Planted Tank And Cherry Shrimp

[aldo_01]

Hi,

I have a 35l arcadia arc planted tank that i set up about 4 months ago. At the moment i dose it with 1ml easycarbo per day and 3.5ml profito (fertiliser) once a week. I have had 3 cherry shrimp in the tank for nearly a month and have just purchased another 10 to be arriving some time this week. Whilst i was trawling the internet last night i read on the following site;

http/www.petshrimp.com/articles/keepingshrimp.html

"A shrimp tank should not be fertilized. Although it might work well for a long time, fertilizers can accumulate in the water over time. As shrimp are very sensitive to organic pollutants in the water (which is basically what fertilizers are), they react adversely to fertilizer accumulation. It is not worth the risk of losing your whole shrimp population just to have a little faster plant growth. It may work for a while, but if you have sudden shrimp deaths, you now know one of the reasons. "

Does everyone agree with this? I dont want to just stop fertilising the tank as i have quite a lot of plants in there and they (apart from the vallis) are doing really well. Also, if i stop dosing it with fertiliser, will that not bring with it algae problems?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Aldo_01

 

[RadaR]

That is a ridiculous paragraph. So many mistakes it's not worth picking it apart. Bottom line for me, I don't agree with that at all and I'm sure many would agree.
Countless amounts of us have shrimps in planted tanks where we dose nutrients into the tank.
Worth adding as well, Takashi Amano (where the name "Amano shrimp" derives from) uses loads of shrimp in his tank and doses nutrients.
If the plants don't get what they want, then yes, you'll get algae.

 

[aldo_01]

Thanks RadaR, i was hoping that was the answer i was going to get as i really want to try my hand at breeding cherry shrimp but not at the expense of my planted tank. The cherrys that are in there already seem to be doing just fine anyway!

 

[kelwoo]

Hi Aldo

For what it's worth before i went into marine i had a heavily planted fresh water tropical tank, with Amano shrimps and red cherry shrimps. I had the set up for over a year with the shrimp in and weekly dosed my tank with plant food. My plants flourished and all my shrimp breed in my tank. I started with 6 amano shrimp and 10 cherry shrimp and when i dismantled the tank I had over 10 amano's and too many cherrys to count. Everytime i cleaned out my external filter i would always find a dozen or so baby cherry shrimp it (as they were breeding that well). The only thing i would add is be careful when adding medication and plant food that it doesn't contain copper as it is this the shrimp don't like and can kill them. If it helps the plant food i used was the tropica plant nutrition liquid and although it has a little bit of copper in it (plants do need some) it never harmed or indered my shrimp at all, even when i accidently od the tank.

Cherry shrimp are really easy to breed if the conditions are right you'll have more than you ever expected.

Kelwoo

 

[aldo_01]

Thanks kelwoo,

Did you have any fish in your tank while the cherries were breeding? I have 3 pristella tetra in the tank and was hoping to be able to keep them in there while the shrimp were breeding. The tetras are very timid, the tank is well planted and there is java moss and plenty other places for the fry to hide in. I am just a bit worried as it is only a small (35 litre) tank.

Aldo_01

 

[kelwoo]

Hi Aldo_01

My tank was fully stocked with fish, I had a pair of pearl gourami', 12 asian rummy nose, 6 black emporer tetras, 7 pygmy rasbora, 6 green neon tetra, 2 purple emporer tetras, 2 flame tetra, 4 true flying fox 3 yoyo loaches and a sucking loach and had no trouble with the shrimp what so ever. It sound like you have plenty of places for the shrimp to hide and feel safe and as i said before if the conditions are right they will breed freely and quite readily. The only fish i had problems with was my striped pantax and he used to swallow them whole, wiped out my first lot of shrimp i brought, all the rest were fine. I wouldn't worry to much about the size of the tank for breeding aslong as it has good water conditions you'll be fine.

Good luck if you have anymore question i be glad to answer them for you if i can.

kelwoo

P.S Cherry shrimp actual produce minitures of themsevles there is no larval stage. One more thing if you have an internal filter with fairly big inlet holes or grate i would reconmend putting a stocking or foot off a pair of tights over it to stop the baby shrimp from being sucked into the filter.