Cherry shrimp tanks and tanks containing snails, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but some think they are cute and fascinating. Whatever your feelings, they will intrigue children and are very easy to keep.
If you are short of space and only want a very small aquarium (a nano tank), with very little maintenance, then you can’t go wrong with a cherry shrimp tank. These are a great alternative to a fish tank.
Cherry shrimp in particular make excellent pets, as they swim, crawl, jump, hide and are simply fascinating for children to watch.
These strange little creatures can be used to teach children maths, science and develop their vocabulary.
They also come in allsorts of colours from fire red to electric blue which make them even more appealing. However, you should only keep shrimp of the same colour together, otherwise if different colours breed, the babies tend to come out brown and the original shrimp colour will be lost.
They don’t need a heater if their tank is kept at room temperature, they don’t foul their tank as quickly as fish do, so need fewer water changes and less maintenance. They only need to be fed every few days and will also eat algae that grows naturally in your tank, so forgetting feeds now and again will do them no harm. All this, makes them very easy and forgiving pets to keep.
In the right conditions, they breed quickly, so before long you’ll have a whole colony.
Children absolutely love these crazy creatures especially as they come in such bright colours. Blood red is an extremely popular colour, as are other bright colours such as orange, which brighten up a green aquarium.
For variety, why not add a few snails, such as the ramshorn snail. These can be bought in different colours too, but again only keep the same colour, because they do breed quickly in the right conditions. Ramshorn snails are also good at keeping tanks clean, as they eat all the algae. They will also eat just about anything: left over food in the tank, dead fish, dead leaves and so on, so are often called the clean up crew.
They will also eat old pieces of carrot and other vegetation that have been in the tank a few days. So you could occasionally add some small veggie pieces to vary their diet at no extra cost.
They only live for about a year, but will breed quickly in good conditions, hence easily replaced.
What you will need for your cherry shrimp tank or ramshorn snail tank:
So to start with you will need a small nano tank – 12 litres is a good start. Small containers need to be cleaned more often and make maintenance more difficult. So you should purchase the largest size you can afford.
You will also need:
- a filter to keep the water clean, optional
- a light so that you can watch the shrimp
- an air pump and air stone, to aerate your tank
- gravel or sand to mimic a sea bed
- a net to move your critters around easily
- a siphon cleaner to aid water changes
- a bucket to collect dirty water in
- tubing for air stones
- live plants to give your shrimp shade and places to hide – they are generally shy creatures
- rocks/ large pebbles / log (optional) for decoration
- Water dechlorinator / water conditioner to remove harmful toxins from tap water
- cat-fish food, algae wafers
Some of the items you will require for your new pet can be found at the bottom of this page.
The cherry shrimp tank is the cheapest tank to set up and your maintenance costs will be kept even lower by the fact that there will be no vet bills to pay.
For the more information about the best aquatic plants for beginners read:
Live aquarium plants for beginners
For more information about how to set up an aquarium read:
How to set up and run a healthy aquarium
Some essentials you may require for your new pet
Click on the items to find out more.
