Setting Up A New Shrimp Tank

[pixelpefekt]

Hi. Wonder if you can help.

I'd like to set up a small shrimp tank and want to know what's the best way to go about it.

Q - At the moment I have a spare small tank and a fluval 1 filter. I'm planning on running the filter in my current fish tank for a while to get the filter media going etc. How long would I need to have it in there? A month maybe?

Q - I'd like to have a few types of shrimp in it. Perhaps Amano, Red Cherry, Bumble-bee and Ghost. Would they mix well?


Any advice you can spare for me setting up would be great.
Thanks for reading.

 

[three-fingers]

A month would be fine IME, and that mix sounds fine too .

 

[Shrimper]

Hi. Wonder if you can help.

I'd like to set up a small shrimp tank and want to know what's the best way to go about it.

Q - At the moment I have a spare small tank and a fluval 1 filter. I'm planning on running the filter in my current fish tank for a while to get the filter media going etc. How long would I need to have it in there? A month maybe?

Q - I'd like to have a few types of shrimp in it. Perhaps Amano, Red Cherry, Bumble-bee and Ghost. Would they mix well?


Any advice you can spare for me setting up would be great.
Thanks for reading.

Q1 - There is a much easier way to get the bacteria into the new filter. Just use some of the media from the old filter in the new filter and you should be ok to add the new stock at the same time (shrimp or fish it works for any tank). This is how I cycled my big tank. If you don't want to add stock at the same time you can do a fishless cycle using the existing media and it will probably be ready in under a week.

Q2 - Some shrimp species (like crystal red and tiger shrimp) will hybridise so shouldn't be kept together but the 4 species you have mentioned will be fine together.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

1: That will be fine, but the way Shrimper suggested is faster. There isn't much reason to worry about an ammonia spike with the shrimp as they are low waster producers.

2: Fine. I would add the cherries or ghosts first, then Amano, then the bumblebees.

 

[pixelpefekt]

Thanks for the advice.

With regards to removing some media from the established filter, can you explain a bit more as to how it's done. I 'think' it involves removing some of the inner, finer media and then stuffing it in with the new filter?

If so, how much? The Fluval 1 filter only has a single piece of media - the rougher type. Should I just add some finer stuff along side it?


Out of curiosity, why would you have the shrimp added in that order?

 

[three-fingers]

I 'think' it involves removing some of the inner, finer media and then stuffing it in with the new filter?
If so, how much? The Fluval 1 filter only has a single piece of media - the rougher type. Should I just add some finer stuff along side it?

Can be any media really, but the best stuff to use would be the biological media, eg the rougher sponge type like in your 1+ as opposed to the primarily mechanical white 'filter wool' I think your talking about...unless your other filter is a juwel tank and your referring to the two grades of blue sponge, in which case either one will still work, but the finer blue sponge is better.
You only want to take a little bit, just enough mature media to cover the few shrimp you put in at first, not enough to adversely affect the established filters performance.
To make this easier to explain, what established filter model do you have?

Out of curiosity, why would you have the shrimp added in that order?

Because cherry and ghost shrimp are both cheaper and hardier than bumblebee shrimp.
Personally since you live here, I would add amano shrimp first since they are still pretty hardy and are the cheapest I usually see in shops. For some reason the ghost shrimp I've seen have been either expensive and more sensitive, or actually Macrobrachium species .

Just means that the tank will be ready by time you add the more sensitive bumblebees, and if there was some unknown toxin in the tank and you added the bumblee's first, that's potentially alot of money gone depending on where you got them from.

 

[Esfa]

For some reason the ghost shrimp I've seen have been either expensive and more sensitive, or actually Macrobrachium species .

same here... and they have stupid names like "Apple red shrimp" and "Leaf green shrimp" when they're both clear..?!

 

[~T~]

Sounds fine although you might find the shrimplets get sucked into the filter. If you plan to breed them you might need an alternative kind. I put mesh over a fluval one to stop this but the mesh clogs too fast.

 

[pixelpefekt]

My current filter is a Fluval 2+

I didn't realise that the rough media was the biological one. I thought the filter wool did that duhh

The tank I'm planning on using is small, about 25l so I don't plan on breeding - but I guess that could just sort of happen!


Shrimp prices - Amano shrimp seem to be selling for about £2 each. Does this sound reasonable?

 

[TylerFerretLord]

That sounds fine, I usually see them for 4-5$ when my LFS gets them in.

If you look on aquabid you might be able to get them cheaper.

 

[fishyfeet]

That sounds fine, I usually see them for 4-5$ when my LFS gets them in.

If you look on aquabid you might be able to get them cheaper.

Ive ghosts breeding very well, and some cherries and chrystals yet to breed, are the young easy to tell apart if you mix the breeds. di

 

[Liam]

The different babies are easy to tell apart the cherry and crystals look just like the parents, cherry shrimp are a bit colourless when born but you will see the resemblance. Amanos and ghosts are a bit aggressive to keep with dwarf shrimp for me, I dont keep them together now. Its rare but I have seen it happen that fully grown amano females will kill the odd baby shrimp. Wood shrimp or any of the fan feeders are fine with dwarf shrimp.