# Do RCS need a heater?



## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

I'm starting a 1.5 gallon desktop tank for work. Do RCS need a heater? If so, can anyone recommend a heater for such a small tank?


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## touch of sky (Nov 1, 2011)

If you have average room temperature, you don't need a heater. My tank stays at around 70 f. in the winter and the shrimp are doing well.


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## Wilderman204 (Mar 5, 2015)

I currently have some breeding in 66*f


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

I had some cherry shrimp in my 75g. I broke the tank down and put the plants in a bucket of water and set it in a room that gets cold. The room was at 65f. When I replanted and flooded the tank 3 days later I will be darned if there wasnt a shrimp swimming in there. No flow or filtration. No air. No heat. Just a 5g bucket half full of plants and water. Tough suckers.


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## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

Cool. I don't think the office is heated like normal on the weekends, but I doubt it's going below 65f


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## Aquaponics (Feb 15, 2016)

If it stays 65+ then I think you will be fine.

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## Artemesia (Dec 17, 2015)

They're pretty hardy, I unplugged the heater in my shrimp tank in summer when it was really hot and I'm embarrassed to say I sorta forgot that it was unplugged come winter. The bedroom gets pretty cold if the temps outside get low (lowest I've noticed it being was 49 degree F in the room) tank water was down in the mid 50s before I remembered that the heater in the tank wasn't just decorative. When I noticed, I realized that was why they had been looking sort of lethargic, and breeding slowed way down, but I never saw any bodies and the numbers seemed about the same. Just not many new shrimplets during that time, so they came through it fine aside from not berry-ing up like they usually do. And now that they've got warm water again they're breeding like crazy/normal.


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