# Setting up my first shrimp tank - resources?



## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Hi,

I'm contemplating a shrimp/snail tank.

The plan is to get a fluval spec (the 2.6g), set it up nicely with plants, including a carpet (I'm thinking baby tears, so it's time for me to learn the whole CO2 thing, yikes!), and then have a small colony of crystal reds and crystal blacks (can I mix these two?). Maybe, if I can, also a nerite snail cause I love the look of them.

I know water parameters are very important for shrimp, and my tap water is very, very soft. That said, there's a lot of conflicting info out there. Can someone point me to a thread or some other resource that lays out this information clearly and simply?

Your own experience also much appreciated (there's a lot of info in this forum and I'm combing through it). 

Thanks!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm sure this isn't what you want to hear, but I would start with at least a 10 gallon and cherry shrimp (painted fire reds are bright red and just as entertaining as CRS\CBS). The reason I say this is because I started with a 10 gallon, had many deaths until I figured things out, and went down to a 5 gallon and struggled even knowing how to maintain them while my 10g had a thriving colony. I can't imagine cutting the water column in half on top of that as a first timer.

I'm not saying it's going to be a recipe for disaster for sure, but it could potentially be extremely frustrating\discouraging if things went wrong.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

effox - thanks for sharing your experience. Unfortunately getting a 10 gallon is out of the question - I just don't have that kind of space.
That said, I am more flexible when it comes to type of shrimp, so I appreciate the advice and will start with something hardier.

Is the issue with a smaller volume that the ideal parameter window is smaller and it's trickier to keep things stable?
I guess I just see a lot of nano tanks with shrimp and I thought I could do it too! But I can appreciate your concern - I'm still very new at all this.


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## battmanh (Jan 7, 2014)

I am going to agree with effox, and I am sure most shrimp keepers will as well. Stability is truly key. I started off with 5 gallons and cherry shrimp and wishing I started with a larger tank. That said, things did turn out well and I am now successfully breeding CBS, but I imagine it would have been easier had I started with a larger tank.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Water parameters are my main concern. There's no avoiding inexperience, we all start out at the same beginning despite research and advice. I only speak from my experience though, I had a 10g and a 5g after I nailed it, and then decided to shut the 5g and 10g down and stick with a 15g (which was so much easier than the 10g, let alone the 5g). I can't imagine how frustrated I would have been with a 2.6g starting out.

When things go bad in a smaller volume tank, they go bad quickly. Adding too much KH\GH buffer, temperature swings, not having the PH matched when adding it during water changes, nitrates rising (even from a bigger snail like a nerite I could imagine would have an impact on the water chemistry).

I'm not saying don't go for it, but don't get frustrated, and be paranoid about the parameters until you get the absolute hang of it. Cherry shrimp are also a better for starters because of the price point. You can find them from 50 cents to a couple bucks without looking anywhere but here on a a good day, as opposite to a couple bucks to start to $10 each easily for mid quality CRS\CBS.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

battmanh and effox - thanks for the insights.

I understand this will be challenging and thanks for the head's up about the frustration.

I just bought the spec biomax insert - before I even get the spec tank I will add it to one of my existing tanks and start colonizing it.
Once I get the spec, my plan is to add water from my other tanks, add the colonized filter beads, and throw a couple of ember tetras in the tank while it finishes cycling and while I get a handle on keeping my parameters stable with water changes, etc.

Once everything is staying the same from week to week I will definitely start with cherry shrimp based on your recommendations, and forgo anything else (snails, etc.) for now. 

Thanks so much for all the answers - much appreciated.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Adding water from another tank isn't necessary. The beneficial bacteria will be in the filter, substrate\rocks (something it can colonize in\on).

Have you considered what substrate you are wanting? I've tried a bunch, even eco-complete (which wasn't highly recommended but better than the inert gravel I started it) to ADA Amazonia II (which is a pain to "cycle" because of the ammonia leeching for weeks on end) but the expensive ADA soil buffered the KH perfectly without me needing to add powders.

Different substrates will help you out tremendously for buffering purposes to get ideal parameters for not only sustaining life but breeding future generations.

