About to start a shrimp tank...

Hi,

I'm looking to expand into shrimp keeping, possibly leading to breeding them (as there seems to be a lack of certain shrimp in my area). I've thought about getting 3 smaller tanks (30L each) but have thought that it might be easier to get one bigger tank (90L) and put in two mesh walls to create 3 separate compartments so that the different shrimp can't interbreed and the tank will be easier to maintain.

The three main shrimp I'm looking at are Red Cherry Shrimp, Yellow Cherry Shrimp and Blue Pearl Shrimp. Possibly moving upto Crystal Red Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp & Rhino Shrimp once I get confident enough and feel I'm ready as they seem like the next step up.

I was wondering if having 3 compartments in one tank would work? As I'd be looking to breed them I'm abit worried that the mesh wouldnt be enough to stop interbreeding? Any tips would be welcome, quite excited to be expanding my collection!

Dan

 

I wouldn't use tank dividers you get from the store. I can foresee shrimplets crossing over.

If you want one long tank, I suggest dividing with glass panels and have individual sponge filters in each compartment. For each compartment, make sure you have some kind of aquatic plant, preferably java moss or guppy grass.


If this is your first time keeping shrimps, I would suggest starting off with a 10 gallon/37 liter tank and with one color. Once you get the hang of breeding one color, then I would do the long tank with 3 compartments. After the long tank is establish, I would use the 37 liter tank to put your dull looking colors in (I'm not a fan of culling/killing dull color shrimps so I let them live in the community tank).

 

I agree, I would start smaller and get a good idea of the shrimp, Here is what I would do, start with one 10gal as stated, get something going for yourself. Then get the big tank (and I agree you will need a more solid panel, either glass or plexI or something like that) I would then also consider a few extra 10s to QT and new comers in.

 

I'm glad I asked about the divider now, had a sneaky thought that I might need something more solid to separate the compartments. I would definatley add the above mentioned plants as I've researched into shrimp and these plants come across as standard issue.

I've had shrimp before, RCS, which I kept in a tank with Black Kuhli's and some Guppies and they bred quite well, although I never saw the guppies eat any of them, I presume I lost babies to them but never had any adults go missing.

I think I will dust off an old tank and start with a smaller one first, and in the meantime I can get the bigger tank, cycle it and then either expand my shrimp collection or use it as another community tank.

I do have a question now regarding culling etc, when breeding a specific shrimp, for example RCS, will there be a fairly large portion of offspring that would be deemed as surplus to their species? I did used to have a lot of Zebra Danio's (went from 6 to around 30 fairly quickly) but I'd of said only 2 of them were poor quality, which I thought was quite a good percentage. If its going to be very likely that I would need to "offload" quite afew, then I would keep a spare tank open for the unique ones.

 

I think it all depends on your stock, the quality of the shrimp you get.

 

I'll make sure I shop around, I feel a road trip coming on...