new shrimp tank idea's and recommendations?

[Sandra the fish rookie]

My husband purchased this little nano tank because I though it was so neat...It's from ZenAqua and I just love it. My plan is to have shrimp in it. I have the wood soaking and will aquascape it (of course).

Here are my questions:

1) already have a filter so good to go there

2) my house is kept at 68 degrees' .. do I need a heater? its a little over 3 Gallons

3) HELP me decide what kind of shrimp to get?? Orange Pumpkin, Cherry, Blue dream???? gah.. HELP! 

4) Plant recommendations? 

5) Substrate? I have some gravel left, but should I use sand??

I have hard water (GH 18) KH 5 (I have crushed coral in all the tanks) PH steady 7.2-7.3

See picture below. Its still empty for now.. till I get all the plants ordered. 

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Hi, I have a tank that doesn't have a heater in it that seems to be a good home for my shrimp, and I think I've also heard that they've bred under according to Cory.

Personally I would just go with personal preference on colours, however I think I've heard somewhere that red is the least inbred colour for shrimp so red cherries might be hardier? (That being said, I haven't had personal experience with other colour shrimp. Cherries would likely be my first pick if I were offered a new tank of any neocaridina since they look amazing, blue dreams also look really nice.)

I've had all my plants work, so again personal preference, Pogostemon stellatus "Octopus", is one of my favourite plants in general. I've heard about moss being a really good place for biofilm to grow, however I only added my moss in months after I got my shrimp (I got the shrimp in March of 2021, and moss in July.) So in my experience it's not completely needed for them.

Personally I haven't heard of shrimp needing a specific substrate. (Although I've seen marketing for aquasoils that lower pH and GH which would probably be good for caridina.) I keep mine in dirted tanks with "Miracle Gro Nature's Care 16qt. Organic and Natural Potting Mix with Water Conserve" on the bottom, then cap that with Fluval Stratum. (I top off with tapwater which I'm pretty sure keeps the gh very high for my cherries). However I would guess anything works (In some of their videos I've seen that Aquarium Coop keeps their shrimp that they sell on something that looks like gravel (I'm not sure what it is it might be Eco-Complete which is similar?)

 

Best of luck with your new shrimp!

Edited October 12, 2021 by FlyingFishKeeper

[lefty o]

shrimp are fine without heat.

[Colu]

You can keep cherry shrimp in an unheated tank at temperature between 60-86

[Fish Folk]

On 10/12/2021 at 4:14 PM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

My husband purchased this little nano tank because I though it was so neat...It's from ZenAqua and I just love it. My plan is to have shrimp in it. I have the wood soaking and will aquascape it (of course).

Here are my questions:

1) already have a filter so good to go there

2) my house is kept at 68 degrees' .. do I need a heater? its a little over 3 Gallons

3) HELP me decide what kind of shrimp to get?? Orange Pumpkin, Cherry, Blue dream???? gah.. HELP! 

4) Plant recommendations? 

5) Substrate? I have some gravel left, but should I use sand??

I have hard water (GH 18) KH 5 (I have crushed coral in all the tanks) PH steady 7.2-7.3

See picture below. Its still empty for now.. till I get all the plants ordered. 

My thoughts are those of a shrimp novice, so don’t put too much stock in what I say.

From what I’ve observed, shrimp do well  in very established tanks where micro-life has gotten a running start. Maybe there’s some old substrate you could reuse? Or move from a current tank / replace in order to set this new tank off to a nice start?

My neocaridinas love Java moss. I like the look of the “Christmas tree” moss in particular.

I have also found my shrimp are partial to some floating plants. With such a small tank, you’ll be limited… but give some Frogbit or Water Lettuce a look.

Not sure what you’ve got in store for filtration, but a small “bacto-surge” sponge filter could work beautifully. Shrimp love hanging out on sponges eating misc from the surfaces.

Dont worry about keeping the tank utterly algae-free. Just use a credit card to skim off the glass as desired.

Color is really a personal call. But generally speaking, I’d suggest deciding on one color you really like, and sticking with it. When different neocaridina shrimp are crossed, the results — though sometimes fun — are more often pretty uninspiring. Call me a square… but I love the bright red cherry shrimp. Never boring. And they stand out wonderfully against greenery.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Fish Folk

[Sandra the fish rookie]

On 10/12/2021 at 4:58 PM, Colu said:

cherry shrimp

@Colu is this just Cherry Shrimp ? Or Neocardinia in general? 

