This is a tried and tested by many members of UK Shrimp Keepers since 2016. It is way much safer than using Genchem No Planaria and the worming tablet is readily available in most of pet store in the UK.

Please be warn - any kind of planaria treatment will also kill your pet snails including poso elephant snails

With our simple illustration below, you can easily tell the shrimp sexes. Hope this help you all

Coming up

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So after you have completed The Cycle of your aquarium, it is time to have a wonder around many shrimp shop to decide on which species that you would want to keep. The initial stockings are very important. Shrimps are group species and they should be kept in a group of 10 or more. This apply to neoscaridina and caridina shrimp species. In some sensitive species like Sulawesi shrimp, a minimum of 20 shrimp per colony is recommended, otherwise your shrimp will always be in hiding. 

Shrimp with different water parameters should not be kept together in an aquarium under 1 parameter. Because one species will thrive and the other species will eventually die off.

Neocaridina species (cherry shrimp) are considered to be ideal shrimp for beginners: many colours variations, different markings and patterns. Recently there is an influx of "skittle tank" where different colour of cherry shrimp species are kept together. This is normally not recommended at all due to the offspring can revert back to wild form where its brown. 

Caridina species (bee shrimp, taiwan bee shrimp) can be kept, breed easily if you are using active soils and remineralised Reverse Osmosis water. They comes in hundreds of different species ranging from colours to patterns, to even different eyes colours. 

This is a very important process and it is a patient game. You cannot rush this tank cycle process, or you will run into many problems in future. 

The cycle process look like this:

A lot has to happened before your tank is biologically stable. During cycling process, bacterial that breakdown pollutants multiply. they convert ammonia and nitrite and then into nitrate, which is relatvely harmless for invertebrates and most would be consumed as nutrients for aquarium plants. These bacterial is naturally occur and call Nitrosomonas sp, they help to convert Ammonia into nitrite. This nitrite is extremely toxic for shrimp and fish. Another naturally bacterial, Nitrospira sp, will further convert Nitrite into Nitrate, which will be easier to remove by doing water changes. 

In all new aquarium, there is no or very little presence of these bacterial, therefore if you put shrimp in too early inside the shrimp tanks. Shrimp will be exposed to high levels of ammonia and nitrite and big casualties will happen. The cycle process will create new colonies of these bacterials, multiply them effectively to keep up with the waste produced by the shrimp. And these bacterials are often stored inside the sponge of the filters, and will later help cope well with the stress caused by the excessive waste from aquarium shrimp and any left over foods. 

What happen during The Cycle process: 

Stage One

A new aquarium is basically biologically dead. There would be no bacterial biofilm can be seen anywhere inside the aquarium. After a few days you will be able to see, and also feel when touching the inside glass panels of your tank. Sometimes an oily film (often called scum) can be seen on the water surface. These are signs that your aquarium is developing - bacteria are multiplying and forming biofilms. You will also notice brown diatoms starting to appear on glass panel. This is completely normal and don't scrape these diatom off the tank glass, because they will turn into the healthy green algae glass wall. Biofilms multiply very well in nutrient-rich places such as wood or any porous surfaces inside the aquarium. 

Slowly, the nitrifying bacteria also start their activity in the aquariums, starting to breakdown & converting ammonium and ammonia to nitrite (this is highly toxic for most aquarium animals) and of nitrite to nitrate, which will be removed by frequent water changes. 

Sources of ammonia

It is very common that you can use an external source of ammonia to help speeding up the cycle process. This Ammonia is what needed to form bacteria colonies that will deal with the ammonia produced from shrimp waste and left over food in the future. 

If you just leave your tanks running for 1-2 weeks and there is no source of ammonia to feed the bacteria, then your tank will never be cycling. Therefore it is best to add in some shrimp foods, fish foods and leave them inside the aquarium for a day or two. These ammonia created inside the aquarium will become the feed for bacteria to form and multiply.

Alternatively, you can purchase household ammonia bottles from local chemists or hardware store. Make sure that these bottles are pure ammonia and it is free from any additives. Each day, drop small amounts of ammonia can be added into the tank using a pipette. 

