A Beginner’s Guide To Keeping Shrimp

A Beginner’s Guide To Keeping Shrimp

Shrimp are Friends, Not Food!

As rewarding as fish can be to keep, sometimes more variety is needed. Here is a brief primer on how to go about keeping these friendly, colourful and prolific animals in your tank.

First things first: the species of shrimp you select will determine how easy it is to keep and breed. I break down the selection into three categories-

Neocaridina shrimp
Caridina shrimp
“Other”

In addition to being the species that I keep, Neocaridina is the easiest and cheapest to purchase of the three, and they will be the focus of this guide.

Neos, You are the Chosen One

Hardy, adaptable, and prolific, Neocaridina Davidi (aka the dwarf cherry shrimp) are an ideal choice for any aquarist interested in shrimp, especially beginners.

There are many colour variations, including red, blue, black, and green; having been painstakingly bred to express these colours, keeping multiple colours in the same tank is inadvisable.

They will indiscriminately mate, and the offspring will often be a drab brown or transparent. The “blue dream” and “black rose” are my favourites.

When purchasing shrimp, please remember that they are social animals and do best in large groups of at least ten individuals.

Any less than this, and they will tend to hide rather than graze as a group out in the open. I frequently see beginners make the mistake of buying just a couple of shrimp for their community tank and then complaining that they never see the shrimp.

No New Friends

Large or aggressive fish are not suitable tankmates for shrimp. Barbs, bettas, and many others will often bully or harass the shrimp or eat the shrimp straight up for dinner.

Your best bet is a shrimp-only aquarium or a tank with small, peaceful fish (such as ember tetras or corydoras), lots of vegetation, and a decent water volume.

Don’t Mind the Crowds

Shrimp are tiny and have a lower output of metabolic waste than fish so that they can be kept in more minor tanks/densely populated conditions.

With that said, I wouldn’t push it; it is best to do a maximum of 10-15 shrimp per five gallons. A 20-gallon tank is best for breeding.

If they are comfortable, Neocaridina shrimp will reproduce often (with a large enough baseline population, this will happen with no special effort on the owner’s part), and you will soon find your tank filled with lots of tiny shrimplets.

Almost any fish will gobble these baby shrimp up, so keeping them in a shrimp-only tank or a heavily planted tank if you want any shrimplets to survive and grow into adulthood makes sense.

I have a large breeding colony in my densely planted high-tech with a small fish population.

Neocaridina shrimp originate in temperate, shallow pools in Asia. This gives them the advantage of not needing a heater (as long as your house stays in the 65-80 F range throughout the year).

Mine are most comfortable and active around 70-76 F. They like relatively soft, acidic water and, in my experience, will breed best in conditions around a pH of 6.8-7.5, GH 4-6, and a lower KH.

Despite these preferences, they can usually adapt to most conditions and can even live in somewhat hard water (although I wouldn’t advise it).

Shrimp are more accessible to keep than fish in many ways, but they are much more sensitive to changes in their water chemistry.

Please note that they are susceptible to copper and many other metals; excessive iron fertilization to achieve red plants or water supplements containing copper can result in swift death.

The trace amount of iron in a complete plant fertilizer is adequate for achieving the brightest red plants and should not harm your Neocaridina shrimp at low levels.

Where am I?

Shrimp react poorly to sudden changes in water conditions, much more so than fish. If you see your shrimp swimming around the tank like fish after a water change, they are not happy with the new water you have added.

With that said, it is essential to do water changes at least once a week to avoid waste buildup (two 30% changes each week is better than one 50% change).

I do a lot of water changes in my high-tech tank, but my shrimp do not mind since I take steps to ensure that the new water I am adding closely matches the parameters of the water already in the tank (you can read more about this in my previous article about understanding water parameters).

Failure to adapt to new water conditions can result in jumping behaviour or death. Shrimp do not typically jump or climb out of a tank if they are happy with the water parameters.

What about keeping shrimp in high-tech tanks? Many people have successfully bred Neocaridina shrimp in tanks with CO2 supplementation, but it’s essential to ensure that the CO2 does not become excessive.

This can be achieved by using a drop checker and ensuring it is green (as opposed to yellow). A fluctuating pH due to the CO2 levels changing is another thing to watch out for.

What do you want to eat? Whatever…

Regarding food, shrimp are scavengers with relatively low demands compared to fish. No specific feeding may be needed in a community tank, as the shrimp will consume uneaten fish food, algae, and biofilm.

In a dedicated shrimp tank or a tank with a sparse fish population, the shrimp can be fed a few times a week (with any uneaten food being removed after an hour or so). I feed mine SL-Aqua M.O.R.E White pellets.

I have been keeping and breeding Neocaridina shrimp in my high-tech planted tanks for years with no issues, thanks to my adherence to the rules above.

I hope that this guide will help you have success with yours. With the proper housing and care, you can breed your shrimp and never have to repurchase any!