Can Shrimp Survive High Nitrites?

[B2k2]

Hi,

I'm currently in my fourth week of a fishless cycle and was wondering if I could add some shrimp now to eat up some the algae in my tank. I have got quite a bit of brown algae, string algae and some hair algae and it really doesnt look good. Tonight I noticed that the are some small ramshorn snails in my tank which should help get rid of some it. My nitrites are at about 2 - 3 mg/l its quite hard to read the scale on my nutrafin test kit. Would shrimp be able to survive at that level or do I need to wait before I add them as well?

 

[CFC]

Shrimp and other inverts are more sensative to pollution than fish, adding them during the cycle would almost certainly kill them.

 

[Dubby]

Shrimp and other inverts are more sensative to pollution than fish, adding them during the cycle would almost certainly kill them.

Amano recommends adding his favourites "Yamato-numa Ebi" shrimp early in the process. So I'm not sure if these Amano shrimp are more hardy?

 

[jimbooo]

Shrimp and other inverts are more sensative to pollution than fish, adding them during the cycle would almost certainly kill them.

Amano recommends adding his favourites "Yamato-numa Ebi" shrimp early in the process. So I'm not sure if these Amano shrimp are more hardy?

ha ha, sorry dubby that made me laugh. amano shrimp are very fragile.

they'll be dead in a day in there.

nitrAtes above 25ppm in my experience cause them problems, let alone nitrIte. i bought 10 a year ago and i've one left, nitrIte has always been 0 and nitrAte 0-50 at various stages (50 in the early days).

i'm afraid shrimps are a no go at this stage, not any that will touch your algae anyway.


edit: i suppose in amano's tanks the early stage is more like our "year on" stage. remember he fills his tanks to the brim with plants from the start so the nitrIte spikes etc will not occur hence the shrimp will be fine.