Shrimp Care for Newbies

Welcome to the fascinating world of Dwarf Aquarium shrimp-- or Neocaridina!

These small, vibrant creatures are a joy to watch and care for. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced aquarist, we’re here to guide you on your shrimp keeping journey.

1. Setting Up the Tank

Even though shrimps are small, they love to explore. That’s why we recommend a 10 gallon tank for a small colony of shrimps. You can go smaller, but keep in mind, you'll need to do more maintenace to keep the water clean.

A good filtration system is crucial for maintaining water quality. Our sponge filters are designed to provide efficient filtration without the risk of your shrimps getting sucked up.

One of the very best things you can do for your shrimp's environment is to ensure your tank is heavily planted.

The plants not only provide shelter and forage (leading to the brightest coloration), they also help filter your water for you!

Most common aquarium shrimps thrive in water temperatures between 70°F and 80°F. Unless your home is unheated or not cooled in the summer, you likely won't need a heater at all.

2. Water Conditions

Shrimps generally prefer slightly acidic to neutral water with a pH range between 6.5 and 7.5. Regular testing of water parameters like pH, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates is important to ensure a healthy environment for your shrimps.

Keep your water parameters fairly hard as well. Aim for a measurement of 150-300ppm. You can add to the hardness by dropping in chunks of Cuttlebone, crushed coral, and even old discarded snail shells.

All these items add calcium to the water-- an essential nutrient for shell growth and successful molting.

Shrimps love tanks with plenty of hiding spots. Live plants, driftwood, and caves are great additions to a shrimp tank. 

Additionally, consider adding botanicals. They raise the protective tannin levels of your tank, and give your shrimp lots of foraging oppotunities and shelter. This is especially important for baby shrimp.

3. Shrimp Diet and Feeding

Shrimps are omnivores and require a varied diet. Our selection of shrimp foods, such as Complete Envy, Shrimp Snowflake Treat, and Growth Envy Protein Shrimp Food, are specially formulated to provide a balanced diet and boost the health and color of your shrimps.

We even have several in- house developed powder blends for feeding colonies, and babies especially.

We recommend feeding your shrimps once a day, and only giving them as much food as they can consume within 2-3 hours to prevent overfeeding and water quality issues.

4. Shrimp Health and Maintenance

Regular water changes are crucial for keeping your shrimps healthy. Aim to change 10-20% of the tank water every week.

When introducing new shrimps, it’s wise to quarantine them first to prevent the spread of diseases.

Check them carefully. Any fuzzy white bacterial growths? See any greenish fungus on their legs or undersides?

We often use Maracyn for bacterial diseases, and Ich-X for fungal diseases. They are both invertibrate safe!

5. Breeding Shrimps

Most common Neocaridina aquarium shrimps breed quite easily in a well maintained tank.

The mothers have a solid- colored 'saddle' of eggs imbedded in the back of their head area. Once they are ready to breed, you'll see males swooping all around the tank to try and be the first to find her.

'Berries' on the female's undersides are a sure sign of successful breeding. Those eggs hatch out into shrimplets that look identical to the adults... just insanely small and usually colorless. 

It's difficult for them to move around a lot when they are this small, so be sure to provide a powdered food and plenty of algae and biofilm in the tank, to ensure they can reach it.

My most successful breeding shrimp colonies are in tanks with a huge overgrowth of surface algae. These tanks had no other fish in them, and were none too clean!

If you’re interested in breeding, provide plenty of hiding spots for the shrimplets and consider adding a sponge filter to prevent them from getting sucked up.

We provide a number of breeding accessories that can help you on your shrimp breeding journey, such as mosses, hides, and an excellent shrimp net!

Conclusion

Caring for Neo shrimps is a rewarding experience!

It's also pretty straightforward and simple, once you create the right environment, the shrimp will show you their satisfaction by producing berried mommas left and right.

 Happy shrimp keeping! 🦐