My first shrimp tank !

[seabring]

Hi everyone !

I have set up my first shrimp tank ! This is a Fluval tank kit and was an unexpected gift to me from my girlfriend for my birthday. I did a bit of research and went to the local pet store and got some supplies. I got a 2kg bag of the fluval brand shrimp and plant substrate, some basic little "easy" grade plants, a water test kit, a foam filter attachment (I cut the original filter pick up tube and made the foam bottom fit). I also got a heater and a thermometer. The "No Fishing" sign was part of my gift so I included that in the tank as well as some of the white gravel that came with the gift as well. I set everything up and treated the water with the treatments included in the tank kit. Once it was all set up I tested the water and I seemed ok so I added 6 amano shrimp into the tank as my "sacrificial" shrimp , I figured if they died then I'd know something was wrong. 2 days later and they are seemingly doing good, actively roaming around and feeding on the food I put in. I'm also keeping track of the water tests with a "log" of the test results so I can see what's changing. 

I got a few different types of shrimp food to try out , an algae wafer style , a pellet style and a block style that stays in the tank a few days. The shrimp seem to like all three so that's a good start. If all goes well then I will order some more shrimp through an online retailer here in Canada. The prices in the stores here are noticeably higher than the online retailers and the store selection of shrimp is pretty lacking co,pared to the online sellers. 

So far it's been an interesting and fun set up, once I get a few more things figured out and get a handle on what to do I think I'll enjoy this new hobby a lot ! 

 

[Madmerv]

G'day Seabring.

Good to see you getting into the shrimp keeping game. Is this your first tank, fish or shrimp?

I only ask that as you have set up the tank and put stock in it straight away. Regardless of what the bottles that came with the tank says you have started a fish in cycle and need to keep a real close eye on on the nitrogen levels now. 

I see your NO2 levels have already started to go up and this is a toxic poison to shrimp. My advice is to get some Seachem Prime and start to do daily doses. Also if you tried all 3 types of food and it is day 2-3 then you might be over feeding the shrimp and this will not help with the nitrogen levels.

Keep us posted on how it goes and keep the photo's coming.

[seabring]

Thanks madmerv, it's my first tank of any kind, I don't have any experience with aquariums at all. Was just going off the booklet that came with the tank kit saying that the no2 readings would go up initially and should then start to go down gradually, I will definitely keep an eye on those readings and I will look at getting some of that seachem stuff to keep things alive ! 

Im pretty sure I overfed them , I removed some uneaten food from the tank , I dropped in a bit of everything to see what they went for the most initially. 

[jayc]

Another word of advice. 

 

That Zoo Med Nano banquet food block you have is made of predominantly Calcium sulfate and Magnesium sulfate. With only a little plankton, spirulina and algae meal. It's not really a nutritious meal for shrimp nor fish really. What it will do is alter the water parameters, however, with it's contents being calcium and magnesium.

So don't use it as a staple food. 

Edited October 29, 2016 by jayc

[seabring]

Thanks for the advice jayc , I will make sure not to use it regularly. They seemed to like the shrimp cuisine pellets the most and those are small pieces so should be able to avoid over feeding if I use that sparingly .

Edited October 29, 2016 by seabring

[seabring]

I think I'm getting on top of the water parameters in this tank. I made some changes to the scape , added a couple of pieces of drift wood ( Malaysian and spider wood) I added a few more plants and I treated the water with Ultrafin cycle and I also added an ammonia remover packet to my filter. 

My latest test readings are: ammonia 4, nitrite 1, Ph 6.6 , kh 5, Gh 10 , nitrate 0

I tested my tap water directly out of the tap for gh/kh and it's almost perfect for  shrimp as it is, I guess the Rocky Mountain water we use for drinking here in Calgary is a good mineraly water ? 

Im going to watch the test numbers over the next few days and see how they progress, so far my 6 amano shrimp are lively and roaming around still so fingers crossed for good results ! 

[Shrimp Home]

According to your tank's parameters, Ammonia is too high. This means that your nitrogen cycle still not activated. 

[seabring]

It's only a few days old tank so will take some time for it to get working properly. Ammonia is down from 5 yesterday to 4 today.