Another old school way is to cycling tank with fish. Adding some little hardy fish at the beginning to be used as a main source of ammonia. However this method is deemed to be cruel for fish and nowadays shrimp hobbyists prefer to use fishless-cycle. 

Sources of Bacteria

The Nitrosomonas sp. and Nitrospira sp. are naturally occurring and will colonised in the aquarium over the Cycle process, but you can boost and fasten this process up by using these methods below:

• If you have another established aquarium with mature filters, you can use these sponges and squeeze (it is best when the filter sponge is still mucky) inside the new aquarium. These squeezes will contain some of the needed bacteria to kick start the cycle with an instant boost. 
• You can borrow some of old filter medias, tank decorations from an established tank and place inside your new aquarium. Please remember only take a small amount of filter medias, not a lot. Because if you have taken alot of media filters from an established aquarium, that would cause a mini-cycle in that aquarium. A mini-cycle is where the bacteria colony is depleted and the rest of the bacteria is ineffectively convert the waste products by the shrimp or left over food. This could pose a risk to that tank and its live stocks.
• If you dont have access to any of the mentioned above, please ask your local fish store to borrow some of the gravels inside their fish/ shrimp tanks and place it inside your aquarium. Or a squeeze of two from their sponge filters. 
• We tend not to bother with any bottle label as "bacteria in a bottle" or "quick cycle" or "instant cycle", because 99% of them are all synthetic and contains chemical and they will be lack of the Nitrospira species to convert Nitrite into Nitrate.

Stage Two

The Nitrite Peak

During the cycle process of every aquarium, this so-called Nitrite Peak occurs in almost all aquariums. This is an increase in the nitrite content, which can be more or less significant. 

This peak occurs as: the begin of the decomposition of organic material. Proteins are broken down by bacteria into ammonium (NH4) / Ammonia (NH3), which in turn is consumed by bacterial to convert into Nitrite (No2). This amount of bacterial is determined by the food supply. If not much nitrite has been formed due to new aquarium, the number of nitrate bacteria that break down nitrite into Nitrate (No3) would be still too low. This leads to the accumulation of nitrite. This is what called Nitrite Peak

Nitrite peak is completely common and natural process. It will go away on its own once the nitrate bacteria level have caught up and can keep up with the supply.

Ammonia Peak

After the nitrite peak is the ammonia peak during the tank's cycle process. Sometime, this ammonia peak can be caused by the active substrate that you are using. Some substrate like ADA soil is known to release a lot of ammonia during the first few weeks of setting up. 

Stage Three - the complete process

The Cycle Process will be as long as the nitrite peak finished. This mean you will need to see a sudden surge of high reading of Nitrite, and then the nitrite falls to 0 for a consecutive of 5 to 7 days. This is when you know the Cycle has been completed. However, this process depending on many factors and there is no definite time of how long exactly. 

Some of the factors are:

• Bacteria need food to reproduce properly - if there is little food, the number of bacteria is limited. If bacteria have very small organic matters to consume during the first stage of The Cycle, only a small amount of nitrite is produced, and quickly converted into Nitrate and be consumed by moss or plants. If this is the case, you wont be able to measure the nitrite and nitrate. If there is nitrite peak and then no nitrate, your tank will never be cycled and your tank is NOT ready for live stocks yet.
• It is recommended to feed the bacteria in a freshly setup aquarium. A few fish food flakes or a pellet of shrimp food would be sufficient. 
• No two aquariums are the same - depending on which substrate you want to use and the type of shrimp that you would want to keep, an aquarium can take between two and even eight weeks to get running.
• If you added extra bacterial, whether being the sludges from squeezing matured sponge into the new tank, or adding bacterial colony from bottles.. this Cycle process can be faster. 

How do I know that the Cycle has been completed

The cycle, is complete when you have zero readings for both ammonia and nitrite for more than 5 days in a row. At this moment, when you test for nitrate, the nitrate value will be high value. You just need to do a large water changes to remove these excess nitrate.

