Hi, I just joined the forum and am the proud owner of 12-14 cherry shrimp (mostly juveniles). They are in a 10g planted tank along with 2 bamboo shrimp (no fish; this is a purely shrimp tank!)
I read a thread from a person who never changes the water in the tank, but only adds water as it evaporates. Does this work? I was planning on doing weekly water changes so this bit of info sounds confusing to me.
On average, what percentage of the water, and how often, do you change the water in the tank for a shrimp only tank/no fish?
abc wrote:
I read a thread from a person who never changes the water in the tank, but only adds water as it evaporates.
That's me. I don't recommend it for everyone.
Does this work?
So far, it has worked for my ghosts. I do not currently have cherries, but I imagine it would work for them too.
I was planning on doing weekly water changes so this bit of info sounds confusing to me.
You will hear different opinions. I keep a relatively low bio-load in a heavily planted tank. The plants take up nitrogen at least as fast it is released by the shrimp. If you monitor you water parameters and keep the nitrogen level low ( 0ppm NH3/4, 0ppm NO2, less than 10ppm NO3 ), water changes may not be needed.
I guess I'll take the time to check the water parameters (got to dig out my old test kit) and see if I can do the water changes every 2 weeks or even every 1 month, depending on if I detect any nitrites/nitrates building up. I'm thinking the plants in the tank should more take care of the bioload.
If anyone else can drop a note or suggestion or two, that would be appreciated!
It depends on how many shrimp are in there, how much (and what) you feed them. I changed about 10% of the water in all the shrimp tanks for the first couple of months but then slowly tapered off until now I only replace evaporated water. Most of the tanks aren't snuggly covered so there is a fair amount of evaporation. And all the tanks aren't overly crowded--except for the Red Cherries but their tank loses at least 10% water ever week anyway due to evaporation. I do feed a little bit of fish food about once a week, and a small bit of cooked collard greens about once a week (partly to feed the snails and oto), occasionally defrosted bloodworms if there are leftovers after feeding the fish (separate tanks). And powdered spirulina about once week. Not a lot of anything. All the tanks get a lot of northerly light so they tend to grow algae on the walls which the shrimp graze on. All the tanks also have free floating plants--just had to thin the Red Cherries' plants since I could hardly see through them anymore and was pleased to find a lots of babies in there.
Thanks for the info on your feeding routine 51Cornell. It gives me some ideas on how to vary my shrimps' diet
As for the bamboo shrimp tank size, what kind of interesting behavior are you referring to theshrimp_123? I can't upgrade to a 20g anytime soon (as soon as some fish are grown out in my 29g, and can move the fish to my 75g and the shrimp to the 29g, but that will take some time). It looks like they have plenty of room in the 10g and they don't seem to move around that much... just sit there with their fans open picking away at what food particles they find. What happens when you upgrade to a larger tank? Just curious, abc
Oh, just wanted to add that my cherry shrimp seem to have settled (they were a new acquistion) and are showing their red colors
And the woodshrimp seem quite happy to me, their hue has turned a dark red and the white strip down their back is prominent... that's a sign of a happy shrimp right?
