@Zweev Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a supportive comment! It means a lot. I'm also very glad you found it helpful! Happy New Year and Happy Shrimpin' :D
@fisrtnamelastname3083 I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment :) Good luck with your first tank. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions!
Thank you so much for your support! It means a lot :) If there are ever any shrimp questions you'd like us to investigate, just let us know and we'll see what we can do!
Literally cycling a new tank atm and stuck a trio of red (honestly mine are more like hot pink) ramshorns in. Thought process was "huh they're pretty low-bioload so it's like a fish-in cycle but ~softer~". Then not a day later this video gets suggested to me lol crazy part is I do plan to put shrimp in there (and maybe a few nano fish too).
Lol gotta love coincidences! The Snail-In method certainly isn't revolutionary by any means but I don't think it's been described as in-depth or accepted as much as the fish-in or fishless cycle. Maybe that'll change in the future! Lmk how things go. If you do put in nano fish, they may have quite a bit higher bioload than the snails so just be aware. Happy shrimpin' :D
@@shrimplyexplained I really liked how you explained it! Had some doubts but after watching your video I feel a lot safer. Kinda validating to see that there's actual sense behind the decision I made tbh And yes, of course! If I do add fish, I'll do it in increments and test daily!
@@shrimplyexplainedsome plants I ordered unknowingly came with some trumpet snails, so I suppose I will be doing a snail cycle haha! I also read your entire website and it was incredibly helpful. Thank you for doing so much research and explaining it to the masses in an easy to understand way :-)
@@scribbleshrimp Lol yeah snail-in cycles kind of just happen, so now all you need is some patience! One other benefit that I didn't really mention in this video is that snails like trumpet snails help churn the substrate and keep it healthy, so there are a even more reasons to keep them in your tank. Wow, we're glad you like all the content we've made! Our goal is always to make things shrimple :D That being said, the content certainly isn't perfect and we're always looking to improve. Do you have any constructive criticism for the website/videos?
I started my 5g microtank on 12/24 with a soil layer capped by soil. I planted several species of aquatic plants, as well as several houseplants hanging outside with their roots in the water. I used API to dechlorinate my Southern CA tap water (chloramine). The shrimp, a mix of 25 amano and cherry, were added on 12/28 with the lights having been left on for 16 hours per day. I also added three nerite snails, some pond snails, and daphnia that I collected from a pond. The water is crystal clear, but we'll see what happens over the next month! Thanks for your content.
@PedanticNo1 That's certainly a short time to wait between setting up the tank and adding shrimp. The plants can provide some important biofilm and microfauna quickly though, so hopefully the tank does well! Best of luck - Reach out if you have any questions!
I didn’t cycle my shrimp tank, they were fine but i messed up and had a heater that was too high (78°-80°f). My heater was plugged in for about 8 months before I finally admitted defeat since my colony has been reduced to only 9 (maximum) living individuals. I have an empty tank and im going to cycle that one to see if it improves anything while my current one wont be because the shrimp are already in there (im going to restart it because its ugly lol). This video is very helpful for me to actually learn to cycle my tank
I’m not takin’ any chances with an uncycled tank because I can’t afford to I recently built a shrimp aquarium bowl and I used a bio bag with half bio rings and half aqua soil topped with sandbox sand I’ve had it set up for close to a month and it’s ready for shrimp and fish Orange eyed blue tiger shrimp and chili rasboras I wish I could post a pic in the comments🌱🦐🐠💙🔥
@mikefisher4834 Thanks for sharing your setup! I hope everything goes according to plan. Do you have any sort of filter or air stone in the tank? It seems like you might based on your other comment, but just checking. Water movement really increases the chance of success with an ecosystem.
I’m a big snail lover so naturally put quite a few into my new tank 10+ weeks ago. I added plants, pods and cods n eventually some minnows who instantly had a feeding frenzy of my micro fauna 😢 I’ve been waiting all year to gather enough information and guts to adopt some shrimpies and wish I’d found you sooner, your experience, research and enthusiasm is invaluable, thanku. I’m still plucking up courage to take the next step on my shrimp journey, so binge watching all your videos. God bless your endeavours 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️. 🙋♀️🤍🇮🇱✌️
@ Thanku so much. The temperature will rise as weather improves, I’m in coastal SW England. Today I did a swap with my LFS, Ramshorn snails for neos that we’re supposed to be blue but aren’t ! So now I have ten nearly invisible babies with my minnows, cories and snails etc and can hardly tear myself away from the tank !! ✌️
Thanks again for a great video! I've been doing this same method, though without the depth of thought that you have put into it. I usually cycle my tanks with ramshorn snails (they don't seem to explode in population like bladder snails). I don't do all of the testing as frequently mainly because, like you said, ramshorn snails are damn near invincible. I just let the tank sit and as I see the snails grow, algae develop, plus the appearance of small nano worms and mites, I know it's time to test and see where the nitrogenous waste levels sit. By then, they are almost always 0/0/under 20. It's good to see folks like you confirm and support the process with more official methods!
your videos have been the most well explained and thorough ones Ive watched so far! thought I already had all the info I needed for shrimp keeping but I ended up learning more :)
There's always more to learn! While you've probably heard a lot of the information before, I'm hoping to always include at least some information that's new to even long-time shrimp keepers. Thanks for watching and happy shrimpin'!
Love your videos! They are easy to understand, love the wonderful graphics to show perameters and how they work. Also, not a boring monotone log!!!! Hate those. Keep up the grate work.
@robingettman2979 Thank you very much for the kind feedback! It takes a lot of work to do all the graphics and animation so I'm really glad you find them helpful :) Happy shrimpin'!
Yay!!! I love the idea of the snail in cycle! I’m new to the hobby and I have ready all of your articles in Shrimp School. SO much helpful information. I’m starting a 3-gallon planted tank…how many snails would be enough of a bioload to help the cycle? I’m thinking trumpet snails, but I don’t want to end up overrun. My aquarium FB group wasn’t any help as they suggested using fish, instead of snails.
I'm glad you found all the information helpful! Trumpet snails start reproducing quickly initially and they can reproduce without a partner, so you really only need 1. All snails can only reproduce to the extent the ecosystem allows. If you limit food sources (proper feeding, healthy plants, etc.), then overpopulation shouldn't be a concern. A good rule of thumb is to only feed as much as shrimp can eat in 2-3 hours. A feeding dish (petri dish) can be helpful to remove excess food and it creates an additional obstacle that snails have to get over before they can get food. Good luck and lmk if you have any other questions!
Perfect timing to see this video! I have 4 new shrimp tanks that are aging. I did add a ramshorn to each in hopes that it helps but I suspect that the large amount of subwassertang I added to each tank will house snail eggs too. I figured the tanks would be ready for shrimp in late October. After watching your video I will feed the tanks more frequently and do more testing. Thank you!
Four new shrimp tanks is exciting! What are you putting in each of them? As for feeding, idk how much food you were planning to add each time but remember to try avoiding too much buildup. It can help to place the food somewhere that's easily visible. You can also probably save time by testing once after the first week and again after 6-8 weeks if the first week looked good. It doesn't have to be often unless it seems like something is wrong with the tank!
@@shrimplyexplained the new tanks are for Neos. I have some interesting looking shrimp in my mixed tank that I hope to breed out to a stable line. Experimentation is exciting to me. I fed the feeding dish in each tank 1 crab cuisine pellet last night after watching your video.
@@shrimplyexplained maybe on Facebook but not sure. I now know 2 of the tanks are shrimp safe as they have shrimp that transfered as shrimplets when I added the subwassertang to the tanks several weeks ago. They came out of hiding when I fed their tanks.
Wow, how come I didn’t find this channel before now. That totally makes sense. I totally understand it now and my Porsche Shrimp at the very beginning they probably hated me well now that I’m more educated they may love me now. You have a great way explaining it, or I’m just getting smarter or something love your channel. You are great at explaining it for me anyways. Wow, I love this channel that’s all I can say thank you so much and I can’t wait to go look at all that information you just told us about happy shrimping.
Thank you - that's very kind of you to say! We all start somewhere and hopefully continue to become better shrimp keepers. This channel is partly to push ourselves to learn more in pursuit of giving our shrimp better lives :) Happy shrimpin'!
Thanks for sharing this video. Funny I have been in and out of the hobby for 25+ years and have never heard of the snail cycle. I just learned something new 😀Makes perfect sense. Great video!
Glad you liked the video! The term is technically something we made up so that's why you haven't heard of it before. With your experience in the hobby, you can probably recognize that this isn't all that different to some of the fishless cycling methods with ghostfeeding. It's just a bit more intentional to establishing a bioload through snails and thinking about the ecosystem holistically. Happy shrimpin! :D
youtube can be such a weird thing. i build my first tank for shrimp 3-4 days ago. i got some plants from people locally so theres allready some algae on the plants to get it going. 2 days ago i was at the aquarium store again to look around and i just bought 2 horned nerites just because i was ''young and full of energy'' lol. i was just enthusiastic and i wanted this thing to go and put something in there and i thought having 2 snails in there might just make the cycling a little more interesting so i have something to look at at least. and now this video pops up and it makes so much sense tbh. also i have to say: i am a person who likes simple things and let nature figure it out instead of playing scientist mixing a bazillion things into my water and i think something like a fish-in cycle in some shape or form is something i would prefer. alltho i have some rather different opinions on ''cruelty'' in that regard. Yes it might not be optimal for the fish and you try to make sure its okay BUT...honestly if i have a look at the tanks they have in petshops selling those fish, i have a hard time believing my tank would be any more cruel, than fish swimming in cramped blue boxes with a fake rock in it. especially if you might pick a fish that doesnt look super happy to begin in order to maybe save it. also depending on what fish or animal, i would say an intelligent betta is a little higher up there compared to a random neon tetra or a snail for example, i dont think you can or should compare something like a small fish or a snail to lets say a cat or a dog really. how many people say: ''oh thats cruel towards that snail'' but on the other hand kill every single moscito or fly they see in their home without even thinking about it? how is that any different?
