Frequently Asked Questions

  Neocaradina shrimp are ahard-water variety of freshwater shrimp. They are native to Taiwan but have been found in China and even Poland! They have been classified and are officially known as Neocaradina Davidi, but they are also associated with Neocaradina heteropoda. Most people, though, refer to them commonly as cherry shrimp, dwarf shrimp,p or just as simple as neos. 

 Setting up a tank or preparing an existing tank for neos is about the same difficulty as setting up a tank for most fish. They are a very low demanding livestock which produce very little bio load. So what do you need for a tank for these little guys and gals? First up is a fish tank obviously! It is said that you can have as low as a 1 gallon. In my experience, anything lower than a 10 gallon (especially for a beginner shrimp keeper), it will be a struggle with keeping your parameters just right and keeping the algae blooms down. As well as with a 10 gallon, you have a lot more space to make the tank planted which they love! When deciding on what size tank to do, filtration is another thing. Make sure you have an appropriately sized filter for the tank you have chosen. Sponge filters or power filters are great for them due to them being able to sit on them and feed off them. HOB and canister filters are also a great option, just be aware that you will have to get a fine mesh prefilter sponge in order to not suck up the shrimp and shrimplets. Most filters will label what size tank they are appropriate for. Most of my tanks are over filtered but never under filtered. Now what substrate is acceptable for them? Almost anything that is safe for fish. They don’t require a buffering substrate. In my experience, they do well with Fluval Stratum, black diamond blasting sand, silica sand, river rock or gravel from any pet store. But they will do good on many, many types of substrate. As long as they can eat off of it and it’s safe, they will be some happy shrimps. Now that we have the tank and substrate, one of the most important things is the water. Previously mentioned is that neocaradina are a hard water shrimp. What that means is that they like lots of dissolved solids in their water. These can be broken down into two catagorys (at least the ones we really want to focus on). These are known as general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (kH) General Hardness or GH as it will be referred to is the measurement of how many minerals are in the water. It is usually measured in ppm or degrees of hardness (dGH). Depending on where you live, it can change things drastically. For example, Boise is always mentioned to have hard water but CDA has extremely soft water. GH measures lots of different types of minerals in the water but the one as shrimp keepers we want to concern ourselves with is calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+). They are both very vital in shrimp keeping. Calcium, in right amounts, ensures that the shrimp can molt properly and have a healthy shell when not molting. Magnesium ensures that the shrimp can absorb the calcium that it needs to.Now let me introduce you to carbonate hardness or KH as it will be referred to. KH is the measurement of concentration of carbonate (CO32-) and bicarbonate (HCO3-) ions in your tank water. It acts as a stabilizer for pH. It is very important in shrimp keeping especially, but also in any type of fish tank. You don’t want to lose your whole stock because you had a pH go out of control. Neocaradina shrimp like their pH between 6.6 and 7.6, GH to be between 9 and 18 to ensure healthy molting of the shrimp and their KH to be between 4 and 6 to ensure pH is stable. Alright, let’s now talk about how to test it. What I do every week before we do our water changes or whenever I’m setting up a new tank is I use the API GH/KH test on my tap water (link down at the bottom). City or well water does not stay consistent in what comes out of the tap. One week I could have 4 dGH and the next I could have 12 dGH. Same goes for KH. If that goes unchecked, it could cause lots of problems. If the GH or KH is too high, you will find that they aren’t breeding as prolifically or you’re having them die because they are not molting properly. Now, is the time to decide do you do RODI water or tap/well water based on testing the tap? When water evaporates, it leaves all the minerals behind so the only way to remove those excess is to water change and dilute slightly. Whether it’s with RODI water or soft tap water. If you’re below the ideal range of GH and KH, it’ll be a similar process as using RODI water getting it to the ideal parameters. But if you’re higher than the ideal range, you’ll actually have to use rodi water in your water changes sometimes to keep it within the range. Or use softer water from somewhere else or RODI water right off the get go. And if you’re somewhere in the middle, you’ll eventually have too many minerals from evaporation. As long as you stay up on water changes, you should be good only every once in a while to use RODI or softer water from another source. Let’s say you’re using RODI water or soft water to begin with (which is what I deal with in Middleton), you have to get those numbers up somehow. What I recommend using is called SaltyShrimp. It is a powder substance that can be added into either soft water or RODI water to up the GH/KH. It simultaneously ups both. If you just need the kh, wonder shells or crushed coral/aragonite are a wonderful thing for that. I have not personally had to use them but heard great successes with them. Whatever you decide to use, verify it does not swing pH hugely. At the end of the day, if your parameters are just barely out of the ideal range, it’s not the end of the world. You just want to try to work your way to get pH, GH and KH into the range listed below. Shrimp pH, GH, and KH pH: 6.6-7.6GH: 9-18 KH:4-6 Another important thing is cycle the tank! Shrimp are sensitive to fluctuations in parameters. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are included in that. Alright, now that we went through the daunting stuff let’s get to my favorite part, plants! Plants are very important in a shrimp tank. The plants provide shrimp with microorganisms that they can eat. Not only that, they provide great hiding space for the shrimplets as well as the adults since they come out for food but otherwise would much prefer to be hidden cleaning up your tank for you. Plants also help your tank maintain its parameters and look beautiful doing it! Some plants that we have had do well in treasure valley area are water sprite, anubias nana, floating plants of all kinds and so much more. We will be doing a post specifically about plants soon! Now you’re probably wondering can I have shrimp in my tank with other fish. The answer is yes! You absolutely can as long as you have tons of hiding spaces for them you can get a colony of them growing with fish in the tank. The rule of thumb is that all fish will eat shrimplets if they can get them. But if you give them the resources to run and hide, you can have a beautiful colony. Snails are a shrimps best friend in a tank. They help each other clean up the tank as well as the shrimp clean up the slime trail snails leave behind and the shells of snails. Some snails that I personally love are Japanese trapdoor snails, mystery snails and ramshorn snails. Most community fish (again if you have hiding spots) will do great with shrimp. Guppies, tetra, danios, rasboras and so much more. Hopefully soon we will have a more comprehensive list that way everyone can search what is okay with them! People have also had great success with having them with more aggressive fish like bettas and some types of cichlids. Okay, I think I stuffed a lot of information into here. It may seem like a really daunting task having shrimp but it is so rewarding seeing all them happy, breeding and keeping the tanks clean. And once you set up one, all the ones after that are so easy. Shrimp do so much in a tank that goes unnoticed. Another huge plus is that they’re beautiful while doing it.