Introducing Myself and My New Blue Velvet Shrimp Tank

Hello Hivians!

Introduction

I am a fish keeper, and have been for a number of years now. I have 2 aquariums and recently combined the fish from them, which freed up the smaller of the tanks. I believe the tank is a Fluval Flex 57 litre, but i could be mistaken as it was bought 2nd hand. Unfortunately due to the curvature of the front of the tank it makes taking photos a bit harder

In this newly empty tank i thought i would breed some Neocaridina Shrimp. I decided i would share my shrimp journey with you all here on hive.

I chose blue velvet shrimp as i liked the colouring of them and they are different from the usual Red Cherry Shrimp. I almost chose the yellow variety but they were a bit more expensive.

This is my 2nd time keeping Neocaridina Shrimp and i am hoping to learn enough from these to move on to caradina shrimp, which require a bit more knowledge and experience to keep.

Getting the tank ready

As i said previously, i moved the fish out of this tank and into my bigger tank. Therefore, this tank was already cycled and had a good amount of biofilm on the tank. It was also full of Ramshorn and Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

I ordered 12 Blue Velvet Shrimp from ebay, its amazing what can be sent by post.

While i was waiting for the shrimp to arrive i got the tank ready. I performed a 80% water change and gravel vac'd as much as i could. I got rid of many of the snails as they were a bit overpopulated.

I tidied up the plants that were in the tank. In the tank there is an Amazon Sword Plant, a huge Java Fern, some Java Moss and some Duck Weed. Most of these were a bit over grown so i tidied these up with the exception of the Java Fern which i left mainly intact as it provides nice hiding spots for the shrimp.

I added a ceramic dish from a plant pot to the tank to use as a feeding dish. This is useful as you can see if the have eaten the food and makes cleaning up any uneaten food easier.

Adding the shrimp

The shrimp arrived in a few days and were all alive and healthy. I ended up receiving 13 shrimp, so that was a bonus!

I floated the bag in the aquarium to slowly match the temperature of the water in the bag to that in the tank. I then added the shrimp and water to a bucket and dripped water from the tank in so that the water slowly changes to match that in the tank, this process takes hours but is beneficial to the shrimp and reduces fatalities.

Once the water was ready i netted the shrimp and added them to the tank, this is so that i don't get any of the water they arrived in into the tank and potentially any badness.

1 week later and future plans

1 week has passed since the shrimp arrived and they are doing well!

They are coming out for the food daily and are active around the tank. The most i have seen at one time has been 9, this is usually because some are hiding in the plants.

Once they had been in the tank for a few days i decided to start looking at the grade/colouring of the shrimp.

Usually the females have a darker more full colouring than the males who have more of a translucent body. And the more colour/less clear on a shrimp the better the grade (for neocaridina)

Upon inspection of the shrimp i noticed a few lower quality shrimp. One is slightly brown (it happens as shrimp revert back to their wild colouring over time if left) and one is really dark, almost black. And a few with not so full colouring as the rest.

From here i plan to leave these in the tank and grow the colony. Once the numbers have grown, i will start removing the lower quality shrimp from the tank. This means the better shrimp breed together increasing the grade. Some people cull these shrimp they remove but i plan on adding all 'culls' to a seperate tank where they can live and not worry about their grading.

I plan to eventually start selling the shrimp i breed. And then i want to save the money from them and start a more expensive caridina shrimp tank.

I aim for regular updates on this tank and any future tanks, so if you are interested in following along this journey be sure to give me a follow.

Watching the shrimp in the aquarium has became a daily habit that i enjoy, and i am looking forward to seeing some babies.