Ulli Bauer
Crustaforum-Team
Age: 34
Joined: 04 Mar 2008
Posts: 308
Location: Weinstadt
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Shrimpkeeping 101 - The Basics of Shrimpkeeping
Choosing the right aquarium
- Don't start with excessively small aquariums, it's more difficult to maintain the biological equilibrium in tanks that only hold 10 to 15 l.
- Aquarium complete sets of 60 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm are often a good deal and contain all the equipment you need.
- The filter should be made shrimp-safe; shrimplets can easily get sucked in and killed when the slots of the intake tube or the interior filter are too wide. Keep in mind that very young shrimplets are only 2 mm long at best. You can cover the intake tube or, in the case of an interior filter, the intake slots with a fine nylon stocking or a filter mat. This is relatively inexpensive.
- As an alternative, you could install an HMF (Hamburg Mat Filter), for further information please refer to: http://www.crustaforum.com/ptopic,995.html#995
- Depending on the shrimps' requirements and the tank's location very often the immersion heater can be left out, in most cases room temperature is sufficient.
- The lighting in the cover of aquarium complete sets is sufficient for normal planting - please do not choose plants with high light requirements.
Choosing a suitable substrate
- The substrate color depends on your taste; if you want to keep bottom feeders like Corydoras please pay attention that the substrate granules have a rounded structure. Sand or very fine gravel should be preferred in this case. Dark substrate brings out the colors in some shrimp species, however, it can be quite expensive. Please beware of shiny black substrate with glassy parts and sharp edges, this might be granulated cinder, which contains all kinds of harmful stuff. Very often, colored substrates are coated with synthetic dyes. Please do not wash them with hot water, they can emit harmful substances, too. Crushed basalt is a natural dark substrate that is very recommendable for shrimp tanks.
- You do not need fertilizer soil for keeping normal plants.
Choosing the plants
- For atyid shrimps, aquatic plants with highly dissected or needle-like leaves are recommendable, e.g. Cabomba, Ceratophyllum, Najas, Elodea and, above all, aquatic mosses of all kinds.
- For variation, you can tie aquatic mosses to stones or roots in the water using a piece of nylon string.
- Shrimp love to feed on marimos, or moss balls, which they tirelessly examine for small algae growth or microorganisms.
- In the beginning, fast-growing plants are preferrable since they prevent algae growth. If you don't want to keep these plants eventually, don't plant them into the ground. Ceratophyllum, Najas et.al. also grow when floating in the water. Thus you can easily take them out if you don't like them any more or if you have to reduce their size.
- Plant quick growers like Ceratophyllum or Elodea in the back; if they grow too big, just cut them and put the severed stem into the ground next to the original plant. In this way you'll get a forest-like planting.
- Shrimp also love floating plants. Small floaters like e.g. duckweed are difficult to keep in check. Often the entire water surface is covered with them, and they are difficult to get rid of. Larger floating plants like Salvinia or Water Lettuce are easier to remove and are as beneficial - they dim bright light (which shrimp do not like anyway) and use a lot of nutrients like phosphate or nitrate.
- Special ground-covering plants often require a lot of light, and if you have an aquarium complete set your lighting probably won't suffice. In this case you can use marimos, mosses and plants like Sagittaria or freshwater seaweed (Lomariopsis) as foreground plants.
- In order to support the molting and the general well-being of your shrimp you should put dry brown leaves into your tank. You can collect a large quantitiy in fall, store them in dry conditions and put as many as you need into your aquarium - scald them beforehand. Oak or beech leaves will stay in the aquarium for a long time, but once they have started to get soft in the water the shrimp will feed on them and only leave the veins.
However, all tree leaves are suitable here. You could also put the leaves in the foreground if you don't want a plant cover there.
- Don't use plants that emit harmful substances like oxalic acid when cut back. Many shrimp keepers do not have Anubias in their tanks for that reason.