[Dwayne Brown]

I think your setup will be fine just give it a little bit of time to grow algae for the shrimp to feed on. All of the Neocardinia shrimp tend to be hardy so I would just pick whatever color you like. You could also keep multiple colors together and have a "rainbow" shrimp tank. 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:02 PM, Fish Folk said:

filtration, but a small “bacto-surge” sponge filter

@Fish Folk I have a variety of filters (LOL), I have the following:

Hygger super mini sponge filter (sticks to the wall of the tank); I have an aquatop spong filter (that has a bit of biomedia in it too); and a PENN PLAX (cIF4) cascade submersible aquarium filter (for 10G and less). 

I don't have much luck with moss when I put it on wood, so this time I am going to glue it to pebbles and rocks.. and I was going to use some potho's to crawl around the wood as well. 

On 10/12/2021 at 5:15 PM, Dwayne Brown said:

little bit of time to grow algae

I plan to set it up and let it "sit" for a bit 🙂 and ensure it gets happy and settled, as well as cycled so at least I have some time to pick my shrimp.. hehe

How many can I put in there??? 10?? would that be a good/safe number?

[Dwayne Brown]

On 10/12/2021 at 2:18 PM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

How many can I put in there??? 10?? would that be a good/safe number?

I started out with 5 in a 5 gallon, which is way less then I could have had but I am a cheapskate and i wanted to make some "soft water" hardy ones.  Within 3 months all of my original shrimp died 😞 but the offspring and the subsequent generations were soft water hardy. So now I have about 25+ shrimp in my 5 gallon that came from the original 5. They breed so easily that I would buy just enough to get a mixture of sexes and get a colony going.  

[Fish Folk]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:18 PM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

@Fish Folk I have a variety of filters (LOL), I have the following:

Hygger super mini sponge filter (sticks to the wall of the tank); I have an aquatop spong filter (that has a bit of biomedia in it too); and a PENN PLAX (cIF4) cascade submersible aquarium filter (for 10G and less). 

I don't have much luck with moss when I put it on wood, so this time I am going to glue it to pebbles and rocks.. and I was going to use some potho's to crawl around the wood as well. 

I plan to set it up and let it "sit" for a bit 🙂 and ensure it gets happy and settled, as well as cycled so at least I have some time to pick my shrimp.. hehe

How many can I put in there??? 10?? would that be a good/safe number?

You might want to hear from @Streetwise about the potential benefits of going with some more natural aesthetics. I wonder if some Catappa leaf litter would be good for neocaridinas?

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@Fish Folk I was thinking about that as well... some kind of organic material.. I think Alder cones or Indian Almond leaves would be cool. BUT.. will it decrease my PH? I am going to add crushed coral because my 5G struggled with PH drops. But is SUPER stable now that I have crushed coral in it! 

 

[Dwayne Brown]

@Sandra the fish rookie It will lower the PH, you could always try plants and wood which shrimp really like. 

[Fish Folk]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:33 PM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

@Fish Folk I was thinking about that as well... some kind of organic material.. I think Alder cones or Indian Almond leaves would be cool. BUT.. will it decrease my PH? I am going to add crushed coral because my 5G struggled with PH drops. But is SUPER stable now that I have crushed coral in it! 

 

Yes, that’s sometimes a drawback with botanicals if your water is soft — pH drops can be more precipitous. However, as you say, with crushed coral, you’re going to do well I think.

We’re rather lucky to have wild alder cones available where we live.

 

[Dwayne Brown]

@Sandra the fish rookie Another option could be to make your water softer with peat moss add all of the natural items you want, and breed the shrimp to be soft water hardy. It would take a few months but it is a viable option. I have done it before so if you have any questions about it I would love to answer them for you 🙂 

[Streetwise]

Cheers @Fish Folk!

@Sandra the fish rookie, I currently have shrimp in three community tanks, and a pair of 2.5 shrimp-only tanks. I only heat my Betta tank, and Neocaridina can survive under ice, so I don’t worry about them getting cold. My 2.5s had filters while getting established, but they are no-tech now.

I am not the right person to compare substrates, since I almost exclusively run organic topsoil tanks. I let the mess and window algae persist, and I don’t have to worry about daily feeding.

As far as colors, I do like the wild-type camouflage, but I tend to stick to single colors in smaller tanks. Red and yellow seem especially hardy, more than blue, but I can’t draw any conclusions from my limited sample size.

I have somewhat hard water, coming through limestone, so I haven’t thought about adding crushed coral. Soft water folks seem to benefit more from that addition.

