Shrimp aquarium
All about the shrimp home
Shrimp have one advantage over ALL fish: they may be kept in aquariums that contain less than 54 litres, even under Germany's strict Animal Welfare Act, because they are invertebrates.
Shrimps have another advantage: most species (except long arm shrimp/Macrobrachium) are quite gregarious and can be kept in small troupes.
There are two important differences between a shrimp aquarium and a fish aquarium. Firstly, the filter intake must not suck in the shrimps. And secondly, the water temperature should not exceed 26 °C.
With the JBL CristalProfi m greenline , JBL has a perfect filter in its range that does not suck in baby shrimps! External filters can also be made shrimp-safe by putting foam (JBL ProFlow SF) over the intake strainer.
When water temperatures rise above 28 °C in midsummer or in warm countries, most shrimp species have a really hard time. With the help of coolers ( JBL PROTEMP Cooler x200 ), the water temperature can be lowered by about 4 °C easily and quickly!
There’s one shrimp group that has no problem in high temperatures: All shrimp from Sulawesi like it warm and love temperatures around 29 °C! The popular yellow Tylomelania snails from these lakes also feel much more comfortable at 29 °C than at lower temperatures. However, the Sulawesi invertebrates’ water requirements are quite demanding: not too hard (GH below 6 °dGH) and with a high pH of about 8. This is quite easy to achieve in smaller aquariums. With the help of a strong water surface movement, the pH easily rises to about 8, as almost all CO2 is expelled.
Basically, the design of a shrimp aquarium is up to the aquarist. The shrimps always feel comfortable if there are a few plants, some wood and a few stones. They do not attach any importance to the type of substrate. A regular partial water change every week or every fortnight is ideal. It is important to add a special water conditioner to the fresh water so that any copper present from the tap water pipe system is 100 % bound! All crustaceans are EXTREMELY sensitive to copper and even the lowest value indicated by a copper test ( JBL PROAQUATEST Cu Copper ) would be fatal! With water conditioner JBL Biotopol C , copper is completely neutralised. Ideally, the water conditioner should not be added to the fresh water directly in the aquarium, but in a bucket beforehand. This allows the copper to be bound BEFORE it reaches the invertebrates. And don't worry about the plant fertiliser, which may contain copper: The copper contained in the JBL PROFLORA FERROPOL plant fertiliser, which is important for the plants, is already chelated and therefore absolutely harmless to the invertebrates.
A socialisation of shrimps with fish is possible without any problems as long as the fish DON’T regard the shrimps as food. The small shrimps will definitely leave the fish alone.
Aquariums for crayfish and clawed shrimps
For crayfish (e.g. Gambarellus, Cherax) the same applies as for shrimps, as described above. Only when socialising, do you have to be more careful. The small Gambarellus species can be kept together with larger fish without any problems. The larger Cherax species, however, are incompatible, even with each other, and will eat anything they can get their hands on!
These species should be offered a den into which they can retreat. Coconut shells are ideal for this (JBL CocosCava). It is important that the decoration is robust and stable. Crayfish like to dig and then everything that is not really stable can collapse.
