If you have to keep your shrimp in a tank smaller than 10 gallons (40 L), allow 1. 5 gallons (6 L) or more for each shrimp to make up for the small space. [2] X Research source
If your tank is larger than 10 gallons (37. 9 L) and contains fish as well as shrimp, you should use a hang-on or canister filter to provide better cleaning. Never use anything besides a sponge filter for the breeding tank. If you don’t want to buy a sponge filter, you can cover your filter’s water intake with a sponge or a piece of nylon stocking. Alternatively, if your filter intake is too weak to suck in adult shrimp, you can disconnect the filter before the young hatch and replace 10% of the water volume in the tank every day until the young are fully grown and you can turn the filter on again.
For additional detail in setting up a freshwater aquarium, see this article.
For best results, give your plants about a month to stabilize the chemical levels in the tank. Sudden changes in nitrogen levels or other chemicals could kill your ghost shrimp. See this article for instructions on planting aquarium plants. Adding plants to the breeding tank in advance is strongly recommended, as plant debris is one of the few foods small enough for the shrimp young to eat. Many people use Java moss in their shrimp breeding tank, which may trap food debris to help the young shrimp eat.
The seller should know which type of ghost shrimp he sells. You can also guess based on the living conditions: if the shrimp are kept in a cramped space without many plants, they are probably feeder shrimp.
If you keep other fish in the tank, use sinking pellets, since the shrimp will not be able to compete for floating food with larger animals.
Changing 40-50% of the water every other week may also work, especially if the tank doesn’t have many fish or shrimp for its size.
If you have decided not to use a breeding tank, do not include any fish at all in the single tank you have. The adult shrimp will already eat many of the young shrimp; with additional predators, not many young will survive to adulthood.
You don’t need equal numbers of each. One male for every two females is plenty.
Look from the side of the tank for the best view, and get someone with sharp eyesight to help you if the babies are hatching before you see the eggs.
Don’t disturb the female if you see her flicking the young away, as they need to be deposited within an hour in order to feed. She may take a while to do this, since in the wild the young have a better survival rate if she deposits them in different places.
Once the young shrimp are alone and moving about on their own, you may not even be able to see them, as they are extremely tiny when newly hatched. Continue to add food to the breeding tank for three weeks even if you don’t see them.
Storebought “rotifers” food, baby brine shrimp, microworms, or powdered spirulina algae are all suitable for young ghost shrimp. [7] X Research source You can buy “fry food” intended for young fish, but be sure to select powdered fry food suitable for “egg layer” sized animals. Strain small pieces of egg yolk through a fine mesh strainer if you don’t want to use storebought food. Java moss may help trap food for young shrimp to eat, but don’t add or remove plants while larvae are in the tank, as it could disturb the chemical balance of the water.
If you have a younger batch of eggs or larvae in the breeding tank, move the larger shrimp out after 3 to 4 weeks.
Remove any fish from the main tank. Since you won’t be using your breeding tank after all, you can move them there, altering the plant composition if necessary to suit the species. Turn off or cover the filter. If your filter has a water intake pipe, it will suck in and kill the young shrimp. Cover the intake with a sponge or piece of nylon stocking, or turn it off and clean the water manually by replacing 10% of it every day until the young are grown. Accept that some young shrimp will be eaten by the adults. You can reduce the chance of this happening by using a spacious tank, but it will be difficult to avoid.
You should never pour the bag of water with the shrimp directly into the tank. See Caring for Adult Shrimp for instructions on introducing your shrimp. You may also want to purchase an aquarium test kit to test the characteristics of your water. See the Tips section below for the correct pH, dH, and chemical levels for ghost shrimp.
