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A few shrimp questions . . .

Wookii

Wookii

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UKAPS Team
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13 Nov 2019
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Location
Nottingham
I'm looking to add some shrimp to our planted 60cm tank which is currently in the set-up stage, and I have a few questions if anyone can help:

1. I'd like a bit of variety, so was thinking of having maybe 4 x small Amano, 6 x Cherry, and 2 x Crystal red. Does that seem an acceptable quantity for a heavily planted 60cm tank? Or should it be more/less?

2. Fish will be added in due course (Platies, Guppies and Cory's and maybe 4 x Ottos - my sons choices), starting with the guppies which will be added at the same time as the shrimp - I've read all these species are compatible with shrimp - would everyone concur?

3. Do plants need to be growing strongly prior to adding the shrimp, or can they be added sooner after planting?

4. I've had Amano shrimp in the past (16 years ago when I had planted tanks), and used to get the occasional suicidal jumper even jumping out of the 260L tanks I had back then. Do all shrimp do this, or is it mainly the Amanos?

5. Can anyone recommend me online sellers that supply good quality shrimp. ProShrimp are about half an hour away from me, so that could be an option, though the prices seem high. Any other suggestions? Are eBay purchases worth considering, or is that considered risky?

Thanks in advance, Gareth
 
1. I would probably be looking to get an equal number of cherry and crystals. 2 crystals seems like little margin for error... what if one doesn't survive acclimation or what if you don't get one of each gender. The won't interbreed which is good as they are different species. Amanos being larger, 4 sounds about right to me in a 60cm.

2. I believe platies can eat shrimplet but many species do and your tank is heavily planted so I think you will probably be ok. Don't know if anyone has more direct experience...

3. They can be added soon after planting (and will help with any decaying plant matter). You may wish to supplement their food whilst biofilms etc grow and you definately want to be sure of a stable cycled system as they are very sensitive. Technically yes, practically i would play it safe.

4. All species will climb out the tank. I've seen a video of an Amano climbing directly up the glass though suspect they can more readily climb silicone in the corners. Cherries and crystals will do the same too. Tight fitting lid and minimising any plants too near the surface/edges can help but likely won't prevent. Good water quality and no predators also helps.

5. Not used ProShrimp personally but always heard good things from them. If they are close i would use them. I always find shrimp expensive l... thats just me...
 
Gareth----I agree with Matt on questions 3,4,5.
Question 1 --may be best answered if you research water parameters for Crystal and Cherry shrimp----they're very different, though that doesn't mean it can't be done I suppose.
Question 2-- " Me Platie, you shrimplet, me eat you ! "
Good luck anyway.
 
Yea guppies and platies will eat shrimplets so with the heavily planted tank yr shrimps will end up hiding.CRS are rather picky when it comes to water quality but u can try.Yamatos will grow larger and bully other shrimp esp at feeding time.Would recommend yamatoes.

Also buy from reputable sellers cheap purchases are never good they can end up in really bad shape due to bad packing.Healthy shrimp are worth more than sulking shrimp as they have less chance of dying.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys - so it looks like anything other than Amanos are a no go with Platy’s then!

The fish are my sons choice, but on speaking to him this morning, I’ve managed to convince him that small tetras might be a better way to go - he loves the look of Cardinals and Embers, so it might be a none issue now.

On the water requirements for Cherry and CRS, I must admit I didn’t consider that they might have different requirements - my mistake!

So from reading a couple of sites, water parameters seem to vary from site to site, particularly for the CRS, but I have gleaned the following approximations:

Cherry’s seem to have a fairly wide tolerance:

Ph: 6.2 - 7.5
Temp: 15-27 C
TDS: 100-250ppm

CRS appear to have narrower requirements:

Ph: 6.0 - 7.0
Temp: 21-24 C
TDS: 100-200ppm

There seems to be a bit of my overlap, but it looks like the temps for the CRS are a little low to be compatible if the tank is to be in the 25-26 C range.

As for TDS, our tap water is around 450ppm to start with, before you add ferts and biological content -
So I don’t really know what to think on that?
 
Hi--if you're going to use your own treated tap water with it's tds for changes, I'd say you've pretty much got to stick with Neocaridina shrimp.
Choose your favourite colour, and build a colony of that type only.
Mixing colours normally leads to dilution of the genes back to brown type shrimp further down the line ---not always I've read, but usually so.
 
Wookii said:
Thanks for the feedback guys - so it looks like anything other than Amanos are a no go with Platy’s then!
Click to expand...

I keep a growing population of cherry's and platys in my tank, plenty of hiding places but the two species feed along side one another, or so I have found.
 
Well there ya go folks---there's always variance in this hobby, and all sorts of things occur to boil your brain .----:crazy:
 
Wookii said:
Thanks for the feedback guys - so it looks like anything other than Amanos are a no go with Platy’s then!

