# New to shrimp with a few questions



## leedub (7 Nov 2011)

Hi guys, ive been keeping fish for a long time, but have just got hold of a Fluval Ebi to start a Shrimp 
nano tank, something i have wanted to do for a long time. I have read a lot of bad things about the fluval substrate that comes with the tank, so i have changed this for double red line akadama. I couldnt find any of the specialist shrimp soils anywhere in the uk.  I worried the acadama wont be able to sustain the plants im looking at using. These are mainly java moss, christmas moss and java fern.  Do you think the acadama is a good route to go down, or should i use something else. Im looking at getting CRS as my first shrimp, again am i aiming too high for a first tank keeping CRS?

I plan to squeeze my filter medium from my cichlid tank into the water of the nano tank when i start the cycling, then plan to cycle it for 6 to 8 weeks before i place any shrimp in there.  Are there any other things i can buy to help the shrimp, additives etc that will give them a better chance of survival and a happier life?

Thanks for your time guys, its great to be here


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## spyder (7 Nov 2011)

The plants you have chosen are attached to wood and rock so the substrate is irrelavent. I've not kept shrimp with akadama but I'm sure they will be fine.

I've only kept and currently keep cherries and it maybe kinder to the shrimp and your back pocket if you try cherries first. CRS are a lot less forgiving than cherries and a lot more expensive to boot.

You can add the cattapa leaves, alder cones and there's other leaves you can add that they seem to like.

Have a read through the inverts forum, plenty to digest.


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## chrisjj (7 Nov 2011)

Is the akadama red?  Just a consideration, but the shrimp might stand out better with a different colour substrate....


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## basil (7 Nov 2011)

Backing up what Spyder has said already - if these are your first shrimp, steer away from the CRS. Go for some cherries or another of the Neocardina sp. These are much hardier than the CRS.

Another point to consider, despite their popularity Nano tanks are not the best for keeping shrimp. The small volume of water tends to result in unstable parameters, again something that CRS certainly will not like. 

IMO you should be looking at min 60l tank for CRS.


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## leedub (7 Nov 2011)

I didnt realise that. I was going off info from a shrimp forum were the breeders used smaller tanks.
The tank i bought is a 30 litre , and the Akadama is a dark brown colour when wet. Its called double red line
as its the highest grade available. Im pretty gutted now about the size of the tank, i spent the last few weeks reading several shrimp forums, and they all use these . Thanks for the info guys, i will have a look into a different tank, and thanks for the species recomendations.


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## basil (7 Nov 2011)

Don't panic - what i was trying to say was be careful with CRS, in particular in a nano. Cherries or other Neo spp will be fine. Will post in more detail later for you.


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## spyder (7 Nov 2011)

Forgot that 1 Basil. 

Smaller volumes of water can swing dramatically very quickly. Larger volumes are more stable. 60l+ is best to maitain a breeding colony.

With all this said, go ahead with your plan and grab around 10 or 15 or so cherry shrimp when your setup and ready. Many sellers go around 50p per shrimp so it's cheap and you learn. It's all experience at this point. I want CRS too but after mixed results with cherrys over the last 8 months or so, I'm waiting it out. Once I have these thriving then I will grab some low grade CRS. 

Currently got 3-4 females berried although never had them drop fleas. I've had a couple molt whilst carrying eggs and dropped the eggs with the exo while molting in the past.   This is my 2nd batch.


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## leedub (7 Nov 2011)

Thats a great point, once i have cycled my tank i will buy a small colony of Cherries and gain some experience over a year or so before i look into harder to keep species.

Thanks again for your great suggestions and help.


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## basil (7 Nov 2011)

spyder said:
			
		

> Forgot that 1 Basil.
> 
> Smaller volumes of water can swing dramatically very quickly. Larger volumes are more stable. 60l+ is best to maitain a breeding colony.
> 
> ...



Sounds like you may have a calcium or gh issue if problems with moults? I had similar and it helped once I started to add hikari calcium crab sticks to the feeding. Also do the ground up cuttle bone and eggshell trick.


