Shrimp questions

DragonFyre14

That makes sense. I think I'm going to start adding water from my tank to get it ready for baby guppies. (I'm also a bit unsure about cycling and such, but I believe the water should have some ammonia in it, and help the tank to cycle some what.) I'll definitely make sure the tank is cycled (at least most of the way) before I add the shrimp, as I've heard they are sensitive to the cycling process.

GwenInNM

Make sure your tank is cycled "all the way" not part :)

emeraldsky

water doesnt really hold any of the beneficial bacteria and its been awhile since your tank had any fish so I think your bacteria has probably died. Just take a bit of substrate out of your already cycled tank and start adding bits of fish food to keep that bacteria alive c:

DragonFyre14

I realize the water doesn't usually. however I was planning on adding it so the ammonia can help them to begin regrowing in the filter media. Otherwise could just attach his filter onto my tank for a couple weeks. Which do you think is better? Will they both work?

Star7781

Would different varieties of shrimp work in the same tank? I have a Guppy tank with a peppered Cory catfish and an albino Pleco. I found a baby Red Cherry Shrimp in it (probably from some Java Moss I bought). I like the idea of putting in a few more cherry shrimp but was wondering if I could add a few ghost shrimp also. I really like the variety in the tank.

emeraldsky

Hmmm this is getting a bit more into details than I dont feel comfortable giving advice on, I dont know enough and I dont want to give bad advice. Your best bet is to make a new thread regarding this in a different part of the forum so you can get proper advice from people who know what they are talking about c:




Different varieties of shrimp can work so long as they are different species. Like cherry shrimp (neocaridina)and Crystal shrimp (caridina) will work but cherries and yellows wont work because they are both neocaridina and will interbreed which will cause the off spring to have wild type coloration which is a not very pretty brown color.

Do not mix ghost shrimp with anyone though, those guys are mean and will eat other shrimp. If you look closely, you can actually see the claws they have! D:

As a side note, I dont know how big your tank is but you need more corys, theyll get stressed out without a group which leads to illness and in worst case scenarios, death.

Plecs and shrimp dont generally go together as well as plecos ca/will eat them. Also if its a Common Pleco, its more than likely going to outgrow your tank.

DragonFyre14

Okay well thanks for all your help :) I'll just do some research regarding the cycling, seeing as there is plenty of information all over the internet :)

Star7781

Thanks, Emeraldsky... I originally had 2 corys (1 peppered and 1 panda) but lost my panda cory. This was before I heard that they needed to be in bigger groups and was also recently told that they really needed to be in groups of the same species of cory to do well. I'm looking now for some more peppered but stores around here don't seem to have what i need.

I was interested in the mixture of shrimp but definitely do not want to add something that will cause a problem.. so no ghost shrimp.

Thanks for the input. I'm learning more than I thought possible about this new venture.