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On a daily basis someone will contact me and say Richard I'm new to the hobby I
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just got my first lot of shrimp but they're dying what am I doing wrong and
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in this video I'm gonna share with you the five reasons that I think new
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shrimp keepers fail to make a success of their shrimp tanks. Hello friends
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welcome back to the channel if you're new here my name is Richard and I'm a shrimp keeper based in the UK. So the first reason I think so many new
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shrimp keepers struggle is because they purchased the wrong shrimp for their water. Now you
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essentially get two different types of shrimp. Now before you put in the comments there are more
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than two types of shrimp, I'm talking broadly. Broadly you get your neocarradina shrimp such as
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your red cherry shrimp and you get your caradina shrimp such as your crystal reds or your taiwan
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bees. Now these two types of shrimp essentially want completely different water. Your neocarradina
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shrimp want hard water, water with lots of dissolved minerals, whereas your caradina shrimp
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want soft water, soft water that hasn't got a high level of dissolved minerals in it, that has a low
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GH or general hardness. The problem is if you have hard water like me and you've been to your store
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and purchased some lovely caradina shrimp and you put them in your tank, it doesn't matter how
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slowly you acclimate them, it doesn't matter how much you drip acclimate those shrimp, if you've got
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hard water and you've added carradina shrimp those shrimp will unfortunately perish equally
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if you have super soft water with with almost no hardness and you've been to the store and purchased
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some near carradina shrimp that like hard water with lots of dissolved minerals they too they're
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not going to survive they're going to perish I genuinely believe one of the biggest problems new
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shrimp keepers have and in fact not just new shrimp keepers all shrimp keepers is sourcing the correct
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shrimp for the water they intend to put the shrimp in. Now yes you can take your tap water and you can
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process it through an RO system and then remineralise it so no matter what you start with
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you end up with the right water for the shrimp. But most new shrimp keepers aren't going out and
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sourcing an RO system to process their water before they set up their first shrimp tank
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Most people who are new to the lobby are setting up their tank, they're going to the store, they're
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buying 5, 10, 12, whatever beautiful shrimp, they're bringing them home and when if the water is not
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right for the shrimp, those shrimp unfortunately doesn't matter how much you want them to, they're
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not going to succeed, they're not going to thrive if the water parameters are wrong for the shrimp
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Now another reason that new shrimp keepers I think really struggle, and again this doesn't
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just apply to new shrimp keepers this applies to pretty much all shrimp keepers is they purchasing poor quality shrimp And one of the best things about shrimp is all you need is a few males and a few females and you can breed shrimp your shrimp will
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the size of your shrimp colony will grow the problem is that means any old person can can
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grab themselves a tank churn out some shrimp and sell them on no matter what the quality is
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they'll happily sell them to unsuspecting buyers now generally speaking your neocarradina shrimp
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your cherry shrimp and alike are incredibly hardy. They've got so hardy over the years
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that they can withstand such a wide band of temperatures and even water quality
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But that doesn't mean there aren't people out there who are just churning out any old rubbish
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To give yourself the best chance for your new colony of shrimp to thrive, you need to start with good quality stock. And that can be tricky. If you're buying your shrimp
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online, you really don't have any way to see the quality of the shrimp before you buy them
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so do some research look on forums see if anyone can recommend a good online supplier
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read reviews but always take reviews with a pinch of salt but read reviews from other buyers and I
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tend to concentrate on negative reviews anybody can produce hundreds and hundreds of positive
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reviews for their website doesn't mean anything but if you take some time to read the negative
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reviews you can often then work out are these really poor quality shrimp or do they perhaps
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the vendor doesn't package them well perhaps they're slowing the postage you can work these
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things out before you buy them if you're going to buy from your local store i would recommend
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don't buy them the first day you go in go in have a look at the shrimp maybe revisit the store two
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or three days later have they still got as many shrimp are they other numbers write down is that
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because when you're there people are queuing up to buy that shrimp or are there lots of dead bodies
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in the tank can you see okay you're always going to perhaps see see one or two if they've got a
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thousand shrimp in the tank but if they've got 20 or 30 if there are dead bodies all over the place
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that would suggest they're not very good quality shrimp. In an ideal world you want to purchase
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your shrimp from a local breeder somebody who lives in your area has your water conditions
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and in a perfect world you can actually go to their their house their facility whatever
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see the shrimp talk to them and buy shrimp. The chances are you will get much better quality
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shrimp if you can go to a local breeder and buy directly from them. So a third reason I think new
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hobbyists particularly fail with their shrimp is they're constantly tampering with the tank
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You get your aquarium set up, you go and purchase your shrimp, you add the shrimp to the tank
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then typically the new hobbyists will be tweaking the heater, adjusting the filter, moving some rocks
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around, adding a couple of new plants, taking a plant away, doing a water change because they've
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read online water change are important, putting some food in, the shrimp doesn't eat it, they take
