Shrimp Questions

[FishGuest5123]

I have never had shrimp in my tanks but saw some yesterday and fell in love with them. Questions;
1). Are they compatible with neon tetras, guppies, platies, and a bristle nose pleco?
2). Water Temp and PH?
3). What do you feed them?
4). Easiest or best ones to choose
5). Other need
6). How do you symphon/vac and not suck them up?
7.). Sand substrate ok?

Appreciate all information. My tank is a 20G long with plants, driftwood, and rocks. Parameters are 0,0, 20 (Nitrates are lower after cleaning). Clean once a week and gravel vac. Clean filters in tank water once/month. Do mid week 25% w/c. Tank is at 86% capacity with 165% filtration.

 

[Colin_T]

There are big shrimp (Macrobrachium sp) that eat small fish and small shrimp that get eaten by big fish. If you have neon tetras try to get small species of shrimp. Most shrimp will have a go at baby guppies and platies but if the shrimp are well fed they won't try too hard.

Shrimp are general scavengers and eat anything ranging from algae and plants to fish food, dead fish and anything else that dies in the aquarium. They aren't fussy and will take flake or pellet foods and pick algae off plants.

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There are cold water and tropical shrimp. The most common cold water shrimp is glass or ghost shrimp that can be found in any freshwater river around the world. They are tough and tolerant of cold or warm water and do well in tanks. Some pet shops sell them as feeder shrimp but they are fine for aquariums.

A lot of other shrimp are tropical and do well in temperatures between 18-30C.

Most species do best in neutral to slightly alkaline water with some calcium (general hardness), however there are species that do well in soft slightly acid water.

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Use a bucket to gravel clean the tank water into. Then check it for shrimp before tipping out. You can also put an aquarium net over the end of the gravel cleaner to stop the shrimp getting sucked up. Most shrimp will move away when you do cleaning but some are really inquisitive and will crawl on the gravel cleaner, your hand and all over the place.

Sand substrate is fine as is gravel, rock or anything.

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Don't use copper based medications and be wary of chemical medications.
Keep nitrates as low as possible.

Visit the pet shop and make a list of the shrimp they have then post on here and we can give you more info on each species.

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

I quite like Cherry shrimp
They are really common, easy to keep and quite tolerant.
Their pH can range between 6.5-8 with temp between 18C and 30C
For feeding they do eat various detritus, but it' not bad to give them a bit of cucumber or algae wafers ect.
And they do well in planted tanks.
I tend to have a net over my siphoning hose to stop me from sucking anything I shouldn't up.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Great information. Thank you both so much! I am leaning towards the cherry shrimp but will see what else they have. The cherry is what caught my eye yesterday.

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

Great information. Thank you both so much! I am leaning towards the cherry shrimp but will see what else they have. The cherry is what caught my eye yesterday.

I think she cherry shrimp are the most popular, at least here in the UK.

 

[Jessie J.]

1. All those fish will eat baby shrimps and the plecs are known to eat adults sometimes, if you mean dwarf shrimps, the colorful little ones. Bamboo shrimp can be kept with plecos.
2. It depends greatly on the kind of shrimp.
3. You can feed them (supplemental) shrimp pellets. But they do feed mainly on biofilm that occurs naturally in your aquarium, so don't add them to new tanks.
4. Cherry shrimp are some of the easiest and most widely available.
5. They need stable water conditions and you need to acclimate them via a drip system very very slowly to prevent serious stress. Also, your nitrates are a little high for most shrimp. They like to have something to hold onto with their legs to feel comfortable. You can keep 100 shrimp (dwarf shrimp) in 10 gallons of water, comfortably.
6. Collin_T has a good idea. I just bucket out water and for gravel-cleaning I use a tiny tube to clean, which BTW is a pain in the butt so I wouldn't recommend it.
7. Yes, sand will be fine, but they can also be housed on gravel. But NO bare-bottom tanks!

Here's a site where you can look at shrimp, their prices/conditions, etc. I love that place.
https://aquaticarts.com/collections/freshwater-shrimp

 

[NickAu]

I am leaning towards the cherry shrimp but will see what else they have

What are your water parameters? PH KH GH?

