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Shrimp swimming around

Hi all,
Goldie Prawn said:
I think ramshorns may be the way to go!
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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
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

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
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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!
 
Goldie Prawn said:
What are your thoughts on nerites vs ramshorns?
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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.

Goldie Prawn said:
I wish I’d got a better tank with more features as the blaring light and one setting heater are a bit frustrating.
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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.
 
@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.
 
hypnogogia said:
Are you able to measure the ambient temperature in your room? That would be the temperature of your tank without heating.
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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 😬
 
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...
 
@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.
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
@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.
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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?
 
Maf 2500 said:
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...
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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?
 
Goldie Prawn said:
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?
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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.
 
Maf 2500 said:
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.
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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.
 
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