@MuTSoftLight Lol at the idea that being young and full of energy means impulse buying some snails. I love it :D Regarding the cruelty thing: Thanks for sharing! I generally agree that a home tank is much better than a store tank, even if the home tank maybe isn't cycled. I would argue that a fish-in cycle just has a higher risk overall though, as the fish needs more food and produces more waste quickly so water quality becomes a concern. They also aren't as tolerant of ammonia as a variety of snail species are. For me, that starts bringing in some anxiety that I'd rather not deal with, whereas the snail-in cycle avoids any of those concerns. That's where I guess my main gripe with a fish-in cycle is that it's more work, whereas any sort of "cruelty" is less of a concern for responsible caretakers. Figuring out where one stands on the whole animal sentience/value thing is certainly an interesting discussion. A lot of aquarists do seem to equate, say, a bladder snail with a fly or mosquito since they're all small and annoying without super clear signs of "critical thinking skills" or "sentience". But as soon as you bring in a larger or less reproductive snail like a nerite, that attitude changes. If there are a lot of an animal, then one loss becomes less of a problem. I've noticed that with my attitude toward shrimp as I've gotten more and more of them. That doesn't mean it's "right" by any means and is certainly an idea we should grapple with periodically as pet owners. Thanks for bringing up the topic! I'd love to hear any other thoughts you have on the subject :)
@@shrimplyexplained i m not saying overdo it and torture animals. but i m just really kind of sick of people online doing some moral speech for everything you do. in that regard we shouldnt even keep animals but let them live outside. someone told me how cruel i am for using a snail for cycling and that i willingly put a life into danger and whatnot. i am wondering if all those people are vegans sometimes. because if they eat some eggs and bacon in the morning but then doing a speech of cruelty rights towards snails, it sounds a little absurd if you ask me.
Hey dude! I’m currently cycling a shrimp tank, and I am totally going to try this. Thanks! My only worry is that i appear to have a snail leech that escaped into my tank from one of my mosses… i have to find it before i start. So excited!
Oof, I'm sorry to hear that! Leeches are awful but most of them need another one of the opposite sex to reproduce so hopefully you only got one. Were you able to take care of the problem?
@@shrimplyexplained thanks for your reply! Haven't managed to fetch out the little fellow yet, but I'm working on it. There is definitely only one, so I'm hopeful that it'll never reproduce. It's actually not a snail leech, it's an Asian freshwater leech, and I've come to like it, so whenever I do catch it it's going into one of my pond jars to live out its days :) Snail cycling is going fantastic though! Thanks for this video. I have a bunch of formerly feral ramshorns and one bladder snail-- soon to be many! They are doing well.
@@andyantony6638 Good, great to hear there's just one! They are pretty cool little critters so I'm glad to hear the leech will have a good home - just somewhere without shrimp you care about lol. I hope the cycling keeps going well. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions :)
Great video, I am curious what you will cover next since you covered so much already, maybe making other tanks shrimple? For example, to make the tank more colorful or dynamic with a more diverse plant selection or hardscape, which plants/materials would you avoid or would recommend in this ecosystem. Keep up the good work.
Oh, there's so much interesting stuff to cover still! We've got a bunch of ideas for experiments and videos. Plant selection and equipment are definitely on the list, along with clearing up confusion around GH and KH, biofilm development, substrate choice, etc. Just gotta find the time to do them... By making the tank more colorful, do you mean improving the color of the shrimp or more colorful plants/substrate/equipment?
I was thinking more like different colored plants, Bromeliads for example and different textures from hardscape materials. But now that you mention it, I am curious about cohabitating several shrimp species. Would they breed soley with there own or would they crossbreed or would they attack each other for tank dominance. More video ideas yay, lol. I hear you about finding time for filming and editing videos, it can take me weeks of filming to make one ten minute video that might not even get a view.@@shrimplyexplained
@@ForsakenFather TBH plants are not my specialty. I understand how certain types impact an ecosystem but there are other creators who know much more about getting the best coloration from them. Keeping shrimp together is definitely in my area though! If we're just talking shrimp, then all of them actually cohabitate well, excluding the aggressive whisker shrimp. The biggest concern is actually keeping different colors of the same species together, as many people don't like the less vibrant offspring that are produced (AKA wild type coloration). It's definitely a topic I'd like to cover eventually.
I always start with Gammarus pulex (scuds) when cycling a tank. Cheap, very hardy, and also provide the option of culturing them as live food. You'd need Hyalella azteca for feeding nano fish.
@stevegee8010 That sounds like a great option for fish tanks! I do worry about them for shrimp tanks though, since I've heard mixed opinions about the relationship between scuds and shrimp. Some say the scuds eat a lot of the biofilm/food in the tank so shrimp don't get as much. Others say that scuds may prey on baby shrimp. Maybe it's all heresay but I haven't had the chance to test it out. Do you keep scuds with your shrimp?
@@shrimplyexplained Yes, I have a tank with scuds, red cherries, and white clouds. The scuds tend to live mostly in the substrate and weir filter. They will munch on moss though. I rarely even see them but occasionally I'll notice a white cloud chasing a small one along the bottom. But if there's a concern then most species of ostracodes will do just as well if you don't mind the 'dots' on the aquarium glass and don't overfeed.
@@stevegee8010 It sounds like you've got the scud population under pretty good control! I wonder if the white clouds kinda keep them in line since they often become much more populous in shrimp-only tanks. If we're thinking about what species are good for cycling, then scuds seem like a good option for their hardiness. Ostracods are never a bad thing to have in the tank but I suspect most species are just too small to develop a decent bioload during the cycling process - at least if they're the only animals in the tank. Scuds have a large enough bioload that they likely prepare the tank better
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave some words of encouragement. We really appreciate it and hope to get out more great content for you :) Happy shrimpin!
Helpful video. The aquarium hobby, and especially when keeping some of the animals including dwarf shrimp, requires some basic knowledge. If you look at shrimp keeping help forums, there are many people who do no aging or cycling of tanks and lose a lot of shrimp in the process. You and I chatted some in Redditt a few months ago. I think the hardest thing for new Shrimp Keepers is understanding water parameters and how to do testing. My tap water has a KH of 17 and a GH of 8, so I use remineralized RO water. I know people, including my local fish shop, who keep Neocaridina in this tap water, but I prefer lower hardness and like the control I get by using RO. I just now found your channel here. Have you done a video yet on water changes for shrimp? I learned a lot about shrimp keep from Grant and Shelby at The Garden of Eder Shrimp. They have almost 400 tanks of shrimp now, and they do weekly water changes. I know many other people don't do water changes, and say that the changes kill shrimp. I'm very careful to do small water changes and always match water parameters, including temperature, and I don't lose shrimp after my weekly water changes. Which goes to show that there is more than one way to be successful with shrimp. But I think most people new to the hobby would rather learn a relatively easy way to keep shrimp successfully the first time. Thanks for the videos, and for your website.
Hey Thomas! Thanks again for providing your research of recommended water parameters a while ago :) I've still got very few videos out but discussing water changes is definitely on the list for future videos. Understanding when a water change is NEEDED vs when you might WANT to do one is really important. I think the frequency is affected by: 1. changes in parameters 2. your own risk tolerance 3. Tank setup (types of plants, balance of ecosystem) As you say, there's also HOW water changes are done. How quickly should the water be added? How carefully does it need to be matched? It's a really interesting topic that deserves more discussion so I'd love to chat about it! I'm glad you found a system that works for you. Mind if I ask what frequency you do water changes at and what determines when you do them?
@patconcubierta295 Good question! We recommend setting your filtration and lights up however you intend to have them when you put shrimp in the tank. Generally, that means filters are always on while lighting time may vary between 8-12 hours depending on plants and acceptable algae growth. Cycling the tank using different settings means your tank ecosystem will change at least slightly whenever you change the lighting, potentially destabilizing it. If you make those changes right before adding shrimp then that could lead to problems. Let me know if you have any questions!
Hello again..Should i always put ammonia or more food in the tank to generate ammonia for the good bacteria to thrive?should i put good bacteria like bacter ae weekly?please help.im cycling a fishless tank..
@patconcubierta295 You do need a constant supply of an ammonia source, whether that's bottled ammonia or food. Our cycling guide covers our recommendations so check it out and lmk if you have any other questions! www.shrimplyexplained.com/the-shrimp-school/cycling-shrimp-tank/
You're definitely spot on that snails will reproduce in as much as there's avail resources. I set up a colony breeding tank for Celestial Pearl Danios and snowball Neocaridina and added my handful of ramshorns. As soon as I had fry and was feeding powdered food and baby brine a few times a day, the snails literally exploded! And as soon as the fry were grown and I backed off of the heavy feeding, the snail population started falling.
