When doing a fishless cycle with shrimp...?

Question

I placed two jumbo shrimp in my tank this evening in a bag with holes in it and the top open so that I don't have to pick up tiny pieces of shrimp after. When should the shrimp be taken out of the tank? I know that you have to keep the ammonia a little bit above 0 once it starts to drop, so how will I do that if I am not dropping in pure ammonia?

Answer 1

Shrimp really aren't a good way to cycle a tank. They tend to not be any better at weathering the ammonia, or nitrite spikes than most fish. Fishless cycling involves an empty tank and fish food.

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html

Answer 2

First of all I am not sure how you could fishless cycling when you are using a type of live creature... the point is that no living creature is harmed through fishless cycle. I am in the process of starting a 120 gallon with fishless cycling. I bought a half gallon of clear ammonia hydroxide at a local dollar store for $1 and put in enough to make the ammonia levels at 4-5 ppm. I test mine with an ammonia kit every day and then start checking for nitrites when the ammonia levels start to fall. Keep the ammonia levels around 4-5 until the levels go to 0 after 8-12 hours then keep it around 1-2 everyday to keep your bacteria fed. Check your nitrites until they are 0 after 24 hours and then you are done after you do a mega water change (50-80%) to get rid of all the Nitrates. By doing this method you now have a healthy amount of biology in your tank to support many fish to start with. I am not sure about how big your tank is but seems like 2 jumbo shrimp would not start enough biology going to maintain more then a zebra danio or 3.

Answer 3

If the shrimp start to slow down more than normal (like for a half hour) then take them out immediately. Feed the tank fish food and let it rot to produce ammonia. Also if your planning on putting any live plants in the tank you should do it now.

Answer 4

As the shrimp rot they will produce ammonia. Just leave them in and let them rot. They will start too look very disgusting, but just leave them in until the cycle is established.

Answer 5

you should have used gold fish instead