# Shrimp for my tank



## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

Can someone give me advice on what would be good shrimp for my tank? Here are the basics...

Will be heavily planted
pH will be about 6.2
KH 1.5 - 2
GH around 5 degress (add Mg and Ca weekly)

I use EI method of fertilzing the plants. My pH is on the low side so I want to make sure I get some hardy species that will do well if any fit my parameters.

thanks!


----------



## XMX (Feb 17, 2011)

IME, dosing any type of fert is not good for shrimp tanks. My shrimps always die whenever I stick them in a high tech tank (Not all at once, but they disappear slowly over time). Now, all my shrimp tanks are low tech.


----------



## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

Really? I've read on here where plenty of people use the EI method and keep shrimp? I was more worried about about GH, pH, etc. levels. Any other thoughts before I give up on shrimp? Fish do fine with EI dosing and I never lose fish. I realize shrimp are much smaller and perhaps more sensitive, but I have to believe the sort of levels you get from EI aren't too far fetched from nature in a lot of cases.


----------



## Vildayyan2003 (Jul 16, 2011)

My Amanos and Taiwan Fire Red shrimp do just fine.


----------



## madness (Aug 14, 2011)

There is a difference between an ideal shrimp tank (no ferts, no CO2, no fish) and a planted tank that is shrimp friendly.

People definitely have success keeping shrimp in 'high tech' planted tanks but even among more experienced people it isn't always apparent why one has success and another loses the shrimp.

Your risk of losing the shrimp is going to be higher with EI dosing but enough people have pulled it off that it is clearly not impossible. One suggestion that I have heard for helping shrimp to survive pressurized CO2 addition is to also run an airstone. This obviously will 'waste' some of the CO2 but it will also help oxygenate the water and keep the CO2 levels from becoming fatal as quickly.

I am sure that there are similar methods for decreasing the risk of EI dosing methods to shrimp but as with many things in this hobby the answers (or suggestions) seem to vary from person to person.

I would not give up on keeping shrimp at all but I would just proceed with caution and choose either Neos or lower grade (cheaper and hopefully more hardy as well) CRS so that if you have some losses while you figure out how to balance the tank then it won't be the end of the world.

Having a shrimp only tank to breed the shrimp in is a good way, IMO, to be able to afford to spread shrimp to your various tanks. You have a stable population in a small shrimp tank and you can 'seed' the other tanks with extra shrimp that you breed.


----------



## Bryeman (Aug 24, 2009)

Good info. I was thinking about having another tank this weekend for shrimp when I was out and about. May be the way to go. I'll have to do some more research. All of my tanks to this point have been high tech, not because i believe it's necessarily the way to go, but because I like that method. I'm going to need to learn to simplify it if I do a low tech tank.


----------



## Ivyrose (Aug 9, 2011)

Bryeman said:


> Can someone give me advice on what would be good shrimp for my tank? Here are the basics...
> 
> Will be heavily planted
> pH will be about 6.2
> ...


I've been itching to get some cherry shrimp but after reading these comments I'm not sure that they would survive in my tank. I don't know what the EI method of fertilizing is but I use Exel and Flourish in my tank, does this mean I should forget about getting the shrimp?


----------



## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

I'm in a very similar situation... I've got 1 full blown high tech tank (29 gal) and 2 smaller tanks (10G and a 4G nano on my desk) which I dose in a similar fashion.
(RO water, Macro's, Epsom, using EI as a base) 
Plant growth is ridiculous...  the fish absolutely thrive...
but every shrimp I've attempted so far (CRS, RCS, Ghost) wither and die off within a few weeks. They berry up, then go belly up. Same for snails of every type except the most common pond snails. MTS, nerites (3 different varieties) .. everything without a backbone ends up lifeless in a matter of weeks to maybe 3 months... 
I've decided to take the little 4 gallon out of the fert schedule and go with just mosses and hardscape, no dosing.


----------



## Ivyrose (Aug 9, 2011)

I've got two ghost shrimp in there and they seem to be OK apart from hiding most of the time, I keep thinking that's it they've snuffed it then one of them will just prance along the bottom of the tank.

What is EI? I keep seeing this mentioned but could not find it in the abbreviations.


----------



## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

Ivyrose said:


> What is EI? I keep seeing this mentioned but could not find it in the abbreviations.


EI is 'Estimative Index' .... a fertilizing regimen / schedule / plan

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/15225-estimative-index-dosing-guide.html


----------



## Ivyrose (Aug 9, 2011)

Big_Fish said:


> EI is 'Estimative Index' .... a fertilizing regimen / schedule / plan
> 
> http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/15225-estimative-index-dosing-guide.html


Thanks for the explanation. I just noticed this reply.


----------



## h4n (Dec 23, 2005)

I've noticed the same thing. My high tech tank, shrimps slowly die off. 
So I starteda few shrimp only tanks, with moss and low light plants and so far so good.


----------



## SHWAGert (Nov 10, 2011)

shrimp are all highly sensitive to copper, and many standard dosing regimens tend to bring the copper to an unacceptable level. In my shrimp tanks I had to cut way back on the fert dosing to achieve any real long term success. RCS and ghost/glass shrimp tend to be the easiest (parameter-wise) to keep. I have had much less success in keeping shrimp alive and happy when anything more than Excel was needed for CO2.


----------

