Ideal Shrimp Tank Setup

One of my good friends (who is also a neighbor!) has finally been infected by my aquarium love and taken me up on my offer to help him set up a tank. He's been over multiple times and admired my tanks and fish, but really seemed to take a shining to the shrimp. He also works from home now, and would like something beautiful to nurture.

As I'm still pretty new to shrimp keeping myself, I wanted to reach out to you guys on how to set up the optimal shrimp tank for him. He wants a planted tank with colorful inhabitants, maybe some small fish, and a set up that won't be too much of a pain to move in the future (he's currently renting in an apartment complex). He's also a new aquarium keeper, so it'll have to be beginner level.

Here's my questions:
Shrimp type suggestions? Possibly two different types for color/size variety that won't interbreed?
What is the optimal tank size/dimensions for shrimp? Is shallower better? He's open to a good size tank, as this would be going in his sparse living room.
Best substrate? Black sand seems to make colors pop the best.
Best heater?
Filter needs? I have an unused sponge filter I was planning on giving him, rated for a 20g. Do shrimp need a lot of extra filtration?
Plants that shrimp seem to especially like?
Types of driftwood they favor? There is a cholla wood vendor who I love, but I'd love to hear suggestions on other vendors.
Lighting needs?
Easy compatible fish?

Thank you! We appreciate any help!

 

Tank size is down to him, my largest shrimp tank is 29g, my smallest 5.5g.
Two different shrimp is possible they just need to be different species that share similar water conditions. The two easiest and most compatible are cherry varient and tiger varients. My 29 gallon houses fire red cherry shrimp and tiger shrimp.

Dark substrate is best in most cases, I will say with regular tiger shrimp, dark blue shrimp species and black to brown species are practically impossible to see on dark substrates. For that reason I would advise staying away from those shrimp so you'd be looking at a bright cherry morph and then some orange tigers.

Sponge filters are the most ideal filters for shrimp tanks for a number of reasons. First they are the safest option as there are no mechanical parts, adults and babies can't be draw into an intake tube and then minced by an impeller which is always good.
The sponge provides a huge amount of surface area for microorganisms to grow that shrimp like to graze on.
shrimp are very very low bioload so I wouldn't see an issue with a slightly underrated filter as long as there is decent water circulation and no absolute dead spots.

Shrimp don't really prefer certain plants to my knowledge but the more the better in my opinion. Java moss is a great option as it provides plenty of hiding for babies.
Cholla wood is one of the better woods for shrimp, mainly due to the fact it breaks down quicker than other woods, as it breaks down it produces biofilm, the shrimps main source of natural food in the tank.

Lighting needs is down to the plants rather than the shrimp as it's the plants that use the light for their growth.

With fish, the ONLY shrimp safe fish is Otocinclus catfish, every other fish has the potential to each shrimp, the babies are the most susceptible to smaller fish but small fish can still take down fully grown female shrimp.

Just remember with shrimp, it is critical to cycle the tank, they are a lot less tolerant of ammonia and nitrate than fish are. Always drip acclimate shrimp to their new tanks. Don't be afraid to purchase shrimp online or from hobbyists on forums such as this one, shrimp ship pretty well through priority mail.

I have a build thread showcasing how I built my 29 gallon shrimp tank that also shows a few of the color variants of shrimp available, check it out, if you can't find it through my profile let me know and I can provide you with a link.

 

Thank you! That helps a lot.

We went to the store today and picked up a 20 gallon long on sale. Later this week we're hoping to figure out the stand and acquire substrate (pet store was too expensive), so we can fill it with water and start cycling ASAP.

As far as fish, are cory cats also safe with shrimp or are they too energetic?

 

Pygmy cory's shouldn't eat shrimp. Not sure about larger species never kept them together with shrimp. I doubt they would mess with adult shrimp. IMO for the most successful shrimp tank I'd stay away from keeping fish other than a couple of Oto cats.
With fish in the aquarium its likely the shrimp would hide a lot more than without.

 

I have shrimp in most of my cory tanks & the corys totally ignore them, even the babies.
The shrimp aren't bothered by the corys & are out & about all the time, they'll share food & even steal it from under the corys noses.

 

My Harlequin rasboras never bothered any shrimp, nor did my Molly. Only my Betta ate shrimps that were weak one day my filter stopped working.

For a good combo of differently colored shrimps, look at my signature. The propinqua species is the hardest to keep I find, but the other ones are fairly easy. Start with red cherries or amanos and then add some more when you feel like you've got things under control

 

20 gallon, I'd say probably start with some RCS and amanos honestly. There's plenty of room for both. I think I'd skip the fish personally since it sounds like he's far more interested in the shrimp and it reduces the chance of random compatibility issues. Mine regularly are out and swimming all around the aquarium, so it's not something where there won't be activity in part of the tank.

I have mopanI and manzanita in my shrimp tanks, and they seem to like those fine as well. I'd say get a nice mix of plants, whatever type of wood he likes the look of, and set up a scape that he enjoys. As long as there are fun hiding places for the shrimp, all should be good. I say a mix of plants because they do like to climb on things, so you don't want everything to be short. They do like things they can easily stand on, so slightly larger leaves are good. Mine don't tend to hang out on the crypts I have nearly as much as they are on the swords and banana plants.

Heater, you'll want something that will keep the tank a stable temp as per normal. 5 watts per gallon, so 100 watt heater for the 20 should be right. I keep mine around 76.

 

You guys are awesome! This is great advice. Based on your recommendations, we decided to start with cherry and amano shrimp and maybe a few snails.

