# Minimum Tank Size for Dwarf Shrimp ?



## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Interested in having different species of dwarf shrimps , wondering what the minimum tank sizes for shrimp are ? 2.5G ? 5G ? , 10G ? ,


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## ThaChingster (Feb 25, 2011)

Cherry shrimp are VERY Hardy.. well all neocardinas are  they can live in as small of a tank as 0.5G. 
For most caridina shrimp, ex) CRS CBS, people usually keep them in a tank no smaller than 5 gallons

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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Thanks ! , will they still breed in 5G tanks , planning to get snowballs , cbs , yellow , green blue oebt , im considering getting a 36 gallon ,2 - 36 x 12 x 18 and splitting it into 3- 4 parts with baffles , and get a two tier stand so i can have 6- 8 different sections , so i can have 6- 8 different varietys , does anyone know where i can get glass thats cut to size for a good price ?


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

So you want to take a 36 gallon tank and make it into 8 sections? By the time you put in 8 sponge filters at the very least, and some moss and/or driftwood, there is going to be no room left for shrimp. They will breed in there, but not very well. The crystals will have a harder time breeding in that small of an area and keeping the water params stable in a 4gal area is hard and crystals like stable water.

Either start off with 1 or 2 breeds in, I would say a min of 10gal for each, and then move up from there. Getting 8 different shrimp cramped into a 4gal area just seems like a recipe to fail. 

Its a lot more work than just taking some shrimp, throwing them in a little area and getting them to breed in hopes you're going to make money breeding and selling shrimp.


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Make a 36 into three sections would work out to be 12G for each species , one heater in the middle section of each section, pretty sure the temperature. In each section will be the same and then one sponge in each tank , some mosses and breeding tubes in each tank, i want to build larger colonys not into too much of the profit


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

vs5295 said:


> Make a 36 into three sections would work out to be 12G for each species , one heater in the middle section of each section, pretty sure the temperature. In each section will be the same and then one sponge in each tank , some mosses and breeding tubes in each tank, i want to build larger colonys not into too much of the profit


Doing it into 3 is much better and 12g each would allow for more stable params. I would probably get plexi or glass and silicone it in to seal off each section. I tried the fish-store plastic mesh dividers and it didn't work well in terms of circulation, small gaps on the side they crawled through, etc. The other advantage of sealing off each area is any disease that may break out in 1 section is sealed off in that section and doesn't leak through the other sides and infect those shrimp. You can also more tailor pH/tds etc for each section. Crystals need a low ph and usually RO water, cherries/yellow/snowballs will do fine in tap water. Lots of options if you seal off each side fully. The cheap mesh dividers though, I'll never do those again. I ever split a tank again, I'll do it properly with glass or plexi, seal it, let it cure then add. My tank was already setup though at the time, so I bought the dividers and put them in.


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Yeap thats my plan , to seal off each section with glass , i think i found everything i need , cherrys , snowballs , yellows , how would they do in 6.8 ph ? ,


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

vs5295 said:


> Yeap thats my plan , to seal off each section with glass , i think i found everything i need , cherrys , snowballs , yellows , how would they do in 6.8 ph ? ,


They'll do fine in that pH. They can do fine in a range of 6-8 really, but lower pH has advantages of ammonia not being so toxic at anything under 7. Over 7, it can be a lot more toxic in smaller doses, so any small spike from over feeding, etc is magnified at a higher pH.


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Oh okay , thanks for the advice, planning to keep cbs , oebt , yellows ,and greens ,snowballs , and one other species , i already have painted fire reds and crs in my 20g setup


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

I assume each section is going to have a neo and a cardina species then like OEBT and yellow, CBS and snowball, Green and ????. Greens are cardina's, not sure if they cross with crystals or anything else but maybe blue bee's? If they don't cross you can do golden as well maybe?


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Well im not trying any specific arrangement if anything , soft water and hard , like yellows ,snowballs and greens on one level abd oebt , cbs and another species on another level ,


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Having bred all of these species with the exception of snowballs, I can give you a bit of advice. Your CRS and Tigers (oebt, regular,super) both need different water parameters from the yellows, blue pearl, fire reds, greens!

CRS/CBS/Goldens all need low PH in their tanks to breed. It will take them a few months to settle into a new tank before anything happens...sometimes they like an established tank that has soft water and if these conditions are suitable to them they will breed right away.

Tigers like higher PH levels than most other shrimps and also like cooler water.
My Tigers bred in PH of 7.6 and temp of 71F, whereas the CRS/CBS/Goldens like PH of 6 to 6.4 and temp of around 73F. 

Greens, yellows, blue pearls, fire reds are the easiest to breed as they can handle almost any conditions. You will need sponge filters in your tanks and if you don't put any in you will lose baby shrimps constantly, as the babies and adults eat the biofilm off the sponge filters. 

Most of these shrimps also don't like fast flowing water, so keep your HOB or other types of filters flow decreased. They like driftwood and floating plants better than a planted tank.....moss and any type of floating plant like duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce, baby tears, is great for the them to hide in and babies to hang out in.

Soil I found the best for CRS/CBS was the Netlea soil...I tried the ADA II but didn't like it as much as the Netlea. Hope this helps.

I am currently breeding OEBT, Tangerine Tigers and high end CBS/CRS Crowns and Flowers and have new babies in my tank.

Won't have any for sale until after Christmas.


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Put me down for some OEBT when they are availAble been looking everywhere for these guys !


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

im going to make each section a 1 species only section , but im trying to figure out all the needs of the shrimp , the only one common between the 3 sections for 1 given tank is the temperature as i will be using only one heater to heat three sections 


im going to put CBS, and OEBT on one level and make the temp 72F

then put Yellows, Greens and Snowballs on another level and make that temp 78F

i believe only the CBS tank will need some AquaSoil , i use ADA 2


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Red Rili shrimp ? what temperature and ph is best suited for these guys , i love the look of them and i still have one section open in the tank  , definitely want to keep these guys


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Red Rili shrimp is nothing more than a morphed red cherry shrimp, so same water parameters as the red, yellow, green, blue etc.

You need to turn down that temp though....78F will cook them 

Most freshwater shrimps do perfectly well in room temp water ie: 72-74F
even during summer when temps tend to go above this, you still need to keep it down to below 76F....they just don't do well in temps above that.


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## vs5295 (Mar 21, 2011)

Oh okay , THANKS for all the help guys ! , got a deal on the tank setup , found the glass for the dividers cant wait till i set it up ! And then i will be searching for shrimp , il remember to keep all shrimp tanks at 72


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