When to add shrimp?

It's my experience the tank needs to be beyond stable. I'd also highly recommend a TDS meter. That little gadget would have saved me no telling how much money and how many invert deaths if I'd known how TDS levels impact invert molting.

When you get your shrimp introduce them into a dark tank and leave it dark for a minimum of 20 minutes. They might hide for several days but eventually you'll see them more and more. I've only had one Betta who didn't give up the hunt.

Have fun!

Excuse my ignorance, for there is much of it and it is large, but what is TDS and how does it hurt shrimp? I assume it doesn't affect fish as much as invertebrates?

Sorry for not explaining. I tend to do that sometimes. :-(

I posted this earlier today:

http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=404722

The TFK article explains how it damages fish, too. Many aquarists believe too little attention is paid to TDS levels.

Oh my! I'll certainly have to get a TDS meter now. So if I understand correctly, TDS is everything that isn't water and large solids (like decor and substrate)? How would one lower TDS if it was too high?

Our tap water is less than 200. I keep check on the tank and if the TDS starts to rise I do a water change. From the article it appears water changes are the answer if the high TDS is due to additives and not high source water. Maybe someone will answer if there's another way.

Before you put in an expensive shrimp you may want to try with something cheap like a ghost shrimp. My betta was in a well established tank of his own before I added shrimp and a couple other fish, but he has a very timid personality and never flares. He's not at all territorial, so I had no concerns about adding fish to 'his' tank. I'm wanting to add tankmates to my new betta's tank as well, so I might be trying that out soon. He didn't even flare at my other betta when I had the bag in the tank for a bit while I finished getting things set up so I may have gotten lucky and got another gentle betta. I haven't yet decided on his tank so I will probably test out his personality while I'm preparing a tank in case I need to add tankmates first.

Yea I'll probably add a few ghost shrimp from my lfs and see how they do before I buy any of the more expensive shrimp online.

hmm... I added 5 ghost shrimp to a new uncycled tank, and all of the lived and got pretty huge. my experience with shrimp so far has been "They need no special care, just dumpem in and do regular water changes (weekly)". I have hear Cherry shrimp are much more sensitive then ghost shrimp tho....

mpooyan83 said:

hmm... I added 5 ghost shrimp to a new uncycled tank, and all of the lived and got pretty huge. my experience with shrimp so far has been "They need no special care, just dumpem in and do regular water changes (weekly)". I have hear Cherry shrimp are much more sensitive then ghost shrimp tho....

Click to expand...

I think Cherry shrimp are more sensitive to new tanks then ghost, but still a hardy shrimp indeed. I want 9ft pool with 1000 amano shrimp, so I can go swimming with them. My favorite shrimp of all time.

So both of them, as far as shrimp go, are pretty tough?

Problem with Cherry shrimp, at least that i've seen, they are a bit smaller then Ghost shrimp and amano shrimp. My betta leaves the ghosts and Amanos alone. But I've seen some of the cherries disappear... guessing into Novas belly. lol.

freeflow246 said:

So both of them, as far as shrimp go, are pretty tough?

Click to expand...

RCS are certainly more tolerant than Red Crystal or filter shrimp such as Vampire and Bamboo, of poor parameters....but not by much.

A lot of Ghost shrimp die because they are "feeder" shrimp and poorly treated before they even hit the pet store. For that reason, they're really not good "test" shrimp for anything other than to see if a Betta will be aggressive.

Amanos are great algae eaters and real characters.

Hmmm I'll have to look at amanos. But basically I should have my tank going for a while before adding shrimp of any sort.

freeflow246 said:

Hmmm I'll have to look at amanos. But basically I should have my tank going for a while before adding shrimp of any sort.

Click to expand...

To give the shrimp the best environment for them to thrive, yes. It's to your credit you're researching and asking questions first. Kudos.