I constsistently test my tanks now and my shrimp tank has consistently had 40-80ppm nitrates and they are doing great. I even do water changes with RODI water and the TDS is anywhere between 500-1000. They are all breeding like crazy. Even my Amano Shrimp is pregnant. I didn't think that would happen.
I'm so glad I canr across those as I have very hard Water and high nitrates in my tap water yet all my shrimp are doing brilliant and no deaths. No breeding yet probably because the tanks only sitting at 18c as I don't use heaters but as springs here it will start warming up.
You said here that you leave the tank going for a couple of weeks while it cycles. Will a tank cycle without fish or shrimp (I’m very new) or is it because you said you have nitrites in your water?
@wody738 yes I add a small amount of ammonia to increase the bacteria levels to cycle the tank. Well I did. I have enough tanks now that when I set up a new one I will of purposely left a filter in another tank longer than normal before cleaning and will squeeze it into the new tank to make it instantly cycled to add fish.
I genuinely think pH, TDS and nitrates are worried about more than they need to be. I believe striving for ‘stable’ water parameters is better than striving for ‘perfect’ water parameters 🦐
Great video and very useful. I’m struggling with my 4 shrimp at the moment. Water is good, only have 5 white cloud mountain minnows in an unheated tank. I know I need more shrimp but I’m worried they are dead as I never see them.
Good to see an “action video” !!! Look forward to updates. I notice you say nothing about adding anything to kickstart the cycle? I use a bit of cooked prawn in the tank to create the ammonia. Also beneficial bacteria. K
Thanks for the feedback 🙏🏻. I really enjoyed making this one. New skills to learn, but I was pleased how it turned out. I find adding live plants, which will naturally be covered in bacteria from their previous tank, gets the cycle up and running for me fairly quickly.
Just to let you know, my shrimp seem to be fine with 200-250 ppm of nitrate. That’s about when I pull water from an aquarium to feed my green water cultures.
That's interesting to hear. I have always found both shrimp and fish can tollerate far higher levels of nitrates than the internet would have us all believe
@@FishKeepingAnswers I think some fish may be sensitive to nitrates, but the mean of them seem to tolerate it without showing a sign of stress or discomfort. My rosy minnows (which are an albino mutation of flathead minnows) tolerate even more. They are mud bottom fish, and burrow in the muck where there is plenty of nitrogen and other composting nutrients. I use them to develop high levels of nitrates for my green water cultures. Their water is like pure accelerant for green water.
Hey bud love the vids an info! On your tap water parameters, u might wanna contact someone about the nitrates. Our LFS had a lady come in complaining of that and everyone was telling her she was wrong. The owner of the store told her to contact the water company n report it. Well she did an they found out that close to her neighborhood a main line had a small leak. She an everyone on her st were drinking water that had feces in it!
@@FishKeepingAnswers thanks mate, don’t know if you’ve heard about nitrico/trop co, they’re based in UK, they have goop and prematured filters in bioreactor (lol), I’ve ordered one for my 5 gallon, to start up new shrimp tank, see how it goes and if it really works 😁👌
Very interesting video 👍 How often do you do water changes and in what percentage, and do you chemically treat the new water before pouring it into the aquarium because of chlorine ?
Hi. I will typically carry out between 10% and 50% water changes. I probably don’t carry them out as frequently as I should. I do treat my water as we have chloramine in the tap water. I use Seachem Prime 👍🏻
Hi Richard. Really enjoy you channel. I have a 60L tank, fully planted eith Co2 running. It has 8 chilli and 8 neon green Rasboras. 6 pygmy corys and about 20 crystal red bee shrimp. But i never really see the shrimp. The most ive ever seen out at the same time is 5. Are they shy, or am i doing something wrong ir anything i can do to bring them out more
Hey. Thanks for the positive feedback. It’s nice to know at least a few people are finding value in my work. ‘Fully planted’ does suggest you have ample hiding places for the shrimp, so I would imagine the shrimp all feel safe. Also, all the fish are fairly small, so it’s not like there are large predator fish scaring the shrimp. If it were me, I would try waiting until lights out, then take a pinch of what ever sinking food the shrimp are eating and drop it right up against the front glass of the aquarium. Hopefully, after half an hour to an hour the food should be covered in shrimp. Maybe feed all the other fish before lights out, just so they don’t all swoop down and munch all the food for the shrimp. I hope this advice helps. Please let me know 👍🏻
@@FishKeepingAnswers thankyou for taking the time to get back to me. I will try that tonight once the lights go out. I read your ebook on Caridina Shrimp also. Thats brilliant too. Keep up the great work on your site and channel. Ive learnt loads over the past few weeks 👍
Hi Ive only recently setup a tank, for breeding shrimp, Im a beginner so I already have a tropical tank which is cycled, but the breeding tank isn't cycled yet it is been a week now since I keep adding stability and few fish food but level of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all in 0ppm. Do you suggest adding the shrimp now at this stage? I havr prime and stability and I can just keep dosing the tank to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite what do you think?