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## spyder (7 Nov 2011)

We're kinda drifting off topic 

1st batch whole exo full of eggs. This batch had a molt with just 1 egg. I'm not sure if they usually molt whilst berried, I thought they would of waited. I have plenty of molting activity but have lost 2 males in the last week. I've halved my easy carbo dose to 1/2ml - 28l. If I continue to have casualties I'll cut it out completely for a while.

By calcium/GH issue do you mean low? I think the water is rather hard here but my brain explodes reading some of Clive and Darrels chemistry posts.

I feed with Hikari Shrimp cuisine and odd cucumber. Will check out the calcium crab sticks 

But yes Leedub. Cherrys are more forgiving but can still cause new keepers problems.


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## leedub (10 Nov 2011)

The Akadama i ordered came in today, i originally hadnt ordered enough. Im not too keen on the granule size though, its double red line but medium, they didnt have the small grain.  Im planning to run this for a while then set a second larger tank for CRS, but i will use the Ebi Gold if i can , the price of that stuff is crazy.

Thanks for all your comments guys, much appreciated


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## leedub (20 Nov 2011)

Guys these are the readings of my tank, 2nd week into its cycle.

Akadama substrate, planted with xmas moss, java moss and ferns, cuba and some box wood and lava rock.

I used some mulm from my cichlid filter sponges to feed the filters when i set it up.

I spinkle a tiny amount of food in each day to feed the bacteria. Is everything going ok?

I seem to be getting some brown algae build up on the Akadama, and some green on the glass and plants, but only a coating.

PH - 7
AMMONIA - O
NITRATE - O
NITRITE - O

Is this ok or has something gone wrong?

The algae film is also on my heater and my pump.

Thanks guys


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## Dincho (20 Nov 2011)

Something is not right, there is no way your ph will read 7 if your using akadama, something must be buffering the water. What hardscape do you have in the tank?

Also, using the "mulm from your chichlid tank" is a no go! CRS are super sensitive to bacterial changes, if your cycling a shrimp tank you need to do it from scratch, no recycled media. You don't need to add food either, if you have a shrimp bacterial product (ie Mosura BT-9 or Benibachi BeeMax) then you don't need to feed the tank, the bioload shrimp create is minimal if you remove food after a couple hours. If you continue setting up the shrimp tank as you are then your shrimp will start dropping off one by one with "no explanation", i've heard it too many times!

My advice, start again, you have done it wrong! Sorry to be harsh but too many people think they can set up a shrimp tank like they do a fish tank, its completely different!!!!

Strip the tank down, put the minerals under the substrate and cycle the tank from scratch. If you don't then you will have a VERY low survival rate with 'unexplained' deaths.


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## basil (20 Nov 2011)

Agree with Dincho - been there and only sure fire way is from scratch again. My 60l breeding tanks using ADA Aquasoil took 4 weeks to be shrimp ready.

I took nitrite readings every day from set up and monitored it methodically. All tanks spiked very quickly at about 2 weeks and were not quite settled and ready until week 3-4.

Patience grasshopper.......man who can catch fly with chopstick can acheive anything!


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## leedub (20 Nov 2011)

I'm using a couple of pieces of bogwood, and a couple of very small pieces of java rock that I have java moss
Growing on. I have java ferns and xmas moss in there too. 

I'm pretty gutted I have to strip it all down, I was intending to keep Cherrys though not crs

I'm also wondering if my test kits are out of date, I will try and get some more

What could be causing the algae growth guys?

And could someone post a link to what happens on the cycle, what I'm looking for ie ammonia spike 
Then nitrate spike etc

Thanks guys


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## leedub (20 Nov 2011)

I also didn't realise about the filter mulm, all the other shrimp forums say use it which is why I put it in


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## basil (21 Nov 2011)

Lava rocks are inert and won't change water parameters. Bogwood tends to make water slightly more acidic. Out of interest, what is the pH of your water as it comes out of the tap?


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## basil (21 Nov 2011)

Lava rocks are inert and won't change water parameters. Bogwood tends to make water slightly more acidic. Out of interest, what is the pH of your water as it comes out of the tap?


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## madlan (21 Nov 2011)

I took a picture of Marks but then got distracted so missed the rest


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