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the food back out and try a different food What shrimp love is stability What shrimp want is you put it in the tank and then pretty much within reason left alone I would suggest if your tank is suitably mature before you add
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the shrimp, in other words it's not brand new, you haven't just set it up that morning, the chances are there'll be plenty of biofilm developed, there'll be plenty of algae starting
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to grow and you won't need to feed or touch your shrimp for at least the first week. You shouldn't
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need to do anything. Put them in the tank and just leave them be. They love an aquarium to be stable
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You don't need to set the perfect parameters for your shrimp to thrive. You just need to get the
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parameters close to what they want and then leave them be. Let the shrimp settle in. After a week or
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so, add a little bit of food. If they eat it, fabulous. If they don't, then of course, take it
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out after a few hours. Don't leave it to sit there and rot. But if you've only put a tiny amount of
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food in you shouldn't need to then vacuum out huge quantities or carry out large water changes
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I honestly believe a lot of new shrimp keepers fail because they're constantly mucking about
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with the tank for at least the first couple of weeks unless there's some major problem your
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shrimp are all dying you need to do something drastic just leave the tank be let the shrimp
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settle in enjoy them have the light on enjoy the shrimp going about their daily business
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but don't keep tampering with them just let them be now the fourth reason I think new shrimp keepers
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and I alluded to it there, is they add the shrimp to a tank which is too new. The main source of food
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for shrimp like your cherry shrimp is biofilm and algae. And biofilm is that natural slime that
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develops on everything in your aquarium. If you've ever taken a stone or the filter out of a mature
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aquarium, it just feels a bit slippery. That's biofilm. Biofilm is essentially made up of
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micro crustaceans and bacteria and starts of algae and it develops on all surfaces in the aquarium
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shrimp love to eat biofilm it's a main part of their diet they'll spend their entire day
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whether it's java moss plants standing on rocks sponge filters sponge filters are a classic that
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the biofilm and the debris that gathers on the sponge filter the shrimp love that and the same
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is true of algae shrimp won't clear your tank of algae if your tank is overgrown it's a big green or
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or blackbeard algae mess chucking four shrimp in isn't going to solve the problem but they spend a
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huge amount of their day picking at algae, picking at the starts of algae. Now biofilm and algae take
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time to develop. If you set your tank up this morning, pop to the store this afternoon and drop
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the shrimp in, there's going to be no life in that tank. There's going to be no biofilm, there's going
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to be no algae, there's no detritus or moam developing and I genuinely believe this is a
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major problem. When you're first joining the hobby, you're excited, you want to get your shrimp
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You go, you set your tank up and when you're new to the hobby, waiting three or four weeks before
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you add your shrimp is damn near impossible. I set this tank up about three weeks ago and
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another week or two I add some shrimp to be ready Algae has started to form on the surfaces i can see that the the filter is starting to mature as the tap and leaves are breaking down the plants are bedding
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in i know it's tough when you first set up your tank and you want to get some shrimp the thought
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of waiting a month before you buy them it's damn impossible right but when new hobbyists contact me
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and say richard my shrimp are done what have i done and i start talking to them and say well how
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long has your tank been going? And they go, oh, about an hour. It's nowhere near long enough
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You need to allow your tank to mature. And I'm not talking about cycling the filter. That's a
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different thing altogether. This is about allowing life to start to develop in your tank for biofilm
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for algae to start to develop. And then you know, if you add your shrimp, they've got something
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to start feeding on. If you add shrimp to a brand new aquarium, you are setting yourself up to fail
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Now, the fifth reason I think that new hobbyists fail is because they're running the wrong sort of filter
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Now, I'm not talking about cycling the filter. Again, that's for a different video altogether
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What I'm talking about is filters actually eating your shrimp. If you run a canister filter or a hang-on-back filter and you don't have a sponge over the intake
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I can tell you for a fact that that filter will be sucking shrimp up
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The hang-on-back and canister filters come with a little grill over the intake
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and that strain out is great for keeping fish out. Fish will swim past that, apart from very small baby fish
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Fish will swim straight past that strain out. They'll be absolutely fine. But unsuspecting shrimp come along, and as they get close, they're gone
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They're up the pipe. They're in the filter, the impeller. Typically, they're done for
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The number of new hobbyists I've spoken to who have set up their tank. They've waited
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They've allowed it to mature. They've allowed it to cycle. They're running a hang-on-back filter
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they've added their small brand new shrimp and after three or four days I can only see two shrimp
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I bought 12 where are the other 10? There's a really good chance they've been sucked into the
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filter. My recommendation is always a use a sponge filter or b add an intake sponge to the intake of
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your filter. Even if the shrimp you have purchased are too big to be sucked into that filter they will
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at some point have babies. Hang on back filter and canister filters are shrimp baby machines
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They will suck any up as the shrimps go by. They're far too small. They can't swim away
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They're sucked up. They're gone. I genuinely believe a lot of new shrimp keepers fail because
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their filters are actually eating their shrimp. Now earlier in the video, I alluded to this
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new setup here and I'm going to add either some snowballs or some blue dream shrimp to that in
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the next week or two. But if you want to see how I set up that tank, check out this video next
