Quarantining ghost shrimp

[gale]

After seeing what a great job the ghost shrimp are doing on the algae on the plants in my 10g, I wanted to get a few for my 20. I know I should quarantine them but I don't have any spare used filter media and if I keep taking gravel from my tanks I'll take all the good germs out. (I have new gravel to put in there, just haven't yet). Can I put the shrimp into a quarantine tank and do 50% water changes daily or anything like that? How much space do they need? I would probably quarantine for 2 weeks.

I can get a heater and I have an air pump and stone so I could aerate the water. I would feed them flakes during the quarantine.

Also if I do need old gravel how much is enough? Would an amount as small as a quarter cup do? Because I've been using about a cup to clone tanks. My quarantine tank is just a rubbermaid tub about 2 gallons.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Even a small amount of the old media or gravel is ok. All you need is a starter culture. From what William said a while back, the bacteria in the filter media can repopulate the gravel in about a day.

Therefore, it would take more time, probably, but still doable.

 

[gale]

ok I have a new question. I called the lfs and they are supposedly going to order some bristlenose plecos. So I want to get that and the shrimp at the same time and quarantine them together. Is that possible? I will feed flake for the shrimp and wafers for the pleco while they're in the quarantine tank, plus put in a sock of gravel and either a mini filter or an airstone. Plus a heater. It'll hold about 1.5 to 2 gallons of water and I can do water changes whenever necessary. Will this work out?

 

[OohFeeshy]

How many do you plan to get?

 

[gale]

I'm getting one pleco and probably 6 ghost shrimp. They are all for my 20 gallon tank.