These guys are surprisingly entertaining to watch (I was starring at my 10g like a zombie when my dad asked me what I was doing, and then I pointed out they had little shrimplets swimming about and he had to put on his glasses to spot them and thought that was so cool).

Long story short... You basically need to keep your KH in check to prevent PH swings, and GH to ensure they can molt and multiply successfully. I'd recommend you start with a bigger tank size, but since a bigger space isn't possible, I say go for it and just keep in-tune with the water parameters constantly and you'll be a lot more successful than I was when I downgraded. I didn't realize how quickly they reacted to less than ideal conditions in my 5 gallon compared to the 10.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

You bring up a good point, effox - thanks.
In my pea puffer tank I have eco-complete, and in my fluval edge community tank (home to 4 thriving Amano shrimp) I have ADA soil (the lighter one, but I can't remember if it's Malaya or Africana). 

While I have found ADA to be somewhat difficult to deal with, I plan on having some more "serious" plants in the shrimp tank, and my plants sure seem to love ADA, so I was thinking of going with that again. 

When I was cycling the Fluval with the ADA in it I did notice that it took a long time for the ammonia to get down to zero (though at no point did I record a "spike"). I figure it will be the same.

I have all this stuff recorded on a spreadsheet so I'm hoping I'll be able to follow the progress and establish when I may be ready for the shrimp. Like I said, first I'll have a few ember tetras until all parameters are A-ok.

Does that make sense?


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## battmanh (Jan 7, 2014)

Your approach sounds great UnderseaGal. Once the cycle is through and parameters are stable let me know, I will have plenty of blue rili/velvet and cherries that I could sell for very cheap to you just so you can gain experience without suffering much of a loss.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Makes a 100% sense to me. I'm not so sure you'll need any fish in the tank unless you're planning on re-using ADA from an established tank then (if you are, you're bang on!).

You'll very likely be entertained by these little creatures.

One thing is, I'd suggest a small moss ball ("marimo"), I don't have any left myself, but you might be able to go to a LFS\boxstore and buy one for around 5-7ish bucks, and they absolutely love grazing the algae\detritus off it.


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## battmanh (Jan 7, 2014)

I could divide one of my large Marimo moss balls that I got from effox for you as well


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

battmanh - thanks for that generous offer! I will likely take you up on it.  Very kind of you!
effox - I already have a few moss balls (I think I got them from you! But you weren't around so we just did a mailbox switch?). My amanos love them and I have one I'm saving for the new shrimp tank. 

Thanks for the tip!


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

Well, you've seen my shrimp tank. My own experience with cherry shrimp has been pretty positive. The first batch I had (all females... so no babies) lasted about a year or so (which is about as long as you'd expect... given they were full sized when I bought them). Seems to suggest it's possible at least. I'm not really a shrimp guy either (that tank is the only shrimp tank I've had so far... although I've been doing fish for about 15 years).

That being said, a bigger tank is definitely better. 10-15 gallons would probably be my ideal size as well. You can't run a proper colony in much smaller than that. So with a small one either go the all female route (sexing them isn't that difficult... although the LFs guy will probably hate you) or have a plan to shift the youngsters somewhere else (not all that hard... most LFS will probably take them).

Personally I wouldn't go with the CO2 injection plan. I just ditched my CO2 system on the grounds that it's too fiddly to manage in a small volume (I had some fairly serious problems with it that arose from fairly minor adjustments). Possibly if you went with an nice/expensive one (high precision needle valve, solenoid and possibly a pH controller) it might be more workable though.

As far as water goes; I believe it depends on the species. Cherry shrimp like a little bit of water hardness. I have really soft tap water too and I tend to add stuff to it to make it more suitable for the cherries (which can be as simple or as complicated as your inner nerd feels like making it). Bee shrimp et al tend to prefer water more like what comes out of the tap; the downside being that kind of water isn't easy to keep stable (you really need one of those expensive magic substrates that does buffering by adsorbtion on the clay minerals).

Some shrimp-related reading that I've found helpful can be found here and here.