@laurabustos6560 I appreciate you sharing your observation! Makes total sense. Do you think that snail population boom suggests you could have fed less and gotten the same growth/survival for your fry or is it a good thing to have some extra food then?
@@shrimplyexplained I don't think the fry would have made it. It wasn't quantity of food so much as number of feedings a day. CPD fry when they're free swimming, when they first come out are like the size of an eyelash. They're tiny! So it wasn't going to work to do large feedings 2x daily which I do with the adults. They needed 4-5 small feedings a day to really grow strong. But my whole thing was to experiment with colony breeding rather than pulling the eggs or separating adults to spawn in a separate tank and then remove. I wanted to let nature take its course with a little helping hand of pea gravel and moss over half the tank so the adults didn't eat all their eggs. It worked well for me as I'm not into breeding for huge numbers, more to see the behavior of the fish and have fun while giving them their best life possible in these glass boxes. ✌️
Great video. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge. I would to hear you thoughts on Bacter AE and adding blanched or fresh raw veggies to your shrimp tanks. I also heard Indian almond leaves are beneficial for shrimp. I found it take 8+ weeks to start growing algae before adding shrimp. My Nano tanks seem to take even longer to cycle and be ready for shrimp than my larger tanks. As you're well aware, no two tanks are the same.
This was so helpful ! Im looking at starting a shrimp tank im starting off with brine shrimp though just to test my temperatures as im planning to put both tanks in the same spot 😊 question though for a true beginer , im really interested in trying to grow a coral tank for sexy shrimp 😭🥺 theyre just so cute and wierd 🤣 is this too much for someone with no experience ? I figured the extra brine shrimp too would be good feed for the live soft coral and sexy shrimp
@hansololouise Hey there, the sexy dancing shrimp look awesome, don't they?? I'd love a tank for them one day. That being said, I don't know much about them. They are saltwater so will certainly be more difficult to keep than freshwater shrimp, but I don't know if they are especially fragile. It's likely doable even without experience, IF you're okay with doing a LOT of careful research, starting with the basics of keeping a stable saltwater tank. Good luck!
@uctrong9533 All types of snails can be added on the first day. If you're adding mystery, nerite, or rabbit snails, then we recommend adding bottled beneficial bacteria at the same time since these types do not handle high ammonia levels well. Good luck and lmk if you have any other questions!
@@uctrong9533 Snails only populate if food is available in the tank. Assuming you don't overfeed, then the snails won't overpopulate! "Pest" snails are also just any that reproduce quickly. A lot of people like the look of ramshorns so they're certainly not pests if you enjoy them.
Dear Dr. Shrimply, I have been setting up my first shrimp tank and cycling it according to the snail cycling method presented in this method for just over 4 weeks now. While I have a significant amount of plant growth and my snails seem to be doing well, I have about 4-5 pond snails and about 3 Malaysian Trumpet snails who have all grown in size, I do not have ANY ammonia, nitrites or nitrates present in my aquarium as of right now. Do you perhaps any advise on what could be the cause of this and how to move forward? Thanks in advance!
@superjeroeno Hey, sorry for the late response! Based on the number of snails in your tank, you should have a pretty good bioload set up. If you're not seeing any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate then it means your plants are absorbing all detectable amounts of it. That suggests healthy plants that are ready to support a shrimp colony so I'd put them in anytime - Of course assuming ther parameters like GH and KH are within good ranges. Lmk if you have any other questions! I'll try to respond faster next time :)
Hello, I have a 5.5 brand new aquarium- I have pump & sponge filter, 5 small plants & fluval substrate. For 2 weeks - how many & when should I add snails? Thank you in advance
@susanprimeaux1848 Hi there, thanks for the question! It depends on the type of snail. If they are hardy species like ramshorn or bladder snails, then they can be added any time. If they're something more sensitive like a rabbit snail, then we recommend waiting until the tank is cycled (or after adding nitrifying bacteria). Check out this article for a more in-depth explanation and lmk if you have any questions: www.shrimplyexplained.com/the-shrimp-school/cycling-shrimp-tank/
@marcleroux3426 Great question! Adding filter media from a tank with very different parameters still likely helps establish the nitrogen cycle faster than it would naturally. That being said, I would give it a full 2-3 months to let the caridina tank establish still. I don't have any data on it but suspect the types of microorganisms and biofilm that form are quite different between neocaridina and caridina parameters so it's hard to say how well the filter "seeds" those or whether they need to develop organically.
Hey i have a question im planing to set up a dirty tank in december an wil love to get shrimp i jc wanted to know how long to i need to waited before i add the shrimp..
In general, we suggest 6-8 weeks for the highest rate of success. If you seed the tank with a pre-cycled filter and a lot of plants, then you'll probably have a pretty good chance of success after just a month (if the plants are healthy), but giving your ecosystem more time to develop is always a good thing. LMK if you have any questions. Happy shrimpin'!
@@tachanmitchell-j1u finding a appropriate living space is incredibly easy for both shrimp and snails, so whatever works for you to make the best environment for a successful experience is what I hope you're going to be focused on. Now you said you've got 1 tank & mentioned something about a Guppy ? Chances are pretty good YOU have " something " that could easily be used for what you want, and more importantly, is it safe ? The choices of safe containers , should you ever consider using something else other than a standard aquarium ✓ Containers should be considered by almost every hobbyist , especially if it's safe to use , and in order to know what you should consider safe is not likely going to be the same as me. I think I will end my reply to your 2nd ? by saying you are correct when you have a container that is safe for housing what you want to take care of which is Shrimp Fish Snails etc. Mark's Shrimp Tanks has a good video on how to go about starting a storage box successfully just like the aquarium . That's what's great about anything appropriate for you to get established, just like you have been learning from this awesome channel and it's all in the name of doing what needs to be, or why even do it at all ! Good luck 🤞
this is my experience: a while ago i was cycling a new tank. no cycled filter media from other tanks or anything. just a brand new planted nano tank with ada amazonia substrate. then, in a random conversation, one of my fish keeping friends mentioned that he was going to cull a bunch of low grade tangerine tiger shrimps (caridina serrata) and feed them to his larger fish. i asked if i could have some. my tank wasn't cycled. not even close. ammonia was upwards of 6ppm and ph was close to 8. but i figured they were gonna die anyway, i might as well see how they do. i did nothing special. i just followed water change regime to keep the ammonia at around 5ppm, as per ada amazonia's instruction for cycling new tank. lo and behold, all 8 of them not only survived, but 1 female became berried less than a weeks after the ammonia and nitrite reached 0. now they are making ugly babies with a few crystal red cull shrimps i got from the same friend. "caridina shrimps are delicate" is a myth. or, they could be more sensitive to other parameters, but not ammonia or ph. by no means i'm encouraging people to try this. but too often i see the exact opposite mindset happenning which leads to much worse outcomes for them. guess what, worrying about them more often than not leads to unnecessary water changes which leads to constant stress-molting. and you see them molt so often you worry if they have enough calcium so you dose calcium supplements. then you see calcium supplements elevate your ph and kh/gh so you either do even more water changes or you dose a bunch of other nasty chemicals to bring the water parameter down. and you wonder why your shrimps die. they are water roaches. just leave them alone and they will be fine.
There are certainly a lot of contradictions in the hobby. Some people seem to do everything by the book and still struggle to keep Neocaridina alive while others can toss them in an uncycled tank and have tons of babies. I completely agree that they aren't as fragile as many make them out to be and that doing less is one of the best pieces of advice for the hobby. That being said, I'm still extremely surprised they survived with that high of ammonia and pH, especially considering the amazonia should have kept the pH much lower. It just shows how much there still is to learn! Mind if I ask what tester you were using to check pH?
@@shrimplyexplained i was using the api fresh water kit (liquids with test tubes, not dry strips). also, ada is never low ammonia. if I left the tank alone with no water changes, ammonia could easily shoot up to 8ppm or more during cycling. but yeah, caridina surviving 6ppm ammonia was news to me as well. overall, the “less is more” mentality is definitely the way to go. keep the water stable, then add plants and animals that will survive in that stable water whatever the parameter it stabilised at. that’s how I approach the hobby in general. the particular tank i mentioned settled into 7.6ph. yet I’ve kept a few allegedly “soft water” species that live in 5.5ph tannin stained black water in that tank for over a year with fries popping up twice.
I'm trying to zoom in but I'm a phone it's very challenging, but I'm dying to know what that map of my state is made of in the background?!?? 🤔😉 Also, here from fish keeping answers. I am enjoying your Cali style weird humor and the facts so I'm subbing. ✌️
@@shrimplyexplained oh that's awesome! I love it! I'm California born and bred. Born in southern CA, raised on the central coast in Santa Cruz (aka hippy central, back then, now it's just another piece of silicon valley😮💨) and now I'm back down in San Diego county.
So I have a question, my sister gave me her old 20 gallon fish tank with her fish tank accessories and I was wondering do I need to use both the Hold On Back Filter and Sponge Filter together or only use one of them?