- When you add new plants to a inhabited tank, make absolutely sure that you water them separately for at least a week and change all that water daily. Also remove all the glass fibres aquatic plants are usually planted in. Only thus can you make sure that pesticides or fertilizers are eliminated - they will kill your shrimps if you put those plants into your tank without pre-treatment.
Choosing the right wood
- Shrimp like to feed on submersed wood, apt kinds are mangrove or bogwood. You can also use regional root wood if you boil it thoroughly and submerge it for a few weeks (separately, of course). You can bind moss onto the wood, which makes a great eye-catcher in the aquarium.
- Many people have reported problems with massive dying of their shrimps that could be connected to Mopani wood, you should consider leaving this out of your tank.
Ok, now you have decided on an aquarium, substrate and decoration, now we have to deal with which kind of shrimp to keep:
Beginner's shrimp
Each and every shrimp species has its own special requirements for water quality and environment, so please inform yourself beforehand about the water parameters of your tap water. Having to alter them on a continuing basis is quite tedious. Blending your water every time when you do a water change is time-consuming and can be difficult for beginners.
There is a well-researched list of data sheets about common atyid shrimp and their requirements here in the forum, please refer to: http://www.crustaforum.com/forum,34,-species-data.html (these links are broken at the moment but will be taken care of very quickly)
- Not every shrimp species is suitable for total beginners. It's recommendable to start with a lower-priced species. Thus you can afford to put a nice and possibly larger group in your tank.
- Most atyid shrimps live in groups, you ought to put 10 or more animals in your tank for starters.
- Shrimp will do best in a one-species aquarium, therefore you should limit yourself to just one species. If you plan to keep more than one species, please have a close look at our crossbreeding table: http://www.crustaforum.com/topic,89,-crossbreeding.html
More on crossbreeding: http://www.crustaforum.com/ptopic,298.html#298
- When more than one species that don't cross are kept together it may happen that one of them develops well and the other hardly reproduces. Shrimps with high spawning rates can outpopulate other species that don't proliferate so rapidly.
Examples for shrimp choice:
Red Cherry shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda var. 'red') are a great choice for beginners. They are prolific and get along with practically all water parameters, especially with hard to very hard water. As they can show a very attractive red color they're fun to watch, the red contrasts your green aquatic plants beautifully. The females are often of an intensive solid red, the males are usually less intensively colored, but in some cases even display red stripes. You can also identify the females by their saddle stain in the nape - this is where their ovaries are located; since this species has quite often golden yellow eggs the ovary stain can be seen clearly. When the female has finished egg production it molts and gives off pheromones to the water. At that scent, the males turn crazy and start swimming wildly in search of the female. When one has found her, the mating act starts. The male piggybacks the female and then moves to its underside for a moment and delivers his sperm packets. After that, the female presses the eggs from the saddle stain down to the swimmerettes, to which they adhere. There they stay for about 3 to 4 weeks. The female will move them in order to provide them with oxygen and clean them regularly. Towards the end of the pregnancy you might even detect two small dark points inside the eggs - these are the future shrimp's eyes. When they are fully developed the female moves its swimmerettes frequently, thus helping the young to hatch. In the beginning, the shrimplets are transparent, but they slowly color. Soon you'll have a small Red Cherry colony in your tank. This happens in a relatively short time, this is why I recommend these shrimps especially to beginners.
Further reproductive species are: White Pearl or Snowball shrimp (Neocaridina zhangjiajiensis var. 'white'), Blue Pearl shrimp (Neocaridina zhangjiajiensis var. 'blue'), Algae shrimp (Neocaridina heteropoda) and wild-colored Neocaridina zhangjiajiensis and also the Tiger shrimp (Caridina cf. cantonensis 'Tiger').
Co-housing atyid shrimps with crayfish or fish
Atyids thrive in one-species tanks, however, those species that have high reproduction rates can also be kept in densely planted community tanks together with crayfish or fish.
- We recommend small fish that might possibly hunt and eat shrimplets but not the adults.