[binkysmom]

I find my shrimp do best when i buy from a local breeder. Also if the tank has been running for a couple of months.

 

[Ken]

That little tank would look so cool with some kind of plant growing up out of the water. The trouble would be that shrimp like to climb up them then fall off. You would have to have the plant positioned so that they fell back in the water.

[Ken Burke]

On 10/12/2021 at 3:14 PM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

My husband purchased this little nano tank because I though it was so neat...It's from ZenAqua and I just love it. My plan is to have shrimp in it. I have the wood soaking and will aquascape it (of course).

Here are my questions:

1) already have a filter so good to go there

2) my house is kept at 68 degrees' .. do I need a heater? its a little over 3 Gallons

3) HELP me decide what kind of shrimp to get?? Orange Pumpkin, Cherry, Blue dream???? gah.. HELP! 

4) Plant recommendations? 

5) Substrate? I have some gravel left, but should I use sand??

I have hard water (GH 18) KH 5 (I have crushed coral in all the tanks) PH steady 7.2-7.3

See picture below. Its still empty for now.. till I get all the plants ordered. 

Have u though about what you are going to do with excess Shrimp once they breed?  
 

I love the tank, especially on the live edge round!  I’d keep with the simple theme in your picture and go with windolov Java fern.  Cherry shrimp really pop against it.

[KentFishFanUK]

I reckon a nice big piece of wood sticking a couple inches above the water line, some duck weed, a bunch of different colour/shade plants including some epiphytes attached to the wood, dark substrate and some nice green cherry shrimp that would show up great on the wood and substrate and red plants - nice and subtle but beautiful. 

[Guppysnail]

I mixed a few of every color because like @Streetwise I like the wild color. The fun part is what pops up down the road. I had no orange left for some months then a bright orange set showed up. I recently had some super dark red with red legs show up. My originals were low grade red. I get charcoal ones now and again.  It makes it more interesting to me. 
here is a color chart (I don’t know how accurate it is). I’m guessing sticking to original lines might make them hardier but maybe not. The inbreeding/crossbreed has been done so intensely any more I’m not certain it matters. 

Edited October 13, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Sandra the fish rookie]

WOW... Lot's of shrimpers here!! Love it!

My 20 gallon has 2 sad little shrimp. 1 was sold as a "bamboo" and guess what? It's an amano and the other is a red cherry shrimp. I am planning to add to them because .. everyone needs at least 1 friend.. LOL. 

If they start to breed like crazy.. I have 2 community tanks they can go into (20 and 40 gallon)..a friend gave me a 20G tank YAY but I have not set it up.. YET.. 

I do really like the cherry shrimp. The single one that I have will do laps around the tank.. really cute.. swimming with the guppies.. haha.

I like natural tanks. heavily planted, rocks wood etc.. I saw a 20 assorted neocaridina shrimp pack that I thought would be really cool for the 20 gallon community that is full of mutt guppies, Cory cats, ottos snails (and the 1 lonely cherry and amano snail). 

For the new little tank.. I am caught between cherry , pumpkin/orange snails.. both really cute 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

Here is what is in the assorted Neocaridina shrimp package:

[Guppysnail]

On 10/13/2021 at 7:52 AM, Sandra the fish rookie said:

For the new little tank.. I am caught between cherry , pumpkin/orange snails.. both really cute 

Between these two and this is only my experience the red get larger than my orange. 🤷‍♀️I have no idea why. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I like to stick to one color. I've done yellows and blues, but always seem to go back to bloody marys. I currently have a dirted 20 long that houses bloody marys, and a few kinds of snails (mystery, pink ramshorn and maylasian trumpet). My advice is to definitely let the tank season for several months, and if you want snails, add them first to help get some bacteria and poop going - you want a "dirty" tank. Also, in my experience, shrimp do best with the least water changed as possible; I aim for no water changes, but if you must change water, do as little as possible. 

Here's my tank. It's got rocks and driftwood, valisineria, dwarf aquarium lily, susswassertang, and duckweed. Not running a filter and I'm waiting to see how cold that room will get this winter before I add a heater. 

 

[JettsPapa]

I have a few points on selecting colors.

• I've been keeping neos for about two years, and have noticed that the blue ones seem to need much less culling to keep good color than red ones.
• Consider the color of shrimp you want before choosing your substrate.  Red and yellow shrimp look good on dark substrate, but blues look best on lighter.  I like sand substrate (natural or black), by the way.