After the successful Cycle process, your aquarium is now ready for some stocks. It is recommended to start with less sensitive species, and also introducing a small amount of shrimp in first, rather than putting loads or the entire stock in the new tank, where the ecosystem is still very fragile, even though it is stable.. 

A golden advice is that refrain from feeding your shrimp once they have been introduced to a new aquarium. This is to help with the bacterial populations to get used to the bioload and you do not risk a mini cycle or an increase in nitrite.

Please note: once the cycle is completed, please do not add any additional ammonia into the aquarium. 

Dried brown leaves are very good permanent food source for shrimp. These leaves also release important tannins and humic substances into the water, which can help crustacreans moult. Therefore using dried leaves are essentials for every shrimp tank.

Completely dried leaves, often in brown colour, can b stored in cardboard boxes, paper bags, plastic zippo bags for unlimited period of time. 

Indian Almond (Catapa) Leaves, Oak Leaves, Guava Leaves are often dried leaves with most commonly use. You can also feed your shrimp with mulberry leaves and nettles. 

It is a common practice to make sure you boil all the leaves prior being placed inside your shrimp tanks. Does not have to be boil for long, a quick 5 mins in boiling water would be sufficient. This process not only help the leaves to sink down faster, but also to remove any potential pesticides, and creatures that can get into your tank. 

Alternatively you, during Autumn time in the UK. You can easily walk into any of our lovely parks and collecting these dried alder cone. It is best to collect the alder cones from the tree branches, and dont pick those that have fallen on the floor due to contaminations.  Alder cones contain humic substances and is known to have antibacterial and fungicidal effects. 

Avoid using painted, synthetic aquarium decorations. Although they are beautiful for your aquarium, however because the paints used on these decorations are often toxic by releasing harmful substances for the shrimp, or the colour simply just came off and this is also a hazard for shrimp.

Instead, go for:

8.1 Driftwood for aquarium

Real wood roots for aquariums are very popular in shrimp tanks. Once cycled in, these woods form great biofilms that the shrimp can always graze on. Certain type of wood contains valuable tannins and sometimes even humic substances, which is a beneficial to the water quality for the shrimp thus increasing positive effects on shrimp. Because of this, sometimes you will see a slight brown colouring in the water when using real wood in your aquarium, it is completely normal.

Safe wood to use are bogwood, redmoor wood, mangrove wood. And very often these woods will float inside your aquarium at the first few weeks of being used. It is recommended to boil these wood, or pre-soaked them so that the wood can absorb the water into its body and sink down. 

New wood once placed inside the aquarium will often to have white, slimey, white fungus looking fluff, forming on the wood branches. This is harmless, shrimp and snails and otto fish will eat these 

8.2 Aquatic safe materials

All the tank decorations, equipments made by us here at Shrimp Corner are aquatic & shrimp safe. We only use PET material, which is non toxic, safe for aquatic use. We have tested these through-fully before putting them on for sale. 

8.3 Stones & Pebbles in the aquarium

Stones can be used to decorate shrimp tank in a very natural way and creating beautiful landscaping. You just need to make sure you carry out lime stone check using vinegar methods (simply drip some vinegar or citric acid onto the stone, if it starts to fizz and creating foam, it contains lime). Because if you are using any stone that contains lime, this will harden the water over the time and will affect the shrimp. These stones are not suitable for crystal, bee or taiwan bee species which require soft water. But may be ideal for neocaridina species. 

Safe to use aquarium stone is natural black pebbles, dragon stone and lava rocks.

7.1 AVOID conventionally grown Aquatic Plants/ Moss

Aquatic plants that grown in aquatic plant mass produced nursey are 100% always treated with pesticides. This is a legal requirement when the plants are exported to prevent foreign parasite & organisms from finding their way into the importing countries. These substances are completely harmless to fish, but are very deadly toxic to shrimp & other crustaceans. 

If you see/ received plants that normally come in bunch, bundle with some ceramic or metal banding type - this is an indicators of plants were produced in these nursery. Please NEVER plant these plants directly into your shrimp tank without treating them first. 