It depends - every filter is designed for a certain tank volume. If your filters are both designed for at least a 20g tank, then you only really need one. That being said, extra filtration and aeration is almost always a good thing so having two filters doesn't hurt. One thing to be aware of is the intake filter of the HOB (hang-on-back) filter. A lot of them are quite large and can suck up shrimp, so you'll want to cover the intake with a pre-filter sponge like this one: www.amazon.com/AQUANEAT-6-Pack-Pre-Filter-Aquarium-Replacement/dp/B0B5KSGTCK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2LQC5PG71DIZX&keywords=pre-filter+sponge&qid=1694448728&sprefix=pre-filter%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1 Every filter is different so you may need to search around for how to make your specific HOB filter shrimp-safe. Good luck with the tank! Lmk if you have any other questions.
How would you cycle a tank for Crystal Red Caridina, due to the KH being 0 and the low PH Cycling at higher levels then changing to this may cause the cycle to crash. What is the best way to ensure these spikes to not occur?
@TheSpectrumTheatre Good question! It sounds like you're aware that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) don't function well below 6.5 pH. You could theoretically cycle the tank at a higher pH and then drop it down, but as soon as the pH drops those bacteria stop converting ammonia and you're right that the sudden change may impact your ecosystem for a while. This is where you just have to give your tank time and why many breeders recommend 2-3 months to get a cycled/mature tank for caridina. This time also helps to get out any excess ammonia from the substrate and develop a good amount of biofilm. The other thing is that, if you are only intending to have crystal shrimp (and maybe snails) in your tank, then you'll have a low bioload so very little ammonia will be produced. In addition, below 6.5 pH, ammonia is almost entirely in the form of ammonium, which is non-toxic. In fact, you'd need 2 ppm of ammonia (on the test) to have enough toxic ammonia in the tank to harm your shrimp (estimated to be more than 0.05 ppm of ammonia). Just a few plants (especially fast-growing ones) and the semi-functioning AOB can remove most ammonia produced and keep levels way below harmful levels. Other than that, consistent testing and water changes also help maintain low ammonia levels. LMK if you have any other questions! Happy shrimpin'!
The only ones that might are assassin snails, but that's only if the shrimp are very slow/unhealthy/dying already. Snails are generally the safest tank mates.
@@typicalw1248 Shrimp like neocaridina populate to the amount of food available so you can control them that way. In addition, they tend to grow less as their population increases, potentially as a natural adaptation to prevent overcrowding. Once you start hitting 3+ per liter, then be aware that more maintenance may be required do to the higher bioload. There also is a higher likelihood of disease if good water quality isn't maintained with higher population density. At that point, you may want to think about selling or giving some away.
i tried to cycle with fish food for a couple of weeks - no ammonia spike ever. then i introduced some more plants (and infested with bladder snails), and tried to do ammonia solution cycling. im already 30+ days on trying to do ammonia fishless cycle when i came across this video. i plan to keep only neocardinia, so it looks like i will stop the ammonia dosing and rely only on whatever snails poop out to generate ammonia. the 'problem' is that i see a lot of snail poop, but ammonia levels never really spike unless i add actual bottled ammonia solution... is this normal? how much of a spike with snail-in cycle should one expect for ammonia and nitrite? i do have ton of nitrate in my water, and the tank has quite a bit of live plants (mosses, java fern and floaters). it has been 2 months since i assembled the tank... please help =)
@YP-ee5zg Great question! It sounds like you're expecting an ammonia spike during the process, but that may not happen for a Snail-In cycle if you have enough live plants to eat the ammonia. Bacteria on those plants will also help convert ammonia to nitrates, which is why plants can really help speed up the cycling process. As we said in the video though, cycling isn't the end of the process - we want to give all the organisms in our tank time to establish, in addition to nitrifying bacteria. That process should also be complete if your tank has been set up for 2 months. If your plants and snails seem healthy and you're seeing little microorganisms around, then your tank should be a good environment for shrimp! The one concern is nitrate levels. How high are they right now? If they're above 20, we'd suggest doing a water change to bring them down - ideally to 10 or below.
Would snails eat biofilm or green algae in the walls? I’m afraid if I do this, then baby shrimp will have a tougher time finding places where they can eat
@AdlerGuerrero-nk8ni Great question! So, if you overfeed and the snails overpopulate, then I think that's a possibility. If the snail population stays under control, however, then shrimp are faster and will get to any available food (including biofilm and green algae) sooner. That being said, there are some breeders who come to your conclusion and feel that any snails take away food from the shrimp. If you are trying to perfectly maximize the number of shrimp in a tank, then having absolutely no food competition might be best. I'd argue this optimization strategy isn't a concern for most hobbyists and that the ability for snails to break down waste and clean the tank outweighs their potential minor competition for food. What do you think of that?
Hi @jenniferbunker2757 Thanks for watching and commenting on a lot of our videos :) This is a response to all of your comments. For snails, it depends on your tank size - Nerite snails are the only ones I know of that won't breed in freshwater. They tend to lay eggs everywhere though so that would be the trade-off. You could also opt for 1 or more rabbit/trumpet snails since they can breed but do so much slower than the "pest" snails. Even the pest snails won't overpopulate if you avoid overfeeding though. Check out this video to create a DIY egg tumbler from parts of a sponge filter: th-cam.com/video/kKrgGZ4dNXc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8Amx5Lbn2j67zYL5 Good luck saving the eggs! Don't worry too much about the GH video - it definitely gets into some more detailed stuff that a lot of hobbyists probably don't need to know. That being said, it's useful to be aware that just because GH is in the right range for shrimp, there's a risk that the GH could be made of the wrong ratio of calcium to magnesium and shrimp could still have molting problems. In general, the pH, and KH of your tap are good and your GH very likely is, as well. The big problem is the nitrate level, as the general recommendation is to keep nitrates at 20 or below. Here's a tool on our website where you can enter your parameters and get recommendations for improvements: www.shrimplyexplained.com/tools/are-your-tank-parameters-good-for-neocaridina-shrimp/ For your nitrate problem, you have a couple of options - 1. You could use RO/DI (basically purified) water with a shrimp-specific remineralizer. (easiest/most-expensive option) 2. you could try filling a bucket with your tap water, throw some fast-growing water-column-feeding plants like duckweed in there along with a light and see how long it takes for the plants to remove the nitrates. It might only take a couple days for the nitrates to drop. (a little more patience/work but cheap) 3. You could build a heavily planted tank with fast-growing plants that would absorb the nitrates relatively quickly. Once the nitrates are out and the tank is matured, then you could add shrimp. After that, if you only do 10-15% water changes then you could probably keep nitrates below 20 or 30 ppm and your water would basically act as a free fertilizer for your plants. (Requires a bit of planning and care and more of an expense toward plants in the beginning but could be the easiest in the long run) It sounds like you already have shrimp though, so are they just surviving in 80 ppm of nitrates or what are you doing now? It's not unheard of them to be able to adapt to that level if the rest of the tank is healthy. Lmk if you have any questions!
Hi sir hope you doing well❤️ Sorry to ask, do you have a Instagram or telegram so that I could send my shrimp-aquriom to you to understand and make sure that everything is good with it's set-up and shrimps?😅
I did a lot of research, this is by far the best video about cycling a shrimp tank! Tank 😊 you!
@Zweev Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a supportive comment! It means a lot. I'm also very glad you found it helpful!
Happy New Year and Happy Shrimpin' :D
I'm a beginner shrimp keeper researching my first tank and this was so useful!
@fisrtnamelastname3083 I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment :)
Good luck with your first tank. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions!
YAY!! More great shrimp content. Hoping to see more videos, and I'll be sharing this with my shrimp homies for sure.
Thank you so much for your support! It means a lot :)
If there are ever any shrimp questions you'd like us to investigate, just let us know and we'll see what we can do!
Very creative and funny video . Also I love the educational graphics ! Easy for beginners . Keep going , love your content . 👍🙏😎
@celenastruthers5231 Thank you so much for the kind words. We put a lot of work into them and are glad you enjoy the videos :)
Happy shrimpin'!
@@shrimplyexplained yes I will keep watching and definitely will recommend your channel guys ! Ty so much .
Literally cycling a new tank atm and stuck a trio of red (honestly mine are more like hot pink) ramshorns in. Thought process was "huh they're pretty low-bioload so it's like a fish-in cycle but ~softer~". Then not a day later this video gets suggested to me lol crazy part is I do plan to put shrimp in there (and maybe a few nano fish too).
Lol gotta love coincidences! The Snail-In method certainly isn't revolutionary by any means but I don't think it's been described as in-depth or accepted as much as the fish-in or fishless cycle. Maybe that'll change in the future!
Lmk how things go. If you do put in nano fish, they may have quite a bit higher bioload than the snails so just be aware. Happy shrimpin' :D
@@shrimplyexplained I really liked how you explained it! Had some doubts but after watching your video I feel a lot safer. Kinda validating to see that there's actual sense behind the decision I made tbh
And yes, of course! If I do add fish, I'll do it in increments and test daily!
Great video! I am cycling a tank for shrimps right now, I am so glad I found your channel.
We're glad we can help during this exciting time :D
Good luck with your shrimp tank - Let us know if you have any questions!
@@shrimplyexplainedsome plants I ordered unknowingly came with some trumpet snails, so I suppose I will be doing a snail cycle haha! I also read your entire website and it was incredibly helpful. Thank you for doing so much research and explaining it to the masses in an easy to understand way :-)
@@scribbleshrimp Lol yeah snail-in cycles kind of just happen, so now all you need is some patience! One other benefit that I didn't really mention in this video is that snails like trumpet snails help churn the substrate and keep it healthy, so there are a even more reasons to keep them in your tank.
