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So one question that is frequently asked by shrimp keepers is
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do my red cherry shrimp need a filter? And in this video I'm going to answer that question
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Hello friends, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Richard and I'm the
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author of the Neocardinia shrimp book. I'm pleased to say we're giving away copies to the first 100
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people who click the link in the description. So people frequently ask, do I have to run a filter
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with my shrimp tank? And whilst technically the answer is no, you can run a nano tank containing
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red cherry shrimp without running a filter, in my experience it's always best to have a filter
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running in the tank. There are a number of major benefits to running a filter. First of all
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naturally the water will be cleaner physically. The filter removes the solids, removes the detritus
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that's floating around in the tank, making the tank look more pleasant and perhaps more pleasant
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for the shrimp to live in. Even relatively small sponge filters remove a surprising amount of
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abdicitis from the water column. If you ever squeeze one out into a bucket of water to clean it
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I always find it astonishing how much dirt actually comes out of them. So running a filter will make the water physically cleaner to look at. A filter also provides the
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ideal place for the bacteria that break down the waste from the shrimp and the fish if you have them
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The filter provides the ideal location for them to live and to multiply. Now the other benefit to
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running a filter is they provide circulation in the tank and they typically
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provide surface agitation. Surface agitation helps the exchange of gases, increases the levels of oxygen in the tank and makes your tank a healthier
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place for the shrimp to live. So if you're wondering what is the best type of filter to run with your shrimps in my experience the answer is a sponge filter Sponge filters are fabulous they keep the water clean they cheap to buy and they cheap to run The other major benefit the sponge filter has over a hang or a canister filter for example is there no way for the shrimp to get
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sucked in. So whilst hang-on-back filters and canister filters have a strainer over the intake
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that strainer is designed primarily to stop fish getting sucked in. Shrimp, especially baby shrimp
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pass through that strainer up into the filter where they typically die. If you do find yourself
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keeping shrimp in a tank with a hang-on-back filter or a canister filter then I highly recommend
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adding an intake sponge over the intake to prevent the shrimp being sucked in. So the benefits of
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running a filter in a shrimp tank are it helps remove floating debris from the water column
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helps improve water quality by providing the perfect place for denitrifying bacteria to live
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it increases water circulation it increases surface agitation meaning there's more dissolved
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water in the tank for your shrimp and it typically makes the tank more aesthetically pleasing because
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the water hopefully will be crystal clear the other thing we can do with the filter is if
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necessary we can add chemicals like activated carbon that remove impurities from the water
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now if like me you like to geek out on any subject but particularly on shrimp we have
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dozens of articles on my website fishkeepinganswers.com and I'll put a link to that in the description
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as well. Another question people often find themselves asking when they're new to shrimp
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is do red cherry shrimp require a heater? And I answer that question in this video here