The risk of stock dying suddenly is very high if you are using these plants. This is will cause acute poisoning and will wipe out your shrimp colony in a very period of time. 

If you have bought these plants, please make sure you keep them in watered separately for at least 2 weeks, and with plenty of water changes daily to remove these pesticide substances that still residue inside the plant tissues. Please make sure the plant has plenty of light during this quarantine process as well. Make sure you remove the rock wool, plant anchor etc... before doing the quarantine. 

7.2 Buy In Vitro Grow aquarium plants/ moss

These plants are grown in the laboratory from a piece of plant tissue, and cultivating in plastic pots. They are often free of parasites and pesticides. Very often in these little plastic pots, there is very little of nutrient substate (sometimes is in form of fluid and gel) is included. Simply was off these and the plants are ready to be use in your shrimp tank. 

This is a very important section that all shrimp keepers need to be aware off. This is the primary question arises before setting up a new aquarium,

It is like building a foundation for houses, if it is a bad one you will end up having many problems in future. 

So, in shrimp tank, depending on if you are using tap water or RO water, and depending on species you want to keep, you can then select the correct choice

6.1. Why substrate is a must to use ?

Not only for decorative purchase. The ground/ substrate provides a lot of benefit to your shrimp tank. It works as a biological filtration, serves as a settlement area for bacteria to grow and attach on to. Shrimp do not like bare bottom tanks at all.

6.2. Which substrate shall I use ?

There are many many selections of substrate out there, and the search for the best substrate is literally impossible to do so. However, there are 2 distinctive substrates that normally use in shrimp tanks.

6.2.1 Active Substrate (Active Soil/ Shrimp Soil)

Those above a common name for an active substrate, where it controls the water parameters and make the tank's water softer. Active soil normally strip the KH off the water, and buffering the ph within designated range (provided by the soil manufacture). Normally between 5.3 to 6.4 region. 

These active soil ideal for most aquatic plants, for aquascaping and for aquariums with soft water shrimp species sush as bee shrimp, taiwan bee, and almost all caridina species. These soil adjust the water values to soft and slightly acidic water, thanks for their humic substance content. These buffers the pH value in a lower range.

Active soil consists of a mixture of natural earth and peat, therefore it produces plenty of humic substances. The relatively large, soft grains are baked at low temperatures. The earth acts as an ion exchanger and remove hardness from the water. The pH value is lowered by active soil and the stripping of the KH (Carbonate Hardness).

Soils provide an acidic environment in the substrate of the aquarium, and because it is being high porosity, active oils provide an optimal habitat for bacteria, and the nutrients contained in the sol significantly strengthen the microfauna. Very often, these soils come with high nutrients density therefore there is no need to use any sort of root tabs or soil fertiliser. 

Please do NOT wash the soil before use as this will break the soil down and becoming mud inside your aquarium.

6.2.1.1 Colour of the substrate

All the active soils were made from original clay, brown ish colour and coated with peat and other compositions that each soil manufacture has set out during the making process. Dark black soils are often rich in nutrients and have strong ion exchange capacities, white lighter brown colour sols are less rich in nutrients and are used to balance things out. Active soils are available in all colours, from very light, beige to dark brown and black colour

6.2.3 Neutral Inert substrate/ Gravel and Sand

Inert substrate do not affect the water values in the aquarium and it has been widely use by many neocaridina shrimp keepers. These inert substrates are often based on quartz, various colours on natural sands and gravels. There are synthetic colored, plastic-coated substrates. There are also gravels/ substrates that are made from basalt, slate, lava rock and other types of rocks. 

6.2.3.1 Please wash inert substrate before use:

Sand or gravel are often covered in manufacturing dusts, even thought they are neutral and inert, but they are often heavily contaminated with these harmless dust types, and residues. Some substrate that has porous surface, there would be salt or lime residue. It is also recommended to read the package label on these inert substrate, as they will state whether the substrate needing to be washed prior use. 

Pre-washing the inert gravel can help to reduce the risk of damaging any electric-powered filters as these dusts could get inside the motor etc. And by pre-washing any lime/ salt residue on the inert could help the shrimp in the long run, especially if you are using for softwater species. 

