Ok so I have my 3 gallon shrimp tank. there will be 30 shrimp, I'm worried of ruining the water quality, so I have a few quick questions. How often and how much should I feed them. I'm feeding the crab crusine made by hakari should I put one piece per shrimp or less?? I also maybe feeding them pieces of algea wafers if you think they need that. I was planing on changing 3 pints of water everyday, will that be good enough? They have a whisper internal filter set on low setting.

Thanks for the help!!

I would say that 1 pellet per shrimp is too much to be honest, trial and error will tell you how much to feed however, basically you don't want quantities of it left uneaten on the substrate, and the occasional bit of algae wafer would indeed be benificial, especially if you don't have any natural algae growth in their tank.

Your water changes sound a bit much to me, 20% a week tops should be more than enough so long as your filtration is nice and mature and their tank is well planted, especially with mosses that really are the best type of plant for shrimp, been a place to hide and a place to feed.

I have to say though, in a 3 gallon tank I would say that 30 shrimp is too many, especially as cherry shrimp breed quickly and prolificly. Those 30 will soon be more than 100. But then I would say that 3 gallons is on the small side for shrimp anyway, 5 gallons and up is better and my shrimp tanks are 13 gallons (60 litres), whilst many shrimp breeders actually favour 20 gallon long tanks. The bigger the better really, as the more water you have the easier it is to provide stable conditions.

Ade

Thanks for the reply. This tank is only temporary. See it all started when I ordered these shrimp on a diferent forum planing on just putting them into my 50 gallon planted tank. I already have ghost shrimp in there and was under the impression that if your fish don't eat ghost shrimp then these would be fine, which I now know is far from true. So to save the shrimp I had to get a tank for them, and this is what I could get for now do to space limitations. I have to put the tank in my bedroom which is not big and has no place to put a tank or stand. The space I put it on would not hold much more wieght and nothing moe then 2 inches longer. So this is what I have to have for now. My plan is to change water daily to keep it clean. I had the shrimps floating in a breeder box in my main tank. I added ceramic donuts from my main tanks filter into the filter of the tank and it has been running since Wed, with a Rams horn snail. Today I added 10 shrimps to the tank. The water test 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and between 0 and 5 for the nitrates. I am changing 1 liter of water a day to keep it clean for them. Do you think that's good enough for now??
Here is a picture of the tank


Thanks for your Help!!

Ps
All of the plants and drift wood came from my main tank.

This post has been edited by tangokitty: Jul 13 2008, 05:10 AM

Should be fine, but so long as your nitrites and ammonia are at 0 then those 1 litre daily water changes should not really be needed so long as your remove any dead leaves or excess food. But if it isn't doing any harm then it's not really a problem, it's just extra work.

I take it that you have larger fish in your large planted tank then? As I have a self sustaining colony of cherry shrimp in mine.

Ade

I have cherry barbs, bleeding heart tetras, white clouds, and a redtailed black shark. I was told the Cherry Barbs would eat them. And they are stalking the breeder box.

Thanks for your help

My cherry barbs completely ignore adult cherry shrimp, but then my planted tank is HEAVILY planted. lol. Those cherries you have look quite young so might be at risk, but I would be much more concerned about the red tailed black shark and bleeding heart tetras as these will eat adults and young. So yeah, I think that you made the right choice giving them their own tank.

Ade

I know that the tank is small, but do you think adding 2 or 3 male endlers would be bad? I don't mean now of course, but in a month or so? This is my main tank

Endlers will probably be ok... I've just got some Cherry Shrimp from Piltdownpaul and he is breeding them in the same tank as his Endlers.

thanks. I'l add some. Soon I hope to have a 10 gallon tank to move everything to then I can put a betta it the 3 gallon!
Thanks for everyones help.

is that plant on the left cryptocoryne w.?

Yes it is, do you not think it is a good choice??

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Just to let you all know, my shrimps are very active, eatting well and come running to the glass dish when I add the food pellets. The Water test is 0 on all three readings Ammonia ect... So everything is GREAT!! I'm hoping my moss to make the moss wall will be here today!

This post has been edited by tangokitty: Jul 16 2008, 03:03 PM

Great to hear that. One little thing though, when growing live plants (even in a shrimp tank) you don't really want nitrates at 0. lol. Your plants will really suffer without at least some nitrate and phosphate. You might want to dose something like Tropica Plant Nutrition + in reduced amounts. I dose this in slightly higher than stated doses in my 180 litre planted tank and have a self sustaining colony of cherry shrimp happily living and breeding in this, just don't dose it too highly.

Ade