Protek Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 I have been out of fish keeping for the past year and a half, ever since I moved. After a year and a half of dreams about fish keeping with the conclusion being to many tanks, to much work..... I woke one morning with the drive to set up a tank. So I dug into my equipment and decided to do a shrimp tank. I have a 50+g tank with drift wood, rocks and akadama in it. A pair of AI vega light's and the start of a co2 injection system going. Filling up with RODI right now. I guess my question would pertain to.......... what should I keep in mind keeping shrimp in a high tech planted tank? Are tannins bad for shrimp? How do I select a shrimp species? If I were to keep galaxy rasbora's with them, will it cut down on the population? If so would getting a large colony going first be good? What about bristle nose pleco's? etc etc. Anything you can think of would be appreciated. Here is the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aotf Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 4 minutes ago, Protek said: I guess my question would pertain to.......... what should I keep in mind keeping shrimp in a high tech planted tank? Shrimp do not like high-tech planted tanks. High fert + injected CO2 tend not to work well with them, especially if this is your first attempt at shrimp. If you are committed to a high-tech setup, do a lot of research and expect failure. Are tannins bad for shrimp? Nope, really good in fact. How do I select a shrimp species? What do you want out of them? Easy to keep, not much color, no breeding: amanos. Somewhat easy to keep, more interesting colors, breeding: neocaridina. Hard to keep, amazing patterns and colors, breeding: caridina. (Don't start with caridina, especially in a high-tech community tank) If I were to keep galaxy rasbora's with them, will it cut down on the population? Yes, they would likely prey on babies if you got the shrimp to breed. If so would getting a large colony going first be good? Yes. Also, having lots of mosses and plant cover for the shrimp. What about bristle nose pleco's?Possibly better, they might eat a baby shrimp every now and then. The biggest thing here is that you should figure out what you want to keep, get very familiar with their preferred parameters, and build a tank around that. Shrimp tend to be tricky to keep and breed well so throwing them in a tank that wasn't designed to suit them usually ends poorly. The high-tech planted community tank thing is probably not going to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protek Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 ok so do I just read my tank parameters and pick a shrimp from there? Apparently I have already built my tank so that is where it's at. Also I have a Ph monitor on my co2 injection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aotf Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Yeah, if your tank is already set up then posting the parameters can help people guide you to a suitable shrimp. It's likely your parameters won't be great for shrimp right off the bat but depending on what you're working with, you might be able to modify it enough to make it a better fit. I'm seeing some mystery stones in there, if they leech minerals into the water you'll see a kH rise and high pH, meaning you're looking at amanos, neos, and maybe some tigers (a hardy subset of caridina). Fancy caridina won't do too well. Quick reference: Neocaridina tend to like pH 6.5-7.5, kH 3-5, gH 6-8 while most caridina prefer pH 6.2-6.4, kH 0-1, and gH 4-6. The CO2 is an issue for a couple reasons: pH swing every day and CO2 poisoning. It's my impression that shrimp are much more sensitive than fish to stress from CO2 in the water. There are people who pull off low-CO2 injection in shrimp tanks but they are the exception rather than the rule. I do apologize if I'm coming down on you. You're trying to do something very hard (high-tech community tank with breeding shrimp) and I want to convey that to you so you can manage expectations and your course of action appropriately. It would really suck for you if you got really into shrimp, bought $200 of fancy caridina, and watched them die 1 hour after putting them in the tank. If there's one thing I've learned with shrimp is that you really can't ask too many questions or do too much research, they can be very finicky creatures. Shrimporama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyzazz Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 I agree with @aotf on all of the above. If you really want to keep shrimp I'd suggest getting the tank setup and cycled, then letting it mature for a bit to build up biofilm on the surfaces. Biofilm is the primary food source of our little shrimpy friends (Well Neocaridina & Caridina anyway) and they prefer this over all other foods. You can keep fish with your shrimp, but you will need to expect predation and understand that this will keep your colony numbers down. IMHO there is no truly "Shrimp-Safe" fish. If you're using Akadama you will likely be looking at keeping Caridina, this means Crystal Reds/Blacks, Taiwan Bees, Some Tiger Shrimp, etc... ...while you're waiting for your tank to mature a bit start looking at all the different kinds of shrimp you can keep. There are a ton of different color patterns and types, looking here in The Marketplace and online at some of the different Vendors online will give you a good idea of what is out there. If you're using RO water you'll need to remineralize (I use Salty Shrimp GH or GH/KH+ depending on the shrimp I'm keeping) to provide all the minerals shrimp need to survive and thrive. Above and beyond that... ...Welcome to Shrimpspot! Please feel free to ask any and all questions pertaining to shrimp keeping, it may seem overwhelming at first but this site and its members are a great resource! Shrimporama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aotf Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 4 hours ago, wyzazz said: If you're using Akadama... That slipped by me in the OP. I know nothing of Akadama but it seems like there are many different sub-types with varying buffering abilities and nutrient levels so I don't know that I can make a valid recommendation based on my lack of experience with these soils. That said, it's generally considered a no-no to have a source of kH in the tank with a buffering soil. The kH will exhaust the substrate's ability to buffer down your water more quickly and you'll end up with pH creep in a year (or less!). I mention this because of the rocks I pointed out earlier. If your soil does buffer down and your rocks do leech kH (limestone stuff does this a lot), consider swapping out the rocks for something completely inert. Otherwise, you'll have a tank that is not good for neos in the short term (because of the low pH), but becomes a time-bomb for caridina in the longer-term. If your rocks are inert, you can ignore everything I just said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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