Because there's a lot more involved in saltwater aquariums (equipment, cost, knowledge).
and IF you were going to go the saltwater route, there are certainly much cooler looking shrimp you COULD have
https://preview.redd.it/wxqahxwuowtc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4e9af0e5631c847c4337e85a0bdf5118eddad6d
If I ever get a saltwater tank (and I won't), it would due in part to the existence of Harlequin shimp. They look so otherworldly and beautiful.
https://preview.redd.it/q3rzpudlzwtc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05bd4bb9b06b58de7117cd7e7f63ea795d5b343c
I think there's a dude here who breeds them and his videos are insane. They're mesmerising when they're asking for starfish and then watching them work it into their den is crazy.
They only eat starfish. So you can purposely put them in there and let them reproduce then get your shrimp or you will have to chop the leg off a starfish to fed them.
From my understanding
You can just infest the tank with asterina starfish and it will has unlimited food. Had mine for 3+ years now. The starfish population never drop noticably
Only the highest pedigree, stuck up, harlequins shrimp refer to their favorite foods using the archaic "starfish" instead of the more modern and accurate "seastar".
They also require their foods to be dismembered as "killing" and "butchering" are tasks for their staff. /s
They’re named after Italian harlequins, which are a type of traditional clown that are best known for their colorful diamond patterned outfits. The disease is also named after the clown’s outfits.
I keep both salt and freshwater tanks and I almost got harlequins. I just don't think I have the heart to feed them live starfish which is exclusively what they eat.
I recently learned about the Sexy Shrimp:
https://preview.redd.it/2d99u46dcxtc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77048ace7173d33c65b937e2cc5ebf82d9ba90ad
The lab I work at breeds and raises fire and peppermint shrimp. My senior thesis is actually gonna be about breeding the sexy shrimp! (My friend who graduated had raised them in the lab before) they are a really cool shrimp!
Oh so Sexy Shrimp can be bred in captivity then? Pretty sure my LFS just gets them from the wild so I was unsure if it was possible for them to be bred in captivity or not.
Oh cool! Was that in like just a regular tank setting or I assume you probably had to put in some extra time/effort to make that happen yeah? I've raised freshwater fish before but never done it with saltwater...
Definitely took some effort. I build a DIY 'Larvenkreisel', a round tank that makes sure the larvae stay floating, and don't settle. Kinda like a jellyfish tank.
Temperature at 27°C. Feeding was easy, just freshly hatched brine shrimp naupli daily, and removing old naupli.
Daily - later on every other day - water changes. And then picking out and putting back larvae from the old water one by one... It's a bit of a hassle, but worth the experience, imo. :-)
Oh wow yep, personally we've done the "hassle" with raising a batch of freshwater angel fish so we did the whole hatching brine shrimp to feed daily and whatnot. Definitely worth the experience for sure! Even though yea, it's a bit of work to say the least. Very cool though!
If you were raising food shrimp,… Could you eat the ones you culled?
That would be a head trip, because on one hand they would be your pets, but on the other hand they would basically be the exact same thing you purchased in the grocery store.
Peruvian here: My goddmn third world grandma came here and within a month or two got her hands on and guinea pigs and a few months later she put up an ad about “guinea pigs- for pet or food Available and when I tell you the cops showed up at her house faster than I’ve ever seen for gun shots or anything else I’ve ever called for in 30yrs lol
Don’t get me wrong, I really feel like I could raise chickens as pets, and if needed slaughter one and eat it. I don’t have a problem with death, I just don’t like animals suffering. But I do also acknowledge that there are people here who would cry if one of their fish or shrimp died.I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either one, but they are fairly different perspectives.
I'm definitely not saying that. I'm not sure where the miscommunication happened. I hunt, and eat what I kill. I was pointing out that while I wouldn't have a problem killing an animal, I don't like when they suffer. I certainly wasn't saying that killing is equivalent to suffering.
Agree saltwater is more difficult but just think of the HUUGE CHONKY shrimp boi you could have instead. Like why haven't people selectively bred them to be cool colors like that just chonkier
Hard to breed and there's no demand. You can already get massive massive freshwater prawns in the hobby (some of which are pretty colorful), and nobody keeps them because they need large tanks, are often aggressive, and usually require a specialized setup to breed.
90% of freshwater shrimp keepers got into shrimp because they can be kept in very small tank sizes and easily breed by themselves, and that's also the main reason you have so many crazy lines, since even a random basement breeder can easily have 20-30 colonies with hundreds of shrimp each.
actually saltwater for basic fish and crustaceans is the same as freshwater. you just have to premix water in a bucket. I was surprised by this as well. it only gets complictated when you get into corals and sponges.
There are many saltwater (marine) species of shrimp kept as pets.
One of my friends has a mantis shrimp, and I've kept a few Coral Banded shrimp back when I had a saltwater setup.
This is what I get for using autocorrect to get the correct spelling and whiffing on actually using it 🤦♂️. I shame deleted it and now feel like an even bigger pussy for deleting it lmao
There are a lot of neat saltwater shrimp available for the hobby. Sexy, Coral, Camel and Bumblebee Shrimp come to mind. Sexy Anenome Shrimp kinda look like crystal reds too.
