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Shrimp swimming around
- Thread starter Goldie Prawn
- Start date
Hi all,
cheers Darrel
I don't know why people are ill disposed towards <"pest snails">, their only "downside" is that nobody makes any money out of them. @Goldie Prawn PM if/me when you want some snails, floating & low tech. plants etc. I always have spare.
cheers Darrel
Goldie Prawn
Member
That is so kind of you, thank you! I think I was just worried they would take over and it’s a small tank but I think the ramshorn ones look nicer than the nerite!
To echo Darrels points:
Nerites: expensive/overpriced, pain if they start laying eggs, marginally more effective per gram than Ramshorns, won’t breed in freshwater.
Ramshorns: generally free, very effective due to numbers, population will self sustain in fresh water, did I mention they’re free 😂
I’m going to have to go against the previous advice, and say you do want to use a heater. I aim for stability in my tanks wherever possible, and even if the heater only has to click on over night for an hour or two, to maintain the temperature I’d prefer that to the tank temp plummeting, which being only 20 litres, I could do quite rapidly in the winter if you don’t run heating over night.
Don’t worry about it, what you have is fine for starting out - most things are easy enough to work around with a bit of ingenuity.
I am also a "pest" snail fan. They are very efficient algae eaters and I love that you will have extra small ones to get in the smallest areas. I added some to my duckweed index container that used to grow a lot of GDA, and within hours they cleaned it all up.
Goldie Prawn
Member
Goldie Prawn
Member
@Wookii ok I am convinced 😂😂 but being me I had to have pearl pink ramshorn snails when I saw them! So I’ve got some (5) arriving next week. Thanks to you and @dw1305 for your advice on this.
I took the heater off but you are right, we won’t be having the heating on overnight in winter so I’d prefer to keep it stable so I’ve put the heater back on and I’ll look into one I can set the temperature eventually but it is staying around 24.4 which I assume will be slightly lower when the weather gets colder (which is a joke because where the hell is summer)
Thanks all for your advice it’s much appreciated.
I took the heater off but you are right, we won’t be having the heating on overnight in winter so I’d prefer to keep it stable so I’ve put the heater back on and I’ll look into one I can set the temperature eventually but it is staying around 24.4 which I assume will be slightly lower when the weather gets colder (which is a joke because where the hell is summer)
Thanks all for your advice it’s much appreciated.
Goldie Prawn
Member
I’m not able to - plus it does fluctuate as the room gets a lot of sun (when the sun is actually out, so extremely rarely 😂). The tank is at the back of the room and not in the sun btw. I do know that in winter it drops right down to 18c which is when the heating is triggered to come on. I’ve put the heater back on for now as the shrimps seem happy and I don’t want to have to worry about monitoring the temperature dropping/spiking 😬
Maf 2500
Member
Fluctuations down to 18C are fine for Neocaradina shrimp. In fact there are people who keep them in unheated outdoors tubs year round in the UK, so they are hardier than some people might think...
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
@Goldie Prawn I kept my shrimp tank unheated for months after setting it up. Adding a heater promoted breeding and I now have lots of baby neocardina.
I don’t do any water changes and I keep the tank deliberately dirty, lots of natural algae, biofilm. There’s various wee invertebrates in there (thanks @dw1305) and loads of snails, detritus worms etc. I’ll post some photos tomorrow. It’s maybe not for everyone but I love the little underwater world I’ve got.
I don’t do any water changes and I keep the tank deliberately dirty, lots of natural algae, biofilm. There’s various wee invertebrates in there (thanks @dw1305) and loads of snails, detritus worms etc. I’ll post some photos tomorrow. It’s maybe not for everyone but I love the little underwater world I’ve got.
Goldie Prawn
Member
Oo yes please send photos! I didn’t clean mine because I thought it was good for the shrimp but it’s a small tank and I only have 8 shrimp. It’s better for my OCD that it’s clean now 😂 though I need to cultivate more algae and biofilm for my snails arriving next week or algae wafers and nettles will be needed! I hope the warmer temperature will lead to breeding. Fingers crossed. Do they breed equally as well in lower temperatures though?
Goldie Prawn
Member
That’s good to know, thank you. Do you think that 24c is too high? Or is stability/consistency better than cooler temps that may fluctuate?
Maf 2500
Member
24C is fine, but it is towards the higher end of temps suitable for neocaradina. I think their natural range is more semi-tropical than full tropical. Higher temps may encourage more breeding, but lower temps allow longer life of individual shrimp.
Everywhere in nature the water temperature drops in the night when there is no sun on the water, even in tropical regions where the air temperature stays high. Creatures who live in water are adapted to cope with daily temperature fluctuations between day and night, so living in an unheated tank in a room where the heating kicks in at 18C is not going to be a problem for your shrimp.
Goldie Prawn
Member
Thanks so much for this. So is your recommendation that I remove the heater too? What you are saying makes complete sense, I guess I’m just nervous about stability having lost a few shrimp (although that was ph related I think 😅) perhaps I’ll remove the heater and monitor it and see what the average is. We have a new build home so it never really gets that cold… thanks for the advice.
Andy Pierce
Member
I use an Aquael Ultra Heater 25 in my 20L Shrimphaus and I'm pretty happy with it. I leave it set to 22C. It is compact and tucks in unobtrusively in smaller set ups. Not too pricey.
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
Disclaimer: I am terrible at photography and only own an iPhone that’s a few years old.
I rarely do any maintenance but I think at the moment it probably could do with a little glass clean at least! 😄
Full tank shot:
One of my black and white striped caridina:
A silver neocardina:
A baby neocardina:
Another baby with a couple of neocardina on left, a bw striped cardina bottom left and an assortment of snails and worms:
I rarely do any maintenance but I think at the moment it probably could do with a little glass clean at least! 😄
Full tank shot:
One of my black and white striped caridina:
A silver neocardina:
A baby neocardina:
Another baby with a couple of neocardina on left, a bw striped cardina bottom left and an assortment of snails and worms:
Goldie Prawn
Member
That’s great! Your shrimp are obviously very happy with it! I do wish I’d got a larger tank now so I could put more plants in and design mine a bit better! Thanks for sharing!
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
Shrimp don’t need a huge amount of space but they do enjoy lots of plants and algae for food and hiding places. Your plants will quickly grow and fill in the space too. This is what mine looked like when I set it up:
@AlecF has a really nice small shrimp tank on his windowsill. I don’t think he uses a heater and the shrimp breed well.
Goldie Prawn
Member
That’s so cool! Thanks for sharing. My shrimp are absolutely loving hiding under my java moss - so much so I don’t see much of them. I’ve got some micro rasboras so I’m keeping the heater just for now but I intend to get a bigger tank and use my small one as a shrimp only tank (I’ll have shrimp in both though. This hobby is becoming an obsession!)
Quick question - I haven’t seen any shrimp moults yet and they’ve been in for nearly 3 weeks. Some are small and I have one very large female! I know she’ll be slower to moult but I thought I’d have seen some moults from the little ones by now? Any advice appreciated. I lost another shrimp (the one that was whizzing around 😕) but I still can’t figure out why as my parameters are stable. (KH 5 GH 9 PH 6.8 - no ammonia or nitrites. Can’t figure it out 😔)
