Starting A Shrimp Tank

[83BULLDOG]

Good day all, I am looking to get some information on starting a shrimp tank ,what do I need ? any special filters , landscape ect . Thanks for looking

[jvision]

A Cherry shrimp tank can be a 5-10gal with a sponge filter, and that's it! I get the best production from tanks that are chock full of hornwort and/or moss; but, then all you need to add is a light... maybe a heater. They do fine unheated, but up to 80F is fine.

[jeremoose]

Welcome to the dark side.

[AJanzen]

As jvision said cherry shrimp are probably the easiest to do. First step would be to decide what type of shrimp you want and then go from there. When you start looking at the high grade CRS and CBS they can be a fair bit more finicky.

[Tigs]

What type of shrimp are you planning on keeping? As Jason mentioned, the local cherry shrimp are cake to keep. In my case, I got some in trade put them in a 2.5G tank with a foam filter unheated (20 celcius room temp) and while they did not have a population boom they sure survived just fine. They are now in a heated setup and as such there are tons of young to be seen.

Some other types are a fair bit more picky as I'm finding out the hard way.

cheers,

Antonio

PS landscaping, I've heard of everything from bare for breeding tanks working to fully aquascaped etc. Comes down to how much do you want to put into the setup, maintenance time and such

BAh Humbug, AJanzen has faster typing fingers than I do today cheers

Edited February 27, 2013 by Tigs

[OldCanuk]

Welcome to the dark side.

Boy, do you have that right. Lol

[jumpsmasher]

Pretty much what every one else had said will work for cherries or oother neo's: 10gal, sponge filter, room temp, moss, dwiftwood etc;

If you use a power or canister filter (which you probably won't if you have a small tank) than just to be sure to put a sponge or something over the intake of the filter but ya for a something like 10gal, a simple air driven sponger filter will work fine.

Do make you any rocks or gravel you use is inert and doesn't affect the water chemistry - even if the package say it won't i found that most of the more "natural" ones will buffer the ph and hardness up.

Of course it goes without saying that you should properly cycle the tank before adding any shrimps.

And yes be fore warn, 1 shrimp tank turns into two, than 3 than 10 very quickly so make some plans for future "expansion" :p

[pandaboy]

I would suggest not to start with CRS or CBS, I find them pretty fragile.

Go with Sakura, PFR, Green or even yellow... they have nice color and yet they are very strong.

The strongest Shrimps I ever seen are Yamato... I once accidentally left them in a bowl of water, without filter or air pump and they survived for more than 24 hours.