Shrimp Question

[stubzy]

hi, so i am after a colony of shrimp for my iwagumi tank. I did want either red cherry shrimp or amano shrimp for algae/fish food waste management but i cannot find a store near me that sells either of these species, everywhere online that i have looked has them as 'out of stock'. My lfs only sells blue bee/red bee and other bee shrimp varieties, Are these shrimp as hardy as cherry's and also as good at tank cleanup as cherry/amano shrimp? i want to get some shrimp asap. I have ember tetras and neon tetras in my aquarium and its very difficult feeding them, i crumble up flake and also feed them daphnia but a lot of food waste still reaches the bottom of my tank and the fish will not eat off the bottom and because i have a HC carpet its very difficult to then remove very small pieces of food from the bottom. 

 

[fluttermoth]

Bee shrimp are slightly less hardy than cherries or amanos, but as long as your tank is fully cycled and stable (shrimps are more sensitive to ammonia and nitrite than most fish), you shouldn't have any problems

 

[Baccus]

Not only are bee shrimp not as hardy as the good old cherry shrimp but they also require cooler temps. If your water is around 22 degrees 24 tops then bee shrimp along with Crystal red/ black should be ok. If the tank is warmer then 24 you can expect to run into problems with bees and crystal shrimp, heat or too warm water is not good for them.
Depending on what country your in ( almost any where aside from Australia and New Zealand), you should be able to get a wide variety of shrimp including tiger shrimp from India and my personal new favourite called  Purple Pocket Rocket.
If you happen to be in Australia with a bit of hunting around you can find for sale Red Nosed Shrimp (great for algea), Caridina indistincta, Glass Shrimp, Australian Chameleon shrimp ( which can breed in fresh water), Blackmore River Shrimp, Typhus shrimp (large like amano) and my two personal favourites Riffle Shrimp and Australian Zebra shrimp.

 

[stanleo]

What are purple pocket rocket? And you can always look on craigslist see if anyone has a colony and if they would be willing to sell you a few.

 

[Baccus]

Purple Pocket Rocket shrimp are a newly discovered wild type shrimp from Taiwan they look truly amazing and I would love to be able to have them, but they are not allowed into Australia.