# Shrimp?



## BeautifulBetta123 (Aug 27, 2012)

So I really like shrimp and would like to start a shrimp tank.
I have an extra 10 gal laying around and would love to have a shrimp tank. I would like to know.
1. What equipment would I need?
2. Do I need a planted tank?
3. What should I feed them?
4. Can I have different types of shrimp in one tank? If not could I divide a tank?
5. Where can I buy rare / unusuall shrimp?
Thanks everyone!


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

What type of shrimp?


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## BeautifulBetta123 (Aug 27, 2012)

I don't know, but I would like different shrimp, like the blue ones at Big Al's were cool. 
I am looking for different ones than ghost and cherry shrimp.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I'm looking into those blue ones too. As of now I have cherries and Amanos, Amanos are ugly but fun to watch and IMO the best algae cleaner. They don't breed in aquariums though. The blue ones that I showed you are a mutation of cherry shrimp if they were labled correctly, so no keeping cherries with them unless you want ugly brown babies. You could always divide it though!

1) Equipment- Umm... The tank? No heater necessary (but probably beneficial) and filter is optional.
2) Plants- Not necessary, but beneficial. I find that mine absolutely love moss.
3) Food- Depends on how many. Fish pellets, algae wafers, etc are good if there are too many to live off of the plants/biofilm.
4) Mixing- Species dependant. The cherries, snowball, blue jelly, etc are all in the neocardina family and will interbreed and make ugly babies. Divided is fine. With a few exceptions, dwarf shrimp can all be housed together peacefully but breeding is where you get problems. If you want to mix a neocardina and crystal shrimp or something like that that's fine.
5) Aquabid, big als, etc. The rare kinds are expensive.


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## Artemis (Mar 9, 2013)

Ghost shrimp are good starters but you can find very unusual and rare (read: $50+) shrimp on AquaBids. 

I have 2 ghost shrimp in with my betta Rossi, they keep the tank crystal clear. They eat letover betta food but since bettas are carnivores, I add in some tropical granules every few days but not to often so they don't get over fed. A lot of places say that a 10 gal is fine for 100-150 shrimp. No. I would start with only about 10 unless you get a species that is hard to breed, otherwise you WILL be over run. 

They don't need a filter but they like large air stones like these http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Aquarium-Air-Stones-Wands/I/Aquafizz-Air-Stones.aspx Make sure they can climb on it some, they enjoy it a lot.

Any shrimp wants a planted tank, they contain tiny good bugs that break down plants for the babies to eat. Add some hiding spots like a half of a small flower pot or large rocks to play in. Duckweed looks nice in a shrimp tank, more so then other floaters in my opinion.

Some shrimp can live together, some can't, some eat specific things like bacteria from water, others eat algae.


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

I would recommend trying ghost shrimp first. They are only like 34 cents and if your fish eats them or they stress him out you won't have lost anything. I just added mine today and my most placid fish killed one already, which is completely fine by me because it encourages his instincts but I'm glad I didn't invest much.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

If you guys read the post you would have noticed that it will be a shrimp only tank and that she didn't want ghosts.


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## BeautifulBetta123 (Aug 27, 2012)

Thanks Matt 
It will be a shrimp only tank with live plants and dividers, 
I have decided to stick with some Cherry shrimp and another kind to start off. 
I have extra Fluval Substrate from my planted 20 gal so I can use that. I will also stick in a sponge filter (Thanks Matt for that) and should I have a heater? If so what temp should it be at?


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

oh. whoops! lol


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

For cherries, I believe 75 is a fair temperature. IF it raises above 78 they are unlikely to breed.


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## Bombalurina (Oct 10, 2011)

I keep my shrimp with my bettas and other fish at 80F. In that particular tank, they started with about 10, and now I'm up to about 70, so I'd say they breed well enough at 80F.  

Cherries are really lovely and breed very well, so they are a great starter shrimp. The next level up in terms of difficulty is probably Crystal Reds, which are even prettier, but I did not manage to breed.  However, in a 10 gallon they would probably do very well (I only had a 3 gallon).


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

Just saying they are more likely to breed at slightly lower than 80 temps.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

So after setting up my RCS tank with gravel substrate I got all kinds of extra tank bugs, one being planaria. I read planaria will harm baby shrimp so I removed the gravel and any planaria I see each day. Plus the amount of poop that goes into the gravel was hazardous for my 2.5 in terms of ammonia and nitrite. Keep that in mind because I really didn't know until it happened.


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