# How many shrimp can a 9 gallon tank support?



## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

Have a 9 gallon Eheim Aquastyle cube up and running for the past two months or so. How many Red Cherry Shrimp or dwarf shrimp can it support comfortably?

I have no live plants at this point other than some water lettuce and duckweed.


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

kuler22 said:


> Have a 9 gallon Eheim Aquastyle cube up and running for the past two months or so. How many Red Cherry Shrimp or dwarf shrimp can it support comfortably?
> 
> I have no live plants at this point other than some water lettuce and duckweed.


In my previous setup for cherry shrimp, I had the generic 10 gallon tank and I had about 150-200 shrimps in there.
It was planted so not all the shrimps was on the ground.
With 200 shrimps and a lot of hiding places, the tank seemed kinda bare, lol

I'd say with the Eheim Aquastyle, as the ground space is less than the generic 10Gal, I would say probably around 100 would be your max.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

kuler22 said:


> Have a 9 gallon Eheim Aquastyle cube up and running for the past two months or so. How many Red Cherry Shrimp or dwarf shrimp can it support comfortably?
> 
> I have no live plants at this point other than some water lettuce and duckweed.


If parameters are within range, you can have hundreds of shrimps in a 9G, but you should start with a small starting crew like 10. And a lot of factors should be considered.

- Is the tank cycled. Running for x months doesn't mean much if there hasn't been source of ammonia. A good quick test is to manually dose 0.5 ml of ammonia and test ammonia/nitrite in 12 hours, both should be zero otherwise it's not cycled.

- What substrate and what is the PH/TDS/GH/KH? If you want to start with RCS then it doesn't matter much, aged tap with inert substrate will do just fine. My PFR tank has PH 8.1 and they are breeding very well, just regular tap in that tank, cherries (RCS) should be even easier. If you want to start with CRS or other bee shrimps then it will matter a lot.

- Better add some moss in there as well. Duckweeds are evil, but if you don't mind the looks they are actually perfect for absorbing nitrate and shrimps love them too. Giant duckweeds are easier to control and remove, frogbits are popular as floaters in shrimp tanks.

- You need filtration, no need to go crazy for a 9G, a small HOB will do just fine. Add an airstone and/or sponge filter helps a lot in my experience, especially if the tank water gets over 25 degree.

I know some people can breed shrimps from a smaller tank, from my own experience though, a bigger tank defintely helps A LOT. As water can stay stable even with minor water changes.

I have a 7.5G starting with a trio (1m+2f) of orange shrimps... a few months later I have like 100 of them and as the babies now turn into adult, they start building as well. I don't see why I can't have 200 shrimps in there if I don't do some birth control on them ;-)


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## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

Thanks, Jaysan. That is more than I expected.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

One more thing, I think that tank comes with an under water filter, be sure that the intake is covered so baby shrimps don't get sucked in.


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## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

Thanks, Randy. I should apologize as I missed a few key points. 

I have 3 Marimo moss balls in the tank and currently have 3 RCS shrimp in the tank. I had more but with recent deaths I am not sure what may be wrong with the setup. The RCS are from BC so I was not sure if that contributed to some deaths. 

In regards to the tank, the Aquastyle has the corner filter with a cool dosing chamber and aeration waterfall. The water parameters are as follows: (pls accept my apologies if my stats don't make sense)

Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate < 3ppm
PH 7.5
GH 140 PPM
KH 4
TDS around 200ppm
Temp 74-76


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## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

randy said:


> One more thing, I think that tank comes with an under water filter, be sure that the intake is covered so baby shrimps don't get sucked in.


Yes...the filter has a sponge at the intake.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

kuler22 said:


> Thanks, Randy. I should apologize as I missed a few key points.
> 
> I have 3 Marimo moss balls in the tank and currently have 3 RCS shrimp in the tank. I had more but with recent deaths I am not sure what may be wrong with the setup. The RCS are from BC so I was not sure if that contributed to some deaths.
> 
> ...


Your parameters look good for RCS, so that's job half done (parameters isn't everything). Why do you get RCS from 5000 miles away but that's your choice. You can get them for like $1 a piece or lower locally. My suggestion though, is to get fire reds or even painted fire reds, they look much more sexy and are as easy as RCS, and they're not that much more than RCS. Here are some pics of mine.


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## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

Awesome looking shrimp! It was my mistake to order from BC as I was not aware at the time of the local market availability other than LFS and they never seemed to have any. It is a great forum like this that has taught me some great stuff! Beginner's mistake.

Where can I get some fire reds?


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

kuler22 said:


> Awesome looking shrimp! It was my mistake to order from BC as I was not aware at the time of the local market availability other than LFS and they never seemed to have any. It is a great forum like this that has taught me some great stuff! Beginner's mistake.
> 
> Where can I get some fire reds?


Look around, there are some small business sellers with great service and prices. Or you can post to sale/trade forum to see if anyone has some. You can also check Frank @ Kim's Nature, he might still have some, give him a call (I don't have the number, maybe you can look up or someone else can help here).

I gave some of mine to help my friend setting up a tank so I'm down to about 50, and have about 10 berried at the moment ;-) I probably wont' have any to share for another 2 months.


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## kuler22 (Jul 16, 2012)

Thanks, Randy!


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

kuler22 said:


> Thanks, Randy!


No problem, Kuler22. This hobby is addictive, before you know it you'll have many many tanks ;-)


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## Jaysan (Dec 19, 2011)

Sent you a pm on my prices for shrimps!
Lemme know if your interested


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## iBetta (Jun 19, 2011)

definitely buy from locals because they are already used to toronto/GTA's water . Frank is a very good source (kim's nature: (905) 201-6166) since many of his tanks have shrimps that have been conditioned for months. some species also have sustaining populations (ie. his snowballs have been breeding in his tank and repopulating; he didn't any shipments of snowballs for months!)

even though your parameters might be perfect, the shrimps u ordered from BC must've gotten used to BC water, so they might've had a shock when transferred to Toronto (not to mention the stress they mustve gone through )

try to stick to local, trusted breeders (im a fan of Frank so i say hes very trustworthy lol. also give a shout to Tommy) and u'll be fine .


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