Wow, we're glad you like all the content we've made! Our goal is always to make things shrimple :D
That being said, the content certainly isn't perfect and we're always looking to improve. Do you have any constructive criticism for the website/videos?
I started my 5g microtank on 12/24 with a soil layer capped by soil. I planted several species of aquatic plants, as well as several houseplants hanging outside with their roots in the water.
I used API to dechlorinate my Southern CA tap water (chloramine). The shrimp, a mix of 25 amano and cherry, were added on 12/28 with the lights having been left on for 16 hours per day.
I also added three nerite snails, some pond snails, and daphnia that I collected from a pond.
The water is crystal clear, but we'll see what happens over the next month! Thanks for your content.
@PedanticNo1 That's certainly a short time to wait between setting up the tank and adding shrimp. The plants can provide some important biofilm and microfauna quickly though, so hopefully the tank does well! Best of luck - Reach out if you have any questions!
I didn’t cycle my shrimp tank, they were fine but i messed up and had a heater that was too high (78°-80°f). My heater was plugged in for about 8 months before I finally admitted defeat since my colony has been reduced to only 9 (maximum) living individuals. I have an empty tank and im going to cycle that one to see if it improves anything while my current one wont be because the shrimp are already in there (im going to restart it because its ugly lol). This video is very helpful for me to actually learn to cycle my tank
I’m not takin’ any chances with an uncycled tank because I can’t afford to I recently built a shrimp aquarium bowl and I used a bio bag with half bio rings and half aqua soil topped with sandbox sand I’ve had it set up for close to a month and it’s ready for shrimp and fish Orange eyed blue tiger shrimp and chili rasboras I wish I could post a pic in the comments🌱🦐🐠💙🔥
@mikefisher4834 Thanks for sharing your setup! I hope everything goes according to plan. Do you have any sort of filter or air stone in the tank? It seems like you might based on your other comment, but just checking. Water movement really increases the chance of success with an ecosystem.
I’m a big snail lover so naturally put quite a few into my new tank 10+ weeks ago. I added plants, pods and cods n eventually some minnows who instantly had a feeding frenzy of my micro fauna 😢 I’ve been waiting all year to gather enough information and guts to adopt some shrimpies and wish I’d found you sooner, your experience, research and enthusiasm is invaluable, thanku. I’m still plucking up courage to take the next step on my shrimp journey, so binge watching all your videos. God bless your endeavours 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️. 🙋♀️🤍🇮🇱✌️
@gayefanner731 Wow, thank you so much for the support and extra comments
@ Thanku so much. The temperature will rise as weather improves, I’m in coastal SW England. Today I did a swap with my LFS, Ramshorn snails for neos that we’re supposed to be blue but aren’t ! So now I have ten nearly invisible babies with my minnows, cories and snails etc and can hardly tear myself away from the tank !! ✌️
So happy to find a comprehensive and clearly explained beginner video. Ty!
@morganzBB8888 We're so glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks for watching and taking the time to show your appreciation with a comment!
love this video! it's explained very well, can't wait to watch all your videos!
Thank you so much for the kind words! We're gonna try to get even more fun content out soon!
Thanks again for a great video! I've been doing this same method, though without the depth of thought that you have put into it. I usually cycle my tanks with ramshorn snails (they don't seem to explode in population like bladder snails). I don't do all of the testing as frequently mainly because, like you said, ramshorn snails are damn near invincible. I just let the tank sit and as I see the snails grow, algae develop, plus the appearance of small nano worms and mites, I know it's time to test and see where the nitrogenous waste levels sit. By then, they are almost always 0/0/under 20. It's good to see folks like you confirm and support the process with more official methods!
your videos have been the most well explained and thorough ones Ive watched so far! thought I already had all the info I needed for shrimp keeping but I ended up learning more :)
There's always more to learn! While you've probably heard a lot of the information before, I'm hoping to always include at least some information that's new to even long-time shrimp keepers.
Thanks for watching and happy shrimpin'!
Love your videos! They are easy to understand, love the wonderful graphics to show perameters and how they work. Also, not a boring monotone log!!!! Hate those. Keep up the grate work.
@robingettman2979 Thank you very much for the kind feedback! It takes a lot of work to do all the graphics and animation so I'm really glad you find them helpful :)
Happy shrimpin'!
Yay!!! I love the idea of the snail in cycle! I’m new to the hobby and I have ready all of your articles in Shrimp School. SO much helpful information. I’m starting a 3-gallon planted tank…how many snails would be enough of a bioload to help the cycle? I’m thinking trumpet snails, but I don’t want to end up overrun. My aquarium FB group wasn’t any help as they suggested using fish, instead of snails.
I'm glad you found all the information helpful!
Trumpet snails start reproducing quickly initially and they can reproduce without a partner, so you really only need 1.
All snails can only reproduce to the extent the ecosystem allows. If you limit food sources (proper feeding, healthy plants, etc.), then overpopulation shouldn't be a concern. A good rule of thumb is to only feed as much as shrimp can eat in 2-3 hours. A feeding dish (petri dish) can be helpful to remove excess food and it creates an additional obstacle that snails have to get over before they can get food.
Good luck and lmk if you have any other questions!
Very informative.
New shrimp fanfrom California. Thank you for the informative video 😊
@jolee3389 Hey another cali friend! We'll have to have a shrimp hobbyists meetup sometime :D
Thanks for the kind words and happy shrimpin'!
Thank you! Brand new to this hobby and still trying to figure it out
I love mystery snails. It’s so fun to watch them surf around. I’m definitely going to try this method to start my next tank.
The mystery snails are sensitive
Perfect timing to see this video! I have 4 new shrimp tanks that are aging. I did add a ramshorn to each in hopes that it helps but I suspect that the large amount of subwassertang I added to each tank will house snail eggs too. I figured the tanks would be ready for shrimp in late October. After watching your video I will feed the tanks more frequently and do more testing. Thank you!
Four new shrimp tanks is exciting! What are you putting in each of them?
As for feeding, idk how much food you were planning to add each time but remember to try avoiding too much buildup. It can help to place the food somewhere that's easily visible. You can also probably save time by testing once after the first week and again after 6-8 weeks if the first week looked good. It doesn't have to be often unless it seems like something is wrong with the tank!
@@shrimplyexplained the new tanks are for Neos. I have some interesting looking shrimp in my mixed tank that I hope to breed out to a stable line. Experimentation is exciting to me. I fed the feeding dish in each tank 1 crab cuisine pellet last night after watching your video.
@@Sue.5776 Oh, sounds like fun! Will you share your results anywhere?
@@shrimplyexplained maybe on Facebook but not sure. I now know 2 of the tanks are shrimp safe as they have shrimp that transfered as shrimplets when I added the subwassertang to the tanks several weeks ago. They came out of hiding when I fed their tanks.
Wow, how come I didn’t find this channel before now. That totally makes sense. I totally understand it now and my Porsche Shrimp at the very beginning they probably hated me well now that I’m more educated they may love me now. You have a great way explaining it, or I’m just getting smarter or something love your channel. You are great at explaining it for me anyways. Wow, I love this channel that’s all I can say thank you so much and I can’t wait to go look at all that information you just told us about happy shrimping.
Thank you - that's very kind of you to say! We all start somewhere and hopefully continue to become better shrimp keepers. This channel is partly to push ourselves to learn more in pursuit of giving our shrimp better lives :)
Happy shrimpin'!
Thanks for sharing this video. Funny I have been in and out of the hobby for 25+ years and have never heard of the snail cycle. I just learned something new 😀Makes perfect sense. Great video!
Glad you liked the video!
The term is technically something we made up so that's why you haven't heard of it before. With your experience in the hobby, you can probably recognize that this isn't all that different to some of the fishless cycling methods with ghostfeeding. It's just a bit more intentional to establishing a bioload through snails and thinking about the ecosystem holistically.
Happy shrimpin! :D
I love your style of explaining
I feel like im in school again
@accalt6519 haha hopefully a good school :D
Thanks for taking the time to leave a kind comment! Happy shrimpin'!
@@shrimplyexplained definitely a good school, have a good one and I wish yall the best of luck
Love the content very informative
youtube can be such a weird thing. i build my first tank for shrimp 3-4 days ago. i got some plants from people locally so theres allready some algae on the plants to get it going. 2 days ago i was at the aquarium store again to look around and i just bought 2 horned nerites just because i was ''young and full of energy'' lol. i was just enthusiastic and i wanted this thing to go and put something in there and i thought having 2 snails in there might just make the cycling a little more interesting so i have something to look at at least. and now this video pops up and it makes so much sense tbh.
also i have to say: i am a person who likes simple things and let nature figure it out instead of playing scientist mixing a bazillion things into my water and i think something like a fish-in cycle in some shape or form is something i would prefer. alltho i have some rather different opinions on ''cruelty'' in that regard. Yes it might not be optimal for the fish and you try to make sure its okay BUT...honestly if i have a look at the tanks they have in petshops selling those fish, i have a hard time believing my tank would be any more cruel, than fish swimming in cramped blue boxes with a fake rock in it. especially if you might pick a fish that doesnt look super happy to begin in order to maybe save it. also depending on what fish or animal, i would say an intelligent betta is a little higher up there compared to a random neon tetra or a snail for example, i dont think you can or should compare something like a small fish or a snail to lets say a cat or a dog really. how many people say: ''oh thats cruel towards that snail'' but on the other hand kill every single moscito or fly they see in their home without even thinking about it? how is that any different?
