# Putting snails with Red Cherry Shrimps



## trioracles

hi, im a total noob at owning an aquarium. i just ordered my first tank , Fluval Chi 6.6 gal, along with 20 RCS , and live plants ( tiger lotus, water lettuce, horn wart, marimo, bacopa caroliniana, pellia) the reason i chose shrimp is because i heard theyre REALLY easy to take care of. They eat waste so i barely have to feed and they keeps the water clean (thats what my research told me). i also got a little heater to keep them warm.

I really want to make an eco system so that i wont have to do much. since they already take care of themselves plus my filter and heater , it shoukld be no problem right?

i also want to add snails. i read that they also clean up the tank and their waste becomes food for the shrimp. i want to know which type of snail would get along with the rcs? 

also, can someone give me some info on nitrates/ammonia/ and ph lvls?

i got live plants so i thinhk i got the nitrate problem covered, what about others?=o 

again, im a noob at this. This is going to be my first aquarium. sorry for asking so many questions. 

Am i missing anything??

TYY


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## axelrod12

trioracles said:


> hi, im a total noob at owning an aquarium. i just ordered my first tank , Fluval Chi 6.6 gal, along with 20 RCS , and live plants ( tiger lotus, water lettuce, horn wart, marimo, bacopa caroliniana, pellia) the reason i chose shrimp is because i heard theyre REALLY easy to take care of. They eat waste so i barely have to feed and they keeps the water clean (thats what my research told me). i also got a little heater to keep them warm.
> 
> I really want to make an eco system so that i wont have to do much. since they already take care of themselves plus my filter and heater , it shoukld be no problem right?
> 
> i also want to add snails. i read that they also clean up the tank and their waste becomes food for the shrimp. i want to know which type of snail would get along with the rcs?
> 
> also, can someone give me some info on nitrates/ammonia/ and ph lvls?
> 
> i got live plants so i thinhk i got the nitrate problem covered, what about others?=o
> 
> again, im a noob at this. This is going to be my first aquarium. sorry for asking so many questions.
> 
> Am i missing anything??
> 
> TYY


You are going to need to cycle your tank before adding shrimp. A cycle is the process of establishing beneficial bacteria. These bacteria process ammonia, which is a byproduct of waste in the tank, down into nitrites. Then another set of bacteria will process the nitrites into nitrates. At this point we do routine water changes to remove nitrates from the tank. Plants help with this but depending on how heavily planted a tank is nitrates may still build up. Water changes are still necessary as they help to do other things such as reduce total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water. If water evaporates and all we do is top off the water dissolved solids will continue to build up. We must change water to bring the levels back down.

Shrimp should still be fed. They will get a lot of their food by grazing on the biofilm in an established tank. However, they still need other sources of nutrition. There are specialized shrimp foods and people also feed fresh veggies occasionally. As for them being easy to take care of, I suppose they can be looked at that way in a sense. They don't contribute much to the bioload of a tank and can forage for food off plants and biofilm. However, shrimp in general can be sensitive. They like consistent water parameters and can be very sensitive to nitrate rising to high and to even small amounts of ammonia or nitrite.

As for the original question. You should be able to keep most snails with RCS. Often when buying plants there are certain "pest" snails that will hitchhike their way into the tank. They are considered pest snails simply because they can reproduce easily and in large numbers. These can be Malaysian Trumpet snails, Ramshorn snails, or pond/bladder snails. Other snails will probably have to be introduced by you. Nerites, Apple snails, etc.


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## trioracles

So when cycling all I need to do is set up the tank and turn on my filter right?


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## kcoscia

Technically yes, because the bacteria will float in from the atmosphere but there are ways to kickstart a cycle. You can purchase the bacteria. I've used tetra safe start with success. You can also use bacteria already established in another filter, of yours, or a friend 

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## takeshi

I have a bunch of Ramshorn snails that get along perfectly with my RCS!


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## axelrod12

You should add an ammonia source when cycling. This is the bacteria's source of food and is necessary for them to multiply. You can either add pure bottled ammonia from a dollar store or ace hardware. Make sure it has no surfactants in it. Or you can do something like tossing in a dead shrimp from the grocery store.


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## kcoscia

Fish food will get the job done too. It just takes a bit of time to decay and create ammonia.
I know finding ammonia can be hard. I've cycled the fish food way and it works. Just takes time and the ammonia added isn't as precise.


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## Tugg

How many plants do you have. I well planted tank may not cycle.


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## kcoscia

Why do you say that? The ammonia has to be turned to nitrates for the plants to use it right? I'm not sure I get what you're saying

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## axelrod12

kcoscia said:


> Why do you say that? The ammonia has to be turned to nitrates for the plants to use it right? I'm not sure I get what you're saying
> 
> Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk


I think there's varying degrees of though on that but I believe plants can utilize ammonia. Higher levels of ammonia can melt plants though. Whether they prefer ammonia to nitrate I think depends on the plant though.

EDIT:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=52481

Post #3 by Tom Barr in this thread gives some insight to it.


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