Can i use ghost shrimp to cycle a fish tank?
by Aquaboy on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 | 6 Comments
So i’ve heard many people talk about cycling their tanks with starter fish but is it possible to do it with ghost shrimp? Would they survive?
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ive never had shrimp but the key is to get enough ammonia in there consistently to start the build up of nitrites, and therefore nitrates. if you dont have enough ammonia, this wont happen. but you dont want to go overboard and try to cycle with too much ammonia. google “fishless cycle” or “how to cycle a fishtank” and this will tell you how much ammonia is needed to kickstart the cycle and keep it going until the cycle is complete.
Yes you can, any living organism in the tank will contribute toward the cycle. Testers for regular fish keepers are not all that accurate, and the ammonia levels from ghost shrimp will be low enough that they might not even be detected, but a small cycle is going on either way. It’s actually a good way to start a tank.
You sure can.
as far as I know ghost shrimp do not create enough amonia to cycle a tank but I could be wrong
Shrimp are pretty sensitive to water conditons, so may not be the best choice for cycling. Of course they are only a low bioload, so they may not pollute the tank quickly, and so may survive.
Some snails may work better, they will produce some waste to start the cycle, but are almost impossible to kill.
Ian
not sure about shrimp, but the 2 best things i’ve ever used to cycle a tank are either a squeeze from another well established tanks filter or getting a couple of giant danios and let them have the run of the tank for a few weeks