- Please take into account that your future tank inhabitants have to be compatible to the water parameters and the aquarium outfit (e.g. substrate with round edges for bottom feeders).
- Co-housing shrimp with crayfish is rather problematic. Actually you could say that only dwarf crayfish are apt to live with shrimps as they don't eat plants. In any other case your tank is bound to look like a moon landscape sooner or later.
- Dwarf crayfish need good hiding-places like caves and holes where they can take cover - if they don't have these they can get rather aggressive.
- Take into account that even dwarf crayfish can hunt and eat shrimps, especially shrimplets.
Now you have decided on a shrimp species and you have bought an aquarium, the technical equipment and substrate. We're dealing next with the
Location of the tank
- The aquarium needs a flexible underlay so it rests safely. You can either buy those underlays at your aquaristics dealer or order them via the internet. Or you could simply use a thin styrofoam sheet.
- You put the aquarium on its aquarium cabinet. If you haven't got one especially suited for aquariums you can use an alternative cupboard for smaller tanks if it fulfills a few important criteria.
The cupboard has to be stable and must possess a solid back board, not one made of cardboard or pressed wood. You might have to put such a solid wooden back board in to strenghten the cupboard.
- Smalller and thus lighter tanks can be placed on stable cupboards, an aquarium that holds approx. 12 to 20 l weighs around 15 to 25 kg depending on its contents (substrate, decoration etc.). Due to its relatively easy movability you could even weigh it on the scales. Such a low weight can be endured by normal sideboards or desks or even your windowsill without problems.
- It is important that there is no direct sunlight on the tank, don't place it directly in front of a window. However, it is possible to place a small aquarium on a windowsill - you have to take into consideration that direct sunlight promotes algae growth. Furthermore, direct sunlight can heat the water up to critical degrees. you should always remember to close the shades in summer. Don't forget that! The water in small tanks heats very quickly.
- Please consider that a full aquarium is very difficult to move due to its sheer weight.
Now that you have found a suitable place for your tank, let's proceed with landscaping it. For this reason you can first draw a sketch to have a rough idea how it should eventually look, then you start by
Putting in the equipment
The filter
- Install your shrimp-safe (see above) interior or exterior filter or build in an HMF (Hamburg Mat Filter, see above).
The heating
- The most commonly kept atyid shrimp species tolerate room temperature (22 - 24 °C) exceedingly well. If your aquarium is located in a room with these temperatures you won't need an immersion heater.
- If your room temperatures are considerably lower you put the heater behind the HMF mat or just fasten it inside an aquarium pane with suction cups.
You don't need more equipment for a simple shrimp tank, so we'll go to
Filling in the substrate
- Fill some water into the tank and then add your well-washed gravel or sand, thus you prevent air from being trapped, especially in sandy substrate.
- Then you fill in more water until the tank is approximately half full. In order to avoid sand or gravel from being stirred up and the water from getting even more hazy you place a plate on the substrate and aim your water jet there.
Now we proceed to
Placing the plants and decoration
- Shrimp love aquatic plants with highly dissected or needle-like leaves like Ceratophyllum, Najas, Elodea and aquatic mosses, you should keep that in mind.
- No matter if you place them in gravel or sand, when planting stem plants you should put each stem singularly into the ground and keep a little distance between them so they can grow roots without interference from their neighbors. Stem plants are well suited to the back or middle ground. If they grow too large you can just cut them (e.g. in the middle) and stick the severed piece into the ground alongside. Thus you get attractive dense plants in a relatively short time.
- Place mosses on stones or roots (fasten with nylon string) or just in the foreground of your tank. Shrimp love to sit on them and thus you will be able to watch them without effort. Freshwater seaweed is also attractive in these places.
- Marimos or moss balls are well-liked resting places for shrimp. You can put larger marimos in the back and the smaller ones in the foreground. Marimos store a lot of dirt and debris, so you should take them out and wash them.
