make a shrimp hide out in your planted tank

In contrast to Bee Shrimp and Tiger Shrimp, those Neocaridina don't exclusively originate from clear, clean streams, but also from stagnant waters like bogs and lakes. In the hobby, the species Neocaridina davidi and Neocaridina palmata have become firmly established.

Red and Black Bee Shrimp of the species Caridina logemanni - Copyright by Chris Lukhaupīesides Bee Shrimp and Tiger Shrimp you’ll find many pretty and quite robust color variants of the genus Neocaridina in many planted tanks. They originate from habitats with rather soft to very soft water, and they also like their aquarium water with a low carbonate hardness, which is perfect for many aquarium plants. These beautiful shrimp are a perfect fit for green planted aquariums. The black-translucent, black-blue or red-translucent striped Tiger Shrimp ( Caridina mariae) and the red-white and black-white standard Bee Shrimp ( Caridina logemanni), also called Red Bee or Black Bee Shrimp, are not quite as sensitive and can stomach nitrate values between 10 and 25 mg/l. However, many of the more challenging aquatic plants need a slightly higher nitrate level, so their requirements clash with those of high-bred Caridina shrimp. Since iodine is absolutely crucial for producing the molting hormone ecdysone, nitrate in an aquarium with high-bred shrimp has a particularly harmful effect. Nitrate has been observed to inhibit the iodine uptake in these high-bred shrimp especially strongly. This is, on the one hand, due to the fact that these strains still need to undergo heavy selective breeding until their patterns are fully established (which, for practical reasons, is an almost impossible task in a well-planted tank), on the other hand, these shrimp may react with molting problems to nitrate levels as low as 5-10 mg/l.īlue Boa, a Caridina hybrid - Copyright by Chris Lukhaup Sulawesi shrimp such as the Cardinal Shrimp ( Caridina dennerli), the Harlequin Shrimp ( Caridina woltereckae) and the Blue Leg Poso Shrimp ( Caridina caerulea) are even more unsuitable for veritable aquascapes since you’d be way too restricted when it comes to fertilizing, and with water temperatures of roughly 30 ☌, which they require, your choice of plants would be very limited.Ĭaridina dennerli - Copyright by Chris Lukhaupīreeds such as Pinto Shrimp and Boa Shrimp may look spectacular, but they are not necessarily suitable for classic planted aquariums and aquascapes either. Among them there are species that are not suitable for a plant aquarium at all: shrimp from the Old Lakes of Sulawesi, for example, which are attractively colored but require very special water parameters, very clean water with as little nitrate (NO 3) and phosphate (PO 4) as possible, but most of all temperatures that are absolutely unsuitable for most aquarium plants. Dwarf shrimp in a planted tank?ĭwarf shrimp are a relatively heterogenous group. Not every shrimp species is suitable for a planted aquarium, though.

Fundamental information on aquarium shrimp keeping can be looked up in this article. Especially in planted tanks and aquascapes, these small aufwuchs eaters are welcome guests, since they take care of all sorts of biofilms, including nascent algae films.

Those beautiful and colorful dwarf shrimp are still on the increase in popularity.

Make a shrimp hide out in your planted tank