[pittiepride]

I've read the sticky. Is there anything else I need to know about keeping shrimp in my planted tank?

my tank has very soft water KH of <1 and GH of 3, ph of 6.8
I will be adding pressurized CO2 soon and expect to keep the pH at 6.4 (optimum co2 level). Are shrimp very sensitive to pH? I know they are sensitive to nitrates so I intend to do twice weekly water changes for a couple of weeks.

How do you acclimatise shrimp to a new tank? Just like fish?

What are the best type of shrimp for algae control?

Sorry, I really don't know much about these guys and really want to keep them. I'm doing so much reading right now.

kara

 

[A Hill]

I've read the sticky. Is there anything else I need to know about keeping shrimp in my planted tank?

I would probably recomend you reading a few topics on different shrimp here. Also check out Planetinvert.com and Shrimpnow.com and read the shrimp profiles and such. Avoid copped:flick:

my tank has very soft water KH of <1 and GH of 3, ph of 6.8
I will be adding pressurized CO2 soon and expect to keep the pH at 6.4 (optimum co2 level). Are shrimp very sensitive to pH? I know they are sensitive to nitrates so I intend to do twice weekly water changes for a couple of weeks.

How big is your tank? I don't think you understand how small their bioload is. At most I would probably do weekly, unless you've got like 400 shrimp in a 10g. As for PH it's probably fine for most shrimp, Some like hard water though so do your reading on the species you want to keep. I would recomend Cherries to start out though, then maybe CRS or Blalck diamonds since they love soft water but are very sensitive and the high grades are even more sensitive.

How do you acclimatise shrimp to a new tank? Just like fish?

Yep, Drip or floating bag. Cherries are fine with floating bag usually and crs most people use drip acclimation.

What are the best type of shrimp for algae control?

All dwarf shrimp are algae eaters. Cherries and Amano are probably some of the most widely used. Amano shrimp since they where introduced by Amano himself and do eat lots of algae though. And Cherries because they're hardy, cheap, and easy to breed.

Sorry, I really don't know much about these guys and really want to keep them. I'm doing so much reading right now.

kara

Its good to do your research first. Just keep on reading! Also try to get info from other sources so say here Shrimpnow.com and Planetinverts.com would be good, I personally would stay away from Petshrimp.net. The admin has a bad reputation. He doesn't like any arguments or different opinions and kicked me off after my second day active, for supporting our site here:icon_roll .

Also, What are you keeping in this tank? Just shrimp or also fish? If so keep it to very small fish if you want to have a good breeding rate.

Good luck
-Andrew

PS, Some stuff has the chance to be wrong, just woke up from falling asleep at 3pm from reading great expectations.

 

[tundragirl]

pretty much what Andrew said-although I disagree with the acclimating-unless you are getting them from a store. if you are getting them in the mail I would do a drip meathod over an hour period. after being in the mail the water quality in ther bag is poor -so they can only benifit from longer aclimation.
my 2 cents
Cindy

 

[pittiepride]

Thanks a lot guys. The tank is a 45 g corner bowfront, moderately planted right now with hygro, wisteria, java fern, alternanthera.

The fish are local bred and will be arriving from an hour drive.

The fish load right now is 10 zebra danios, 2 mollies and 3 black skirt (adult) tetras. The plan is to have more danios and white clouds. I believe these should all be fine with shrimp. I beleive the shrimp I am getting are cherries.

I plan on adding baking soda today at waterchange to bring the kh up to 2 or 3. the shrimp should like that better I would think. Our water is so soft, it has an alkalinity of about 5 mg/L.

I'll keep reading.
kara

 

[Burks]

Those fish shouldn't be too big of a threat. Yes, some little shrimp will be lost but that's the price we pay for having fish and shrimp together. I keep adult Guppies in my RCS tank. No problems there.

 

[bulrush]

Zebra danios tend to eat the baby shrimp, but not all of them.

Also, shrimp are very sensitive to sudden CHANGES in water parameters like temperature or pH. So use a drip method over 30-60 minutes to get them used to the water params. I do this: add 1/4 cup of water to bag every 10 minutes. Repeat 2-3 more times. That has always worked for me.

Fish Newb has had luck with his RCS using the floating bag method (only equalizes temperature, not other water params) probably because his source has very similar water to what is in his tank.