A shrimp question

[alan]

I guess quite a number of people keep shrimp in their tank right ? Do you have any problem with the amound of waste product they produce ? Been keeping about 10-15 shrimp in a 2ft tank without fliter, and the colour of the gravel are whiteish but after around 2-3 month the gravel is become whiteish with black patch.

And from the front of the tank you could see the waste of the shrimp forming a layer(around 5mm) on the gravel , should i remove the gravel to clean out the waste material ? if i do that i think i gonna scrap the whole tank as there is base fert below the gravel.

Any advice ? especially on the waste material , should it be remove or not ?

[izzat]

Hi alan...

Are there any other types of fishes in your 2ft tank? or is it a purely shrimp tank?
With about 10-15 shrimps in your tank, i don't think that the shrimps can build up that amount of waste...2-3 months is not that long...
Perhaps your wish to put in a small internal filter...

For my shrimp tank which is 2ft, i have about 100+ adults and about 100+ babies...
The amount of waste they produce has not even covered the base...
And i'm using an internal filter brand Resun...
My tank has no gravel...



Izzat

[FC]

To the above two formers,

Kindly write normally, please. Use your shift key when necessary, please.

I agree with the second formers (sorry, I did not get your name). The shrimp wastes are very tiny and often they sink into the gravel. May be you have fed too much or your gravel is very very fine.

You can always vacuum them if you do not like the black patch, no problem to the plant. If you do not have the vacuum pipe, just suck the black patch into a pail, was them and then put them back.

[alan]

Opps me bad i will edit the post to make it more presentable,

About the reply
The tank itself has 15 shrimp or so , with 2 puffer fish. I dont feed them often, someone i feed them once a week , some time even once a month each time with 1 cube of frozen blood worm. maybe i didnt vacuum it enough when i change water.

But the thing is the black waste of the shrimp and maybe the 2 puffer, is slowly making a layer of waste in my gravel , when i see the front of my tank . I can see theres 1 layer of black waste in the gravel.

so now should i just leave the waste there or do i tear down the tank

[izzat]

Editted my earlier post...

Please do not tear down the tank as the beneficial bacteria would be lost and you would have to start from square 1...
Just scoop out the waste with a net...
Although all the waste would not be taken out from the tank, try to take out as much as possible...

As shrimps are sensitive to sudden change in water parameters, minimal water changed should be observe...
Anyway what type of shrimps are you keeping?

:wink:

Izzat