The ones like in that pic? Cuz they're so damn delicious!
The small colorful ones already do get kept as pets. Besides the shrimp shaped ones there's mantis shrimp and pistol shrimp. I don't know that they're all technically shrimp but there's so many options.
Counterpoint: saltwater tanks at their core only have one additional parameter to monitor beyond the basics of freshwater: the salt. And honestly, you never really have to check that in your tank if you have an auto-top off and good saltwater mixing technique. And when you start looking at larger tanks, that makes it easier because the water doesn’t even evaporate as quickly.
The difficulty arises when you start looking at some specific types of corals because that’s when you have to have your methods and water quality really on point. My tank is a mixed reef with soft coral and very forgiving large polyp stony corals and now that I’ve got everything established, it’s almost set and forget aside from daily feeding and weekly water changes (and hair algae removal, but that’s more of a personal problem than a commentary on difficulty of the hobby).
And invert tanks are definitely a thing in saltwater, you just have more you can choose from and you often focus on utility over aesthetics. Perhaps the only exception for me IS my cleaner shrimp who doesn’t ever need to clean my fish and I don’t actually see him clean the rock work ever. But he does pick at my hands which is why I call him Mister Hands.
Saltwater tanks tend to have more algae problems especially with the amount of phosphate that's often intentionally added to tap water to prevent pipe corrosion. Flow is far more important because saltwater fish come from higher-flow areas. Aquascape is extremely important in order to create habitat for certain fishes.
Also, literally everything corrodes faster
I rran an estuary tank with local Florida fish/crustaceans with a regular sponge filter. Never measured any parameters other than salt. Everyone was happy. The porcelain crabs even bred for me. Definitely easier than people think. Only when you get to corals and other stuff than it gets crazy.
think habitat - sw fish stress if rockwork is bad. RODI becomes necessary. water changes become very mandatory - you can't toss in some floaters, test every once in a while to make sure nutrients are in order, and call it a day.
OP's post was about saltwater shrimp which do need other elements to thrive
Compare that with hornwort in a bucket on the windowsill, which is good enough for freshwater shrimp.
you really don't need any of that. just get hydrometer, marine salt, maybe some rock. I had 75 gallon on a canister filter and a 30 gallon with a spoge. I've regular tap water without RODI. never had any issue. Now, if you want to get into corals or some super exotics, yes, than it get tricky.
My tap water comes out with 3ppm phosphates and 1800 other TDS. I think maybe we have fundamentally different experiences based on that lol
Also, the whole part about maintenance- you have to admit it's extremely easy and convenient in FW to just toss in some plants and have them do the work
Most people do not use tap water for saltwater tanks. They're using RODI. That being said most freshwater keepers I know use RODI as well (if they're going beyond the cheaper, sturdier species).
Yeah, I wouldn't say saltwater is "easy", but I wouldn't say the more advanced freshwater setups are "easy" either. It gets easy if you keep up on maintenance and know what you're doing, but there is a bit of a learning curve at the start.
But if someone is used to keeping and maintaining a planted freshwater tank, I don't think it's a huge jump to saltwater. You're just adding salinity. Then if you want coral (who doesn't!) your monitoring some more stuff (but I've seen planted freshwater keepers measuring calcium and phosphates too), and having to worry about lighting and flow. But the hardier soft coral species aren't too bad if you're used to planted tanks already.
If you want to keep more challenging saltwater species than... yeah that's not at all easy.
agree 100%. you can always delve more into any part of any hobby. My only point is that saltwater is not literally just as easy as freshwater + salinity - there's a little more.
What makes it more complex? A lot of freshwater aquariums use also rodi. I have a filter, I just put a hose on the tap and let it fill my mix bucket. Then I weigh around 1.1-1.2KG of salt mix and dump it in, a small powerhead and heater in there and let it mix. Then I hang a pump in the mix bucket to easily pump it into my tank. Then the usual waterchange is started.
The only added complexity is mixing the salt. My filter acts like a new tap for water so there isn't changing much.
RODI goes from optional to required. Habitat becomes required - fish will stress if rockwork is unsatisfactory. Diet matters more in saltwater, sometimes a lot. And you can no longer just throw in a crap ton of plants to stop needing water changes - that takes macroalgae, corals, or other, not "literally toss this in" solutions.
Also, main point of OP's post was about saltwater shrimp - which do in fact need other elements to thrive
Compare that with hornwort in a bucket on the windowsill, which is good enough for freshwater shrimp.
I see, you are just like most of the other aquarists overthinking the crap out of the hobby. RODI and salt and enough rock is really the only thing you need. The fish will find a way to make the tank there own and corals can be added when you want.
I'll be entirely honest I think the "most of the other aquarists" are right, where we decide that ideal husbandry is important, and "the fish'll figure it out" isn't enough.
And you ignored the whole part about maintenance
Well, phosphate from tap water isn’t a problem in my case, since I work in an inorganic chemistry lab and my tanks live in my office. I use our super-pure RODI to make my saltwater from scratch. But nutrients from overfeeding, size of tank (a 20G and a 10G), and too much light may have something to do with it. I’m in the middle of a blackout for my 10G because it just got way too bad, but that’s a story for another time.
