# Shrimp?



## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Hey,
I'm potentially looking at some shrimp for my freshwater aquarium. However i have some questions. (Btw i'm looking at cherry red shrimp) Will these shrimp taking p alot of space in my aquarium? What i mean by that is will they effect the bio-load of my aquarium and create a big problem? Right now i have a guppie and 2 neon tetra's and when i can get my tank cycled correctly i'de like to put in about 6 more tetra's. Is it still possible to have the shirmp in there? Or will there just be to much going on in there and cause i problem. I'm also wondering about the care of these little guys. Just everything in general. Thanks so much guys.
Direlime


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Shrimp have little to no bioload on the tank, as for their care it is much the same as ghost shrimp as far as I know, which means that they will eat leftover food in the tank or you can feed them sinking pellets which is what I do with my ghosts. Looking at what else you have in your tank you should be perfectly fine with shrimp in your tank.

Also an important thing to note with the keeing and care of shrimp is that they will molt, DO NOT REMOVE THE MOLTED EXOSKELETON! They need to ingest it in order to regain calcium nececary for the hardening of their next exoskeleton. Shrimp which have recently molted will likely be very shy and hide much of the time untill they have recovered, be carefull to not stress them too much during this period.

Shrimp like all inverts are very sensitive to the medications you can put into your tank, in other words there is the chance it could kill them, so be sure to buy invert safe medicines from now on once you have your shrimp.

When shrimp reproduce the babies are very young and very vulnerable, they also need foods not normaly in existance in most tanks. One way to solve these problems is to put some plants into your tank (i found that java moss works very well as a nursery plant) as it both provides them with food and a place to hide. This will not guarentee the survival of all the babies (or any) but it gives them a better chance.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask them.


----------



## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Thanks so much for he speedy reply. I'm still working out some kinks wig my aquarium but I'm hoping i'll be able to solve them soon. So pretty much shrimp are exceptionally easy to care for? Aside from their vuberability to medication right?


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

They need hard water with calcium and magnesium in it to help them make & maintain their shells. The guppies would love this, but the neons would hate it.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Shrimp, much like many other types of aquatic animals have varying difficulties depending on the species, for someone just starting into shrimp i would recomend either cherries, amanos, or ghost/glass/grass shrimp.

Ghost shrimp (im just using that one name for convenience) are probably going to be the easiest for you to find as well as the cheapest, this is because they are often sold as feeders, so if you find them and they are pricey go somewhere else because their being overpriced. That said there is one major drawback to ghosts, because they are sold as feeders they are often mistreated and can have a high mortality rate at the begining when you first get them. Also if a place is labeling/telling you that they are algae eaters dont believe them, they are lying, or dont know better. Ghost shrimp will eat small amounts of algae as well as help keep your live plants and tank clean, they are however not reliable algae eaters and would most likely starve if required to eat only algae.

Amanos are interesting but while they are often labelled as algae eaters they too require supliments of real food. Another thing to watch out for with amanos is that they look somewhat similar to ghost shrimp and I have seen ghosts improperly labeled as amanos. Do your research and ensure you can tell the two apart before you go to buy them.

This site is a bit general, but it has a lot of information on pretty much all of the different types of freshwater inverts in the hobby, it helped me out a lot when i was starting with inverts and I try to show it to everyone when i hear about them getting started as well: http://www.planetinverts.com/


----------



## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Ok, and another question. I bought a plant fertilizer (plant gro by nutrafin) and it contains 0.0005% of chelated copper. Is that gonna be a big problem for shrimps, as i know they are sensitive to copper. 
Direlime


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

What I read is that nothing with copper on the label should go in a tank with shrimp. Even screen your fish food ingredient list for copper as a preservative.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

yeah better safe than sorry, I wouldnt use it.

Ive read things anyways that say that ferts can affect inverts and invert reproduction anyways, so you may want to bypass them entirely and simply rely on a nutrient rich substrate coupled with grow lights.


----------



## direlime (Jul 17, 2008)

Ok. I will continue my research and we'll see if I want to do them. I appreciate all of your guys' help, this forum is fantastic!
Direlime


----------