Hi check this video. I think it has the answers for you. Patience Pays Off: When to Add Shrimp to an Aquarium ua-cam.com/video/UrQ2AmgtfPI/v-deo.html Richard.
@FishKeepingAnswers hi thanks for your quick response. Yesterday I added thick javamoss from someones tank hopefully it will kickstart the whole process. Plus I already see small white thin worms in the tank same like what happened to my tropical tank when starting out.
Hey Richard. I had an emergency situation where I needed to remove shrimp from my main tank to a newly set up, uncycled 5.5 gallon tank. I did as much as I could to make it safe. I added almond leaves, added bacteria from a bottle and a used sponge from my local store. I’m monitoring the water parameters daily and also dosing daily with Fritz complete. I’m also adding food, but it hasn’t been touched overnight. So I’m guessing they’re too stressed to eat? I’ve also added some plants from my main tank to the new one, to hopefully bring over a bit of biofilm. Will they be okay? Am I going to lose all my shrimp?
Hi. These things happen. Sounds like you have done everything reasonable. I would now just leave them alone for a few days. The chances are they wil be just fine 🤞🏻
@@FishKeepingAnswers ok that’s a bit of a relief. Hopefully the same is to say when I add 11 amano shrimp to it today 😅 they were supposed to go into my main tank but that changed before they could get here.
@@FishKeepingAnswers update. I opted to put the Amanos into the main tank. A 5.5 gallon would be just too small for 10-13 amano shrimp. So I put 2 in the new one and the rest in the main.
Hi I'm from aus and last week i started at new tank for shrimp. I've added Java moss and java fern. i also have a XY-2837 Aquarium sponge Filter. i did a test today to see the parameter water and every think was alright besides the ammonia it around 2.0 ppm or 1.0 ppm. do have any idea to drop it down? wanted to get blue cherry shrimp in next week hopefully.
Hey. I would just wait. Waiting for a tank to be ready is probably the hardest part of this hobby, but if you can wait until you begin to see growth from the plants or algae forming, you will know your tank is close to being ready. I’ll be honest, I rarely test a new tank, but rather I wait until I see signs of normal, natural growth, such as diatom algae forming. Ammonia is the first stage of the aquarium nitrogen cycle. Technically, once that ammonia is converted to nitrite, and then to nitrate, your tank will be ‘cycled’. If you truly can’t wait, which I get, you can water change your way through a new set up, but it’s not ideal. All the best with the blue shrimp when you get them 🤞🏻
A lot of information yet easy to understand.... thank you!!!
🙏🏻
Really enjoy your videos, mate. Thanks for the effort
Thanks for the feedback 🫶🏻
I constsistently test my tanks now and my shrimp tank has consistently had 40-80ppm nitrates and they are doing great. I even do water changes with RODI water and the TDS is anywhere between 500-1000. They are all breeding like crazy. Even my Amano Shrimp is pregnant. I didn't think that would happen.
I'm so glad I canr across those as I have very hard Water and high nitrates in my tap water yet all my shrimp are doing brilliant and no deaths. No breeding yet probably because the tanks only sitting at 18c as I don't use heaters but as springs here it will start warming up.
