Keeping Freshwater Shrimp and Snails

Keeping freshwater shrimp and snails not only adds to the biodiversity of your tank but also helps to maintain it.

Both are natural scavengers and will happily devour uneaten fish food and other waste.

This will help to keep nitrates and phosphates low, helping you prevent nuisance algae.

Of course, that’s not the only reason to add them. They are interesting and fun to watch as well as being attractive to look at.

Table of Contents

Keeping Freshwater Shrimp
Keeping Freshwater Snails

Keeping Freshwater Shrimp

Shrimp are great to add to any tank with peaceful freshwater community tank fish like danios, guppies, tetras and rasboras.

Do not add them to any tank containing any large, boisterous fish such as cichlids, angelfish and some barbs as they may decide your shrimp will make a tasty meal.

Shrimp can be very sensitive to poor water quality so your tank must be free of ammonia and with low nitrate levels. The temperature must be kept stable between 24 – 26 °C.

Ideally, you should have a heavily planted tank with a soft substrate so the shrimp can hide and hunt for food.

Be aware though that shrimp can not tolerate any copper or high levels of calcium so avoid any medications or treatments with copper traces and don’t use calcium-rich rocks, substrates or plant fertilisers.

Let’s take a look at a few of the most common freshwater shrimps:-

Amano Shrimp

Size: 5cm
Difficulty: Beginner
Minimum Tank Size: 40 Litres

Amano shrimp are very popular thanks to their liking for algae. Add a squad of these beautiful small shrimp to your tank and they will be a great help keeping nuisance algae at bay.

Grey and transparent with black spots, Amano shrimp are peaceful and will scavenge for leftover fish food and waste.

Blue Velvet Shrimp

Size: 3 – 5cm
Difficulty: Beginner
Minimum Tank Size: 20 – 40 Litres

With their striking blue colour, Blue Velvet shrimp are easy to spot. They are great algae eaters but must only be added to a tank with small peaceful inhabitants.

A well-planted tank is a must so they have plenty of places to hide.

Cherry Shrimp

Size: 4cm
Difficulty: Beginner
Minimum Tank Size: 20 Litres

Cherry shrimp are another great addition to a planted aquarium. Striking to look at, they love algae so will help keep your tank clean and healthy.

Colours may vary from a full red covering to red spots with a transparent base.

All the shrimp above would do well in small low-cost tank. For more information see our article Best Freshwater Fish Tank Starter Kit.

Keeping Freshwater Snails

Freshwater snails are not only interesting but also help to maintain your tank by scavenging for organic matter and waste.

Freshwater snails are easy to care for and are very low-maintenance.

Let’s take a look at a few of the most common freshwater snails:-

Mystery Snail

Mystery snails come in a wide variety of colours and patterns and are great tank cleaners.

You can pair them with other aquarium snails or shrimp.

Nerite Snail

Nerite snails have beautiful intricate patterned shells of yellow and brown.

These snails do best in planted tanks with a soft sandy substrate and you can pair them with other aquarium snails or shrimp.

Assassin Snail

Assassin snails are carnivorous and the main item on their menu is other snails.

So, if you have been hit by a plague of pest snails these are the guys to introduce.

They will also eat any meaty foods and uneaten fish food.

However, if you have already introduced decorative snails to your tank do not add assassin snails who will likely eat them.

We hope you have enjoyed our article on keeping freshwater shrimp and snails. If you have your own favourites please add them to the comments below.

They have a good selection of freshwater shrimp and snails available on eBay:-