Red cherry shrimp are hardy and can be kept in most conditions, However Bee shrimp need special conditions, They cant be kept with Guppies for example because the water is too hard.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Amano shrimp get to about 2.15 inches in length and they will walk out of your tank and die if possible for them to escape, they also have transparent colors, but neocaridina shrimp are about one inch max, they are full of bright colors, and they don't try to walk out of your tank.

 

[NickAu]

neocaridina shrimp are about one inch max, they are full of bright colors, and they don't try to walk out of your tank.

Says who? LOL

One of my shrimp trying to get into the HOB were there is lots of yummy stuff to eat.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Says who? LOL

One of my shrimp trying to get into the HOB were there is lots of yummy stuff to eat.

Neocaridina won't try to walk out of the water, generally,and your shrimp is still in water, just that the water is surrounding the shrimp in a strange coat thing, and i can't tell what is going on, because it seems that water is running down onto the shrimp, not that the shrimp went out of water.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I checked to see if all of my fish are compatible with the cherry shrimp and according to several Google searches, they are. Even the BN pleco was fine because it is carnivores. I bought 6 because that’s all they had large enough for now. I did acclimate very slowly over an hour. We’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed. Oh, I also did a water change prior to get the nitrates lower. Thanks to all for your helpful information. I may be back with more questions later.

What are your water parameters? PH KH GH?

Red cherry shrimp are hardy and can be kept in most conditions, However Bee shrimp need special conditions, They cant be kept with Guppies for example because the water is too hard.

What are Bee shrimp? PH is 7.2. Don’t know the KH and GH. Sorry.

 

[NickAu]

Even the BN pleco was fine because it is carnivores.

Carnivore means meat eater.

I checked to see if all of my fish are compatible with the cherry shrimp and according to several Google searches,

Unless the fish is a strict vegetarian all fish will eat baby shrimp if they catch them,

Heres a comprehensive list of fish that are shrimp safe
1, otto
2.
3.
4.
5

Make sure your nitrates stay under 20 or your shrimp will have problems.

Don’t know the KH and GH. Sorry.

You should find out.

What are Bee shrimp?

These are Bee shrimp, They are for mid to expert level shrimp keepers, they are very fussy about water parameters

Temperature aside, bee shrimp also like their water soft and just slightly acidic, with a pH of 6.5 or so. Many breeders use reverse osmosis (RO) water to give the shrimp an ideal environment. However, pure RO water is deficient in minerals (particularly calcium) that are vital to shrimp exoskeletons. The addition of a mineral rock or a shrimp-specific GH booster will help replace the missing minerals without adding more than what is necessary. Another option is using a partial mix of RO and tap water. A GH of 4–6 with a carbonate hardness of approximately 2 is ideal.

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/the-latest-buzz-freshwater-bee-shrimp-full-article.htm

 

[Cichlid4life]

I checked to see if all of my fish are compatible with the cherry shrimp and according to several Google searches, they are. Even the BN pleco was fine because it is carnivores. I bought 6 because that’s all they had large enough for now. I did acclimate very slowly over an hour. We’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed. Oh, I also did a water change prior to get the nitrates lower. Thanks to all for your helpful information. I may be back with more questions later.

What are Bee shrimp? PH is 7.2. Don’t know the KH and GH. Sorry.

did you mean to say not carnivores, because Bn plecos are herbivores eating algae and decaying plant matter, but the bioload of a pleco is very big, what size tank is this again, because shrimp are generally kept in nano tanks, but BN plecos need more space and filtration than that.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Yes, it was suppose to say “isn’t” but I slept through that one. I’m actually still recovering from a head injury 2.5 weeks ago. I think I’m doing fine until I see things like that. Lmao! That and the dang headaches that won’t go away. I actually fell out of bed and hit the nightstand and then the bedroom door. Finished it off by landing on the hardwood floor. Knocked out cold! I think the paramedics were doubting my story and looking at my hubby! Nope, just me and a stupid dream. Oh, I got shot in the dream which is when I fell and hit the night stand. Who does that? Only me. Check out the lovely pics below.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Check it out for a good laugh! There were 2 huge bumps on the side of my head but hair covered them up, thank the Lord!