Shrimp Spa / Pond

scampi · Post by **scampi** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 12:16 pm

I must sounds like a nut, but my neighbors are remodelling and were throwing out their jacuzzi because it's "too small".... So you know what they say, one mans trash is another's treasure, I took it in thinking I could use it for one of my crazy aquatic endeavors especially since the inside is blue so anything should be visible looking down. I am wondering since I am bored with saltwater and fish breeding, would a 5 ft wide and 2 ft deep cylinder (the jacuzzi) set up in my heated garage potentially work as a comfortable shrimp spa/pond? Maybe I could breed some sort of shrimp in there? Like just throw them in, feed them and they won't eat their babies and thus multiply??? I don't know the gallonage but maybe someone can help calculate the gallonage using the dimensions? Thanks in advance....

shrimpboyLA · Post by **shrimpboyLA** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:50 pm

Hm...I think you can do that with some crayfish but unless you have lots of live growing plants and keep the water in top condition you won't be able to keep or breed any of the smaller species.

Now a bad idea thought....breed some crayfish and you can have a crayfish farm in your garage. Let me know when to bring my lobster pot over and help you harvest

scampi · Post by **scampi** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:42 pm

LOL Awww after reading up I decided I don't like Crawfish cause they are like so common in rivers and streams.... thought I'd go for something more exotic. Is the problem that the smaller shrimp like Cherries or Rainbow shrimp will eat their babies even though its a larger habibat than some 10 or 20 gal tank? I was thinking the more space/open water they have, the happier and more willing they'd be to procreate...

but I'm a newbie so I don't know that.

Veneer · Post by **Veneer** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 5:20 pm

scampi wrote:LOL Awww after reading up I decided I don't like Crawfish cause they are like so common in rivers and streams.... thought I'd go for something more exotic. Is the problem that the smaller shrimp like Cherries or Rainbow shrimp will eat their babies even though its a larger habibat than some 10 or 20 gal tank? I was thinking the more space/open water they have, the happier and more willing they'd be to procreate...

:roll: but I'm a newbie so I don't know that.

I don't feel subjective "novelty" or associations of "rareness" should be the greatest factor in selection a pet, and it's difficult to generalize across the full gamut of crayfish; nevertheless, some tropical genera are extremely "exotic" by any standard:

Cherax quadricarinatus of Australia.

C. destructor var. "blue".

Standard morphotype of C. destructor.

A glossy C. presii

But I digress.

The primary issue at stake re cherry shrimp (and other candidates that produce benthic freshwater larvae) to be kept in a jacuzzi would be water quality [assuming the water is to be unfiltered]; they typically don't bother even newly-hatched offspring.

scampi · Post by **scampi** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:10 pm

you're right veneer, my bad, generalizing. i mean especially with Crawfish, people forget (like I did) that there are other tropical/exotic species. i do feel that if i am going through the trouble of creating a mini, elaborate, artificial environment for a critter in my house/home, it may as well be something i'm not going to find anywhere else around indigenously.

in fact, i'm mad interested in the "arctic" species of fw shrimp... does anyone have any info on those in captivity?

jonathan03 · Post by **jonathan03** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:32 pm

I don't know much about artic shrimp, but I can tell you artic or topical your need to find a way to put in a filter. There isn't much of anything you can keep successfully without a filter. Most shrimp are very senstive to the water so you need to keep it as clean as possible.

White cloud mountian minnows might have a chance with no filter, but its pushing it.

Big Als sells penguin bio-wheel filters that filter 330 gallons an hour for $20. A few of these would do the job for you. You can buy a few heaters as well. The heaters are needed to get them to breed as you want. The ycan be kept in colder water, but won't breed.

You can keep red cherry shrimp in the jacuzzi if you was it out well, at a heater and a filter. Some live plants would be good too. They relaly like to hide in the plants and eat the algae that grows on them.

The jacuzzi isn't the problem, its the lack of a filter and heater.

And yes, red cherries do not eat their young.

Polypterus · Post by **Polypterus** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 1:35 am

Hi !
I don't think, that you need a filter. Just use a air pump to get some oxygen into the water. More important is some light and plants for the shrimp. Also some shrimp (Red Cherry and many Neocridina - also white pearl) can stayas cold as 10 or 15 °C in Winter( some people have Neodaridina denticulata sinensis at 5°C here in garden at time). They would stop breeding when to cold, but low temperatur shouldn't be the Problem.
Anyway to change often some water is also important and clean the pond before putting in the shrimp as they are sensitiv.
Here in germany there are also some kind of shrimp that would be good for such a pond, bute they are only in few areas and hard to get.
Good luck, Flori

scampi · Post by **scampi** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:24 am

Thanks guys and gals, thats really well balanced advice. I used to go the filter route, but when I switch to more natural filtering (using porous rock and a nice coarse sand bed of a few inches) I noticed I had better, more stable enviroments. Well at least for saltwater. It seemed the natural/biological/bacterial filtration worked well because there was so much substrate. Also with the jacuzzi the volume of water will be high and the biomass low. I plan to have bright flouresecent lights about the jacuzzi and use LOW light plants because I'm an energy freak -- I used to have metal halides but I got tired of lectricity bills over $500 a month!!!

WHAT LEVELS OF NITRATES DO FW SHRIMP TYPICALLY TOLERATE?

Can someone recommend an nice assortment of shrimp-happy plants that don't need much bright light???

Thanks again, all.

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:21 am

Hi,

0

Oh and for the plants. Java Moss, Java Fern, Water sprite, Amazon Frogbit (the plant that Mustafa sells) and Anubis.

TKD

edinjapan · Post by **edinjapan** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:08 am

jonathan03 wrote:I don't know much about artic shrimp, but I can tell you artic or topical your need to find a way to put in a filter. There isn't much of anything you can keep successfully without a filter. Most shrimp are very senstive to the water so you need to keep it as clean as possible.

White cloud mountian minnows might have a chance with no filter, but its pushing it.

Big Als sells penguin bio-wheel filters that filter 330 gallons an hour for $20. A few of these would do the job for you. You can buy a few heaters as well. The heaters are needed to get them to breed as you want. The ycan be kept in colder water, but won't breed.

You can keep red cherry shrimp in the jacuzzi if you was it out well, at a heater and a filter. Some live plants would be good too. They relaly like to hide in the plants and eat the algae that grows on them.

The jacuzzi isn't the problem, its the lack of a filter and heater.

And yes, red cherries do not eat their young.

OK, here's what I do every summer. I put 3 big blue tubs (about 1 cubic meter) outside on the balcony, throw in lots of cabomba, swordplants, crypts, some of my dwarf lilies and seed the water with daphnia. Into each tub I place about 10 shrimp of all 3 species I keep. No filter, no heater, no food, no disturbance except for removing excess plants from April until October. In October I will harvest an uncountable number of shrimp and a small mountain of plants.

Polypterus · Post by **Polypterus** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:30 pm

Hi Edinjapan !
That's a nice way. although I don't have such tanks

- what kind of shrimp you breed outside and where you put them during winter

?
Flori