Glad to hear your shrimp are doing well. Would love to hear how the breeding goes. 🤞🏻
You said here that you leave the tank going for a couple of weeks while it cycles. Will a tank cycle without fish or shrimp (I’m very new) or is it because you said you have nitrites in your water?
@wody738 yes I add a small amount of ammonia to increase the bacteria levels to cycle the tank. Well I did. I have enough tanks now that when I set up a new one I will of purposely left a filter in another tank longer than normal before cleaning and will squeeze it into the new tank to make it instantly cycled to add fish.
UK as well. My TDS averages 400 - Neos are breeding like flies. The most important thing is consistency.
I genuinely think pH, TDS and nitrates are worried about more than they need to be. I believe striving for ‘stable’ water parameters is better than striving for ‘perfect’ water parameters 🦐
@@FishKeepingAnswers Caradina Shrimp - Hold my Beer! :)
Great video and very useful. I’m struggling with my 4 shrimp at the moment. Water is good, only have 5 white cloud mountain minnows in an unheated tank. I know I need more shrimp but I’m worried they are dead as I never see them.
great video! can't wait to see how many you breed in 100 days!
Hopefully the tank doesn’t bomb 🤞🏻
Great video, thank you!
Thanks for the feedback 🫶🏻
Good to see an “action video” !!! Look forward to updates. I notice you say nothing about adding anything to kickstart the cycle? I use a bit of cooked prawn in the tank to create the ammonia. Also beneficial bacteria. K
Thanks for the feedback 🙏🏻. I really enjoyed making this one. New skills to learn, but I was pleased how it turned out.
I find adding live plants, which will naturally be covered in bacteria from their previous tank, gets the cycle up and running for me fairly quickly.
Excellent
Thank you so much 😀
Just to let you know, my shrimp seem to be fine with 200-250 ppm of nitrate. That’s about when I pull water from an aquarium to feed my green water cultures.
That's interesting to hear. I have always found both shrimp and fish can tollerate far higher levels of nitrates than the internet would have us all believe
@@FishKeepingAnswers I think some fish may be sensitive to nitrates, but the mean of them seem to tolerate it without showing a sign of stress or discomfort. My rosy minnows (which are an albino mutation of flathead minnows) tolerate even more. They are mud bottom fish, and burrow in the muck where there is plenty of nitrogen and other composting nutrients. I use them to develop high levels of nitrates for my green water cultures. Their water is like pure accelerant for green water.
Hey bud love the vids an info! On your tap water parameters, u might wanna contact someone about the nitrates. Our LFS had a lady come in complaining of that and everyone was telling her she was wrong. The owner of the store told her to contact the water company n report it. Well she did an they found out that close to her neighborhood a main line had a small leak. She an everyone on her st were drinking water that had feces in it!
🤢
Unfortunately the legal maximum level for nitrates in drinking water here in the UK is 50ppm 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻
Can you just pop in prematured/matured filter from another tank and skip 2-3 weeks of waiting ?
Definitely 👍🏻
@@FishKeepingAnswers thanks mate, don’t know if you’ve heard about nitrico/trop co, they’re based in UK, they have goop and prematured filters in bioreactor (lol), I’ve ordered one for my 5 gallon, to start up new shrimp tank, see how it goes and if it really works 😁👌
Very interesting video 👍
How often do you do water changes and in what percentage, and do you chemically treat the new water before pouring it into the aquarium because of chlorine ?
Hi. I will typically carry out between 10% and 50% water changes. I probably don’t carry them out as frequently as I should. I do treat my water as we have chloramine in the tap water. I use Seachem Prime 👍🏻
How many hours of lighting required for Java moss
I would go for about 8 hours a day 👍🏻
Hi Richard. Really enjoy you channel. I have a 60L tank, fully planted eith Co2 running. It has 8 chilli and 8 neon green Rasboras. 6 pygmy corys and about 20 crystal red bee shrimp. But i never really see the shrimp. The most ive ever seen out at the same time is 5. Are they shy, or am i doing something wrong ir anything i can do to bring them out more
Hey. Thanks for the positive feedback. It’s nice to know at least a few people are finding value in my work.