- As I mentioned before, dry brown fall leaves are very important for crustaceans. You can take the leaves from any tree, oak or beech leaves take a very long time to decompose in the aquarium. Your shrimp will feed on them, and eventually only the leaf veins will be left.
- You can choose any plant you like, however, some shrimp keepers have reported Anubias to have caused problems in their tanks when being cut back. This has never been proven beyond doubt and many shrimp tank owners have them in their aquariums without trouble.
Plants that require a lot of light can only be kept well if they get all the light they need, so please inform yourself about the plants' needs, too.
- Now you place one ore more roots. It's unimportant where you put them, you can just follow your own liking. As I mentioned before, Mopani can cause trouble in shrimp tanks. If you want to be on the safe side just use mangrove or bogwood - or dry wood from your region (not freshly cut). There have been nice experiments with dry corkscrew hazel twigs - you can place moss on them. Thus you can create interesting eyecatchers with no big effort.
When everything is where it belongs you carefully fill up the water up to the rim (if necessary, use your plate). Then you plug in your filter and your heater if you need one, and now your motto is: Wait and see.
The first inhabitants
Sometimes there are uninvited guests in the plants you have bought - snails. You can also add snails on purpose from the beginning, as they are efficient algae-eaters and also deal with dead or broken-off plant parts. Malaysian trumpet snails (Melanoides tuberculata) burrow the ground similar to earthworms so it's mixed, and fresh water gets to the plant roots. These snails are livebearers, and they can have various colors and forms.
- Tadpole snails (Physa sp.) often get into the tank because they or their eggs adhere to store-bought plants. They stay relatively small and eat leftover food, dead plants and algae. They are of an unobtrusive brownish color and, depending on how much food is available, they can reach astounding reproduction rates. Their spawn is clear, and they lay their eggs on plant leaves or the aquarium panes.
- Ramshorn snails are also very good algae-eaters and dispose of leftover food and dead plants efficiently. They are also very prolific and prefer large plant leaves or the panes for laying their eggs. There are also various brightly colored variants of ramshorn snails, e.g. blue, pink, red or olive green. As the colors mix you should keep just one color strain if you prefer homozygous snails. Sometimes it might be necessary to do a little sorting and selecting.
- There are many color variants of apple snails (Pomacea bridgesii), too. They grow rather large, however (like a table tennis ball or even larger) and spawn outside the water (mostly on the aquarium cover). They really clean the panes from algae, it may occur that they perceive very small plants like Hemianthus callitrichoides as food, even though they do not eat live plants in general. You should give them extra food, they will starve to death in a tank with normal algae growth. Their reproduction levels can be easily controlled by simply removing their eggs. They are great beginner's snails, however, you should count 10 l per snail due to their enormous size. They are not suitable for tanks under 45 l.
- There are many more good algae-eating snails like Neritines, Piano snails etc. that do not reproduce at all in freshwater tanks.
Your next tank inhabitants
- should only be added after some time the tank's biological system needs to mature. Shrimps tolerate rather high nitrite levels, but they are very susceptible to ammoniac, which is metabolized by beneficial filter bacteria that need time to reproduce.
Therefore your tank should mature for approximately 3 to 4 weeks so the said bacteria can form in the filter, in the substrate and on the other surfaces in the tank. Longer standing times do not hurt!
- Just watch possible algae growth and bacterial bloom, these things mostly disappear by themselves when the biological equilibrium is established.
- Getting yourself a testing kit when buying your aquarium won't hurt. These are not exactly inexpensive, but it is worthwhile to be able to test your water parameters. If problems or conspicuities turn up in your tank at a later time it is easier to find a reason and possibly a solution if you are able to test your water.
Now all that's left is to acclimatize your new shrimp to your water - do that verrry slowly by adding only a small quantity of tank water to their container at a time. After a few hours of acclimatization you can catch the shrimp and add them to your tank - without the water they came in, however, as this might contain pollutants or even parasites.
This text was first posted by Noa in the German version of this board. Thank you very much for letting us use it! |
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