# shrimp?



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

A lot of you guys go nuts about your shrimp and I see some cool pics, hear about breeding and crossbreeding?

Im getting pretty curious about this new world but there is no sticky for a good overall general post about the shrimp world in general.

Anyone have a nice link to info that might get me started? Not sure what types of shrimp are compatible and stuff like that.


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## Scotmando (Jul 10, 2011)

pyrrolin said:


> A lot of you guys go nuts about your shrimp and I see some cool pics, hear about breeding and crossbreeding?
> 
> Im getting pretty curious about this new world but there is no sticky for a good overall general post about the shrimp world in general.
> 
> Anyone have a nice link to info that might get me started? Not sure what types of shrimp are compatible and stuff like that.


start with the easy cherry shrimp. I have mine in a community tank. Some fish eat shrimp, so you don't want expensive shrimp in with those fish.

Try Igor's site http://www.shrimptank.ca/

He's a member here on GTA Aq


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

try SHRIMPNOW.COM This is a worldwide network of lots of hobbyists asking questions on every subject you can possibly think of that's shrimp related.

Many of the Worlds best breeders are on there, and happy to help answer any question you might have. It has lots of good up to date info and you can see other hobbyists pictures of what they are doing/breeding etc.

Everyone has an opinion on what is the best way to do things, so don't just take one person's opinion as gospel.....READ everything you can, then when you think you have a good handle on how to go about it, start off with the less expensive shrimps like Neo-Caridina (red cherry, yellow, green $2-7 each ) and once you've managed to keep them alive and happy (breeding is a good sign they are settled and happy) then you can explore some of the more challenging shrimps Caridina (CRS/Tigers $8-20 each) from there you can work up the real challenging ones (Taiwan Bees $35-150 each) these are the very expensive ones that you DON"T want to lose  

All you need is a small tank (5 gallons smallest) an air pump, sponge filter, some gravel, and a few floating plants and off you go. Shrimps do not need fancy equipment, they can and have lived in dirty buckets of water, filters that have been taken out of a disabled tank, and inside driftwood sitting in a container....they are extremely resiliant and one of the BEST aquatic animals to get kids
interested in a hobby....fascinating little creatures! 

Good Luck with your new project and remember "we've all been there, done that" on this forum, so when you need advice/help, just ask....someone on here will answer you


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Google and you shall find --- too much information. Spend a few days reading all the information and misinformation, then ask questions in forums. You live too far from GTA otherwise there are multiple shrimp groups you can join. 

I find the best way is to personally visit someone's shrimp room. You get a totally different dimension than just read online. Then you start to get your first shrimps, some may die, some may survive, then you get your own view and what works for you, then you help someone else new to the hobby.

In my opinion, what makes shrimping so appealing is it's easy to start without needing expensive equipment. You can spend $50 to have a well equipped tank ready to house shrimps (just add patience). Good luck.


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## Egonsgirl (Feb 28, 2012)

There is also planetinverts.com for some simple info, good pictures and a compatibility chart. Welcome to our world.....lol


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

All good advice. Start off small, with cheap shrimp, give it a shot, build up from there. Ask questions and read but take it all with a grain of salt. I can bring up 5 different sites and all 5 will list 5 different parameter ranges for shrimp and then people will have different opinions that differ from those. Just from the few of us in this thread, I bet we all have different parameters, different ways, etc but tend result is happy shrimp.

It's addictive, but take it slow at first as 10 tanks that aren't taken care of well without shrimp breeding aren't as fun as 2 tanks full of life.

You won't get rich at it and if/when you get to the point of selling shrimp, you'll just use that money to buy more shrimp. lol.

Over time you'll learn to watch your shrimp and learn and see and come up with your own setup that works great for them and may not be the norm but works. It's a learning hobby that is fun, rewarding, frustrating, devastating, and then back to fun and rewarding again. lol.


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## camboy012406 (Jun 11, 2010)

pyrrolin said:


> A lot of you guys go nuts about your shrimp and I see some cool pics, hear about breeding and crossbreeding?
> 
> Im getting pretty curious about this new world but there is no sticky for a good overall general post about the shrimp world in general.
> 
> Anyone have a nice link to info that might get me started? Not sure what types of shrimp are compatible and stuff like that.


if you have a facebook definitely a good page to like. https://www.facebook.com/shrimpbreed has lots of shrimp pictures,aquascaping and etc.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

If you really want to start off cheaply, you might want to try Ghost shrimp. They are usually sold as feeders, but will live for at least a year or two if allowed to. They will breed in fresh water, though they have larvae rather than mini adult type babies.

You''ll read that shrimp need an established tank in many places. It means a tank that's been running for awhile with some plants or a fish or snail in it, after it's been cycled. This allows a film of bacteria, called biofilm, to grow on the glass and every other surface.. especially sponge filters. This is a food source for shrimp. If you want to raise baby Ghost shrimp, their larvae need a really well established tank, because the larvae are so very tiny, you can't even see them so they can only eat food items less than 5 microns in size. Which you won't get in a brand new tank. 

You can feed them greenwater, instead, which is cultured single cell algae, which will help the larvae survive. They morph into the adult form quite soon, takes between 4 days to a week, depending on temperatures, mainly. Once morphed, they continue eating greenwater and more biofilm, especially off a sponge filter, until they get a big bigger, at which point they'll eat anything they can find. They like algae, so algae based foods are best. They also eat anything that dies.. as do most shrimp, for that matter. Shrimp are scavengers, by and large, so eating dead things, including other shrimp, is normal for them.

Ghost shrimp won't harm any fish, or other shrimp, with the exception of newborn dwarf shrimp, which they'll eat if they can catch them. They don't eat plants other than algae, and are quite amusing to watch, at least, I think so. They swim all over the tank, hang off plants, pick at everything, like my snail's shells, argue over morsels of food, and generally don't spend very much of their time sitting still. As they get older, their shells turn a sort of orange shade and get some markings on them, so they don't stay that whitish colour they start out with. At least, mine didn't.. but I make sure to feed them decent stuff too, which helps.

Compared to any other shrimp you can buy, they are dirt cheap, so if you make mistakes with them, your losses are less costly. They are, perhaps, not quite as pretty, if that's the word, as the neocaridina and caridina shrimp are, but I'm rather fond of them anyway. They remind me of cartoon characters I saw as a kid. Even though I think my Snowballs are prettier, I'd never give up the Ghosts completely, I don't think. They are too useful as clean up crew and as I said, I find their behaviour amusing. 

And if you can keep Ghost shrimp happy, you can certainly keep cherries and the other neo' types, such as Snowballs, happy too. I've kept both types in the same tank.. Ghosts and Snowballs, which are a white version of a cherry shrimp, have done very well together, and have both bred in the same tank. 

Because adult ghost shrimp will probably eat baby neo' shrimps if they catch them, keeping them together if you want to seriously breed the neos is perhaps not a great idea. If you don't mind losing some of the baby neo's, Ghosts are unlikely to be able to catch them all, so you'd still get new neo shrimp growing up, just fewer of them. I found it's actually harder to raise numbers of baby Ghosts than it is baby neos though.. simply because the baby neos are bigger to start with and can eat larger food items than the baby Ghosts can. This may not be the experience of others, but it has been so with me. I'm glad I started out with the Ghosts.. they taught me a lot and are still as much fun now as when I first began.


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