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks for the links and for sharing about your experience, Rockman. 
I have plans for the youngsters if I manage to get that far.

As for CO2 - funny you should say that, because just today the LFS guy successfully convinced me to forgo it initially and see how far I can get with Flourish Excel (in addition to equilibrium). 

I have one question. I got the two little biomax bags to get the bacteria colony started in my other tanks, but they don't fit in the filter sections of my fluval or my eclipse. If I just dump them into the tank, will the bacteria eventually colonize it?

Just ordered the tanks... Yes that's tanks plural. One for the shrimp, one for my betta. I'm completely nuts.


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## Rockman (May 19, 2013)

UnderseaGal said:


> As for CO2 - funny you should say that, because just today the LFS guy successfully convinced me to forgo it initially and see how far I can get with Flourish Excel (in addition to equilibrium).


Heheh... I'm not really a fan of Excel either. The main ingredient sort of freaks me out a little bit. Supposedly it's fine at normal dosage rates; but my shrimp were seemed a bit 'off' when I was adding it to their tank. You can find similar observations floating around on the web... althouth there are also lots of shrimp keepers that would say I'm full of it.



UnderseaGal said:


> I have one question. I got the two little biomax bags to get the bacteria colony started in my other tanks, but they don't fit in the filter sections of my fluval or my eclipse. If I just dump them into the tank, will the bacteria eventually colonize it?


Yes. Although probably not as much as they might if they were placed in the filter. I'd imagine you'd get a reasonable starter colony out of it though. Maybe follow it up with a bit of fishless cycling just to be sure (you really don't want any cycling mishaps when dealing with shrimp); it likely won't take very long.



UnderseaGal said:


> Just ordered the tanks... Yes that's tanks plural. One for the shrimp, one for my betta. I'm completely nuts.


Haha... you have _got_ to be running out of counter space by now. What did you end up getting for the betta?


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Rockman said:


> Heheh... I'm not really a fan of Excel either. The main ingredient sort of freaks me out a little bit. Supposedly it's fine at normal dosage rates; but my shrimp were seemed a bit 'off' when I was adding it to their tank. You can find similar observations floating around on the web... althouth there are also lots of shrimp keepers that would say I'm full of it.


Thanks for the head's up. I'll look it up.



Rockman said:


> Yes. Although probably not as much as they might if they were placed in the filter. I'd imagine you'd get a reasonable starter colony out of it though. Maybe follow it up with a bit of fishless cycling just to be sure (you really don't want any cycling mishaps when dealing with shrimp); it likely won't take very long.


Thanks for this answer. I'll see if I can squeeze it into the filter somehow. I plan on putting a few ember tetras in the tank initially while I get all my parameters lined up and stable. I definitely don't want any cycling mishaps with shrimp in there, especially since I'll likely use ADA as my substrate. I'll have to be patient... again. 



Rockman said:


> Haha... you have _got_ to be running out of counter space by now. What did you end up getting for the betta?


Haha you've got that right. I got 2 identical white fluval specs, one for shrimp, one for betta. I'll have them side by side. The plan is to get rid of the pea puffer tank (my old eclipse 6 gal) and to replace with these two. That's in addition to the fluval edge which remains. I gave up on having a tank at my office - turns out it's not allowed in the facility.

For some reason I really got stuck on getting a betta. I'm so fickle. lol


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Well, in an interesting twist of fate, I received my 2 specs yesterday, and one of them was completely shattered.
Maybe this is the universe telling me I'm not ready for shrimp in a small tank just yet. 
After doing some reading, I'm toying with the idea of adding some cherries to my established, stable, 12 gal community tank - amanos are doing quite well in there and the barbs have chilled out quite a bit.

They may just end up being expensive barb food but you never know.

The saga continues...


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## Pat805 (Oct 12, 2011)

I failed pretty badly with that tank is too small, a small thing can change water parameter in there and the built in filter sucks up the babies is a really bad tank for shrimps .


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## UnderseaGal (Mar 4, 2014)

Pat805 thanks for sharing - in the end the tank arrived in a million pieces so I'll probably hold off for now!


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