Which shrimp?

[Louise02]

I have never kept shrimp.  Is there one that stands out as easier, or hardier, than others?  Our local water has chlorine and ammonia, so we use RO water with wonder shells on a bed of crushed coral.

[JettsPapa]

Neocaridinas thrive in a wider range of water parameters than caridinas, so unless you have very soft water with low pH they'd probably be your best option.

[lefty o]

for me when picking a hardy shrimp, i would go with the amano shrimp. 2 downsides to them, #1 they are fairly clear so they can really hide, and #2 they do not reproduce in fresh water. neo's are an excellent alternative.

[Lennie]

What sort of a tank are you planning to keep them in? With or without fish?

[Louise02]

On 7/12/2024 at 2:54 PM, Lennie said:

What sort of a tank are you planning to keep them in? With or without fish?

Lennie,  I have three nearly vacant aquariums right now.  Two are 10-gallon with crushed coral (planted).  One of those has two guppies that won't last much longer...maybe a few months (deformed).  The third is five-gallon with a shrimp-safe, nutrient-rich substrate.  This aquarium had a betta in it.  

We live a long way from any fish stores.  We start to get winter weather in about nine weeks.  Live pets need to be ordered and settled in before then.

I would like to make the tanks a little easier to keep.  I am thinking that snails and shrimp *might* help keep these aquariums a little tidier over the long winter months.  I am open to suggestions.  These tanks are for my daughter, though, so I don't want to get into anything really difficult to keep, or anything that dies easily.  Over the last 10 years we have had great success with bettas, guppies, mystery snails, and a dwarf gourami- all easy keepers.

[Lennie]

On 7/13/2024 at 7:14 PM, Louise02 said:

Lennie,  I have three nearly vacant aquariums right now.  Two are 10-gallon with crushed coral (planted).  One of those has two guppies that won't last much longer...maybe a few months (deformed).  The third is five-gallon with a shrimp-safe, nutrient-rich substrate.  This aquarium had a betta in it.  

We live a long way from any fish stores.  We start to get winter weather in about nine weeks.  Live pets need to be ordered and settled in before then.

I would like to make the tanks a little easier to keep.  I am thinking that snails and shrimp *might* help keep these aquariums a little tidier over the long winter months.  I am open to suggestions.  These tanks are for my daughter, though, so I don't want to get into anything really difficult to keep, or anything that dies easily.  Over the last 10 years we have had great success with bettas, guppies, mystery snails, and a dwarf gourami- all easy keepers.

I would go for neocaridinas then, the color that your daughter likes. And only one color line.

But they will need some culling at some point, you can easily move the unwanted colors in your line to other tanks of yours. They make great tank mates and lovely tiny cleanup crew as long as they are not a snack

In my experience yellows are the most stable in terms of color and needs the least culling as neocaridina, but I did hear some people having issues with yellows in the past. I had no issues myself, and they breed nicely. Oranges being the best second. Blacks are the worst in my experience, very hard to keep the black color going. Blues shoot blues, rilis, blackish color and more, so hard to keep stable. Bloody marys are not easy to keep that precious looking going on. And my greens werenot high quality but I still liked them back then.

Some yellows even have white sparkles like tiny stars on them, looks very cool IMO

Edited July 14 by Lennie