Want to Create a 10 Gallon Shrimp Tank: Where do I Begin?

SilverArowanaBoi

Redtail Catfish
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Stick to 1 color of shrimp as they will breed and you will end up with natural color shrimp (grey) and also various color morphs.
Agreed. However, can I mix different kinds of shrimp? Like Perhaps Blue shrimp with Ghost shrimp or amano shrimp?
 

dmyersWv

Piranha
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Dec 28, 2022
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Yes but in my experience they do have different requirements. Also it will greatly reduce your breeding. As shrimp will eat other type of shrimp babies.
 
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SilverArowanaBoi

Redtail Catfish
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I have a quick question regarding feeding my archerfish, how frequently should I be feeding him? I know babies need more food than adults and they need more frequent feedings. I've been feeding him twice a day. Should I do more or less?
 
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Fallen_Leaves16

Dovii
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Agreed. However, can I mix different kinds of shrimp? Like Perhaps Blue shrimp with Ghost shrimp or amano shrimp?
You could, but may likely run into issues with outcompetition and possibly even predation of neocaridina by a different species. Amanos will probably be alright with them, though. Caridina and Neocaridina spp. usually cohabitate fine, though differences in parameters and sensitivity, along with potential hybridisation, should be taken into consideration.

Oddly enough, it isn't the first time I've seen archers kept with discus- granted, it was in a 120G with particularly large discus; I don't remember if it worked out long-term, though.

Twice a day should be fine, but it depends on how much you're feeding him- I would typically feed small archers about as much food as the size of their eyes per meal thrice a day, depending on whether they fattened up alright. Yours looks somewhat skinny; I'd probably up the feedings a little, and attempt to convert the archer onto floating pellets (which shouldn't be too hard; most Toxotes I kept transitioned easily once eating well) and insects, if able.
 

SilverArowanaBoi

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A little update:

The archer (Spitfire) has been doing well. He eats pretty well, and I feed him around 2-3 times a day, depending on how long I'm gone in the day. Should I try to feed him live bugs or are bloodworms just fine? I just cleaned his tank yesterday so he's extra happy with clean water and fewer plants. A really cool thing about the Anacharis is that roots are dropping down from the "stalk" (not sure what you call it, I'm brain dead right now) and it creates this almost mystical look. I'll take a picture soon and post it.

In the future, I intend to keep the Anacharis in the tiny tank (didn't work out in the main tank, I put a few in there and they were just annihilated, maybe by the flow? idk), however, I also intend to get some Marimo Moss balls or some fuzzy moss (mainly for the shrimp).

Are there any other shrimp decor recommendations? I've seen these mineral balls for shrimp before at stores, do I need them or not?
 

Fallen_Leaves16

Dovii
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Nov 10, 2021
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A little update:

The archer (Spitfire) has been doing well. He eats pretty well, and I feed him around 2-3 times a day, depending on how long I'm gone in the day. Should I try to feed him live bugs or are bloodworms just fine? I just cleaned his tank yesterday so he's extra happy with clean water and fewer plants. A really cool thing about the Anacharis is that roots are dropping down from the "stalk" (not sure what you call it, I'm brain dead right now) and it creates this almost mystical look. I'll take a picture soon and post it.

In the future, I intend to keep the Anacharis in the tiny tank (didn't work out in the main tank, I put a few in there and they were just annihilated, maybe by the flow? idk), however, I also intend to get some Marimo Moss balls or some fuzzy moss (mainly for the shrimp).

Are there any other shrimp decor recommendations? I've seen these mineral balls for shrimp before at stores, do I need them or not?
I used to feed archers crickets pretty frequently; rarely got any to spit water, but they had no problems trying to jump at the insect. Would sometimes forget that I left a bag of crickets on the tank lid and come back to an odd banging noise that turned out to be the fish repeatedly bashing themselves into the lid, trying to get the insects in the bag.
If gut loaded, they'd probably be a bit more nutrient-dense than the bloodworms; and archers would usually be far more inclined to eat them when offered IME.

Keeping shrimp is heavily reliant on your water parameters, particularly your TDS, gH, kH, and pH. Those "mineral blocks" are somewhat significant if your parameters aren't decent (but are generally useless anyways IMO). You can't keep caridina (cantonensis, serrata, etc) without low, almost zero kH, low pH, and moderate gH, otherwise they encounter multiple issues with osmoregulation, moulting, fertility, etc. Neocaridina davidi/heteropoda. require somewhat low kH, neutral pH, and moderate-somewhat high gH, and can die if kept in optimal 'caridina parameters' or exceptionally hard water; though because they tend to prefer more of a "middle ground" between acidic and alkaline/soft and hard water, they tolerate a wider range of parameters and are less prone to death due to parameter issues.

I personally don't really have much in my shrimp tanks; a decent aquasoil substrate, some miscellaneous ceramic structure, a clear glass feeding dish, some wood, dead leaves, a sponge filter, and maybe a few plants that I'm trying not to kill, plus high light.

You can add pretty much whatever you'd like, so long as it remains fairly chemically inert and is non-toxic. Plants help with parameter stability and provide cover for females and young shrimp; wood promotes growth of edible microorganisms, which shrimp are rather fond of; etc. Plastic decor works, too, so long as it doesn't disintegrate over time.

Plants I typically add to shrimp tanks include Cryptocoryne spp., Bucephalandra spp., Anubias spp., misc. mosses, some stem plants, etc.
 

SilverArowanaBoi

Redtail Catfish
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I also have another question, I've been eyeing Celestial Pearl Danios for a while and I was wondering if they would be ok with shrimp.
 
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SilverArowanaBoi

Redtail Catfish
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Hey y'all! Finally getting around to updating this thread, so here we go:

I've been doing some work to the tank. I got a piece of spider driftwood yesterday and plopped it in the tank, although I'm starting to think that was a bad idea as I didn't soak or anything and it just completely stained my water. *facepalm* I know I should've seen that coming. Anyways, I'm going to take the driftwood out and soak it somewhere else, and put the rocks back into the tank like they were before (I took one out because it didn't fit and I positioned the other awkwardly to anchor down the driftwood piece).

As for critters, also yesterday I got 10 ghost shrimp to be a clean up crew for the 10 gallon. So far, they seem to be ok. Archerfish hasn't tried to eat any of them (though to be fair the shrimp are the same size or even slightly larger than the archer), but it looks like many of the shrimp are pregnant so my archerfish may feast on the babies.

Once I clean the tank I'll post some pictures.
 
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