# New shrimp friends!



## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

I finally got shrimp for my planted tanks. 
I am very excited! They are neocaridinia, red cherry shrimp and are very red. Shrimp are neat because they are one species where the females tend to be brighter coloured and bigger than the males.

Here is one, probably a male, cheerfully nibbling away. They have this adorable way of eating where they look like they are shoveling food in their mouths with their tiny legs. 









Two probably females - hard to see, on the right.









Annie couldnt care less, which is likely very different than if I had gotten big flashy fish.


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## Fenris-wolf (Apr 17, 2018)

Do they have names?


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Soon you will have many shrimp. 

One of my prettiest tanks was a mix of Ember tetras, pygmy corydoras, and cherry shrimp.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

I like shrimps too. I’ve had Amanos, red shrimps, blue shrimps... But not anymore. They’re jumpers and they always seem to find a place to jump out of. So no more for me.

But congrats on yours, they’re lovely !


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Fenris - No names. _Annie_ is lucky to have a name, I suck at names. Plus, hopefully in a few months there will be so many I can't count them. 

Cowpony - that sounds lovely. I love tetras. I've dreamed of a neon tetra and shrimp tank, or a blue shrimp and ember tank.... But starting with the red cherries for now 

Dechi- yikes! Thanks for warning me, my tank is open topped. And now I'm paranoid because I can't find ANY of them right now...Can't see them on the floor, either but still... I took those photos this morning right after the light came on, and i've heard they are somewhat nocturnal. Hopefully they are just hiding, not dead or jumped out.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Crisis averted. I just saw two.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

For Want of Poodle said:


> Crisis averted. I just saw two.


Male sure you put a lid on, even if just a piece of cardboard temporarily.


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## daabor (Jan 31, 2019)

Also,check/clean your filters out frequently. I attempted to add cherry shrimp to my endler/pygmy cory Aqueon 10 gallon, that has a lid ( with some small gaps). The shrimp never did well in that tank. I would often find distressed looking shrimp in the filter, even though I put a sponge on the filter intake. Snails also did not fair well in this tank, always finding a way out. I did have some long term luck with larger amanos.

Interestingly, shrimp and snails all do fine in my Aqueon bow front 36 gallon. Maybe it is the added depth? The slots on the intake for the filter on this tank are much larger and I did not cover with a sponge.

Let me know how it goes for you. I would still love to try shrimp in my 10 gallon again, but at $6 - $10 each...I might pass. I do have about 7 LARGE amano in my 36 now. They are so much fun to watch. In a way, much more entertaining than the fish.

Is this a shrimp only tank? Although I do not think the tiny endlers and pygmy corys could have killed off all my neocardia, I have always heard the only safe shrimp tanks are fish free.

Good Luck!


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

My shrimp are doing well! The tank is shrimp only, heavily planted and Walstead type, and i was worried for a while as i didnt see the shrimp. I have a sponge filter only. So far due to the low stocking desnity it is the easiest aquarium i have ever kept. i honestly started the tank because i wanted to experiment with aquatic plants not because i wanted shrimp.

Now, there are a ton of babies and i am seeing the adults more, so they are very fun to watch.

I bought my neos off of kijiji, 5 for $10, so an inexpensive experiment. In the pet store they are $5-6 each. There are people selling chocolate and blue dream neos for $3-4 in the town i go to for medical appointments, i am quite tempted.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

For Want of Poodle said:


> My shrimp are doing well! The tank is shrimp only, heavily planted and Walstead type, and i was worried for a while as i didnt see the shrimp. I have a sponge filter only. So far due to the low stocking desnity it is the easiest aquarium i have ever kept. i honestly started the tank because i wanted to experiment with aquatic plants not because i wanted shrimp.
> 
> Now, there are a ton of babies and i am seeing the adults more, so they are very fun to watch.
> 
> I bought my neos off of kijiji, 5 for $10, so an inexpensive experiment. In the pet store they are $5-6 each. There are people selling chocolate and blue dream neos for $3-4 in the town i go to for medical appointments, i am quite tempted.


You will soon need more tanks, lol. Shrimp can be addictive.


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## Olive Love (Jul 22, 2020)

cowpony said:


> You will soon need more tanks, lol. Shrimp can be addictive.


How are your shimp getting along with Annie?


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## daabor (Jan 31, 2019)

Shrimp and inverabrates are so fun to watch! How are your plants doing?


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

I'll try and remember to post pictures sometime next week. Plants are doing very well, especially the moss.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

I .... Didn't remember to post photos. But here is the tank! I really suck at aquarium photography. 

I did a major rescape 2 months ago or so and removed the wood, added more rocks. Natural sunlight, water changes monthly mostly just because of how hard our water is, and a sponge filter. 
Plants are flame moss, water wisteria, java fern, dwarf sag (in background, slowly growing in) and 4 leaf clover in the foreground). A few other plants not growing well enough to mention (DUCKWEED isn't doing well, which is nuts). 

I feed a tiny amount once per week, or once every 2 weeks. Just added a 15 watt heater because the room is cold. Lots of plants. Plenty of algae, too, but the shrimp are happy. Just pulled out probably 80% of my moss, because of cladophora algae. Not quite sure what else I am going to do about that, hoping that without the moss blocking the light, some of the foreground will grow in a bit more. 


























I think my 5 original shrimp are now closer to a hundred small shrimp. And I still want blue shrimp!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Neat that your tank is doing so well! It's funny how some so-called easy plants just won't grow for certain people. I usually do fine with swords and duckweed. Anubias, not so much. My aquarium store owner is amazed that anyone can kill anubias


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## Starla (Nov 5, 2020)

Hey I have shrimp too! For some reason I’ve not seen any babies even though I’ve had my blue shrimp for over a year and many times seen berried females. I bought them through aquabid. Please excuse my crazy moss overgrowth. My nanotank has been neglected for a long while.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Cowpony- I suspect my low stocking/nitrate levels have something to do with it. Hornwort and moneywort also died. Duckweed used to do great in a goldfish tank.

Starla- What a pretty shrimp 🦐 ! Yeah, before removing literally 90% of my moss,mine looked like that lol. That's so strange you haven't had any shrimplets. I wonder if there is some sort of water quality issue or if something is eating them. I started out with, I think, 2 females, and seem to have had 2-3 batches of babies despite me completely ignoring them.


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## Starla (Nov 5, 2020)

There’s definitely not anything eating them since there’s nothing else in there. I’m sure it has to do with gh or kh or something like that. 🤷‍♀️ I’ll definitely figure it out before I invest in more shrimp.


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