The Success Center hosted a workshop for Shrimp Aquariums on May 15 at 7 p.m. to introduce students to a new hobby to destress.
The workshop was hosted by Catherine Winiarski, an instructional specialist in the success center at Cerritos College who also teaches at UC Irvine where she has taught for about 25 years.
She got into the hobby of keeping a shrimp aquarium nearly a year ago from her boyfriend, who has been doing aquariums since childhood.
Winiarski said, “I’ve been to a few aquarium shops where the people who work there are really into aquarium keeping. They produce this kind of beautiful plants and rockscapes and it’s inspiring to see these little worlds that people can create.”
She also stated that the hobby has taught her a lot about some academic subjects to kind of refresh her memory about chemistry, biology and the evolution of species while also being a great hands-on learning experience.
While you may think about dinner when you think about shrimp, these particular shrimp offer something different.
These shrimp, which are a part of the Neocaridina family, are not edible, but they may offer other benefits like a rewarding hobby and can also be meditative.
Keeping a shrimp aquarium is easy and set-up and maintenance are not very expensive as shrimp can cost $5 to $10 each with them having a life span of about 18 months.
To start a shrimp aquarium you will need these few things.
- A five to 10 gallon aquarium
- Soil (for live plants)
- Gravel and rocks for the shrimp to hide
- Volcanic substrate and a heater are optional
- Aquatic moss and aquatic plants will be needed
- Tap water (freshwater)
- Water dechlorinator
- Test strips for water parameters
- A bacterial starter
Once you get all these items together for your tank you’d need to acclimate the water for 15 minutes before adding shrimp to the tank.
Having a tank full of shrimp is pretty low maintenance as they clean up after themselves and others because they are detritivores, which feed on dead organic material.
Although shrimp aquariums are low maintenance and easy to begin with, they can also pose some challenges.
Some of the challenges for Winiarski when she started her was shrimp mortality, slow reproduction, snail proliferation and alkalinity problems.
A solution that she recommends for snails is putting in zucchini in the aquarium as this attracts the snails and allows you to take them out.
Aileen Rodriguez, a pre-nursing major who was studying for finals, came in to see what the workshop was about as she has fish, “I felt like I learned more about fish and shrimp.”
Though Rodriguez felt that she learned more she stated that she wasn’t interested in having a shrimp aquarium.
Nathan Winters, a commercial music major, said he was also studying for finals and said the workshop was cool, interesting and educating, but he was also not interested in keeping an aquarium.
Winiarski suggested to those who are interested in getting a shrimp aquarium to reach out to an expert for more information.