6.2.3.2 Avoid plastic-covered gravel if possible.

These gravel may be looking very good on the cosmetic side, with plenty of colours and their attractive appearances. These gravel are synthetic, round in shape and no sharp edges. Most of these decorative gravel are often not safe for shrimp aquarium. The plastic coating can result in shrimp illness, less active, or even death from poisoning. 

Some manufacture use synthetic resin and food colouring to color the gravel. This is safe to use, however over the time, these coating will be wear off and leaving the "decorative" looks become unpleasant sight. Remember, please don't wash these grave with hot water as it will melt the plastic coating.

6.2.3.3 Use Natural Gravel/ Sand

Natural gravel/ sand is a great choice for the aquarium. There are types that are completely inert - which will not affect the water parameters, and those that contain lime (marble, basalt, limestone etc) , which will harden the water over the time. If you are planning to use natural gravel/ sand for your soft water shrimp species, please do the limestone test with vinegar, or do some test to see if the gravel/ sand would actually harden the water or not.

Be careful when using very fine sand, as they tends to compact quickly - anaerobic zones are created and rotting spots will be form. And if being disturbed, toxic air pockets will be released into the water column and this is lethal for shrimp. Fine sand should never be piled up too high, or too thick level due to this reason.

If you are using fine sand, make sure you use some snails and strongly rooted plants, so it can loosen the fine sand and create some gaps for air circulation. Using Malayan Trumpet Snails or any tylomelania species (poso snails, elephant snails) is best. Because they love to dig in the sane and move around in it. 

On the other hand, gravel does not compact as much as fine sand, therefore they dont tend to cause the same problems. However, the larger the gravel particle, the more likely that left over food will fall into the gaps, where shrimps cannot access to it. This will cause high nutrients and dead rotten spots in that specific area. In this case, it is recommended to vacuum up the left over food regularly.

Worth to note that some gravels will have sharp edges and may become unsuitable for shrimp and bottom dwellers species (fish and snails), so be careful of this also. 

6.2.3.4 Fertilisation for these gravel/ sand substrate if you are keeping plants.

Unlike active soil, gravel/ sand substrate does not contain any nutrients. The plants will have to depend on their roots to be supplied with "food" via the water column. Snails that burrow under the sand/ gravel will help with this process. It is recommended to fertilise the plants via the roots, by using fertiliser soil later or using fertiliser pellets in the root area of the plants. However please use with cautious, as these fertiliser will alter the water parameters.

6.3 How much substrate to use ? 

The height/ or thickness level of the substrate depends on the intended use. Sand should not be use in thick layer due to no anaerobic zone.

In shrimp keeping/ breeding, a thin layer is normally applied. Our golden rule is 1L of soil per 40L of tank water. This is what we have gather and collected from over 12 years of breeding shrimp. This ratio will give you the best breeding results. This ratio will be given the tank with just enough layer of soils to prevent left over food to fall into the bottom of the tank, reducing water pollution. On the other hand, using thin layer of soil is easier to handle and replace when resetting tanks etc. 

If you are using plants in your shrimp tank with active substrate, it is best to use a layer of 2-3cm, it is sufficient to allow the plants to anchor themselves with their roots. 

6.4 Please AVOID completely bare bottom shrimp tank

In shrimp breeding, you are often see many tanks photos with bare glass bottom, with no substrate or really just a handful of gravel or soil. This method giving the advantage that these shrimp tanks are easy to clean. Left over food can be easily vacuumed up without having to worry about disturbing the substrate. 

However, the biggest disadvantages here is the smaller for the beneficial bacteria to settle, this will normally causing tank crashes.

In the wild, shrimp come from waters with very high water flow streams, and this is always high in natural oxygen content. Therefore in aquarium, shrimp tank also needs to have sufficent oxygen in the water. Oxygen keeps the beneficial bacteria survived and these bacteria used up a lot of oxygen inside shrimp tank. On top of that, shrimp and plants also consume the oxygen inside the aquarium. 

