make a lot of folks cringe, but I have used this multiple times without any loss of shrimp once I do add them to the tank.
The big question here is what color of shrimp I want to put in there... so many choices. I actually was toying with the idea of mixing two colors from the same color line just to see what turns out. I assume that eventually, without culling, I'd be back to all wild colors, but the odd and unusual colors that might show up before that would, IMHO, likely be a lot of fun to see. I found this article on genetics and color lines, that while short, does have some decent info in it about what one might expect to see with crosses.
One thing that I have found is that the shrimp are a lot more hardy than I was originally led to believe when I first started keeping them. I almost didn't dive into the shrimp world because so many articles just go totally freak out about needing to have absolutely perfect water parameters, no swings in temp or swings in water parameters of ANY kind or all of them would just die screaming and kicking (though not sure what kind of a scream a shrimp has...). While I have found that these things certainly are important, I have also found that topping off my tanks, or doing water changes of 20-30% has never caused any problems. I do use water that has been run through a multi-stage filter to remove chemicals and I keep a mineral rock in the containers I put the water in. I also let the water sit for usually at least 6 hours, most of the time at least for a day. But at one point, I actually set up a little 2 gallon biosphere to grow out some of my floater plants, and just 2 days after setting it up, decided to toss a couple extra male shrimp in there for color. It had not cycled and I didn't even bother to test the water parameters, but those two boys are happy chappies and going strong two weeks in.
My method of cycling a tank to prepare it for shrimp will likely make a lot of folks cringe, but I have used this multiple times without any loss of shrimp once I do add them to the tank.
- I start out for the first two days with just the substrate (mix of sand and very small natural pebbles), shrimp mineral rocks, smaller pieces of cholla wood that has been pre-boiled and soaked, and the sponge filters. It is a 20 gallon long, but I use 3 sponge filters that are each rated for use alone in a tank up to 30 gallons. Yes, I always over filter my shrimp tanks
- On day three I add snails (mystery, rams horn and sometimes bladder), one large Indian almond leaf and a calcium feeder disk for the snails.
- On day 4/5/6/7 I start adding plants and whatever 'center piece' bit of cholla wood I am going to want for the tank. Which in this photo is that big upside down root section, just added today.
- Then I just let things roll, testing water parameters for PH, GH, KH and TDS. I expect that by next week, things will be stable enough to add the shrimp.
The big question here is what color of shrimp I want to put in there... so many choices. I actually was toying with the idea of mixing two colors from the same color line just to see what turns out. I assume that eventually, without culling, I'd be back to all wild colors, but the odd and unusual colors that might show up before that would, IMHO, likely be a lot of fun to see. I found this article on genetics and color lines, that while short, does have some decent info in it about what one might expect to see with crosses.
One thing that I have found is that the shrimp are a lot more hardy than I was originally led to believe when I first started keeping them. I almost didn't dive into the shrimp world because so many articles just go totally freak out about needing to have absolutely perfect water parameters, no swings in temp or swings in water parameters of ANY kind or all of them would just die screaming and kicking (though not sure what kind of a scream a shrimp has...). While I have found that these things certainly are important, I have also found that topping off my tanks, or doing water changes of 20-30% has never caused any problems. I do use water that has been run through a multi-stage filter to remove chemicals and I keep a mineral rock in the containers I put the water in. I also let the water sit for usually at least 6 hours, most of the time at least for a day. But at one point, I actually set up a little 2 gallon biosphere to grow out some of my floater plants, and just 2 days after setting it up, decided to toss a couple extra male shrimp in there for color. It had not cycled and I didn't even bother to test the water parameters, but those two boys are happy chappies and going strong two weeks in.
