[evil nick]

I was thinking of dry starting my 55 to get the carpet plants rolling. One Idea I had was getting some shrimps and putting them in to see if they would breed before I completed and added fish, since my fish would eat any shrimp added in their tank now.
One question I had though was how are shrimps with no heat?
I would pretty much only have a couple inches of water in this tank and just be able to MAYBE run a DIY sponge filter for the time but thered be no way to heat the water.
Would they be able to even live let alone breed?
I was just going to grab a random amount of different shrimps and dump them in.
Thanks

 

[touch of sky]

If you are wanting to start a colony of breeding shrimp, you are better to pick one species since different species have different water requirements.
The easiest shrimp and one of the more inexpensive shrimp to start with would be red cherry shrimp. They are one of the more accommodating shrimp when it comes to temperature and water. I have a colony of rcs in a little 10 gallon planted tank and have successfully kept them for five years with no heater, just room temperature. Cherry shrimp are in the Neocaridina family, and there are now different colours available including yellow, blue and orange. They have much the same requirements as red cherry shrimp, but can be more expensive. It is not a good idea to mix the colours, though, since they will interbreed and you will end up with a brown coloured shrimp. It would be fine to have low water, and a sponge filter.
I am sure you will get other opinions and suggestions!

 

[miataisalwaystheanswer]

I have RCS breeding in a Rubbermaid bin with only a sponge filter no heater. And yea dont mix neos. If you want multiple breeding species get RCS/tiger/malawa

 

[WaterLife]

Whether they can live depends if the nitrogen levels stay healthy (assuming your substrate doesn't leach ammonia/ammonium or much nitrates and that you can use a cycled filter in that low water level) and you provide surface agitation. They can tolerate a wide range of temps, so as long as it's not too drastic.

Shrimp will stress the same as fish, the more things are out of their preference range, the less likely they will be happy enough to breed successfully or even be healthy. I know that fish can get stressed with low water levels (they sense they are in danger of a drought), I am not completely sure if shrimp do too, but I would assume so. The low water level is a low water volume and so it has less dilution potential of nitrogen levels so they can feel the toxic effects of nitrogen since it reaches higher levels than it normally would in a large body of water. Less water volume also has less stable water temperature so their body has to deal with fluctuating temps (unless your house is heated and stays rather stable 24/7). The low water level in itself decreases space (vertical) so that may be a factor as well. The point I am getting to is that if the shrimp are happy enough (which there are a whole lot of factors) they will breed readily, but the more out of their preference range/more stressors their body has to deal with the slower they will breed or not breed at all. I can't say for sure whether or not they will breed in those conditions, but if you can use a filter (for nitrification and oxygen) and the temps stay relatively stable, they should still breed (assuming the other water parameters are suitable) albeit probably not as fast as they would in a even better environment. Then again they might not breed at all, as it can sometimes take months before shrimp settle into a new environment and start feeling comfortable enough to start breeding, or maybe they would breed, but the females would get stressed out and drop eggs. Just reasoning it out. As long as the shrimp would survive in that set up, you can just try it out.

By the way, what fish would you be stocking? Are they big enough to eat the adult shrimp?

Mind the nutrient levels as well if you are dosing or your substrate leaches, as the water volume is low so ppm can build up and may be too high/hard for the shrimp's exoskeleton.

 

[evil nick]

Whether they can live depends if the nitrogen levels stay healthy (assuming your substrate doesn't leach ammonia/ammonium or much nitrates and that you can use a cycled filter in that low water level) and you provide surface agitation. They can tolerate a wide range of temps, so as long as it's not too drastic.

Shrimp will stress the same as fish, the more things are out of their preference range, the less likely they will be happy enough to breed successfully or even be healthy. I know that fish can get stressed with low water levels (they sense they are in danger of a drought), I am not completely sure if shrimp do too, but I would assume so. The low water level is a low water volume and so it has less dilution potential of nitrogen levels so they can feel the toxic effects of nitrogen since it reaches higher levels than it normally would in a large body of water. Less water volume also has less stable water temperature so their body has to deal with fluctuating temps (unless your house is heated and stays rather stable 24/7). The low water level in itself decreases space (vertical) so that may be a factor as well. The point I am getting to is that if the shrimp are happy enough (which there are a whole lot of factors) they will breed readily, but the more out of their preference range/more stressors their body has to deal with the slower they will breed or not breed at all. I can't say for sure whether or not they will breed in those conditions, but if you can use a filter (for nitrification and oxygen) and the temps stay relatively stable, they should still breed (assuming the other water parameters are suitable) albeit probably not as fast as they would in a even better environment. Then again they might not breed at all, as it can sometimes take months before shrimp settle into a new environment and start feeling comfortable enough to start breeding, or maybe they would breed, but the females would get stressed out and drop eggs. Just reasoning it out. As long as the shrimp would survive in that set up, you can just try it out.

By the way, what fish would you be stocking? Are they big enough to eat the adult shrimp?

Mind the nutrient levels as well if you are dosing or your substrate leaches, as the water volume is low so ppm can build up and may be too high/hard for the shrimp's exoskeleton.

blue acara, angle, some mollies, 2 platys, female krib, 2 small clown loaches, and some algea guys. the acara alone goes after whatever it can as he seems to hate flake food

 

[WaterLife]

Haha, well then, breeding the shrimp isn't very much worth the time since even the adults would get gobbled up. Don't count on them breeding or surviving either (even with lots of ground cover) when the fish get in there. The whole colony would be gone within a day or two. Better off just buying feeder ghost shrimp, or just no live food and only feed commercial food. Better quality diet when feeding high quality fish food like New Life Spectrum anyways. Just being honest.

 

[evil nick]

yeah guess ill scrap the idea. I just want plant safe crustaceans. I was hoping the head start on breeding would keep the population going.
I was looking into vampire/viper shrimp as well since they get pretty big but they are impossible to find without ordering them online.

 

[WaterLife]

We get the giant blue wood/vampire/viper shrimp in my area most of the time, you can try asking your LFS to bring some in for you. They should work at a large enough size. Bamboo/Singapore/Flower shrimp might work too. Adult Amano shrimp is iffy depending how large your fish are. Other than that "dwarf" (max around 4-5") crayfish (like Procambarus species) could work as well, they do have claws, but most of them are too slow, but still wise to research the particular species to be sure of temperament.