@MuTSoftLight Lol at the idea that being young and full of energy means impulse buying some snails. I love it :D
Regarding the cruelty thing: Thanks for sharing! I generally agree that a home tank is much better than a store tank, even if the home tank maybe isn't cycled. I would argue that a fish-in cycle just has a higher risk overall though, as the fish needs more food and produces more waste quickly so water quality becomes a concern. They also aren't as tolerant of ammonia as a variety of snail species are. For me, that starts bringing in some anxiety that I'd rather not deal with, whereas the snail-in cycle avoids any of those concerns. That's where I guess my main gripe with a fish-in cycle is that it's more work, whereas any sort of "cruelty" is less of a concern for responsible caretakers.
Figuring out where one stands on the whole animal sentience/value thing is certainly an interesting discussion. A lot of aquarists do seem to equate, say, a bladder snail with a fly or mosquito since they're all small and annoying without super clear signs of "critical thinking skills" or "sentience". But as soon as you bring in a larger or less reproductive snail like a nerite, that attitude changes. If there are a lot of an animal, then one loss becomes less of a problem. I've noticed that with my attitude toward shrimp as I've gotten more and more of them. That doesn't mean it's "right" by any means and is certainly an idea we should grapple with periodically as pet owners.
Thanks for bringing up the topic! I'd love to hear any other thoughts you have on the subject :)
@@shrimplyexplained i m not saying overdo it and torture animals. but i m just really kind of sick of people online doing some moral speech for everything you do. in that regard we shouldnt even keep animals but let them live outside. someone told me how cruel i am for using a snail for cycling and that i willingly put a life into danger and whatnot. i am wondering if all those people are vegans sometimes. because if they eat some eggs and bacon in the morning but then doing a speech of cruelty rights towards snails, it sounds a little absurd if you ask me.
Great content.
！！ Snails in method is wt i hv always been doing!!!
So gd to understand the sciences behind it.
Hey dude! I’m currently cycling a shrimp tank, and I am totally going to try this. Thanks! My only worry is that i appear to have a snail leech that escaped into my tank from one of my mosses… i have to find it before i start. So excited!
Oof, I'm sorry to hear that! Leeches are awful but most of them need another one of the opposite sex to reproduce so hopefully you only got one. Were you able to take care of the problem?
@@shrimplyexplained thanks for your reply! Haven't managed to fetch out the little fellow yet, but I'm working on it. There is definitely only one, so I'm hopeful that it'll never reproduce. It's actually not a snail leech, it's an Asian freshwater leech, and I've come to like it, so whenever I do catch it it's going into one of my pond jars to live out its days :)
Snail cycling is going fantastic though! Thanks for this video. I have a bunch of formerly feral ramshorns and one bladder snail-- soon to be many! They are doing well.
@@andyantony6638 Good, great to hear there's just one! They are pretty cool little critters so I'm glad to hear the leech will have a good home - just somewhere without shrimp you care about lol.
I hope the cycling keeps going well. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions :)
Excellent video. Thanks. 😊
We're glad you liked it!
Thanks for taking the time to leave some words of encouragement. We appreciate it :D
I’ve had quite a few snails that play in the bubbles of an air stone😂
Great video, I am curious what you will cover next since you covered so much already, maybe making other tanks shrimple? For example, to make the tank more colorful or dynamic with a more diverse plant selection or hardscape, which plants/materials would you avoid or would recommend in this ecosystem. Keep up the good work.
Oh, there's so much interesting stuff to cover still! We've got a bunch of ideas for experiments and videos. Plant selection and equipment are definitely on the list, along with clearing up confusion around GH and KH, biofilm development, substrate choice, etc. Just gotta find the time to do them...
By making the tank more colorful, do you mean improving the color of the shrimp or more colorful plants/substrate/equipment?
I was thinking more like different colored plants, Bromeliads for example and different textures from hardscape materials. But now that you mention it, I am curious about cohabitating several shrimp species. Would they breed soley with there own or would they crossbreed or would they attack each other for tank dominance. More video ideas yay, lol.
I hear you about finding time for filming and editing videos, it can take me weeks of filming to make one ten minute video that might not even get a view.@@shrimplyexplained
@@ForsakenFather TBH plants are not my specialty. I understand how certain types impact an ecosystem but there are other creators who know much more about getting the best coloration from them.
Keeping shrimp together is definitely in my area though! If we're just talking shrimp, then all of them actually cohabitate well, excluding the aggressive whisker shrimp. The biggest concern is actually keeping different colors of the same species together, as many people don't like the less vibrant offspring that are produced (AKA wild type coloration). It's definitely a topic I'd like to cover eventually.
I always feel a tiny bit more intelligent after watching one of your videos
Shrimply explained invaluable knowledge
🙏💚🦐
@mrg7721 What a compliment! Thank you so much for the kind words and for watching
I always start with Gammarus pulex (scuds) when cycling a tank. Cheap, very hardy, and also provide the option of culturing them as live food. You'd need Hyalella azteca for feeding nano fish.
@stevegee8010 That sounds like a great option for fish tanks! I do worry about them for shrimp tanks though, since I've heard mixed opinions about the relationship between scuds and shrimp. Some say the scuds eat a lot of the biofilm/food in the tank so shrimp don't get as much. Others say that scuds may prey on baby shrimp. Maybe it's all heresay but I haven't had the chance to test it out. Do you keep scuds with your shrimp?
@@shrimplyexplained Yes, I have a tank with scuds, red cherries, and white clouds. The scuds tend to live mostly in the substrate and weir filter. They will munch on moss though. I rarely even see them but occasionally I'll notice a white cloud chasing a small one along the bottom.
But if there's a concern then most species of ostracodes will do just as well if you don't mind the 'dots' on the aquarium glass and don't overfeed.
@@stevegee8010 It sounds like you've got the scud population under pretty good control! I wonder if the white clouds kinda keep them in line since they often become much more populous in shrimp-only tanks.
If we're thinking about what species are good for cycling, then scuds seem like a good option for their hardiness. Ostracods are never a bad thing to have in the tank but I suspect most species are just too small to develop a decent bioload during the cycling process - at least if they're the only animals in the tank. Scuds have a large enough bioload that they likely prepare the tank better
@@shrimplyexplained True, they are very tiny, so there would def need to be a lot of them.
Thank you very much for the infos 👍
@johnjaro Glad you found it useful! Happy shrimpin!
Great video explained to the piont ✌🏻🐌🦐🐌
@peacelily64 Thank you for the kind words! Snails deserve more love :D
Happy shrimpin!
Really good information thanks for sharing ✌️👍💗💯
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave some words of encouragement. We really appreciate it and hope to get out more great content for you :)
Happy shrimpin!
Helpful video. The aquarium hobby, and especially when keeping some of the animals including dwarf shrimp, requires some basic knowledge. If you look at shrimp keeping help forums, there are many people who do no aging or cycling of tanks and lose a lot of shrimp in the process.
You and I chatted some in Redditt a few months ago. I think the hardest thing for new Shrimp Keepers is understanding water parameters and how to do testing. My tap water has a KH of 17 and a GH of 8, so I use remineralized RO water. I know people, including my local fish shop, who keep Neocaridina in this tap water, but I prefer lower hardness and like the control I get by using RO.
I just now found your channel here. Have you done a video yet on water changes for shrimp? I learned a lot about shrimp keep from Grant and Shelby at The Garden of Eder Shrimp. They have almost 400 tanks of shrimp now, and they do weekly water changes. I know many other people don't do water changes, and say that the changes kill shrimp. I'm very careful to do small water changes and always match water parameters, including temperature, and I don't lose shrimp after my weekly water changes.
Which goes to show that there is more than one way to be successful with shrimp. But I think most people new to the hobby would rather learn a relatively easy way to keep shrimp successfully the first time.
Thanks for the videos, and for your website.
Hey Thomas! Thanks again for providing your research of recommended water parameters a while ago :)
I've still got very few videos out but discussing water changes is definitely on the list for future videos. Understanding when a water change is NEEDED vs when you might WANT to do one is really important. I think the frequency is affected by:
1. changes in parameters
2. your own risk tolerance
3. Tank setup (types of plants, balance of ecosystem)
As you say, there's also HOW water changes are done. How quickly should the water be added? How carefully does it need to be matched? It's a really interesting topic that deserves more discussion so I'd love to chat about it!
I'm glad you found a system that works for you. Mind if I ask what frequency you do water changes at and what determines when you do them?
Hello.so in these weeks of cycling filters and light are always on for 24/7 or 12 hrs only?
@patconcubierta295 Good question!
We recommend setting your filtration and lights up however you intend to have them when you put shrimp in the tank. Generally, that means filters are always on while lighting time may vary between 8-12 hours depending on plants and acceptable algae growth.
Cycling the tank using different settings means your tank ecosystem will change at least slightly whenever you change the lighting, potentially destabilizing it. If you make those changes right before adding shrimp then that could lead to problems.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Hello again..Should i always put ammonia or more food in the tank to generate ammonia for the good bacteria to thrive?should i put good bacteria like bacter ae weekly?please help.im cycling a fishless tank..
