Vampire shrimp care

Asian_Vampire · Post by **Asian_Vampire** » Sun May 28, 2006 11:02 pm

Hi, this is my first post on this website, and I hope I can get some answers.
Right now I am setting up a 7-gallon tank. It is going to be a biotype of an African stream, with a poly-resin fake cave, black gravel mixed with coral sand, and a poly-resin background. The site that sells the shrimp is a very good site so I don't think there will be any problems about buying them(I hope!) But, before I buy these expensive shrimp, I have some questions;

1. What do they eat? It is said that they are filter-feeders, but could ground-up foods or even whole foods be okay?
2. At some point I may have to keep fry in this tank, so could I keep them with fry? Or not?
3. Is there anything special that they need?
4. How many could I keep in there? My aim is for two, but maybe just one.
5. Should I switch the gravel to pure coral sand instead? For more harder water?

If these are all okay, could I add some of the shrimp into my tank once it is cycled?
Hey, did I tell you i'm from Korea? So I must be the only person who is Korean AND posted about vampire shrimp!

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Mon May 29, 2006 5:59 am

You have fallen into the trap of most 1st time posters. Your answers are all here. If you ask others for questions that are easily found, people will remind you. When you run into a hard problem that isn't easily found, the folks here are very helpfull. People who are lazy and can't be bothered with rules get booted.

1st, read the stickies at the top, then read over the articles, then go to the shrimp varieties page and find the Giant African Filter Shrimp.

Get at least a 20 gallon tanks. They will likely climb out of a tank so small. They need room.

BTW- Welcome to the forum!

Asian_Vampire · Post by **Asian_Vampire** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:32 am

Okaaaay, so I did post something that is not really apreciated here. But all I wanted was some first-hand experiance. And there wasn't any place that had very specific information.

So I guess that the tank is a bit small so I'd be better off with a smaller species of shrimp. Is it because they like to move, or because they get big, or the are off better in larger groups?

By the way, I'm sorry, so I think I'll post about more serious things from now on.

Emmabeth · Post by **Emmabeth** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:09 am

You should really search although i can understand why people dont as teh search results can be very tedious to go through....

1/ They pretty much eat what they find but bearing in mind they are filter feeders and so cannot pick up, or pick at large foods, AND because you appear to want to keep them in a natural setting, they should naturally be filtering small particles of food out of the watercolumn/current. Mine get crushed tropical fish flake and some tropical marine pellets which are tiny. I suspect they clean up left over bits of frozen brine shrimp that the other tank mates leave behind.

2/ Sounds ok. I keep my pair on washed inert play sand with bogwood and pebbles.
As long as the surfaces are good to grip on to (bearing in mind the size of these shrimp) and hiding places are plenty and there are places they can get up and into the current, it should be fine.

3/Specific needs.... very good filtration, a good current, varied diet, no tank mates that hassle them, space....

4/I keep two in a 3 ft tank with a shoal of silvertip tetras and two spiney eels (SMALL spiny eels, big ones will undoubtedly snack on them at adult size).

5/Dont know... i think they are better on sand, having kept them on gravel in the past - it also gives you the benefit of seeing where they ahve been mooching about (tracks in the sand) and food particles dont disappear between the grains of sand like they will between gravel bits.
Water should be hard so if you have naturally soft water coral sand might be better...

Hope that helps

Em

Asian_Vampire · Post by **Asian_Vampire** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:43 pm

Thank you, Emmabeth! That was what I was counting on. First hand experiance. So it looks like;
1/ Crushed flake will be fine(the kind you feed your fry?) How about brine shrimp?

2/ Adding a few more caves couldn't hurt.

3/ I'll make sure they get those things .

4/Tank size is okay for one? Or not?

5/Coral sand is better, because it hardens the water and make the tank easier to clean.

6/Don't worry, of course it helped

Asian_Vampire · Post by **Asian_Vampire** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:52 pm

Okaaaay, after much more serching, I found out that vampire shrimp don't really apreciate ten-gallon tanks. So do I have to give up my dream?