‘Fully planted’ does suggest you have ample hiding places for the shrimp, so I would imagine the shrimp all feel safe. Also, all the fish are fairly small, so it’s not like there are large predator fish scaring the shrimp.
If it were me, I would try waiting until lights out, then take a pinch of what ever sinking food the shrimp are eating and drop it right up against the front glass of the aquarium. Hopefully, after half an hour to an hour the food should be covered in shrimp. Maybe feed all the other fish before lights out, just so they don’t all swoop down and munch all the food for the shrimp.
I hope this advice helps. Please let me know 👍🏻
@@FishKeepingAnswers thankyou for taking the time to get back to me. I will try that tonight once the lights go out. I read your ebook on Caridina Shrimp also. Thats brilliant too. Keep up the great work on your site and channel. Ive learnt loads over the past few weeks 👍
Thank you so much 🤜🏻
What do you use to cycle your tank in that 2 to 3 weeks?
What if i dont have any filter can i still breed shrimps?
Yep 👍🏻
Hi Ive only recently setup a tank, for breeding shrimp, Im a beginner so I already have a tropical tank which is cycled, but the breeding tank isn't cycled yet it is been a week now since I keep adding stability and few fish food but level of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all in 0ppm. Do you suggest adding the shrimp now at this stage? I havr prime and stability and I can just keep dosing the tank to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite what do you think?
Hi check this video. I think it has the answers for you.
Patience Pays Off: When to Add Shrimp to an Aquarium
ua-cam.com/video/UrQ2AmgtfPI/v-deo.html
Richard.
@FishKeepingAnswers hi thanks for your quick response. Yesterday I added thick javamoss from someones tank hopefully it will kickstart the whole process. Plus I already see small white thin worms in the tank same like what happened to my tropical tank when starting out.
Hey Richard. I had an emergency situation where I needed to remove shrimp from my main tank to a newly set up, uncycled 5.5 gallon tank.
I did as much as I could to make it safe. I added almond leaves, added bacteria from a bottle and a used sponge from my local store.
I’m monitoring the water parameters daily and also dosing daily with Fritz complete. I’m also adding food, but it hasn’t been touched overnight. So I’m guessing they’re too stressed to eat?
I’ve also added some plants from my main tank to the new one, to hopefully bring over a bit of biofilm.
Will they be okay? Am I going to lose all my shrimp?
Hi. These things happen. Sounds like you have done everything reasonable. I would now just leave them alone for a few days. The chances are they wil be just fine 🤞🏻
@@FishKeepingAnswers ok that’s a bit of a relief. Hopefully the same is to say when I add 11 amano shrimp to it today 😅 they were supposed to go into my main tank but that changed before they could get here.
@@FishKeepingAnswers update. I opted to put the Amanos into the main tank. A 5.5 gallon would be just too small for 10-13 amano shrimp. So I put 2 in the new one and the rest in the main.
How many shrimp can you have in a 20 gal tank
Mine also comes out to 45 ppms the fish get used to high levels not the best but fish get used to it
I could not agree more 👍
Hi I'm from aus and last week i started at new tank for shrimp. I've added Java moss and java fern. i also have a XY-2837 Aquarium sponge Filter. i did a test today to see the parameter water and every think was alright besides the ammonia it around 2.0 ppm or 1.0 ppm. do have any idea to drop it down? wanted to get blue cherry shrimp in next week hopefully.
Hey. I would just wait. Waiting for a tank to be ready is probably the hardest part of this hobby, but if you can wait until you begin to see growth from the plants or algae forming, you will know your tank is close to being ready. I’ll be honest, I rarely test a new tank, but rather I wait until I see signs of normal, natural growth, such as diatom algae forming.
Ammonia is the first stage of the aquarium nitrogen cycle. Technically, once that ammonia is converted to nitrite, and then to nitrate, your tank will be ‘cycled’.
If you truly can’t wait, which I get, you can water change your way through a new set up, but it’s not ideal.
All the best with the blue shrimp when you get them 🤞🏻
why not use water from another tank that is already cycled?
Because the beneficial bacteria dont stay in the water. They stay in the substrate, filter media and mmany surfaces.