The fish are my sons choice, but on speaking to him this morning, I’ve managed to convince him that small tetras might be a better way to go - he loves the look of Cardinals and Embers, so it might be a none issue now.

On the water requirements for Cherry and CRS, I must admit I didn’t consider that they might have different requirements - my mistake!

So from reading a couple of sites, water parameters seem to vary from site to site, particularly for the CRS, but I have gleaned the following approximations:

Cherry’s seem to have a fairly wide tolerance:

Ph: 6.2 - 7.5
Temp: 15-27 C
TDS: 100-250ppm

CRS appear to have narrower requirements:

Ph: 6.0 - 7.0
Temp: 21-24 C
TDS: 100-200ppm

There seems to be a bit of my overlap, but it looks like the temps for the CRS are a little low to be compatible if the tank is to be in the 25-26 C range.

As for TDS, our tap water is around 450ppm to start with, before you add ferts and biological content -
So I don’t really know what to think on that?
Click to expand...
Cardinals will grow quite large embers are smaller.I have seen my mosquito rasbora pecking at my shrimplets so I had given it away.Also had trouble getting the rasboras on flake or pellet food they very much preferred live food eg worms basically whatever they could fit inside their mouths.Was told mosquito rasboras are as shrimp safe as u can get.The other being white cloud mountain minnows.If yr shrimp population isnt large enough they will end up hiding too if u decide to go with cardinals.(at least 10-20)
 
david boden said:
Hi--if you're going to use your own treated tap water with it's tds for changes, I'd say you've pretty much got to stick with Neocaridina shrimp.
Choose your favourite colour, and build a colony of that type only.
Mixing colours normally leads to dilution of the genes back to brown type shrimp further down the line ---not always I've read, but usually so.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily, I have Caridinia sp tangerine tiger in London tap water and they breed like rabbits. Actually breed faster than the cherrys they share the tank with and their population has overtaken them. They will look pretty good with alongside a blue neocaridinia for contrast.

cheers

Conor
 
OK Conor, --I say " not always "---you say " not necessarily ".
We seem to be like-minded.---😉----
I'm pleased you're having success, and enjoying the journey.
 
Conort2 said:
Not necessarily, I have Caridinia sp tangerine tiger in London tap water and they breed like rabbits. Actually breed faster than the cherrys they share the tank with and their population has overtaken them. They will look pretty good with alongside a blue neocaridinia for contrast.

cheers

Conor
Click to expand...
Neos of diff colour will interbreed.Caridina will not interbreed with neos so its still safe.
 
Conor---apologies for not reading your post correctly.
You were talking about the success of your Caridina in London water, -- not mixing Neo colours, as I was referring to.
Your success just shows how different tanks and livestock react in different ways to a particular circumstance.
 
Yep if u wanna keep different types of shrimps it would be nice if u could research the water params and try to march them.One type of shrimp will breed faster than the others.Also try to get from a local breeder as theyre much healthier.
 
Thanks for all the input guys. I have to admit to being a little confused.

So am I correct in my understanding that there are two main genus of shrimp:

Neocaridina - which includes Cherry and the various blue and yellows etc. These shouldn’t be kept together otherwise they’ll breed back to natural colourations?

Caridina - which includes Bee, Taiwan, Crystal and apparently Amano.

What I can’t seem to obtain is consistent information on is what the water requirements for each species within each genus - assuming it differs?

Can anyone point me to an online resource that is known to be accurate for the water requirements of each species?

I’ve kept Amanos in hard water in the past without any issues, and it looks like Cherry’s are fine in hard water as mentioned above. So are any of the other Caridina species suitable for similar water conditions, if the Crystal Red isn’t?
 
Amanos are easiest to keep, cherries middling and crystals fussiest. I'd start with the first two and if it goes ok, then consider the later.
 
Wookii---you're not confused, you are spot on about the two distinct genus of shrimp, and their variations.
With regard to an internet source of info, ,www..theshrimpfarm.com is quite well regarded I believe.
Although as shown in a post above by Conor, --all guidelines are only that, and can be somewhat fluid.
I have never kept Taiwan type shrimp myself, but I've read that they are particularly reliant on the correct parameters ( too much trouble for me ! ).
Try the website I've mentioned, plus, ( Youtube has lots of videos as well if you look for shrimpkeeping ), and then decide what's best for your own situation
 
Thanks for the responses guys.

I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit it, but it looks like I had my newly acquired TDS meter set to measure the conductivity rather than TDS. Now I’ve corrected that, TDS is actually coming out at around 225ppm (for treated tap water).

Though our water (in Nottingham) is always thought of as being fairly ‘hard’, 225ppm appears to be more reasonable and within the range of the recommendations for a number of shrimp.
 
All tds meters measure conductivity as a proxy for tds. Actual tds determination requires gravimetric measurement by evaporating H2O and weighing the residues, a tedious method not commonly used.

I’ve seen mixing different color Cherry shrimp nicely done, male only, so they won’t breed but need to be replenished regularly.
 
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