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:25 pm

No you don't. You just need to get a 20 gallon or 40 gallon long. These shrimp are worth it. Just change your priorities and everything else will fall into place. That being said, they are a multi-year commitment. Don't take it on lightly.

What we, as a community, need to do if figure out how to breed them. If we don't they will soon be lost forever.

Earthgoddess · Post by **Earthgoddess** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:51 pm

I was going to share that my fan shrimp love bannana's

Mordaki · Post by **Mordaki** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:41 am

Hi all this is my first post. In my tank i have 1 male beta, 2 Ramerizi Dwarf Cichlid, 4 phantom tetras some 3 Kuhli loaches 6 red eye tetras(some of the fish are my fathers) and a random fish that was accidentily caught but they gave me it for free (they couldnt be bothered to remove it from the bag) anyway i was in my local fish shop looking for some fish and saw one of theese only it just said fan shrimp it was £8.50p but it looked soo cool i decided to buy it none of my fish bother it apart from my female Beta but i moved her out the tank now.
Evrything was fine and i saw a red nose shrimp and bought one of them just to see how it would get on with the rest of my fish and shrimp, the 2 shrimp seemed quite friendly with the red nose shrimp sitting on my fan shrimp like a pirates parrot on his shoulder but something happened i cant find it anywhere nor any remains in the tank or filter none of my fish are aggresive at all not even my fighter, nor are they big enough to swallow it hole anyway i was looking at the different types of shrimp and stuff on this site and it is defanatly one of theese. I rarely see anything like some of the shrimp on here only ever seen the red nose and the fan shrimp i got

.
Im currently looking for places that stock different shrimp or will order them in specially for me when i do i want to set up my other tank and will make a shrimp tank. anyway i guess i was lucky to get one of theese shrimp oh and sorry for the really long post

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:11 am

My guess is that the beta ripped it apart and the rest of the fish polished it off. You can't keep shrimp with agressive fish. Betas are agressive fish.

Mordaki · Post by **Mordaki** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 6:34 am

i know that betas are aggresive but this one is really friendly dosnt bother any fish i sat for a good couple of hours after putting the red nose in my tank and the red nose swam rite past it and it wasnt phased by it at all it just swims round the tank and has never killed a fish if anything id blame the phantoms they tryed to have a go at my loaches when they were first in the tank and my female was out after i saw it try and attack my fan shrimp. anyway cant get any more of the red nose shrimp as the shop sold out and dont know when / if they will get them next

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:40 am

Sorry to hear about your shrimp. It is hard to know what happened when you were not there to witness it but the experience will shows us that there are incompatibility issues.

Mordaki · Post by **Mordaki** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:42 am

yeah i guess maby one of the fish just decided to eat it they all seemed to be fine atleast none of them are having a go at my fan shrimp, but i cant understand why the female beta would attack my fan shrimp but my male can just sit beside it and leave it alone. guess i got lucky with my male beta he is verry friendly just swims around hapily never chases the other fish or anything.
when i got my red nose he was aprox 1.5 cm long maby it was the size of the poor fella. anyone know if i got a slightly larger shrimp if they would do the same or maby they just disliked the red nose species?
would like to put a couple shrimp in my tank to finnish it off then start on my shrimp tank once i find some places i can get ahold of different types of shrimp. gonna try one of the fish shops i go to three of the four places i buy my fish from are just garden center pet departments but they all seem to know alot about fish.

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:35 pm

Get some M. Rosenbergii. They'll turn the tables on your fish and eat them all.

Seriously, keep fish & shrimp in different tanks. Ghost shrimp are a better bet in a tank like yours iif you just have to have shrimp. They can hold their own a lot better than the defenceless shrimp you got. Ghosts are sold as feeders in a lot of places, so they are inexpensive, but very interesting shrimp and always up to something.

Mordaki · Post by **Mordaki** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:55 pm

never noticed them in any of the places i go to, but i am planning a all shrimp tank. to be honest i never even thaught about owning any form of shrimp untill i saw My fan shrimp then i stumbled across this website and saw some of the other types that are out there and now i want them

. guess ill ask in the real fish shop i go to they may order me some if i set my tank up and just order a whole tanks worth of shrimp at once.