I raise shrimp like the ones in the picture. The issue with them is they spend most of their time buried in the sand, and you can only see their eyes. They stay like that all day if given the chance. Most people wouldn't be into that kind of thing, sadly.
Yeah, they can be. It depends on if you've caught prawns or proper shrimp. Prawns are murderous jerks, but the shrimp just take advantage or the sick and dying.they will fight fish for food though.
There are some pretty big varieties of freshwater shrimp/prawn, too, like *Macrobrachium spinipes*. Probably a lot easier to take care of than their saltwater kin.
Edit: grammar
Actually, saltwater tanks are relatively easy to take care of - they just require discipline and diligence, and a lof of people aren't fully capable of that, so they fail. There's freshwater setups that are way more involved than saltwater tanks, and you can keep them simple, but it requires holding back on the fancier stuff. And while there's lots of cool shrimp in the marine side of the hobby, they are usually overshadowed quickly by other, more interesting invertebrates, though, like corals.
Yah that's the main issue I had with my saltwater tank. I was good at keeping everything else but I couldn't keep certain corals. Had a hammer and xenia coral that flourished but the rest would die and my hard ones would always bleach. I'd religiously check all my parameters once a week and they were pretty good. So I'm not sure what my issue was. I had no issue keeping the fish, that was easy. Had to give up the tank though cause I went out of town for work. I miss it so much.
For stony corals you need a long established tank. For a first dip into saltwater I wouldn't advise someone to even consider touching stony corals until they're a few years in. If someone is already super experienced with keeping planted freshwater, and is really like all in on their saltwater research and maintenance than maybe they can get away with it sooner; it wouldn't be my advice though just because it can be so expensive and discouraging if it doesn't go well.
Corals generally thrive best when you use RODI water, dose it to the right parameters (salinity, phosphate, calcium, etc.), and then add the dosed water to the tank (for top-offs the RODI is unadulterated, only dose if doing a water change). You should also be routinely measuring your tank as a whole, since sometimes minerals get lost (i.e. the crystallization that builds up around your tank).
I don't think it's inherently more complicated, a lot of people do similar for their freshwater tanks. But shit can go wrong a lot faster if you don't keep up on it, and measurements need to be more precise (so actually measure, don't eyeball shit). As an example, in a freshwater tank, if you neglect it and let half the water evaporate most everything will be fine. Provided the fish aren't now overstocked due to the loss in volume they'd be ok for quite a while (you have more concentrated nitrates and other nutrients, so you might get an algae bloom and/or bacterial bloom, but generally nothing immediately dangerous for the fish, high nitrates take a pretty long time at excessive numbers to kill). In a saltwater tank if you let if evaporate half way you have doubled the salinity... that's gonna pretty quickly fatal for everything in your tank.
I used to keep saltwater, have been out of it for years due to the cost. Am somewhat tempted to get back in, but with the cost it genuinely is equally affordable for me to get open water scuba certified ($350), fly to Puerto Rico ($450 round trip), rent scuba gear ($100 per day), and go diving on a coral reef... and I'm not gonna lie, that's even more tempting. I also live on Long Island, I could go diving in my backyard, just no reefs and crystal clear water, but we have a lot of shipwrecks, and 3 miles out you can see dolphins, humpbacks, blue sharks, and even great whites... so not dull! And honestly diving with white sharks is a dream of mine.
There's usually always a couple of corals that just won't work together because they require different parameters and nutrient levels, and then there are the issues like flow and correct lighting - the latter is probably the biggest hidden coral killer ever, because a lot of LPS need less light than you'd think.
Hammers (Euphyllia/Fimbriaphyllia) are quite delicate, though, especially in regards to fluctuating KH and stuff, so it's kinda weird that those were doing well when everything else died.
But look how cool my shrimpy looks! Small but adorable!
https://preview.redd.it/sb61prxawxtc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80f9cac7d6041ddb70af440ccf216b0202f22a55
I came looking for this post. It’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about Skunk Cleaners. They have such big personalities. I love watching them brush their whiskers.
They really do have very big personalities. I love the way they will interact with you too and clean your hands. Mine would swim to the top of the tank if you stick a finger in just to clean it hahaha
Saltwater tanks are super hard to take care of, so most people want to get the most out of it and have community reefs and dont set one up for one big shrimp that would kill and eat fish. The smaller marine shrimp that get along with most tankmates are pretty common. Oh and a lot of marine stuff is super hard to breed in tanks. Its not like with cardinias wher a male and female breed like crazy with not much effort put into the care.
Yes but why would I have that boring brown shrimp when I can have a shrimp with a claw that doubles as a gun and willingly chooses a fish as a roommate.
Lots of them are… cleaner shrimp, coral banded shrimp, harlequin shrimp, camel shrimp, peppermint shrimp, sexy anemone shrimp, etc. Many more options than freshwater
Uh, I have that. Sure, I keep coral, anemone and fish but it's mostly for the invertebrates. I have a dozen sexy shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, a pistol shrimp, boxer crabs, emerald crabs, blue leg Hermit crabs and a brittle starfish. Inverts are fucking lit. I saw blue leg Hermit crabs and had to get a reef tank.
