What they are and some tips for making one
You might ask yourself: What is a shrimp jar?
And don’t think of the eatable variant!
It’s a small, self sustaining ecosystem in a big jar -or vase if you will- in which shrimp can peacefully live.
They are pretty easy and cheap to make, easy to maintain (once the ecosystem has had time to balance out) and nice to look at!
So what is there not to like?
For a quick introduction and a look at how someone made his shrimp jar, here’s a short video:
Some tips for making your own
| Beginning with the floor of your shrimp jar you could use a layer of organic potting soil or designated pond soild, which can especially help supply nutriens to aquarium plants with long roots. Alternitively you could use top soil for garden flowers, however it’s important to make sure no sticks, worms or anything like that is within the soil. ❗There can especially be no fertilizer in the soil, as it is toxic to shrimp❗ If your plants are looking a little sad later there’s special fertilizers for aquariums you can use. |
| Whether you decided to use soil or not, another nice addition (but not a must) to the base of your shrimp jar would be Lava Rock. These offer a nice space for good bacteria and all kinds of microscopic little critters to thrive and live, unnoticibly helping maintain the ecosystem and also serving as part of the shrimps food. They also help with the aquascaping, as it is very easy to build up hight with them. |
| A definitive must is a nice layer of sand, in which good bacteria and the likes can live and multiply safely and the roots of aquarium plants can grow into. For this you can use any type of sand -even sandbox sand- as long as you make sure it’s clean and doesn’t contain any sticks etc. Just make sure to rinse it a few times until the water is clean and remove anything that isn’t sand. |
| To hold down the layer of sand you should add a layer of pebbles. The rules are pretty much the same as with sand. Though you should make sure that there are no mineral heavy rocks in there, as some of them slowly let those go into the water and it can ruin the water values, hindering the ecosystem from thriving. |
| Now comes the (second) most fun part, which is the aquascaping! Adding bigger rocks, driftwood (alternatively branches you boiled for a while), aquarium plants and any other aquarium-safe decor you want in your jar. Here you have to keep in mind that your shrimp will want places to hide and play around in. |
Which plants to use
2. Water Wisteria (also Water Sprite or Hygrophila Difformis)
3. Subwassertang
4. Duckweed (also Salvinia, grows on top of the waters‘ surface)
5. Hornwort (grows very quickly)
6. Java Fern
Info about light
For the ecosystem to thrive properly it needs around 6-8 hours of light a day. Indirect sunlight or a weak LED are entirely sufficient for this.
Image from solaymanhaider on pixabay
Suggested shrimp & friends
Do note these are just some I picked out, as long as they get together and have enough space to move around you could use nearly any shrimp!
Shrimp suggestions
- Neocaridina shrimp (more commonly known as cherry shrimp)
- Amano shrimp (algea eating shrimp, good with cherry shrim)
Friend suggestions
- Ramshorn snail
- Bladder snail
Do keep in mind that snails multiply very quickly, so do not add too many! Even one is fine at a time, the two kinds named above live for around 2 years and aren’t expensive.
Image from saviera on pixabay
Some shrimple jar examples
