Newbie, I'm thinking about getting some shrimp.. suggestions?

[Leinhit]

I have a 55 gallon fresh water with 3 Bantas (I had 5 but 1 died and 1 literally disappeared) and 3 other smaller fish. (name escapes me this moment).

I'm thinking of adding some shrimp.. does anyone have suggestions (name) for something easy and fun to watch? I see Amazon has some for sale. Groups of 5 or 10. How many should I have?

I don't (currently) have much algae and have a tile bottom.. I do water exchange every two weeks. what do they eat? Just regular fish food or what is left over? Anything else I need for them such as moss balls, etc?

What advice could you give?

Thanks...

 

[seangee]

Do you have photos of your fish that would help ID them. A lot of fish see shrimp as food.
What type of shrimp were you looking at?
What are your water parameters? The numbers that matter are pH and hardness. For hardness we need numbers for GH and KH as well as the unt these are meaured in - this info should be available on your water providers website if you are unable to test it yourself.
What type of filter do you have? Most shrimp need a fairly slow flow of water and you may need to make modifications to the filter to prevent the shrimp being sucked in.

Shrimp do much better in planted tanks. You could get away with plants in pots and floating plants but would be much better if you did have a sand or gravel substrate.

Finally shrimp are incredibly sensitive to copper and pesticides. Any plants you buy should never have been treated with petsicides. If you have ever used algaecides in your tank it would be a risk.

 

[Leinhit]

Do you have photos of your fish that would help ID them. A lot of fish see shrimp as food.
What type of shrimp were you looking at?
What are your water parameters? The numbers that matter are pH and hardness. For hardness we need numbers for GH and KH as well as the unt these are meaured in - this info should be available on your water providers website if you are unable to test it yourself.
What type of filter do you have? Most shrimp need a fairly slow flow of water and you may need to make modifications to the filter to prevent the shrimp being sucked in.

Shrimp do much better in planted tanks. You could get away with plants in pots and floating plants but would be much better if you did have a sand or gravel substrate.

Finally shrimp are incredibly sensitive to copper and pesticides. Any plants you buy should never have been treated with petsicides. If you have ever used algaecides in your tank it would be a risk.

I was thinking of the Red Cherry Shrimp(Neocaridina davidi) …

I can add the picture of my other fish soon, or my memory will kick in.. pretty small right now... and they seem timid as they hid behind structure most of the time.

My filter does seem to give a pretty good current but they couldn't get sucked in, maybe stuck against the intake mesh but not in. I have a tile bottom with just a few plastic plants and a couple of small structures. I found it is much simpler to keep it clean once I took the gravel out, maybe it was the under gravel filter that was the real problem though.

I have well water, fairly hard and treated with a water softener .

I don't have any live plants but I am interested in adding some if I could find something easy, my last, hogwort, did not do well after 10 days and came apart causing a huge mess that clogged everything.

And I have used algaecides in my tank in the past. I could wait until I do a few water exchanges if that would help.

 

[Leinhit]

Here are photos of the little guys if you know their name. I have three of them and 4 bantas,. How many shrimp can I get and I probably would have to feed them something else?

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[seangee]

If those are tiger barbs they will eat your shrimp. They are also shoaling fish and should be kept in groups of at least 6 (preferably more).

I don't recognise the other fish and google doesn't know what a banta is - do you know the scientific name?

 

[IHaveADogToo]

Those look like clown loaches to me, not tiger barbs. Same story, they need to be in groups of at least 6. They can get somewhat large though. I've heard of them eating snails before. Not sure about shrimp.

Is the other fish a denison barb?

EDIT: Later pics confirm these are *NOT* clown loaches, they are tiger barbs indeed.

 

[Colin_T]

the clear ones with black tips to the tail look like black scissortail rasboras.
the striped ones look like tiger barbs.

They are both schooling fish that need to be kept in groups of 6 or more, preferably 10 or more.

Scissortails are pretty peaceful but get to about 4-5 inches long. Tiger barbs are fin nippers and grow to about 2 inches long.

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If you want to keep shrimp put a lot more plants in the tank. Have a row along the entire back of the tank

 

[seangee]

Yes it does look like scissortail rasbora. If so they feed on invertabrates and insects in the wild so cherry shrimp are definitely on the menu. If the striped fish are indeed clown loach they will actively hunt down the shrimp even in a heavily planted tank.

FWIW cherry shrimp are pretty small. A rule of thumb with fish is if it can fit in the mouth it is food. A 55G tank is a good size for a community tank but if you do add shrimp you will be quite limited in what fish you add.

 

[Leinhit]

All good info and I appreciate it from you all. I can prob find my receipt and I apologise if what I call a banta is a Barb! Here is a better pic of both.

Good info on how many shrimp I can have and sounds like I need to get the name of the long narrow fish to help.

Also if we confirm these are tiger Barb's then that doesn't sound like a long prosperous life for shrimp?

I was hoping for some shrimp of different color. Shrimp of different color don't have any problem hanging out in a group with each other do they?

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[Leinhit]

I would like live plants and will try to fill the back as you suggest. My only try with live plants failed with a hogwort plant. It died within 10 days and cause a huge mess when it feel apart.

Any suggestion on easy to have live plants? I was told the long narrow fish would get to about 5"

I will add more fish so they can school as suggested. Dumb question, they have to be the same kind of schooling fish right? They won't hang together if not?

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If you want to keep shrimp put a lot more plants in the tank. Have a row along the entire back of the tank

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[Leinhit]

What type of filter do you have? Most shrimp need a fairly slow flow of water and you may need to make modifications to the filter to prevent the shrimp being sucked in.

I have this filter,. Just a regular hang over the tank lip type.

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[Leinhit]

They are both schooling fish that need to be kept in groups of 6 or more, preferably 10 or more.



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Aren't 10 of each, Barb's and the others that get 5" long, too many for my 55 gallon tank?

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[Colin_T]

The striped fish are definitely tiger barbs (Puntius tetrazona), and the clear one looks like an emaciated scissortail rasbora.

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Avoid hornwort it is crap and not worth trying to keep in an aquarium.

Good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma & H. ruba, Ludwigia natans, narrow Vallis, common Amazon Sword plant, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides).
Water Sprite is a floating plant that can also be planted in gravel. All the other plants need to be planted in gravel.

You can grow plants in pots. Use a 1 litre plastic icecream container or something similar. Put an inch of gravel in the bottom. Then put a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser on the gravel. Put 1/4inch (6mm) of red clay over the fertiliser. Dry the clay out and crumble it into a powder before spreading it over the fertiliser. Then put another inch or two of gravel on top of that.
The plants get planted into the gravel and as the roots grow down they hit the clay and fertiliser and take off.

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If you only want the tiger barbs and scissortail rasboras then you could have 10 of each in the tank when the filter is established. But if you want other fish then have 6-8 of the barbs and rasboras.

 

[seangee]

Shrimp of different color don't have any problem hanging out in a group with each other do they?

They will cross breed and in a fairly short time you will have a bunch of drab brown shrimp (which is their natural colour). I have just started a shrimp tank and decided to keep one colour type only - red rili in my case.

 

[Leinhit]

Colin, thanks for detailed answer on the plants and identifying the fish. I will get some of those plants coming.

Seangee,. Thanks for advising one color of shrimp. That makes sense.


So is the consensus that the tiger Barb's will eat the shrimp so it is a waste of time and money? I really wanted shrimp.

I will get more of both types fish I have..I wouldn't mind a third or fourth species.. does anyone have suggestions what would be good tank mates for what I have and not eat future shrimp?



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