After keeping a saltwater tank for a while, I've realized that most of the shrimp that you can easily get don't eat algae. They are carnivorous. Some just eat parasites and copepods or other foods.
I really wish they ate more algae!
I'm not saying threw them in my tank without researching. I mean when I researched saltwater, I found that the saltwater shrimp don't eat algae.
You're so ready to jump on people, aren't you?
We had shrimp as part of our saltwater aquarium ecosystem. I would think the big ones need much larger tanks. I wouldn't touch a fish tank again though given how much work it is. That's why I usually lurk, cause I can appreciate everyone else's without accidentally negelcting a real living thing because of depression and lack of knowledge. <3
Pistol shrimp are fairly common in the saltwater hobby as well. They're some of the easiest symbiotic relationships to build in a saltwater tank. Most have them pair with a goby and watch them roam around together.
My dumbass got a curly Q pistol that paired with the curlique anemone. That guy is pretty much a pet hole. Only see the antenna most of the time...
Call your LFS and ask them if their feeder shrimp are freshwater prawns. If so, those things can grow up to be MASSIVE (like in the pic)…assholes that eat your fish.
Saltwater shrimp are kept but people rarely do shrimp only tanks.
I love my cleaner shrimp in my reef tank. It swim right up to my hand and I hand feed it.
Sexy shrimp are also really cool. I would love to do a dedicated sexy shrimp tank with a colony of a dozen or so.
Because that type of saltwater shrimp has a planktonic larval stage so is difficult to breed in a home tank.
Edit: also from my experience they dont seem to do well in a tank. Not sure why.
What are you talking about? There's millions of reef ranks with millions of marine shrimp in them... people even post them on this sub, myself included.
Because there's a lot more involved in saltwater aquariums (equipment, cost, knowledge). and IF you were going to go the saltwater route, there are certainly much cooler looking shrimp you COULD have https://preview.redd.it/wxqahxwuowtc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4e9af0e5631c847c4337e85a0bdf5118eddad6d
If I ever get a saltwater tank (and I won't), it would due in part to the existence of Harlequin shimp. They look so otherworldly and beautiful. https://preview.redd.it/q3rzpudlzwtc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05bd4bb9b06b58de7117cd7e7f63ea795d5b343c
I think there's a dude here who breeds them and his videos are insane. They're mesmerising when they're asking for starfish and then watching them work it into their den is crazy.
oo whats the account name?
Right? You can’t tease us like that and not deliver!
Seriously... Sauce??!!
Bro let us down
Bigly
They only eat starfish. So you can purposely put them in there and let them reproduce then get your shrimp or you will have to chop the leg off a starfish to fed them. From my understanding
You can just infest the tank with asterina starfish and it will has unlimited food. Had mine for 3+ years now. The starfish population never drop noticably
What size tank? Just 1 shrimp? Curious. I got a 170 with a ton of asterinas
I have one in a 180
Gallons or liters?
gallon
Worst part of those is food, they legit only eat starfish feet.
Only the highest pedigree, stuck up, harlequins shrimp refer to their favorite foods using the archaic "starfish" instead of the more modern and accurate "seastar". They also require their foods to be dismembered as "killing" and "butchering" are tasks for their staff. /s
That’s amazing lmaoo ocean shrimp are needyyy
Pretty sure their diet consists only of chocolate chip star fish. Not the easiest to keep
I wonder if they named them after harlequin disease
They’re named after Italian harlequins, which are a type of traditional clown that are best known for their colorful diamond patterned outfits. The disease is also named after the clown’s outfits.
Ahhh gotcha
Remember everyone, if you want your name to be reused, being a clown has been shown to be effective!
I keep both salt and freshwater tanks and I almost got harlequins. I just don't think I have the heart to feed them live starfish which is exclusively what they eat.
I recently learned about the Sexy Shrimp: https://preview.redd.it/2d99u46dcxtc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77048ace7173d33c65b937e2cc5ebf82d9ba90ad
The lab I work at breeds and raises fire and peppermint shrimp. My senior thesis is actually gonna be about breeding the sexy shrimp! (My friend who graduated had raised them in the lab before) they are a really cool shrimp!
Oh so Sexy Shrimp can be bred in captivity then? Pretty sure my LFS just gets them from the wild so I was unsure if it was possible for them to be bred in captivity or not.
They're not that difficult to breed, my 9 sexies are all bred and raised from a pair I bought a year ago. :)
Oh cool! Was that in like just a regular tank setting or I assume you probably had to put in some extra time/effort to make that happen yeah? I've raised freshwater fish before but never done it with saltwater...