When the weather is warmer (especially in summer) or if your tank is heated to high temperature for certain species, or if your tank colony is over crowded. There will not be much oxygen dissolves inside the aquarium.

Oxygen is an essential element inside your aquarium.

The most common signs of this problem

Shrimp keep going up and sit together in the upper areas of the aquarium. This is known as "gasp for air" and swim right under the top surface of water. Beware tho, sometime high Nitrite in your aquarium can cause the same symptom, so test Nitrite level first.

Shrimp will try to get as high up as possible, sometimes even climbed out of the water by crawling onto the tank glass. Or sit on top of the filter. You will notice shrimp stop staying & grazing at the bottom and only dead bodies would stat at the bottom.

What cause this issue ?

1. Water temperate that is too high

2. The colony is too crowded, as shrimp do use oxygen to thrive and also beneficial bacteria needs oxygen to survive and break down organic waste

3. Too many plants inside your aquarium - this can happen at night when when the plants do not produce oxygen but consume oxygen instead. if your shrimp tank is heavy planted tanks, there will be shortage of oxygen in the morning. This is why all our tank only have a little moss or slow growing plants inside.

4. Feeding too much protein foods - this affect the oxygen consumption. Protein-rich feed can cause high level of nitrogen compounds, which are converted into nitrate by nitrifying bacteria. This process requires lots of Oxygen to do so.

5. You are using liquid co2 fertiliser - these products are nothing better than chemical substances that are at least partially metabolised into CO2 in the aquarium. Again, oxygen is consumed on a large scale. It is best to use these liquid co2 in the morning, an hour after the light on as plants should be carrying out photosynthesis and consume these co2 to convert to Oxygen. 

6. CO2 poisoning - this is a common problem for people who would want to keep shrimp in their beautiful planted aquascape. If you forgot to switch off the CO2 syste, at the right time, this will cause too much co2 is dissolved in the aquarium water. This will cause the shrimp and fish can no longer ger rid of the waste produced. This will block their blood cells and they can no longer absorb oxygen. Hence a mass die off is often seen in co2 planted tank. 

Solutions

In summer weather, you should definitely wants to cool the water down, or increase in oxygen supply. This is very easy fix for many shrimp keepers

You can just increase the water movement by increasing the air flow into your sponge filter so the surface water is aerated, this enable the oxygen creating process. Or you can use bubble stone, or simply an air hose that run from an airpump. But this could affect the KH level due to the bubble produced from these airstone will cause imbalance in CO2 level. So the best method is using a sponge filter and direct the water outler - same level with tank water level and then run it at high flow.

Have you seen one of those photos where shrimp is kept in a bowl of water or an enclosed globe ? Don't be so cruel !

Shrimp aquarium needs to have filtration system, especially for beginners, you will need a very good filtration system to keep the tanks stable. Invest in a good filter can take a lot of worries off your hands being a new shrimp keepers.

A filter in a aquarium works in two ways:

First, Mechanical filtration, where this remove any suspended particles from the water and  second is that this filtration is a home to a whole host of beneficial bacteria that enjoy water pollutants and breaking them down. For example, such as nitrite, are created in the aquarium when shrimp digest foods or any leftovers that left inside the tank (dead plants, uneaten food, dead shrimp etc..). The nitrite issue can make life very difficult for shrimp, snails, etc.. and even fish in the aquarium. Therefore a mechanical filter is a must as the beneficial bacteria will take care of these harmful substances.

A lot of internal filters with motor, powerhead, located inside the aquarium and this can pose a risk for small shrimp as they can get sucked in and shredded. And old trick is that people using new nylon stockings or something similar to cover these gaps of the internal filters.

The most common way is using sponge filter, this can be either Hamburg Mattern Filter type (using sponge and uplift tubes) or any double sponge filters would do. These filters cost less than £5 on ebay etc.. They are more ideal for shrimp aquarium. You will need to use an airpump to power these filters with air

External filters are located outside the aquarium and draw the water out of the aquarium through a water inlet and pushing the water through variations of biomedia inside the canister filters, to the outlet so the water can go back into the tank. Be careful, you will need to use a sponge or a filter guard on the inlet of these filters, so the shrimp doesnt get sucked inside.

