[freph]

Setting up my shrimp tank in its entirety on Monday. Tank is a 20g long style. It will contain Aqua Soil Amazonia New, Power Sand Special S, granite rocks, an HC carpet, fissidens fontanus, java moss and a few oak twigs. Equipment will be an Eheim 2215 (carbon pad at first and 2 100mL packs of Purigen, then removing the carbon pad after a month or so...using lily pipes with this), Hydor 200W ETH, paintball CO2 injection via ceramic glass diffuser and a 2x24W 24" T5-HO light. I will be keeping Fire Red Cherry Shrimp for now unless I decide to add a few nanofish. My tap water is pretty much harmless....pH around 7-7.4, dunno the hardness...I should probably test that. It's well water. I will be dosing EI.

Questions I have:
1. The temperature in my house is generally 80 at any given time since my father is extremely cold natured from multiple back operations (mm...metal). My fish are doing fine in my 20g tall with the heater set on 78 for when I run my window AC unit. Are the shrimp and shrimplets if they breed going to be fine in the long run at these slightly higher temps, or should I set their heater lower and let it get colder during the night?

2. The Eheim 2215 with Purigen should be plenty of filtration for a shrimp tank. I'm aware that lily pipes spread out the flow so it's not as strong in most places. Should I even use the lily pipes, or should I use the default spray bar and intake and cut them to the height and width of the tank and spray from end-to-end?

3. Another filtration question. The Eheim 2215 should also be sufficient biological filtration for a tank this size and a small bio load of shrimps, right? I will also have a sponge prefilter on the intake to keep the shrimps from getting sucked up into the filter.

4. I've read that Cherries are pretty tolerant of their environment. Are there any specific parameters that I need to pay special attention to to make sure they're comfortable?

5. Do I need to feed them any sort of special supplements, or will they be fine grazing the HC and their molts?

6. While the tank is cycling, I was planning to keep the shrimp out of the tank in a tupperware container with a patch of fissidens to avoid the shock of the aqua soil leaching ammonia and having the surplus ammonia to fuel the bio filter. Will they be fine for a couple of weeks as long as I change their water daily?

7. Continuing from number 6, if there's only plant life in the tank is it necessary to perform water changes while the tank is cycling, or does it help the bio filter more to do water changes?

Thanks a ton folks. I really want to do this tank big and do it right...and I'd like all the help I can get.

 

[joshh]

You don't really need to put on your heater yet. I took all mine off once summer hit and probably wont put them back on until it gets cold enough to get the tank below 70. You might want your tank at least below 75.

I don't know the size of your tank, so I don't know if it will be enough filtration but I enjoy lily pipes more so then spray bars. For me, they're also easier to clean. I do have to use a 2+ft spraybar for my 12g long tank though..so it may also depend on your tank.

Cherries are tolerant. Just watch your co2. You need to feed them, just not a lot. There's a lot of different shrimp food out there and they usually come with enough to last a while. The sponsors/power sellers on this forum carry some.

Someone else can help you with the shrimp in tupperware. I've never done it.

 

[freph]

Sorry, it's a 20g long. I updated my post to include that.

 

[freph]

Bump...all questions don't have to be answered at once.

 

[freph]

Bump?

 

[GeToChKn]

1. 75 is fine for cherries. They are pretty tolerant of water temps.

2. I keep my cherries in a tank with a Rena filter and had the spray bar going.

3. Babies will get sucked up, so a sponge pre-filter is a good idea. They clog fast though, so be prepared to clean it a few times a week.

4. They do fine from pH 6-8, and anything in between. I wouldn't worry about them

5. Algae wafer, sinking food every once in a while. I run a sponge filter in my tank as well and they love cleaning the sponge filter off and gets lots of good stuff to eat from there.

6. If you don't have the cherries yet, I wouldn't keep them in a tuperware container and just wait until your tank is fully cycled. They are hardy but better off waiting to get them until you get the tank cycled for a bit.

7. Just keep watching the parameters until its fully cycled. I use a few feeder guppies from my turtle tank to cycle my last few tanks. They are hardy as hell and haven't had a single loss using them.


Get your tank cycled, add them, and in a month or two when they are settled in, you should have lots of babies. I have about 9 berried females right now.

 

[freph]

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it. Good to know the shrimp will be alright. However, I already purchased them since I didn't know how long they'd be in stock and...well....that was a bad idea on my part. :iamwithst I saw em, liked em, ordered em and now have em lol. Do you think they will be alright in the tupperware container as long as I keep it maintained well and give them food?

Yay at thought of babies though! I'd love to have a nice colony going. Plenty of inspiration right there.