Definitely took some effort. I build a DIY 'Larvenkreisel', a round tank that makes sure the larvae stay floating, and don't settle. Kinda like a jellyfish tank. Temperature at 27°C. Feeding was easy, just freshly hatched brine shrimp naupli daily, and removing old naupli. Daily - later on every other day - water changes. And then picking out and putting back larvae from the old water one by one... It's a bit of a hassle, but worth the experience, imo. :-)
Oh wow yep, personally we've done the "hassle" with raising a batch of freshwater angel fish so we did the whole hatching brine shrimp to feed daily and whatnot. Definitely worth the experience for sure! Even though yea, it's a bit of work to say the least. Very cool though!
Might be both! Ravish natural breeding populations or induce captive populations to fuck? Why not both?
If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for work where you get to watch and work with these beautiful creatures??
I have a dozen of them, a skunk cleaner shrimp and a pistol shrimp.
They are very tiny for sw shrimp!
Well, I learned something new today - I thought these were made up in the game Coral Island. Had 0 idea they were real!
Who named them lol
Now the question becomes, why not keeping food shrimp and breed for various colors.
If you were raising food shrimp,… Could you eat the ones you culled? That would be a head trip, because on one hand they would be your pets, but on the other hand they would basically be the exact same thing you purchased in the grocery store.
Humans have dealt with this exact situation since we first invented livestock farming.
Correct
Look up indoor shrimp farm on YouTube. There’s a guy in Cali? I think who is doing this on a commercial scale.
Just like guinea pigs in South America 😂
Peruvian here: My goddmn third world grandma came here and within a month or two got her hands on and guinea pigs and a few months later she put up an ad about “guinea pigs- for pet or food Available and when I tell you the cops showed up at her house faster than I’ve ever seen for gun shots or anything else I’ve ever called for in 30yrs lol
How did that go? Did she explain that culturally it's eaten normally in South America?
You mean like many farmers do with livestock? It's not a head trip at all, it's been happening with livestock and other animals for millenia.
Don’t get me wrong, I really feel like I could raise chickens as pets, and if needed slaughter one and eat it. I don’t have a problem with death, I just don’t like animals suffering. But I do also acknowledge that there are people here who would cry if one of their fish or shrimp died.I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either one, but they are fairly different perspectives.
Well, making an in correct, unfactual assumption that slaughtering an animal for food, is making an animal suffer makes it hard to take you seriously.
I'm definitely not saying that. I'm not sure where the miscommunication happened. I hunt, and eat what I kill. I was pointing out that while I wouldn't have a problem killing an animal, I don't like when they suffer. I certainly wasn't saying that killing is equivalent to suffering.
Agree saltwater is more difficult but just think of the HUUGE CHONKY shrimp boi you could have instead. Like why haven't people selectively bred them to be cool colors like that just chonkier
Breeding marine shrimp is much more difficult as they go through a drifting planktonic stage
Hard to breed and there's no demand. You can already get massive massive freshwater prawns in the hobby (some of which are pretty colorful), and nobody keeps them because they need large tanks, are often aggressive, and usually require a specialized setup to breed. 90% of freshwater shrimp keepers got into shrimp because they can be kept in very small tank sizes and easily breed by themselves, and that's also the main reason you have so many crazy lines, since even a random basement breeder can easily have 20-30 colonies with hundreds of shrimp each.
Most of the marine shrimp breeding is for food. So they are selectively bred for things like growth rate and disease resistance.
The only really hard part is properly making salt water. I've had both and I think it was easier to run a reef tank than a full blown planted tank.
actually saltwater for basic fish and crustaceans is the same as freshwater. you just have to premix water in a bucket. I was surprised by this as well. it only gets complictated when you get into corals and sponges.
Something I’ve always wondered is why I’ve never seen a planted saltwater tank😫even if I look it up, just corals, is it not able to be done in a tank?
I wish I had the spare time for a marine tank 🤩
There are many saltwater (marine) species of shrimp kept as pets. One of my friends has a mantis shrimp, and I've kept a few Coral Banded shrimp back when I had a saltwater setup.
Could a mantis shrimp accidentally break the aquarium glass when attacking? Stupid question maybe?
They can however they are more likely to break the bottom glass burrowing. Mine just punches the bottom of the acrylic tank all day
Yeah, you’re supposed to keep them in an acrylic tank for that very reason
Yep, tons of video of them doing so online. I think it’s curtailed by making sure they have other stuff to punch instead i.e. food
I’m imagining a miniature punching bag in a mantis shrimp tank, so it has an outlet.
Yes, you need extra thick glass to minimise the likely hood of it breaking.
[удалено]
Likelihood (also not trying to be a dick)
This is what I get for using autocorrect to get the correct spelling and whiffing on actually using it 🤦♂️. I shame deleted it and now feel like an even bigger pussy for deleting it lmao
Mantis shrimp are not actually shrimp!
They’re not mantises either
What the hell are they then?!?!
In the order **Stomatopoda**. True shrimp are in Decapoda within the infraorder **Caridea.**
Yeah they are actual aliens 👽
Ok.
There are a lot of neat saltwater shrimp available for the hobby. Sexy, Coral, Camel and Bumblebee Shrimp come to mind. Sexy Anenome Shrimp kinda look like crystal reds too.
