Setting up my first shrimp tank

[skfadmin]

Hello @joshwillis55,

Welcome to Shrimp Keepers Forum.

Please feel free to browse around and get to know others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

regards,
skfadmin

Edited July 11, 2015 by NoGi

[joshwillis55]

Hi everyone, I plan on setting up my first shrimp tank, it's a 2ft planted 60L, I want to have Blue cherries hopefully and looking to get cbs or crs at some stage later down the track.shrim

It has a double tube t5ho light on top will that be too much for the shrimp?

Should I be using driftwood?

Do I need to buy a special aquasoil?

The tank is currently full of endler fry at the moment, also are my adult endlers going to eat any shrimp? If so I can move them to another tank easily

And if anyone has any other tips or anything that's all the questions I can think of right now

 

[NoGi]

Where abouts are you? If you are in warmer climates you will need a chiller to keep the temps down for the CRS/CBS. Cherries don't seem to care as much. Same with the substrate, you can get shrimp specific substrate from most of our sponsors here which are good at buffering pH etc... but again, the cherries may not care as much although it could affect the intensity of their blue. My blue cherries (chocolate lineage) are still very bright in regular pebble substrate but some of the other lineage can be a little more sensitive.

Driftwood is great for shrimp, plenty of surface area for them to graze and play on. Larger pieces may bleed tenin into your tank so boil first if you don't want this. I have endlers in my tank too and they seem to be leaving them alone. There are other more knowledgable people here on the topic so let them chime in.

[joshwillis55]

I'm in the southern highlands which is in between sydney and canberra, it is pretty cold here so I don't think a chiller would be necessary and I have a fair bit of driftwood, so I'll put some of that in there

Does anyone know where I can buy some cherries, Is there a buy swap sell page on here can't seem to find it?

[NoGi]

As soon as you hit 10 posts (not really a lot) you will see the classifieds section.

[joshwillis55]

Oh okay :), and in photos I always see mosses in with peoples shrimp tanks is there any particular reason?

[fishmosy]

Mosses provide a massive surface area for the growth of biofilm - an important component in the diet of shrimp, especially newly hatched shrimp. You can find out more about biofilm here:

[joshwillis55]

Another question can I mix cherries with native shrimp, I looked at saw Darwin algae shrimp and thought they were pretty cool, will they go okay with cherries or will they kill the cherries or vice versa, and will one species out compete the other for food?

And just wondering do all the plants get a biofilm on them or just mostly mosses, I currently have needle leaf java fern and bolbitis in there with heaps of floating stems

Also are shrimp caves worth investing in?

Should I buy special shrimp specific foods and powders?

What kind of filter should I be using? I'm using a hang on the back filter at the moment, will the shrimp get sucked up?

[OzShrimp]

Welcome to the forum @joshwillis55

You will often see shrimp having a munch on the growth of plants, the other main reason you see alot of mosses in peoples shrimp tanks is because they are low light and maintainence as alot of plant fertilizers and additives can be no good for your shrimp.

You will be fine mixing the shrimp i have never heard of them killing the others. Something to bare in mind however is that cherry shrimp are prolific breeders and you can expect 1 female to have between 15-30 shrimplets each batch. They then therefor tend to out compete the shrimp for food and can sometimes effect shrimplet survival rate.

 

Are shrimp caves worth investing in? A better question would be are they a necessity in which case no they arent. Depending on what they are made of they could host beneficial bacteria but not that effective. Or they are good at attaching mosses or plants to. When your shrimp breed your females will generally hide from the males once they moult so another benefit. 

In terms of your hang on filter you will need to buy a inlet guard for the intake because your smaller shrimp will get sucked in to the intake. Not sure what your fish keeping experience is but filters in general arent that much different. The better the filtration the more stable the tank will be meaning less deaths.

 

If you have plans to keep CRS and CBS in future (these will interbreed ruining quality) you will want to consider investing a reverse osmosis unit as they are more finnicky in terms of water perimeters and not as hardy as cherry shrimp. There are lots of topics on here discussing R/O water and what not.

There is quiet a variety of shrimp foods available on the market or you can try your hand at making your own. There is a thread on the forum which a member has shared how to do so. In the long run yes you want to be using shrimp specific foods or blanching healthy foods they like (there is a thread on the forum in food for this to be looked at further). 

The reason you want food for shrimp as the things such as they protein content and calcium for example can impact on the shrimps health and affect things such as moulting (shedding their shell) which could detrimentally cause failed moults, shell harding and deformations to the shrimp itself along with death. 

Dont worry about asking questions there is a great community of members here to help you.

Also a giant wealth of knowledge throughout the forum as you may have found already 

 

Edited July 11, 2015 by OzShrimp

[joshwillis55]

Does anyone have any suggestions of an easy to breed native shrimp?

 

[OzShrimp]

@northboy perhaps you can suggest some ?

Bob goes on field trips collecting natives and what not and has a large knowledge base on natives

@joshwillis55 I have moved your thread mate to the tank setup section so that it doesnt get lost in the new welcome threads :)

This will also make it easier and more noticeable for other members to contribute to assist you

[joshwillis55]

Thanks for the help @OzShrimp, I have three good quality red cherries with full colours , my only problem is they are all female and none are saddled

[OzShrimp]

got any photos ? With your cherry shrimp even if they are different colours they will breed together which can really mess up your genetics

[jayc]

Another question can I mix cherries with native shrimp, I looked at saw Darwin algae shrimp and thought they were pretty cool, will they   kill the cherries or vice versa, and will one species out compete the other for food?

You can keep Darwin Algae Shrimp (DAS) with Cherries. It's not a problem. DAS are bigger than cherries, but they don't necessarily outcompete each other for food, as long as you provide enough.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for easy to breed natives, DAS is not one of them. It's very difficult breeding DAS. The newly hatched shrimplets, need a brackish (salt water) phase to survive. 

 

Chameleon shrimp would be a better choice for natives. They are just as nice to look at.

[joshwillis55]

I've got 18 blue velvet juvies coming soon, need to make a decision on a substrate, I have a bucket of fine black inert sand will that be alright will my shrimps?

[joshwillis55]

@OzShrimp here's a pic of my female cherry, the other two look the same

[jayc]

I've got 18 blue velvet juvies coming soon, need to make a decision on a substrate, I have a bucket of fine black inert sand will that be alright will my shrimps?

Blue velvets are still Neocaridina, so yes, any inert substrate will be fine.

[OzShrimp]

you got some good quality females :) definitely try and get a couple of good males of equal quality for them 

[Matuva]

Black inert is OK. I have inert sands in all my tanks, painless cycling.

Though, a black one is not the best choice to higlight the velvet IMO, you should mix some white or clear sand so you can display better your blues

Just my .02

[NoGi]

I have black 1mm pebble, nothing fancy and have no problems with cherries.