Shrimp stocking

[Mustang Boy]

I was wondering how many shrimp could be housed in a 10 gal tank with some tetras without overstocking the tank

[Fishalicious]

The smaller shrimp like cherries clean more mess than they make... a minimum of 10 is good as they are group animals and feel a lot safer in a group...after a while the group will get bigger all by itself :19:

[Mustang Boy]

cool cause i love the little guys and was hoping i would be able to have some especially since i am gonna have a well planted tank and they would just add that much more color to my tank

and where is a good place to find decorative shrimp like cherries cause none of the LFS i have found in my area carry anything but ghost shrimp

[Tolley]

You could send a private message to Algenco a member on this forum. He always has some for sale.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=11418&highlight=cherry+shrimp+shipped
That is his thread a lot of happy customers there.

[Sasquatch]

Could you just ask you LFS to do a special order? If they can get their hands on them, they should be willing to order them for you.

As for stocking, you could easily have 15-20 cherries in a 10g tank. ATM we have 8 Amanos (4 large, 4 small) and though they get much larger than cherries, the stocking is fine for our tank.

[Mustang Boy]

well i was wondering because i will also be having a small school of tetras, a couple of cory's, and 1 or 2 freshwater clams and some killersnails

and i just wanted to make sure i wasnt overloading the tank but i wouldnt know if it would be overloading it cause the shrimp eat more waste than they produce so it might actually make it a little better

[Sasquatch]

well i was wondering because i will also be having a small school of tetras, a couple of cory's, and 1 or 2 freshwater clams and some killersnails

and i just wanted to make sure i wasnt overloading the tank but i wouldnt know if it would be overloading it cause the shrimp eat more waste than they produce so it might actually make it a little better

You stocking is fine for a 10g. How small is a "small schoolof tetras"?

The thing with shrimp is it's kind of a "zero sum" deal. They produce some waste, like all living organisms, but they clean up so much of the crud and extra food that would normally decompose that it makes up for what they do produce.

[Mustang Boy]

i was thinking somewhere in the range of 5-7 tetras unless you would recommend less or if you i say that it can hold more i would also like to add another cory to my plans cause i hear they like to be in groups too

[Lady Hobbs]

I don't know if tetra's would eat the baby shrimp or not. They are very small.

Algenco has some nice ones. The ones I got from him started breeding two weeks after I got them and they produced dozens. Mine were eaten, tho, and I only have about 20 left.

[Mustang Boy]

i really wouldnt mind too much if the baby shrimp are eaten by the tetras cause once i get my 29gal cichlid tank up and running i might use some the the baby shrimp that do survive as treats for the cichlids

[southerndesert]

Careful with the clams as they require larg amounts of food in the water or they will eventually starve to death. They do not do well in small tanks and when they die usually in the substrate they can foul your water.

They can be fed with a pipette from what I have read, but I have never tried it.

Cheers, Bill

[Mustang Boy]

so for the clams sake you are saying i should slightly overfeed so that there is a little extra food floating around the tank(the excess food will be finely ground the if i have to do this) or is there a special kind of food for FW clams

[Sasquatch]

Five to seven tetras is a minimum, they're a schooling fish. Frankly, if you don't absolutely want cories, I'd drop them altogether and get more tetras, say 7-10. The shrimp will take care of the substrate just fine on their own.

As for the clams ... I hadn't ticked on that earlier, but yeah, 10g is probably too small and the tank needs to have been running for a good while to build up enough little bugs to keep the clams fed. I know for filter feeding shrimp, 20g is a minimum and they recommend that the tank should be setup for at least 6 months to 1 year. You can try handfeeding them, but I don't know how well it would work.

[Mustang Boy]

thanks and i may drop the cory for more tetra and i will drop the clam for whenever i get a bigger tank and let it go for awhile before adding them

[Mustang Boy]

ok guys one last question

i was wondering what kind of shrimp naturally come from the SA region cause i want this tank to be as natural as possible and the only ones i have been able to find through my research are glass shrimp which are pretty boring to look at but i will go with these if i have to