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Starting A Shrimp Breeding Tank - Looking for In-Depth Guidance


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Hey - so I am going to fair warn that this is going to be a really long post and want to genuinely thank anyone that takes the time to read, correct anything I plan to do wrong, and give any suggestions I may not have thought about.

 

So I am pretty new to aquariums and fish keeping - I got my first tank in February this year and it very very quickly took over my life and now I have 5 tanks and am getting ready to start my 6th. All of my tanks are nano tanks (3.5g for one of them and then 5g for all the rest - they are all planted betta tanks and I have cherry, pumpkin, bloody mary, and amano shrimp in the tanks (at least the bettas that that are okay with them! I have two that will kill them so those tanks don't have any shrimp but the rest all live peacefully together).

 

I have seriously fallen in love with shrimp and want to get my first big tank set up with the intention of breeding shrimp being the main reason/focus of that tank. I want to do my absolute best for those shrimp so wanted to make sure everything I was planning on doing in that tank would be good for them - so wanted to layout my plan and products I was going to be getting here to sorta have experienced breeders/keepers review and tell me if I need to look out for anything before I invest the money into setting it up. So here goes!

 

Oh I should say - I tested my tap water today and my kH was 4 and gH was 9 - if anything else needs to be tested let me know! My ammonia/nitrites/nitrates out of tap is always 0ppm. Just stating in case my normal tap requires any special work sorta thing.

 

Tank: 20g long or 29g (originally was gonna do 20g long but am now leaning towards 29g because after I get a colony going I intend to also add guppies into the tank to breed them too and think the taller tank will make both shrimp and guppies happier)

 

Filter: Corner Hamburg Matten Filter (I will be loading behind the filter w/ biomedia from my established tanks to get the tank cycled and activated carbon)

 

Tank Mates: Malaysian Trumpet Snails from the start to keep the tank cycled at all times and to turn substrate - plus I have a friend with dwarf puffers who would buy the snails from me so added benefit. Later down the line guppies but only after the colony is heavily established and my tank is very very planted so baby guppies and baby shrimp have plenty of hiding places. I /may/ get pygmy cory too - truthfully because I really love them and can't have them in my other tanks but I know they will eat shrimp/guppy babies so I have to think long and hard on if I am okay with the population taking a very long time to raise or not.

 

Substrate: This stuff: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R55QUU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 - Wanted to get an inert substrate and really preferred black - saw this in someone's tank and loved the look of it. Not putting in a lot - like half an inch at the bottom, I don't plan to put any substrate plants so don't want a lot of substrate to ever worry about gases and such - just want something good for the shrimp to walk on (and good for the cory's if I decide to get them) and to add surface area for food/bacteria to grow on.

 

Plants: I plan to load the tank with java fern, some different anubias, java moss, water lettuce, some moss balls and maybe other stuff that catches my eye but my intention is to have a ton of plants to create a ton of hiding places. Going to be fertilizing with Easy Green fertilizer and light would be the Finnex Planted+ 24/7.

 

Others: One to two piece of mopani or malayasian driftwood, pieces of zebra rock, an indian almond leaf. The wood and rock I am going to take directly from my other tanks

 

Food: I plan to feed 6 days a week, each day a different food (Bacter AE, Betaglucan, Shrimp King Complete / Protein / Mineral)

 

Plan to do water changes twice a month, 15% each time and keep the tank at about 76 degrees.

 

Also planning to buy / make a Shrimp Egg Tumbler to always have on hand just in case.

 

 

 

Okay! I think that is it? If anyone sees anything wrong or what I could be doing better please let me know - really want to do my best and have been doing research but wanted to get another set of eyes to be sure I did my research correctly!

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Hi Carissa welcome,

 

I'm a shrimp keeper and its only been a year for me already. Have 2 tanks that are doing quite well so far and hope it stays that way...

 

What shrimps r u planning to bred?

Neos? -> Go to tractor supply and pick up black diamond blasting sand for 1/3 the price @50lbs

Cards? -> Marfied/Controlsoil, I use Sl Aqua and rec it. Both of these soil dont leech ammonia btw. 

Tap water? Use prime. Tap water may contain other harmful substance, but since you have other tanks already it seems like a np

Rec to use di/ro + remineralizer. Have TDS pen and test kit ?

Plants-> mesh pad moss/fissiden? Fissiden to ur driftwood?

Food-> Rec organic food thats been boiled for 2-5mins like spinach.

Set tank less than 73F, add powder/liquid bacteria and your good.

BTW, if you divide a 20L you could breed 2-3 types of shrimps in 1 tank, but a disease outbreak may be devastating...

 

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Oh wow - totally did not realize I never even mention the type, I am planning to breed some kind of neo - haven't decided fully which kind just yet.

 

Thanks for the tip regarding the diamond blasting sand - will look into that instead for sure!

Yeah I've got plenty of prime and use it for all my other tanks so for sure will do that :)

 

I have thought about doing RO water - I think at this very moment it's not an option for me as I am in someone else's house while I save to buy a house so don't want to take up more space then given sort of thing but once I move I do think I'll be switching to doing RO water.

 

I have the API master test kit and gh / kh test kit - can for sure get a TDS pen, are there any other test kits I should consider?

 

You know, I did debate dividing a 20L - do have experience dividing tanks (but like hard dividing, no shared water, separate filters/heaters/etc.) but decided I want to just stick to keeping it one tank, at least for now. I want to be able to do guppies and such down the line and they'd appreciate having the full width of the tank vs. just half of it I think. And just less maintenance on my end lol

 

Thank you very much for your tips though!

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