The filter operations

There are many options for filtration system, you can choose any that suit your tanks and the space you have. However, please ensure that the filter must run day and night, 24/7, 365 days a year, so that the aquarium water is not just cleaned mechanically, but also biologically.

Beneficial bacteria need constant supply of oxygen to survive and works effectively. Sometimes, these bacterias will die, harmful substances are no longer broken down, the filter will now become a place for toxic to stay on.

And because the filter has to run 24/7, therefore you should choose a filter solution that suits the room and the space that you have. For e.g if you keep an airpump in your bedroom, it will be loud and could disturb your sleep etc..

How often to clean your filter ?

The quick answer is never. The matured filter carries good beneficial bacteria in the filter in the form of brown sludges, and in flakes looking thing. This is what a matured filter will carry over the time, the beneficial bacteria stays very well in this form. You do not clean to clean your filtration system at all, unless you notice your tank water starts to get cloudy and the water flow coming through is very weak. 

In the event you have to clean your filter, please make sure you take a small amount of your tank water out into a bucket, and clean or squeeze the sponge inside this tub. This is enough to remove any blockages. Also please notice filter bacteria are sensitive to high temperature, so filter media and filter sponges should only be washed with cold water. Please dont use hot water to clean the filtration system at all. 

On the other hand, beneficial bacteria can stay inside a wet, damped sponge filters for up to 6 hrs and still survive. So you would have to let the filtration runs again within this 6 hours otherwise you will kill the beneficial bacteria. Then your aquarium will have to be cycled again from scratch. Please be careful about this.

Never use any cleaning agents and disinfectants to clean the filter sponge and medias. A quick squeeze in a bucket of tank water is enough.

Please remember, do NOT clean the sponge filter and changing big water change at the same time. Also the next few days after cleaning the filter, you should not feed the shrimp as the left over foods and shrimp waste will increase the strain in the biological system.

To summarise, just dont clean the filter and always keep your hands off the filtration systems. You only need to clean it when you notice the water flow from the outlet is significantly reduced

Does your shrimp tank need to have a heater ? The answer is no if you are keeping shrimp tank inside your house, with central heating running. With many shrimp spcies, they can tolerate perfectly with tank temperatures of 18 to 24 degree, which is likely to be the same as room temperature. You can save money on energy costs.

For some species that require hotter temperature like Sulawesi shrimp, you will then need to use heater to keep the water in the range of 26-30 degree, or if your room or garage where the temperature could be significantly drop below 15 degree all the time.

Bear in mind, with higher temperature of 25 degree or above, more sensitive shrimp can have problems with the lower oxygen content, which is why in summer you will need to cool your tank down. This is more important then heating the tank up

It is important in shrimp keeping that you know what source water you would be using.

normally the 2 golden rules are  - 1. always ask the breeder/ seller the water parameters they are keeping the shrimp at, then replicate that parameters. and 2. keep shrimp that suitable for you tap water to reduce on the costs of shrimp breeding, especially if you are new to shrimp keeping.

Shrimp have a hard time adapting to environment changes, changes in water parameters. So it is best to ask the seller for their water parameters and trying to match that.

Shrimp that have been bred in soft water, with low GH will have significant difficulties to adapt than to hard water, high GH. This does not work the other way round. For shrimp that bred in high GH, high TDS, it is much easier to adapt to softer environment. Shrimp can handle the changes of 2 degree GH per day without any issue.

2.1 Are you going to use tap water ?

If you are living in the area where your tap water is very soft, like Liverpool or some part of Manchester, you could get away with keeping both cherry shrimp neocaridina and caridina species using tap water. If your tap water is too soft, you can use any GH+ liquid or salt to increase the GH, without affecting the KH and PH.

If you are living in London area where tap water is rock hard, may be best to keep neoscaridina shrimp and tiger shrimp. Or invest in a Reverse Osmosis unit to produce the pure water.

For shrimp, the values of total hardness (GH), carbonate hardness (KH) and nitrate (NO3) are very important and these values must be known by any shrimp keeper. 

