# Shrimp Beginner



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Amanos won't breed in freshwater. Their young are born in larval stages that require brackish water to breed. However, they will readily clean up algae as they are the best algae eating shrimps.

Another great beginner shrimp is the RCS (ghost shrimp are ugly IMO). Not only are they easy to spot (unfortunately, fish easily spot them too), but also can handle a wide range of tank parameters. They are cheap too!

Generally, when you reach 10 shrimp/gallon breeding slows and you might have stunted growth. Since they have no bioload you could keep a ton, but when you feed the food has more bioload contribution than the shrimp.


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## leo1234 (Dec 2, 2009)

Cherry's are a good shrimp to start with they cheap and readily available. When you have more than enough shrimps you can always give them away or sell them.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

So much hate for the ghost shrimp diwu13... I like them and can't see much of a difference in appearance between them and amanos, honestly (obviously they have different body shapes and markings, I mean that aesthetically speaking I can't see a strong reason to choose between the two.) To each his own, I guess.

In any case, I have to agree that neocaridina are a good starting place, as they're easy to keep and will breed readily: red cherry shrimp, yellow shrimp, snowballs, blue pearls. None are particularly good algae eaters, but they'll pick at it. 

Ghost shrimp will reproduce for you once your tank has matured a bit and are incredibly easy to keep. They have a larval stage that needs plankton to develop, but it can do so in fresh water. They don't eat algae at all; they're more like catfish, picking at waste in the substrate.

If I had to make a suggestion, I'd say take a look at pictures of the various neocaridina, decide which you like the best and go with it. You generally don't want to mix them, as they can hybridize and give you off color babies.

For the babies, once you have too many give them to a friend, sell them on this site, or feed them to fish in a larger tank...


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I had a bad experience with ghost shrimp haha. Turned out they turned vicious and ate all the cherries in the tank with them (10 ghosts, 30 or so cherries). After that I've never gotten ghost shrimp ever again. Think they look freaky as well with their eyes so far apart.


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## buffheman (Feb 23, 2011)

Hmm I may have to go with the cherries then. Thanks for the tips! Would you recommend buying off this forum? Do shrimp ship well?


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## Ben. (Mar 29, 2011)

check your lfs first but on here is usually cheaper, shipping shrimp does induce some stress but it is very safe. 

Check the powersellers section for epicfish, sells 20 RCS for around $20 i think!


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## Fishies_in_Philly (Dec 8, 2011)

buffheman said:


> Hmm I may have to go with the cherries then. Thanks for the tips! Would you recommend buying off this forum? Do shrimp ship well?


i found someone local on craigslist. i prefer picking up to shipping in the winter. i KNOW my car is warm and i know i'm not gonna be traveling for 3-5 business days in my car. just a thought :icon_conf


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I believe Rachael should live somewhat close to you. Mount Wolf, PA? Her SN is msjinkzd. You should consider checking her fish store/basement out haha!


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## buffheman (Feb 23, 2011)

What temperatures can shrimp withstand? My tank is a fine temperature and I think I'll get the cherries for that, but I have a bowl that I intend to transfer to my office at some point... but for now it's just plants, and the temp is low 60s. Is that too cold for shrimp? It will be warmer once in the office, I might just have to wait.


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## DesmondTheMoonBear (Dec 19, 2011)

They should be fine in those temps especially if traveling only.


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Most of the shrimp that are popularly kept actually prefer colder water than the typical tropical fish range.

Another reason that neocaridina shrimp (Red Cherry Shrimp, yellow neos, rilis, snowballs, etc.) are so popular is that they can still thrive in temps around 80 degrees (and thus can be kept in the vast majority of freshwater tropical fish tanks) whereas bee shrimp and tiger shrimp prefer temperatures closer to 70 degrees to thrive.

People have offered a lot of good advice here but one important bit that I would like to offer is to pick the one type of neocaridina species that you really like the most and start out with the best grade/highest quality source that you can find.

It is almost impossible to pick out all of the shrimp once they start having babies and you don't want them intermixing.

I ordered some nice Fire Red shrimp but found some regular Red Cherry Shrimp at a local fish store and now I have to keep them seperate so that the regualr cherrys don't dilute the nicer gene pool of the fire reds. Then I eventually bought some PFR cherry shrimp and I have to keep them seperate as well. What I should have done was start out with the more expensive PFR in the first place and not bothered with the lower grades. Now I have to keep three populations seperate.

edit: I have cherry red shrimp in an unheated Walstad style planted bowl and they do just fine. The apartment is heated and I don't have them next to a window but other than that I don't worry about it.


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