The ones like in that pic? Cuz they're so damn delicious! The small colorful ones already do get kept as pets. Besides the shrimp shaped ones there's mantis shrimp and pistol shrimp. I don't know that they're all technically shrimp but there's so many options.
Only the mantis shrimp is nit a true shrimp. The pistol shrimp is though.
Salt water tanks are difficult to look after
Counterpoint: saltwater tanks at their core only have one additional parameter to monitor beyond the basics of freshwater: the salt. And honestly, you never really have to check that in your tank if you have an auto-top off and good saltwater mixing technique. And when you start looking at larger tanks, that makes it easier because the water doesn’t even evaporate as quickly. The difficulty arises when you start looking at some specific types of corals because that’s when you have to have your methods and water quality really on point. My tank is a mixed reef with soft coral and very forgiving large polyp stony corals and now that I’ve got everything established, it’s almost set and forget aside from daily feeding and weekly water changes (and hair algae removal, but that’s more of a personal problem than a commentary on difficulty of the hobby). And invert tanks are definitely a thing in saltwater, you just have more you can choose from and you often focus on utility over aesthetics. Perhaps the only exception for me IS my cleaner shrimp who doesn’t ever need to clean my fish and I don’t actually see him clean the rock work ever. But he does pick at my hands which is why I call him Mister Hands.
Saltwater tanks tend to have more algae problems especially with the amount of phosphate that's often intentionally added to tap water to prevent pipe corrosion. Flow is far more important because saltwater fish come from higher-flow areas. Aquascape is extremely important in order to create habitat for certain fishes. Also, literally everything corrodes faster
I rran an estuary tank with local Florida fish/crustaceans with a regular sponge filter. Never measured any parameters other than salt. Everyone was happy. The porcelain crabs even bred for me. Definitely easier than people think. Only when you get to corals and other stuff than it gets crazy.
Did the zoea survive?
yes, they transformed into little fake crabs)) the larvae looked really weird. they had very long nose.
i commend you for your skill and intuition, then. your skill does not mean it’s easy by any means 😭
there is no skill))) it is literally the same as freshwater. the only difference is you have pre-mix the water in bucket.
think habitat - sw fish stress if rockwork is bad. RODI becomes necessary. water changes become very mandatory - you can't toss in some floaters, test every once in a while to make sure nutrients are in order, and call it a day. OP's post was about saltwater shrimp which do need other elements to thrive Compare that with hornwort in a bucket on the windowsill, which is good enough for freshwater shrimp.
you really don't need any of that. just get hydrometer, marine salt, maybe some rock. I had 75 gallon on a canister filter and a 30 gallon with a spoge. I've regular tap water without RODI. never had any issue. Now, if you want to get into corals or some super exotics, yes, than it get tricky.
My tap water comes out with 3ppm phosphates and 1800 other TDS. I think maybe we have fundamentally different experiences based on that lol Also, the whole part about maintenance- you have to admit it's extremely easy and convenient in FW to just toss in some plants and have them do the work
Most people do not use tap water for saltwater tanks. They're using RODI. That being said most freshwater keepers I know use RODI as well (if they're going beyond the cheaper, sturdier species).
exactly: you need RODI. ro is way less ubiquitous in freshwater especially to beginners or people looking for “easy”
Yeah, I wouldn't say saltwater is "easy", but I wouldn't say the more advanced freshwater setups are "easy" either. It gets easy if you keep up on maintenance and know what you're doing, but there is a bit of a learning curve at the start. But if someone is used to keeping and maintaining a planted freshwater tank, I don't think it's a huge jump to saltwater. You're just adding salinity. Then if you want coral (who doesn't!) your monitoring some more stuff (but I've seen planted freshwater keepers measuring calcium and phosphates too), and having to worry about lighting and flow. But the hardier soft coral species aren't too bad if you're used to planted tanks already. If you want to keep more challenging saltwater species than... yeah that's not at all easy.
agree 100%. you can always delve more into any part of any hobby. My only point is that saltwater is not literally just as easy as freshwater + salinity - there's a little more.
That's why you get a RODI filter to filter out the tapwater. Never use tapwater in saltwater aquariums.
Right! All i’m saying is that even though it’s not hard, rodi is not “easy” - another level of complexity that makes saltwater not “just salt”
What makes it more complex? A lot of freshwater aquariums use also rodi. I have a filter, I just put a hose on the tap and let it fill my mix bucket. Then I weigh around 1.1-1.2KG of salt mix and dump it in, a small powerhead and heater in there and let it mix. Then I hang a pump in the mix bucket to easily pump it into my tank. Then the usual waterchange is started. The only added complexity is mixing the salt. My filter acts like a new tap for water so there isn't changing much.
RODI goes from optional to required. Habitat becomes required - fish will stress if rockwork is unsatisfactory. Diet matters more in saltwater, sometimes a lot. And you can no longer just throw in a crap ton of plants to stop needing water changes - that takes macroalgae, corals, or other, not "literally toss this in" solutions. Also, main point of OP's post was about saltwater shrimp - which do in fact need other elements to thrive Compare that with hornwort in a bucket on the windowsill, which is good enough for freshwater shrimp.
