# Starting a shrimp bowl



## nagonokami (Oct 13, 2011)

Hey guys. I decided it would interesting to start a shrimp bowl. The thing is, I've never kept shrimp before and have little idea which shrimp are easiest to keep. I'm using a soil substrae and picked up some dwarf hairgrass(eleocharis parvula) to form a carpet. Also would like some ideas for short-growing plants to add to it. Any info would be much appreciated.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Ghost shrimp, they're easy to care for and are cheap too.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

snyderguy said:


> Ghost shrimp, they're easy to care for and are cheap too.


They are hardy little guys too.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Though I had an issue where they ate each other so make sure you have plenty of hiding spots and available food.


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## nagonokami (Oct 13, 2011)

I expected everyone would say ghost shrimp. Guess I'll pick some up once the water stabilizes. Any thought on plants that grow 4-8 inches?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Carpet grasses need a lot of light. How much are you planning? It is pretty easy to put a lot of light on a bowl, you can use a desk lamp. But you do have to watch the temp. I am liking cherry shrimp right now because mine are surviving. My first attempt with them failed. I think I starved them. When I put them with CPDs and fed them like fish they've done well and may be starting to multiply. It is pretty amazing to see a 2 shrimp doing an 8 -limb tug-o-war with a cichlid pellet. 

I have low light, java moss and java fern. 

I advise you to go with as big a container as you can. Small bowls are so easy to unbalance (temp, chemistry, ammonia)


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## nagonokami (Oct 13, 2011)

I'm using a 1 gallon bowl with a desk lamp for lighting....on my desk. I'll probably use this bowl as a research project and, if all goes well, I'll do a 10 gallon heavily planted with soil later. Well, even if everything goes horribly wrong, I'll probably upscale. But looking into the cherry shrimp a little more, I think they may be the way to go. Relatively inexpensive and fairly easy to care for, and they would be alot more colorful than ghost shrimp.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Cherry shrimp are easy to take care of as well. If you can find them, get some crystal red shrimp. They have very cool colorations. 

A few things though.
-Shrimp need calcium. Make sure the calcium levels are high enough.
-Shrimp will die with even a little bit of copper. Make sure medications containing copper never enter the tank.
-Shrimp do not eat much. Feed them very small bits of sinking food. They will eat almost anything though.
-PLANTS! Shrimp love live plants. Plants also offer a source of food to the shrimp and will help keep the tank free of nitrates.
-Give them more than 10 gallons, and you will have a TON of shrimp, even if you start with only a few. Shrimp are very prolific and if you can get them to breed, you will never need to add shrimp.
-Use a sponge filter, or a small (5 gal) filter with a sponge prefilter. Small and baby shrimp will get sucked into a regular filter.


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