@patconcubierta295 You do need a constant supply of an ammonia source, whether that's bottled ammonia or food. Our cycling guide covers our recommendations so check it out and lmk if you have any other questions! www.shrimplyexplained.com/the-shrimp-school/cycling-shrimp-tank/
You're definitely spot on that snails will reproduce in as much as there's avail resources. I set up a colony breeding tank for Celestial Pearl Danios and snowball Neocaridina and added my handful of ramshorns. As soon as I had fry and was feeding powdered food and baby brine a few times a day, the snails literally exploded! And as soon as the fry were grown and I backed off of the heavy feeding, the snail population started falling.
@laurabustos6560 I appreciate you sharing your observation! Makes total sense. Do you think that snail population boom suggests you could have fed less and gotten the same growth/survival for your fry or is it a good thing to have some extra food then?
@@shrimplyexplained I don't think the fry would have made it. It wasn't quantity of food so much as number of feedings a day. CPD fry when they're free swimming, when they first come out are like the size of an eyelash. They're tiny! So it wasn't going to work to do large feedings 2x daily which I do with the adults. They needed 4-5 small feedings a day to really grow strong. But my whole thing was to experiment with colony breeding rather than pulling the eggs or separating adults to spawn in a separate tank and then remove. I wanted to let nature take its course with a little helping hand of pea gravel and moss over half the tank so the adults didn't eat all their eggs. It worked well for me as I'm not into breeding for huge numbers, more to see the behavior of the fish and have fun while giving them their best life possible in these glass boxes. ✌️
Great video. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge. I would to hear you thoughts on Bacter AE and adding blanched or fresh raw veggies to your shrimp tanks. I also heard Indian almond leaves are beneficial for shrimp. I found it take 8+ weeks to start growing algae before adding shrimp. My Nano tanks seem to take even longer to cycle and be ready for shrimp than my larger tanks. As you're well aware, no two tanks are the same.
This was so helpful ! Im looking at starting a shrimp tank im starting off with brine shrimp though just to test my temperatures as im planning to put both tanks in the same spot 😊 question though for a true beginer , im really interested in trying to grow a coral tank for sexy shrimp 😭🥺 theyre just so cute and wierd 🤣 is this too much for someone with no experience ? I figured the extra brine shrimp too would be good feed for the live soft coral and sexy shrimp
@hansololouise Hey there, the sexy dancing shrimp look awesome, don't they?? I'd love a tank for them one day.
That being said, I don't know much about them. They are saltwater so will certainly be more difficult to keep than freshwater shrimp, but I don't know if they are especially fragile. It's likely doable even without experience, IF you're okay with doing a LOT of careful research, starting with the basics of keeping a stable saltwater tank. Good luck!
Hi I'm planing to set up a tank, which should be the correct time should I put snail into tank? 1st day or after some days?
@uctrong9533 All types of snails can be added on the first day. If you're adding mystery, nerite, or rabbit snails, then we recommend adding bottled beneficial bacteria at the same time since these types do not handle high ammonia levels well.
Good luck and lmk if you have any other questions!
I've put 3 ramshorn snail into the tank but I heard that this is a pest snail, will the number of snails be a problem in the future?
@@uctrong9533 Snails only populate if food is available in the tank. Assuming you don't overfeed, then the snails won't overpopulate! "Pest" snails are also just any that reproduce quickly. A lot of people like the look of ramshorns so they're certainly not pests if you enjoy them.
Dear Dr. Shrimply, I have been setting up my first shrimp tank and cycling it according to the snail cycling method presented in this method for just over 4 weeks now. While I have a significant amount of plant growth and my snails seem to be doing well, I have about 4-5 pond snails and about 3 Malaysian Trumpet snails who have all grown in size, I do not have ANY ammonia, nitrites or nitrates present in my aquarium as of right now. Do you perhaps any advise on what could be the cause of this and how to move forward? Thanks in advance!
@superjeroeno Hey, sorry for the late response!
Based on the number of snails in your tank, you should have a pretty good bioload set up. If you're not seeing any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate then it means your plants are absorbing all detectable amounts of it. That suggests healthy plants that are ready to support a shrimp colony so I'd put them in anytime - Of course assuming ther parameters like GH and KH are within good ranges.
Lmk if you have any other questions! I'll try to respond faster next time :)
Hello,
I have a 5.5 brand new aquarium- I have pump & sponge filter, 5 small plants & fluval substrate. For 2 weeks - how many & when should I add snails?
Thank you in advance
@susanprimeaux1848 Hi there, thanks for the question! It depends on the type of snail. If they are hardy species like ramshorn or bladder snails, then they can be added any time. If they're something more sensitive like a rabbit snail, then we recommend waiting until the tank is cycled (or after adding nitrifying bacteria). Check out this article for a more in-depth explanation and lmk if you have any questions: www.shrimplyexplained.com/the-shrimp-school/cycling-shrimp-tank/
can you cycle your caridina tank using filter media from a neo caridina tank?
@marcleroux3426 Great question! Adding filter media from a tank with very different parameters still likely helps establish the nitrogen cycle faster than it would naturally. That being said, I would give it a full 2-3 months to let the caridina tank establish still. I don't have any data on it but suspect the types of microorganisms and biofilm that form are quite different between neocaridina and caridina parameters so it's hard to say how well the filter "seeds" those or whether they need to develop organically.
Hey i have a question im planing to set up a dirty tank in december an wil love to get shrimp i jc wanted to know how long to i need to waited before i add the shrimp..
In general, we suggest 6-8 weeks for the highest rate of success. If you seed the tank with a pre-cycled filter and a lot of plants, then you'll probably have a pretty good chance of success after just a month (if the plants are healthy), but giving your ecosystem more time to develop is always a good thing.
LMK if you have any questions. Happy shrimpin'!
@@shrimplyexplained hey but i have guppies aswell an i only have that one tank that i wanted to make a dirt tank
@@tachanmitchell-j1u finding a appropriate living space is incredibly easy for both shrimp and snails, so whatever works for you to make the best environment for a successful experience is what I hope you're going to be focused on. Now you said you've got 1 tank & mentioned something about a Guppy ? Chances are pretty good YOU have " something " that could easily be used for what you want, and more importantly, is it safe ? The choices of safe containers , should you ever consider using something else other than a standard aquarium ✓ Containers should be considered by almost every hobbyist , especially if it's safe to use , and in order to know what you should consider safe is not likely going to be the same as me. I think I will end my reply to your 2nd ? by saying you are correct when you have a container that is safe for housing what you want to take care of which is Shrimp Fish Snails etc. Mark's Shrimp Tanks has a good video on how to go about starting a storage box successfully just like the aquarium . That's what's great about anything appropriate for you to get established, just like you have been learning from this awesome channel and it's all in the name of doing what needs to be, or why even do it at all ! Good luck 🤞
this is my experience:
a while ago i was cycling a new tank. no cycled filter media from other tanks or anything. just a brand new planted nano tank with ada amazonia substrate. then, in a random conversation, one of my fish keeping friends mentioned that he was going to cull a bunch of low grade tangerine tiger shrimps (caridina serrata) and feed them to his larger fish. i asked if i could have some. my tank wasn't cycled. not even close. ammonia was upwards of 6ppm and ph was close to 8. but i figured they were gonna die anyway, i might as well see how they do. i did nothing special. i just followed water change regime to keep the ammonia at around 5ppm, as per ada amazonia's instruction for cycling new tank. lo and behold, all 8 of them not only survived, but 1 female became berried less than a weeks after the ammonia and nitrite reached 0. now they are making ugly babies with a few crystal red cull shrimps i got from the same friend.
"caridina shrimps are delicate" is a myth. or, they could be more sensitive to other parameters, but not ammonia or ph. by no means i'm encouraging people to try this. but too often i see the exact opposite mindset happenning which leads to much worse outcomes for them. guess what, worrying about them more often than not leads to unnecessary water changes which leads to constant stress-molting. and you see them molt so often you worry if they have enough calcium so you dose calcium supplements. then you see calcium supplements elevate your ph and kh/gh so you either do even more water changes or you dose a bunch of other nasty chemicals to bring the water parameter down. and you wonder why your shrimps die.
they are water roaches. just leave them alone and they will be fine.
There are certainly a lot of contradictions in the hobby. Some people seem to do everything by the book and still struggle to keep Neocaridina alive while others can toss them in an uncycled tank and have tons of babies. I completely agree that they aren't as fragile as many make them out to be and that doing less is one of the best pieces of advice for the hobby. That being said, I'm still extremely surprised they survived with that high of ammonia and pH, especially considering the amazonia should have kept the pH much lower. It just shows how much there still is to learn!
Mind if I ask what tester you were using to check pH?
@@shrimplyexplained i was using the api fresh water kit (liquids with test tubes, not dry strips). also, ada is never low ammonia. if I left the tank alone with no water changes, ammonia could easily shoot up to 8ppm or more during cycling. but yeah, caridina surviving 6ppm ammonia was news to me as well.
overall, the “less is more” mentality is definitely the way to go. keep the water stable, then add plants and animals that will survive in that stable water whatever the parameter it stabilised at. that’s how I approach the hobby in general. the particular tank i mentioned settled into 7.6ph. yet I’ve kept a few allegedly “soft water” species that live in 5.5ph tannin stained black water in that tank for over a year with fries popping up twice.
