Shrimp Proof

[JoshuaA]

I'm currently rejuggling my tanks around and trying to break one down and finally introduce the remaining shrimp to the main tank as the others have gone into my nano.

The problem I have is I have a 1400Lh filter on the main tank with a large intake strainer, possibly wide enough to take adult cherry shrimp through if they got caught on the suction... what I'm thinking is using a cube of sponge and fitting it to the strainer in a fashion to protect them. However I also have a Koralia Nano powerhead and I know for a fact most of the shrimp will fit through the grills on that. Turning it off is not an option as it helps keep circulation up, so my question is how do you protect them from getting killed by the powerhead?

There are roughly 25 Red Cherry Shrimp to move and most of them are around 2 months old or so now so not fully grown.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Baccus]

Cheese cloth or some other course type of material wrapped around the inlet shouldn't reduce the suction too much but should prevent any shrimp disappearing up the filter. In my little 20L tank I have let the moss wrap itself around the inlet and that seems to stop any of the babies going for a whizz in the impellor. The numbers are constantly increasing in the tank so I can only guess I'm not losing hundreds to the filter.

 

[PDSimon]

Tights!

 

[JoshuaA]

Tights!

For the powerhead too?

 

[Caprichoso]

I've tried several things and found it to be a real struggle to balance between keeping good flow whilst preventing the shrimplets from going into the filter. What I'm finally using now that is working amazingly well is the netting from a small fish net. The holes are small enough so that NO shrimp are getting sucked in, yet the filter intake doesn't get clogged up with debris as quickly. I had a fry sponge on it before and it didn't work, the newly hatched babies still went in. Fortunately, they always survived the impeller and I could get them out of the filter but I'm glad I don't have to worry about them anymore.

 

[JoshuaA]

The chances are the shrimp could populate my filter as it's a filter rated for like a 600L tank in a 125L. The media capacity is massive and the flow isn't violent, I wouldn't be surprised if they disappeared and tripled their colony in there.

I am currently now with a shrimp tank full of java moss + assassin snail and only a couple of the remaining pygmy corydoras. Estimates put it at around 30~ shrimp which isn't that much but the tank doesn't go through regularly maintenance and it is dosed with TPN+, my aim is to get the Java moss to be growing at such a rate and volume that it out paces any nutrients pooped by the shrimp that and I am running a Fluval U1 filter.

I'm looking at breaking the tank down though and transferring all the shrimp into my main tank, though the powerhead/filter + CO2 is what concerns they won't do as well.

 

[PDSimon]

Not sure about tights on a powerhead, would have to be pretty tight..wouldn't want to get it caught!

Trying to think of someone with a shrimp tank on the planted forum

 

[Caprichoso]

The chances are the shrimp could populate my filter as it's a filter rated for like a 600L tank in a 125L. The media capacity is massive and the flow isn't violent, I wouldn't be surprised if they disappeared and tripled their colony in there.

I am currently now with a shrimp tank full of java moss + assassin snail and only a couple of the remaining pygmy corydoras. Estimates put it at around 30~ shrimp which isn't that much but the tank doesn't go through regularly maintenance and it is dosed with TPN+, my aim is to get the Java moss to be growing at such a rate and volume that it out paces any nutrients pooped by the shrimp that and I am running a Fluval U1 filter.

I'm looking at breaking the tank down though and transferring all the shrimp into my main tank, though the powerhead/filter + CO2 is what concerns they won't do as well.

Don't worry about putting a lot of shrimp in the tank as the same "inch per fish" rules don't apply. I have approx. 80 cherry shrimp in a 5g breeding tank. But I also do weekly water change of 50%. CO2 is hard on shrimp if it's not consistent or if there is too much CO2.

 

[JoshuaA]

Yeh that's my next worry about the CO2, the PH swings will probably kill the shrimp as I've read a lot about them being susceptible to it though I have never tried it with them. The Co2 is on a solenoid valve so it reliably comes on and off at set times but due to the 16 hours it's not on I imagine it will be swinging a bit too much for them.

 

[StandbySetting]

Carbonic PH swings wont kill shrimp, (a lack of oxygen will however), there are countless numbers of people using CO2 with shrimp, a PH swing due to a change in Mineral ions will however affect shrimp