 

[GeToChKn]

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it. Good to know the shrimp will be alright. However, I already purchased them since I didn't know how long they'd be in stock and...well....that was a bad idea on my part. :iamwithst I saw em, liked em, ordered em and now have em lol. Do you think they will be alright in the tupperware container as long as I keep it maintained well and give them food?

Yay at thought of babies though! I'd love to have a nice colony going. Plenty of inspiration right there.

If you have an air pump already, you could get a cheap sponge filter and throw it in the container. Or just a small sponge filter and a small 2.5gal tank.


Wait, thats how I ended up with 7 tanks now. lol.

Babies will come with cherries. From what others say, just about any fish may eat babies when they are first born, so something to consider if do plan on getting fish, they will keep the cherry population down a bit. Lots of moss provides good hiding spots though for the babies and would help.

 

[freph]

A smaller aquarium eh.....hmm. I'll have to ride out to PetsMart tomorrow during my break between classes. I think their 2.5g tanks are like 10 bucks or something. I could also pick up an air pump and airstone but I don't believe they sell sponge filters. I could just run the HOB on it without the air pump I guess...As far as the babies go, I plan to have both java moss and fissidens fontanus in it. I'm just trying to let both of them grow out a little bit first.

 

[GeToChKn]

A smaller aquarium eh.....hmm. I'll have to ride out to PetsMart tomorrow during my break between classes. I think their 2.5g tanks are like 10 bucks or something. I could also pick up an air pump and airstone but I don't believe they sell sponge filters. I could just run the HOB on it without the air pump I guess...As far as the babies go, I plan to have both java moss and fissidens fontanus in it. I'm just trying to let both of them grow out a little bit first.

It will take the cherries a few months to settle in and feel comfortable to breed, but once they start....My first berried cherry is already saddled too, so she had new eggs ready to be fertilized as soon as she hatches these ones. Keep them happy and they will keep going perpetually.

 

[freph]

It will take the cherries a few months to settle in and feel comfortable to breed, but once they start....My first berried cherry is already saddled too, so she had new eggs ready to be fertilized as soon as she hatches these ones. Keep them happy and they will keep going perpetually.

Yay. Will what I suggested previously work though?

 

[GeToChKn]

I use one of these on my 2.5gal http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4239991

 

[freph]

I'll be using an Aqueon QuietFlow 20(or 30...I can't remember) lol. Overkill much? I just want the shrimp to stay healthy and comfy.

Thanks for your attention to this thread btw.

 

[GeToChKn]

I'll be using an Aqueon QuietFlow 20(or 30...I can't remember) lol. Overkill much? I just want the shrimp to stay healthy and comfy.

Thanks for your attention to this thread btw.

Over filtration never killed anything. lol. All my tanks are heavily over filtered.

 

[freph]

Good to know. Mine as well. I do believe I'll go pick up the 2.5g. Thanks for the input!

 

[GDP]

In of itself there is nothing wrong with keeping them in any container really. Its just that you need a filter capable of converting the ammonia quickly enough to not kill the shrimps. If you haven't already planted the HC I gave you, you might want to throw that in there with them. As that HC should have a decent amount of bacteria on it. With a bit of water flow over that, it should help. Oh and I forgot you said you are going to throw in the fissidens as well. Thats also a good idea.

But overall I would feel it to be risky. Might be fine or they might die. You really should have waited until the tank was fully cycled. But its a mistake I made myself the first time I started keeping shrimp. Although for me it was CRS, RCS should be a little more resilient.

 

[freph]

Shrimp are going to be in a separate container that will receive frequent water changes until the 20g cycles. The 20g in its current state has 0 ammonia...I think the shrimp just produce so little that it's negligible. Funny thing...I've got that HC you gave me pinned to the bottom right now (you can see it in the Plants section) and it's doing pretty well. The shrimp LOVE it....about half of my shrimp stock is on it any given time, haha. No clue how I'm going to get it to root once I have the soil though.

 

[GDP]

To plant the HC you actually have to plant it in little itty bitty clumps. Or really individual strands throughout the substrate. It will grow into a huge carpet after a few months.

 

[freph]

Yeah...hopefully with the lily pipes it won't have enough flow to blast it out of the soil. I know I had a time even planting a tiny bit in my 20g tall because of the brittle roots and pool filter sand substrate.

 

[Jorge_Burrito]

Depending on how many cherries you have I would say they will be fine in tupperware with some plants, even without a filter. Several of us keep unfiltered shrimp bowls where we 3 or 4 adults and 40+ juveniles in a 1 gallon. Water change about once a week. A key part of that is having lots of active plant life growing. Amazonia takes awhile to leach out the ammonia. You don't need to worry about adding an ammonia source for your tank (like a guppy), the aquasoil does it for you. Plan on a housing situation for the shrimp for at least a month.