With us here at Shrimp Corner, each shrimp species we sell will include their general water parameters required.

If you are planning to use tap water for your shrimp tank, you will need to invest in a Water Dechlorinator or Tap Safe products. This remove substances that are harmful to shrimp, such as chlorine or copper, and other alternatives there are. 

2.2 Water Purifier like HMA filter/ Britta Jug filter

Some people are known to use HMA filter to filter their tap water, removing harmful substances so they can keep less sensitive shrimp species. This also works if you can adjust the GH and KH value accordingly.

2.3 What water is best for shrimp tanks ?

At Shrimp Corner, we 100% recommended you to use Reverse Osmosis Water. This give you the full control of the water parameters in your shrimp tanks. An Osmosis System is the way to get soft water n aquariums. Some people in the UK has tried and tested bottle of distilled water from supermarket also a practical option. However this prove it can be costly and unstable parameters.

Majority of all local fish store, whom selling marine species, will 100% selling Reverse Osmosis water. This vary from £3 to £5 per 25L of water depending on your area. This may be an ideal option if you don't want to invest in a RO unit, especially if you only have a few small nano tanks.

And this soft Reverse Osmosis water needs to be remineralised with minerals and trace elements to keep shrimp in the aquarium. There are many remineralised in term of crystal salt form, for example. Salty Shrimp, Salty Bee, Prism, Dennerle Shrimp King GH+ etc... By using these salt to increase the Total Hardness (GH), it is best if you mix the salt in a container with RO water prior to using the water. Please make sure it is fully mixed before using, and pour the undissolved particles inside the tank as well. One of the good practive is mixing the salt in a bucket of RO water and leave it for 2 days so the salt can be fully diluted before using for your shrimp tank.

At Shrimp Corner, we don't use salt as in our opinion, it is unreliable as you can never mix the same amount of salts all the time, and the risks of not dissolved properly as well. Therefore we have developed our GH liquid products, this is the best option for you to use.

Using our GH liquid, you can easily adjust the tds value at tank setup, or at every water change by adjusting the TDS directly inside the tank. Simple use 1ML of liquid at a time, give the water a good stir, then read the TDS value

2.4 Water Test Kits

The Complete Test Kits are normally not necessary, but it is best to have all the tests on standby just in case you need it.

All shrimp keepers need to have a GH and KH test kits on hand, this is the get the correct value for the shrimp you are keeping

The best & most reliable brand of test kits is NT Labs, which is made in the United Kingdom. Therefore invest in one of these test kits if you are planning to keep your shrimp longer.

In general, drop liquid test kits are considered to be more accurate than test strips/ sticks. So avoid using test strips if you can.

Unlike fish, many shrimp species normally do not require a big aquarium for them to thrive in. Due to their small bio load, freshwater dwarf shrimp species can be kept in aquarium from 20L and up. 

Complete tank sets (with lights, filtrations and many others) are often cheaper to purchase in most of your local fish store, or even online stockists. The most common size is 45cm length wise, with a capacity of 35L, but keeping shrimp is perfectly good for smaller tanks. Most often you can see some "nano-tanks" are advertised as shrimp habitat, from volume around 20litres and up.

In some aquarium bundle, it is very normal the filter included are not shrimp-safe and therefore this must be replaced with a suitable filtration system that is shrimp-safe. Or you will need to find some new & unused stocking nylon to cover the inlet gaps on these type of filters. 

If possible, to setup your first shrimp tank, look out for "complete nano sets" that are specifically designed for shrimp keeping and contains all the necessary items. Or simply just grab a standard glass aquarium, and using the double sponge filters that are readily available on Amazon, eBay etc..

A golden rule is: the smaller water volume of the tank, the harder to keep the water parameters stable. As the smaller tanks do not buffer waste & pollutants as effective as larger tanks. However, if you don't over feed your shrimp, use our high quality shrimp foods and keep up with your water changes requirement, you can easily keep shrimp in smaller tanks. 

Therefore a 25-35L tank would be an ideal choice for your hobby where you can enjoy shrimp keeping when room space is a limit.