I'm trying to zoom in but I'm a phone it's very challenging, but I'm dying to know what that map of my state is made of in the background?!?? 🤔😉
Also, here from fish keeping answers. I am enjoying your Cali style weird humor and the facts so I'm subbing. ✌️
@laurabustos6560 Do you mean the California map on the back wall? It's made of different types of wildflowers!
@@shrimplyexplained oh that's awesome! I love it! I'm California born and bred. Born in southern CA, raised on the central coast in Santa Cruz (aka hippy central, back then, now it's just another piece of silicon valley😮💨) and now I'm back down in San Diego county.
So I have a question, my sister gave me her old 20 gallon fish tank with her fish tank accessories and I was wondering do I need to use both the Hold On Back Filter and Sponge Filter together or only use one of them?
It depends - every filter is designed for a certain tank volume. If your filters are both designed for at least a 20g tank, then you only really need one. That being said, extra filtration and aeration is almost always a good thing so having two filters doesn't hurt.
One thing to be aware of is the intake filter of the HOB (hang-on-back) filter. A lot of them are quite large and can suck up shrimp, so you'll want to cover the intake with a pre-filter sponge like this one: www.amazon.com/AQUANEAT-6-Pack-Pre-Filter-Aquarium-Replacement/dp/B0B5KSGTCK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2LQC5PG71DIZX&keywords=pre-filter+sponge&qid=1694448728&sprefix=pre-filter%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
Every filter is different so you may need to search around for how to make your specific HOB filter shrimp-safe.
Good luck with the tank! Lmk if you have any other questions.
thank you@@shrimplyexplained and I didn't know there's pre-filters sponge for HOB filters too so that's really helpful 😊
@@luciusvik7294 Glad we could help!
How would you cycle a tank for Crystal Red Caridina, due to the KH being 0 and the low PH Cycling at higher levels then changing to this may cause the cycle to crash. What is the best way to ensure these spikes to not occur?
@TheSpectrumTheatre Good question! It sounds like you're aware that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) don't function well below 6.5 pH. You could theoretically cycle the tank at a higher pH and then drop it down, but as soon as the pH drops those bacteria stop converting ammonia and you're right that the sudden change may impact your ecosystem for a while. This is where you just have to give your tank time and why many breeders recommend 2-3 months to get a cycled/mature tank for caridina. This time also helps to get out any excess ammonia from the substrate and develop a good amount of biofilm.
The other thing is that, if you are only intending to have crystal shrimp (and maybe snails) in your tank, then you'll have a low bioload so very little ammonia will be produced. In addition, below 6.5 pH, ammonia is almost entirely in the form of ammonium, which is non-toxic. In fact, you'd need 2 ppm of ammonia (on the test) to have enough toxic ammonia in the tank to harm your shrimp (estimated to be more than 0.05 ppm of ammonia). Just a few plants (especially fast-growing ones) and the semi-functioning AOB can remove most ammonia produced and keep levels way below harmful levels. Other than that, consistent testing and water changes also help maintain low ammonia levels.
LMK if you have any other questions! Happy shrimpin'!
I got kicked from the aquarium shrimp keeping group for some reason but nice to see your videos here way better than marks 😂
Im new to all this sooo be nice lol
My Nitrate is 80
Nitrite 0
Ph 8
Kh 120
Gh 180 am i ok for neocaradin?
will the snails ear the shrimp amall fry or would they be ok
The only ones that might are assassin snails, but that's only if the shrimp are very slow/unhealthy/dying already. Snails are generally the safest tank mates.
@@shrimplyexplained the small fry baby shrimp
About how many red cherry shrimp should I buy for a 30L tank
Putting in up to 10-12 for a tank of that size is normally fine!
@@shrimplyexplained alright, thanks!😄
@@shrimplyexplained and if they reproduce how many is too many
@@typicalw1248 Shrimp like neocaridina populate to the amount of food available so you can control them that way. In addition, they tend to grow less as their population increases, potentially as a natural adaptation to prevent overcrowding.
Once you start hitting 3+ per liter, then be aware that more maintenance may be required do to the higher bioload. There also is a higher likelihood of disease if good water quality isn't maintained with higher population density. At that point, you may want to think about selling or giving some away.
@@typicalw1248there is no too many. They do regulate their population alone. Due amount of food is available.
As a research assistant, I can confirm this lol
Great intro😂
Shrimple as pie!
i tried to cycle with fish food for a couple of weeks - no ammonia spike ever. then i introduced some more plants (and infested with bladder snails), and tried to do ammonia solution cycling. im already 30+ days on trying to do ammonia fishless cycle when i came across this video. i plan to keep only neocardinia, so it looks like i will stop the ammonia dosing and rely only on whatever snails poop out to generate ammonia. the 'problem' is that i see a lot of snail poop, but ammonia levels never really spike unless i add actual bottled ammonia solution... is this normal? how much of a spike with snail-in cycle should one expect for ammonia and nitrite? i do have ton of nitrate in my water, and the tank has quite a bit of live plants (mosses, java fern and floaters). it has been 2 months since i assembled the tank... please help =)
@YP-ee5zg Great question! It sounds like you're expecting an ammonia spike during the process, but that may not happen for a Snail-In cycle if you have enough live plants to eat the ammonia. Bacteria on those plants will also help convert ammonia to nitrates, which is why plants can really help speed up the cycling process.
As we said in the video though, cycling isn't the end of the process - we want to give all the organisms in our tank time to establish, in addition to nitrifying bacteria. That process should also be complete if your tank has been set up for 2 months. If your plants and snails seem healthy and you're seeing little microorganisms around, then your tank should be a good environment for shrimp!
The one concern is nitrate levels. How high are they right now? If they're above 20, we'd suggest doing a water change to bring them down - ideally to 10 or below.
Would snails eat biofilm or green algae in the walls? I’m afraid if I do this, then baby shrimp will have a tougher time finding places where they can eat
@AdlerGuerrero-nk8ni Great question! So, if you overfeed and the snails overpopulate, then I think that's a possibility. If the snail population stays under control, however, then shrimp are faster and will get to any available food (including biofilm and green algae) sooner.
That being said, there are some breeders who come to your conclusion and feel that any snails take away food from the shrimp. If you are trying to perfectly maximize the number of shrimp in a tank, then having absolutely no food competition might be best. I'd argue this optimization strategy isn't a concern for most hobbyists and that the ability for snails to break down waste and clean the tank outweighs their potential minor competition for food.
What do you think of that?
was just saying snail and worm in cycle right before you said snail......lol
What kind of snails are good for shrimp and wont self reproduce?
Hi @jenniferbunker2757 Thanks for watching and commenting on a lot of our videos :) This is a response to all of your comments.
For snails, it depends on your tank size - Nerite snails are the only ones I know of that won't breed in freshwater. They tend to lay eggs everywhere though so that would be the trade-off. You could also opt for 1 or more rabbit/trumpet snails since they can breed but do so much slower than the "pest" snails. Even the pest snails won't overpopulate if you avoid overfeeding though.
Check out this video to create a DIY egg tumbler from parts of a sponge filter: th-cam.com/video/kKrgGZ4dNXc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8Amx5Lbn2j67zYL5 Good luck saving the eggs!
Don't worry too much about the GH video - it definitely gets into some more detailed stuff that a lot of hobbyists probably don't need to know. That being said, it's useful to be aware that just because GH is in the right range for shrimp, there's a risk that the GH could be made of the wrong ratio of calcium to magnesium and shrimp could still have molting problems. In general, the pH, and KH of your tap are good and your GH very likely is, as well. The big problem is the nitrate level, as the general recommendation is to keep nitrates at 20 or below. Here's a tool on our website where you can enter your parameters and get recommendations for improvements: www.shrimplyexplained.com/tools/are-your-tank-parameters-good-for-neocaridina-shrimp/
For your nitrate problem, you have a couple of options - 1. You could use RO/DI (basically purified) water with a shrimp-specific remineralizer. (easiest/most-expensive option)
2. you could try filling a bucket with your tap water, throw some fast-growing water-column-feeding plants like duckweed in there along with a light and see how long it takes for the plants to remove the nitrates. It might only take a couple days for the nitrates to drop. (a little more patience/work but cheap)
3. You could build a heavily planted tank with fast-growing plants that would absorb the nitrates relatively quickly. Once the nitrates are out and the tank is matured, then you could add shrimp. After that, if you only do 10-15% water changes then you could probably keep nitrates below 20 or 30 ppm and your water would basically act as a free fertilizer for your plants. (Requires a bit of planning and care and more of an expense toward plants in the beginning but could be the easiest in the long run)
It sounds like you already have shrimp though, so are they just surviving in 80 ppm of nitrates or what are you doing now? It's not unheard of them to be able to adapt to that level if the rest of the tank is healthy.
Lmk if you have any questions!
Good info but audio isn't the best.
@nomadhomad3685 Thanks for the feedback! I'm still learning how to clean up the audio. Do you think any of the more recent videos sound better?
bro are u Andrew tate of the shrimp breeding world? 😮
@xmanu100 lol I'm not really sure what that's supposed to mean
You sounded like Biden when you were whispering lol 😮 not needed ✌️
Hi sir hope you doing well❤️
Sorry to ask, do you have a Instagram or telegram so that I could send my shrimp-aquriom to you to understand and make sure that everything is good with it's set-up and shrimps?😅
Of course! We are @shrimplyexplained on Instagram