Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hello everyone. Im new to the subject of shrimp. I have two aqueriums, 50 gallon and a 30 gallon. I have been keeping tropical comunity tanks for 17 years now. the 30 gallon is a live planted tank and I have been interested for some time now in getting some shrimp for it. The problem is the stores around me do not have them and I have been a little weery to getting them by mail order or online. Thanks to reading TFH I found this web site.
My 30 Gallon is a well established planted tank ,canister filter with a UV
inline on the return as well a inline heater, CO2 during the day when lighting is on and air pumped in at night when the lights are out. Constant temp at 78-80 deg. F . I guess my question would be how many should I have, I am partial to the cherry and the ningas. And would filter feeder shrimp thrive in my tank where I have a UV which pretty much steralizes
the water in return. This was installed a while back to end the green water problem that happens often with a live planted tank.
A lot of the time I have spent on The Krib Discussing fish and plants.
It is really nice to have such a well dedicated site such this one and I really look forward to discussing and reading much of the forum.[/img][/list]

Hi am welcome.

Just a few comments. . .

If you are using a lot of ferts, you will probably want to back off for the sake of the shrimp, particularly anything that contains copper can be deadly to invertebrates.

You are likely to find that a healthy population of shrimp will take the place of the UV sterilizer you are currently using to control algae outbreaks. If I were you, I would disconnect the UV sterilizer once I added my shrimp and see if you still need it once you get a healthy population breeding in there. Shrimp eat algae and lots of other micro-organisms living among your plants and they will keep them in check for the most part.

Filter feeding shrimp are great, but they do prefer a good current for feeding. Make sure you can provide appropriate conditions before acquiring them.

Cherries would be a good place to start. The absolute best way to get these shrimp is to have them shipped to you by a reputable breeder. They will be much healthier and more likely to survive if they come to you directly from the breeder.

You didn't mention if you kept fish in your planted aquarium, but shrimp and fish don't mix very well. If you have fish that have mouths large enough to eat a tiny flake of fish food, they will eat baby shrimp if not adults as well. Best to keep shrimp in their own tanks.

Others will make other suggestions, but you should probably just spend an evening reading threads here. You'll find all the info you need and will learn a lot.

I bet that TFH article is going to bring a LOT of new folks to this site. . .

Hi Doug,

Welcome to our forum and I hope you find it as helpful and fun as I do .

I recommend reading some of the articles from this site such as: "How to keep dwarf shrimp -- An Introduction" . It will help you keep a heathy tank of happy shrimp.

Hi YuccaPatrol

Thanks for your reply, yes I do have fish there but they are small friendly comunity fish (Rumynose, Neons, Zebras). and yes I do use ferts
once a month. Im sure I could stop that and see how the plants do.Im sure there are other ferts that are shrimp safe that is something that I will have to look into.

Thank for the welcome Neonshrimp

I intnend on do much reading through this site and I am sure the atcle
in TFH is going to get a lot of people talking , so its good
news for this site as more people are finding out.