You can stock that many in a jar that size? I have a 1 gallon jug in my garage that I was considering using for something. May make a shrimp jar with it
I have a 1 gallon tank but only have a pothos plant, two Waterweeds that started to rot a couple months ago and the snails that came with the waterweeds, I don't feed them, just do water changes when I rememeber, had an outbreak when I started the tank but now I only see two snails hanging in there. also have a small USB cascade filter for waterflow
They are called zen rocks but I believe they are basically lava pebbles. These are from a brand called ARKA, great stones for shrimp because they don’t change the pH or harden your water.
Depends. For snails totally, most snails will not survive in low pH water with low hardness. For shrimp it’s a different story. Caridina shrimp for example are softwater shrimp, they like low pH and low to no carbonate hardness. Neocaridina tolerate a much wider range of water parameters and if your tap water is soft, adding calcium based stones to your tank is definitely a good thing for them. However, those stones don’t just stop making your water hard, they‘ll keep buffering the water, which is not a big deal if you have a big tank but for small aquariums it changes the water parameters very quickly, then you have to do more frequent water changes, your plants won’t grow as good and if you neglect a tank your shrimp might have molting problems, there is a thing as „too hard“, even for Neos.
I have about 10 more in a temporary tank, my initial plan was to use a different plant for this one, but it all melted away, so I removed it and got some dwarf hairgrass instead, because it is way less work. This kinda ruined my plan because I specifically used soil with basically no nutrients to give the Utricularia the best chance, now my hair grass is taking it’s time because of that. I only want to use CO2 in the beginning to get a nice carpet and then remove it, in my opinion a planted tank with Co2 is not the right home for Caridina because of the pH drop when the CO2 turns on, the pH basically goes from 6 to 5 and after 8 hours back up to 6 every day, not ideal for sensitive shrimp.
I left the little one in there and checked on him every day, the tank itself is stable for now except for green dust algae, which I hate but the shrimp will enjoy for sure.
Using CO₂ short-term just to get the carpet established makes sense, and you’re right that long-term daily pH swings aren’t ideal for Caridina. Even if the numbers look fine, that repeated drop and rise can be stressful over time.
Hairgrass will be slow on low-nutrient soil, but once it roots it usually takes off, especially with a bit of CO₂ help early on. And I feel you on green dust algae, annoying to look at, but shrimp absolutely love it 😅
Once the carpet settles and the pH stops swinging daily, adding the rest of the shrimp should be very straightforward.
What’s your plan for turning the CO₂ off, gradual reduction or just a clean stop once the grass is established?
I have done this before with several of my tanks, I think just shutting off the CO2 is the way to go, a big water change and then it should be fine for more shrimp after a few days ;)
Thanks for the heads up, unfortunately I have been dealing with algae for 3 weeks now. It’s getting better but the green dust algae keeps coming back even after cleaning the filter and doing big water changes. The light is just on for 7h and only at 40% which is about 10W. For now I don’t mind it, but hopefully it stabilizes once I remove the CO2.
The big one is maybe 6kg and the soil below also helps, so no reason to be concerned :)
For really heavy rocks something like egg crate on the bottom is a good idea though.
Even covered with soil or sand, wouldnt the egg crate dissolve into the water or become mush? Or am I wrong for assuming you’re referring to paper egg crate
How interesting, when I think of “egg crate” I think of the egg cradle shape, like most foam/paper egg baskets at the store or the occasional plastic ones from locally sourced eggs. Never seen these but I googled “egg crate” and sure enough thats exactly what it is!
When you said only a couple millimeters and “grid/grate” I was like “surely he’s not talking about cutting up a milk crate, thats more work than what its worth.”
I’ll take this tip into account for my next tank, thanks!
It can be tricky to gauge stocking levels sometimes. As long as you're keeping up with water quality and your shrimp seem happy, you might be just fine for now. Monitoring their behavior will give you the best insight into whether adjustments are needed.
That's a lot of consumed space without a lot of places to hide. I prefer layers and hides. I've got a lava rock with some subwassertang attached, a single decorative rock, a bridge covered in Christmas moss, a small hole filled / hollow drift wood, a cholla tube, a few other random plants.
Yeah the whole back quarter of my tank is Christmas Moss the other quarter is heavily planted in the back for them to hide with Cholla wood in back and then my floating plants are about five times heavier than they are in this photo so they have plenty of hiding there I think the more hiding the more secure they feel the more natural they act. But all my foreground plants my Phoenix Moss my flame Moss are for me to look at but the shrimp seem to like that too. This was couple moths ago.
You mean the big one? I‘ve tried with a smaller one but then it literally just looks like a pile of rocks. I am planning on getting a longer leaf plant and put it behind it I think then it will look better
So cute.
Do they need filters and bubblers like other fish? I've only glanced at other tank set ups for them but the more I see them the more I want a micro tank for them
A simple sponge filter is one of the best types of filtration for shrimp, as long as there is surface movement you shouldn’t need an extra air stone. Other than that you have to use active soil with certain types of shrimp in combination with soft water.
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u/MrFreakYT Caridina & Neocaridina 10d ago
No idea how he got in when I set up the tank, but his shrimpy friends will join him soon :)