New shrimp

[Wolfgirl44]

OK. So I was reading up on shrimp to figure out which species I had, when I learned that the Ecosphere I had was in fact a death trap.

So of course, I went out and bought a tank, filter, heater, and all that other good stuff. And now my two shrimp have 2 1/2 gallons of tank to swim in. Yes, overkill, but it was the smallest tank at the the store.

Anyway.
So I have a leaf in my tank for the shrimp to eat, and in the last day and a half, they haven't moved from the underside of the leaf. They walk around under there, so I know they're alive, but I can't get a good look at them to see if they're actually eating or just hiding.
Should I be worried?

[Mustafa]

I wouldn't be worried if you made sure that the tank has brackish water (about 1/3 to 1/2 ocean water salinity) and not freshwater. Also, leaves don't really work all that well in saltwater/brackishwater setups, as the H. rubra shrimp don't seem to be too interested in them. I'd take the leaf out. There will be plenty of visible and not so visible microgrowth for them to graze on.

[Wolfgirl44]

OK... I was planning to add some salt water once everything got set up. But with that, I've got some other stuff to ask. I'm a beginner here, and fairly clueless...

I can understand how microorganisms could grow off of shrimp waste, but in a 2 /12 gallon tank with only two shrimp in it, would they be able to find it?

Also, I'm not exactly sure how much salt would make up that proportion of sea water salinity. Could I get a rough estimate of how much salt to mix into how much water to add into the tank? On the other pages you have measurements in ppt... and I don't know quite how to work with that.

[thgng]

1 gram of salt in 1 Litres of water equal to 1 ppt.

Salt water is about 34 ppt.

If you need 50% salinity of salt water, which is 17 ppt,
just add 17 gram of salt in 1 Litre of water.

[Mustafa]

Or just follow the instructions on your marine salt mix package and just use half as much.

[gr81]

I'm not sure, if you know, you have to use marine salt {for marine tanks} not kitchen salt.