What Type Of Shrimp Can I Put In My Tank?

[nick1986]

Hi I have a 200L tank its just finished the cycle and all tests are coming back fine. temp is set to 26.5 and +/- half a degree.
 
I have 11 guppies few 11 Harlequin rasboras and going to put a few more larger community fish in there. the better half wants some shrimp in it and don't have a clue.
 
any one tell me what can I put in and what would be best for my tank. o its a soft water tank and no plants but I can buy some of those moss balls if needed or plants.
 
Thanks
 
Nick

 

[gmc1]

Bamboo or amano but I would wait until tank has been established a while

 

[Baccus]

It really depends on how large the other fish species are and what type. I would not trust any gouramis with any sized shrimp, at one point I had sparkliing gouramis and they although small still used to tear apart my cherry shrimp. I have found Khuli loaches and Pakastani loaches to be cherry shrimp safe, well the shrimp population keeps expanding, but I don't know if clown loaches would also be safe.
It also depends on if you want a self sustaining population of shrimp (eg cherry shrimp, crystal shrimp, Tiger) or if you are wanting shrimp that will never successfully raise young in a tank (Amano and Singapore Flower), are almost all always wild caught (depleting wild populations) and will eventually die out and need replacing.
 
I am not sure which shrimp species are available to you in the UK, but there is quite a range available, all shrimp do best in a more mature tank and some of the dwarf shrimp like Sulawesi shrimp have pretty exacting water requirements.
 
Starting out with shrimp I would always advise common red cherry shrimp which are generally the easiest of all the shrimp to care for and are more forgiving of any mistakes.

 

[Jeremy180]

Harleys are probably too big for dwarf shrimp tankmates, Amanos and ghost shrimp might work, Bamboo Shrimp are big enough to defend themselves from most small fish..
As mentioned before, better to wait on bamboos and amanos, they are VERY sensitive, and bamboo shrimp need a tank that's been running about a year so they will have enough micro-organisms to eat.