Stand has been obtained, substrate is being acquired this weekend, and electric paraphernalia is being pulled from my collection or ordered online and in transit.

I'll upload pictures once we start scaping the tank this week!

 

I recently discovered floating moss balls at LPS. They are Christmas moss tied onto some kind of floating ball and anchored at whatever level you want with a piece of fishing line and a small stone. All 3 of my female rcs pretty much live on that thing. The males hang out either in my java moss or picking at my pre-filter sponge.

 

I recently discovered floating moss balls at LPS. They are Christmas moss tied onto some kind of floating ball and anchored at whatever level you want with a piece of fishing line and a small stone. All 3 of my female rcs pretty much live on that thing. The males hang out either in my java moss or picking at my pre-filter sponge.

That sounds really cool. Any idea what they use for the inside?

 

If I had to guess I would say a foam craft ball. The cristmas moss is at least 2 layers and tightly wound. Only 5 bucks a ball so I got two and staggered them taller in the back, shorter up front. Must be tons of goodies growing in them. I've had one girl on the same ball for 3 days happily chowing down. They won't touch my algae pellets at all. Gonna buy shrimp food today.

 

I've seen either hard plastic mesh used for the inside, or floating rock

 

Today we planted the tank! Its been cycling with my pothos and his sponge filter, with dead brine shrimp (from my frozen fish food) as the ammonia supply. Busy schedules kept us from planting it sooner but just this past week the ammonia levels dropped to almost zero. It had been showing high levels of ammonia with fluctuating nitrite and nitrate up until now. The cholla wood ordered from BearPawArtsandCrafts came in the other day and finally got us motivated to plant.

(I highly recommend them if you want to get cholla wood. They have all sorts of great unique shapes, and are very very nice. Here's a link to their etsy page: )





We did a 50% water change while vacuuming up some algae, removed the pothos, got new plants into the tank, and are planning on letting it cycle for a few more days. Later this week we want to test the water again to see if the a/n/n levels are still stable; I'm hoping it was mostly the filter that was processing all the ammonia so changing out the plants won't mess with the cycle too much (we didn't touch the filter during the water change). If all goes well, then we'll order some shrimp and snails.

 

What sort of snails are you getting? I had snails in my tank before but note they pooped a lot too and are like fish. I used to keep Mystery snails about five large ones and they don't last long in the tank. I noticed after a week how much the water fouled with them. With shrimps the bio load is small. If you persist keep the minimum number. Can you check if Amano shrimp are compatible with Red Cherry Shrimps? I read somewhere they are not perhaps one of our forum members can write in.

 

Tank size is down to him, my largest shrimp tank is 29g, my smallest 5.5g.
Two different shrimp is possible they just need to be different species that share similar water conditions. The two easiest and most compatible are cherry varient and tiger varients. My 29 gallon houses fire red cherry shrimp and tiger shrimp.

Dark substrate is best in most cases, I will say with regular tiger shrimp, dark blue shrimp species and black to brown species are practically impossible to see on dark substrates. For that reason I would advise staying away from those shrimp so you'd be looking at a bright cherry morph and then some orange tigers.

Sponge filters are the most ideal filters for shrimp tanks for a number of reasons. First they are the safest option as there are no mechanical parts, adults and babies can't be draw into an intake tube and then minced by an impeller which is always good.
The sponge provides a huge amount of surface area for microorganisms to grow that shrimp like to graze on.
shrimp are very very low bioload so I wouldn't see an issue with a slightly underrated filter as long as there is decent water circulation and no absolute dead spots.

Shrimp don't really prefer certain plants to my knowledge but the more the better in my opinion. Java moss is a great option as it provides plenty of hiding for babies.
Cholla wood is one of the better woods for shrimp, mainly due to the fact it breaks down quicker than other woods, as it breaks down it produces biofilm, the shrimps main source of natural food in the tank.

Lighting needs is down to the plants rather than the shrimp as it's the plants that use the light for their growth.

With fish, the ONLY shrimp safe fish is Otocinclus catfish, every other fish has the potential to each shrimp, the babies are the most susceptible to smaller fish but small fish can still take down fully grown female shrimp.

Just remember with shrimp, it is critical to cycle the tank, they are a lot less tolerant of ammonia and nitrate than fish are. Always drip acclimate shrimp to their new tanks. Don't be afraid to purchase shrimp online or from hobbyists on forums such as this one, shrimp ship pretty well through priority mail.

I have a build thread showcasing how I built my 29 gallon shrimp tank that also shows a few of the color variants of shrimp available, check it out, if you can't find it through my profile let me know and I can provide you with a link.

Wonderful information. Thanks!!!

 

What sort of snails are you getting? I had snails in my tank before but note they pooped a lot too and are like fish. I used to keep Mystery snails about five large ones and they don't last long in the tank. I noticed after a week how much the water fouled with them. With shrimps the bio load is small. If you persist keep the minimum number. Can you check if Amano shrimp are compatible with Red Cherry Shrimps? I read somewhere they are not perhaps one of our forum members can write in.

Amanos and red cherries are definitely compatible, no problem at all.

 

Here in my tank are several fish and shrimplets right on the foliage of my plants. I am lucky that my Betta doesn't eat shrimp nor my other ember tetras or white clouds in the same tank. As probably stated it depends on the Betta you get others are aggressive but mine is tame.



You can barely make out the tiny baby Shrimps but they are there in the second picture. The white Cloud minnows are in the background.