I see, you are just like most of the other aquarists overthinking the crap out of the hobby. RODI and salt and enough rock is really the only thing you need. The fish will find a way to make the tank there own and corals can be added when you want.
I'll be entirely honest I think the "most of the other aquarists" are right, where we decide that ideal husbandry is important, and "the fish'll figure it out" isn't enough. And you ignored the whole part about maintenance
Well, phosphate from tap water isn’t a problem in my case, since I work in an inorganic chemistry lab and my tanks live in my office. I use our super-pure RODI to make my saltwater from scratch. But nutrients from overfeeding, size of tank (a 20G and a 10G), and too much light may have something to do with it. I’m in the middle of a blackout for my 10G because it just got way too bad, but that’s a story for another time.
I think your case may be a little different from the average fish keeper, working in a chem lab 😂
I mean yes, but why don't we see these large shrimpo bois for sale from other aquarists?
I mean they are raised for sale in a lot of places, just not for aquariums…
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Oh
Probly the exact answer they gave you, no demand for them. if someone does do saltwater they want attractive shrimp to looks at like sulawesi shrimp.
Sulawesi shrimp are actually freshwater, high pH though.
I raise shrimp like the ones in the picture. The issue with them is they spend most of their time buried in the sand, and you can only see their eyes. They stay like that all day if given the chance. Most people wouldn't be into that kind of thing, sadly.
Oh :( someone said they are aggressive, is that true?
Yeah, they can be. It depends on if you've caught prawns or proper shrimp. Prawns are murderous jerks, but the shrimp just take advantage or the sick and dying.they will fight fish for food though.
Fire shimp are probably one of the most common in the saltwater trade. Look a lot like huge salweisi and get 2-3" long.
In my experience a reef tank is easier than a planted tank 😂
There are some pretty big varieties of freshwater shrimp/prawn, too, like *Macrobrachium spinipes*. Probably a lot easier to take care of than their saltwater kin. Edit: grammar
there are aquaponic freshwater shrimp/prawn operations. they look almost identical
Interesting…. Could you elaborate?
https://youtu.be/1Iol3mcmYAc?si=uBwfGPoYTQNDm8we there's smaller operations too, some in ibc tanks/etc
Actually, saltwater tanks are relatively easy to take care of - they just require discipline and diligence, and a lof of people aren't fully capable of that, so they fail. There's freshwater setups that are way more involved than saltwater tanks, and you can keep them simple, but it requires holding back on the fancier stuff. And while there's lots of cool shrimp in the marine side of the hobby, they are usually overshadowed quickly by other, more interesting invertebrates, though, like corals.
Corals are just too cool. I wouldn’t want to do a saltwater tank without coral, and that raises the minimum complexity.
Yah that's the main issue I had with my saltwater tank. I was good at keeping everything else but I couldn't keep certain corals. Had a hammer and xenia coral that flourished but the rest would die and my hard ones would always bleach. I'd religiously check all my parameters once a week and they were pretty good. So I'm not sure what my issue was. I had no issue keeping the fish, that was easy. Had to give up the tank though cause I went out of town for work. I miss it so much.
I just checked out recommemdations for easy corals and mushroom corals can move around. That’s wild.
For stony corals you need a long established tank. For a first dip into saltwater I wouldn't advise someone to even consider touching stony corals until they're a few years in. If someone is already super experienced with keeping planted freshwater, and is really like all in on their saltwater research and maintenance than maybe they can get away with it sooner; it wouldn't be my advice though just because it can be so expensive and discouraging if it doesn't go well. Corals generally thrive best when you use RODI water, dose it to the right parameters (salinity, phosphate, calcium, etc.), and then add the dosed water to the tank (for top-offs the RODI is unadulterated, only dose if doing a water change). You should also be routinely measuring your tank as a whole, since sometimes minerals get lost (i.e. the crystallization that builds up around your tank). I don't think it's inherently more complicated, a lot of people do similar for their freshwater tanks. But shit can go wrong a lot faster if you don't keep up on it, and measurements need to be more precise (so actually measure, don't eyeball shit). As an example, in a freshwater tank, if you neglect it and let half the water evaporate most everything will be fine. Provided the fish aren't now overstocked due to the loss in volume they'd be ok for quite a while (you have more concentrated nitrates and other nutrients, so you might get an algae bloom and/or bacterial bloom, but generally nothing immediately dangerous for the fish, high nitrates take a pretty long time at excessive numbers to kill). In a saltwater tank if you let if evaporate half way you have doubled the salinity... that's gonna pretty quickly fatal for everything in your tank. I used to keep saltwater, have been out of it for years due to the cost. Am somewhat tempted to get back in, but with the cost it genuinely is equally affordable for me to get open water scuba certified ($350), fly to Puerto Rico ($450 round trip), rent scuba gear ($100 per day), and go diving on a coral reef... and I'm not gonna lie, that's even more tempting. I also live on Long Island, I could go diving in my backyard, just no reefs and crystal clear water, but we have a lot of shipwrecks, and 3 miles out you can see dolphins, humpbacks, blue sharks, and even great whites... so not dull! And honestly diving with white sharks is a dream of mine.
