Stef Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 Hi All. I have a good problem to have in that after purchasing a few amano shrimp for my 10 gal mystery snail tank, I got a little cherry shrimplet hitchhiker! After a two weeks I finally see him out and about regularly scavenging around, so naturally I would like to get a little colony going and get him some friends. However, not sure if the tank can support so many different invertebrates. Here are the stats: -10 gallon Dennerle tank running 3+ years - Adjustable heater, currently 76F - lightly planted with mostly anubias and some stray vals - 7.2 pH, 4 dkh, 300 ppm gh - Occupants: 3 mystery snails, 1 nerite, 5 amano shrimp, 1 cherry shrimp i have 17 other baby mystery snails growing out in another tank that I’d like to add a few ( not all) to this 10 gal but may have to have alternate location for them) - filtration: small sponge filter and Dennerle Eckfilter I have another 6 gallon cube with blue dreams and a betta where I could add the red shrimplet to, but then could get weird color morphs, right? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 (edited) In my experience, shrimp can have massive numbers and still have a very small bioload. I’ve easily had 300+ shrimp in a 20 gallon long. I hit up the LFS and said “I think I can bring you 100 cherry shrimp” and they told me to bring them. I didn’t realize how many shrimp I actually had, until I bagged up the 100 and it looked like I didn’t even put a dent in the population. My concern with your tank is more on the Mystery Snail side. Personally, I wouldn’t add more than the 3 you already have. For the shrimp, add a few more and let the colony establish. That’s just what I’d do if it was my tank. Edited September 28, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 I agree with @AllFishNoBrakes. I took somewhere around 100 shrimp from a heavily planted 5.5 gallon tank earlier this year, and that was nowhere near all of them. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef Posted September 28, 2023 Author Share Posted September 28, 2023 On 9/28/2023 at 12:11 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said: My concern with your tank is more on the Mystery Snail side. Personally, I wouldn’t add more than the 1 you already have. I have 3 mystery snails in this tank (only 1 photo bombed 😄) plus a few ramshorns I forgot to mention. I am worried about lack of minerals and calcium in the water if the shrimp population takes off. On 9/28/2023 at 12:11 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said: For the shrimp, add a few more and let the colony establish. That’s just what I’d do if it was my tank. Thanks. I hate to leave the little guy all by himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 On 9/28/2023 at 4:08 PM, Stef said: I have 3 mystery snails in this tank I actually edited my original message. I thought I was quick enough. Apologies! On 9/28/2023 at 4:08 PM, Stef said: Thanks. I hate to leave the little guy all by himself. For sure. The 300+ that I was talking about started with 15. I’m working on a Blue Diamond colony that started from 10 with a lone female. Looking forward to when I have a giant colony and one single lady will be responsible for all of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted September 29, 2023 Share Posted September 29, 2023 If you're trying to have shrimp.... I know it goes against a ton of conventional wisdom.... I would avoid snails with shrimp. It's so much easier to handle one "type" of invert per tank. If you have nerites, that's one thing, but I would recommend just having a pleco or two with shrimp and let them do their thing. If you want/have them in a community tank that's all gravy too. To your question, if you want to try to get more variation and just let the shrimp do their own thing, then I wouldn't be worried at all about adding the red to the blue colony. You could end up with something cool, like a blue shadowed red rili shrimp or something. That being said, if your blue colony is meant for breeding and sale, then I definitely would not mix it. I would add culls with the red guy and let them do their thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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