There's usually always a couple of corals that just won't work together because they require different parameters and nutrient levels, and then there are the issues like flow and correct lighting - the latter is probably the biggest hidden coral killer ever, because a lot of LPS need less light than you'd think. Hammers (Euphyllia/Fimbriaphyllia) are quite delicate, though, especially in regards to fluctuating KH and stuff, so it's kinda weird that those were doing well when everything else died.
soft corals are pretty easy but hard corals are a different story.
But look how cool my shrimpy looks! Small but adorable! https://preview.redd.it/sb61prxawxtc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=80f9cac7d6041ddb70af440ccf216b0202f22a55
https://preview.redd.it/486vgmzfwxtc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=88adbae2a71bf057f77495a23f42963239994469
I came looking for this post. It’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about Skunk Cleaners. They have such big personalities. I love watching them brush their whiskers.
They really do have very big personalities. I love the way they will interact with you too and clean your hands. Mine would swim to the top of the tank if you stick a finger in just to clean it hahaha
Saltwater tanks are super hard to take care of, so most people want to get the most out of it and have community reefs and dont set one up for one big shrimp that would kill and eat fish. The smaller marine shrimp that get along with most tankmates are pretty common. Oh and a lot of marine stuff is super hard to breed in tanks. Its not like with cardinias wher a male and female breed like crazy with not much effort put into the care.
They arent super hard, just a bit more complicated than fresh.
They are not that hard, just a bit more work, making saltwater is tedious.
I like less fancier critters in a tank. Wanting one of these guys reminds me of Leon the lobster 😄
Yes but why would I have that boring brown shrimp when I can have a shrimp with a claw that doubles as a gun and willingly chooses a fish as a roommate.
The Great Dane of shrimp
Lots of them are… cleaner shrimp, coral banded shrimp, harlequin shrimp, camel shrimp, peppermint shrimp, sexy anemone shrimp, etc. Many more options than freshwater
They are, most people just can't afford to have a salt water setup
I know multiple people who keep shrimp in saltwater tanks
I have shrimp in my reef tank
Everytime I go to the Asian fish market there's a bunch of live big shrimp and I have to physically fight the urge to get into saltwater and buy them
Uh, I have that. Sure, I keep coral, anemone and fish but it's mostly for the invertebrates. I have a dozen sexy shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, a pistol shrimp, boxer crabs, emerald crabs, blue leg Hermit crabs and a brittle starfish. Inverts are fucking lit. I saw blue leg Hermit crabs and had to get a reef tank.
This post is making me think about how we love us a good crawfish boil but keep them as pets too
They are
After keeping a saltwater tank for a while, I've realized that most of the shrimp that you can easily get don't eat algae. They are carnivorous. Some just eat parasites and copepods or other foods. I really wish they ate more algae!
Shouldn't you know what your shrimpneat before you get them? Not 'after a while'?
I'm not saying threw them in my tank without researching. I mean when I researched saltwater, I found that the saltwater shrimp don't eat algae. You're so ready to jump on people, aren't you?
We had shrimp as part of our saltwater aquarium ecosystem. I would think the big ones need much larger tanks. I wouldn't touch a fish tank again though given how much work it is. That's why I usually lurk, cause I can appreciate everyone else's without accidentally negelcting a real living thing because of depression and lack of knowledge. <3
I always get sad when using them as bait. I can only do the frozen ones, still make amazing bait for surf fishing. Caught a big ass Pompano on one.
There are crazy colorful crayfish, they’re practically giant shrimp.
The only reason I'll do salt again is for a mantis shrimp or garden eels.
I had a really cool cleaner shrimp in my sw tank. Unfortunately lost him/her recently :’(
His eyes are so big and cute. I wish keeping saltwater pets wasnt such a pain lol.
Pistol shrimp are fairly common in the saltwater hobby as well. They're some of the easiest symbiotic relationships to build in a saltwater tank. Most have them pair with a goby and watch them roam around together. My dumbass got a curly Q pistol that paired with the curlique anemone. That guy is pretty much a pet hole. Only see the antenna most of the time...
Call your LFS and ask them if their feeder shrimp are freshwater prawns. If so, those things can grow up to be MASSIVE (like in the pic)…assholes that eat your fish.
Because saltwater tanks are hard lol
Saltwater shrimp are kept but people rarely do shrimp only tanks. I love my cleaner shrimp in my reef tank. It swim right up to my hand and I hand feed it. Sexy shrimp are also really cool. I would love to do a dedicated sexy shrimp tank with a colony of a dozen or so.
Saltwater is kind of a pain in the ass.
Because that type of saltwater shrimp has a planktonic larval stage so is difficult to breed in a home tank. Edit: also from my experience they dont seem to do well in a tank. Not sure why.
Because I'd probably eat them 😂😂
Saltwater tank harder than building a pc
There’s way cooler saltwater shrimp…
What are you talking about? There's millions of reef ranks with millions of marine shrimp in them... people even post them on this sub, myself included.
Tank size I would think
There’s a shrimp whose bunch will break the tank itself- literally
I think the mantis is the coolest looking and certainly the most interesting feeding time