Galaxy Tiger Shrimp Care At Home: 10 Expert Tips

If you’re an exotic pet lover, you may want to add Galaxy Tiger shrimp to your aquarium. Due to their stunning patterns, shrimp lovers often get confused about choosing between Black Galaxy Tiger shrimp and Red Galaxy Tiger shrimp. Because of being unique and rare shrimp, there aren’t lots of expert tips in the shrimp forums for taking care of Galaxy Tiger shrimp at home.

These superb-looking Galaxy Tiger shrimp can be priced up to $500. But, these shrimp are easy to maintain when you fulfill their requirements. Before bringing these stunning shrimp, you should have a foolproof care guide for Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

In this article, I’ve explained about Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank setup, optimal water conditions, feeding guide, breeding care, etc.

So, you shouldn’t miss this article if you have Galaxy Tiger shrimp as pets.

Galaxy Tiger Shrimp Overview

There is a huge diversity of Galaxy Tiger shrimp with different types of patterns, stripes, and spots in their bodies. Moreover, the tiny spots on the head of these shrimp make them more attractive and costlier in the shrimp world.

Before going into the details, you should take a quick look at the overview of Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Scientific name	Caridina cantonensis
Common names	Galaxy Tiger shrimp
Size	1-1.4 inches (2.5-3.5 cm)
Optimal tank size	10-20 liter
Diet	Omnivores
Optimal temperature	64-78 degrees Fahrenheit (18-25 degrees Celsius)
Temperament	Social and friendly
Care level	Intermediate
Breeding care	Easy
Cost	$50-$500
Lifespan	Up to 2 years

10 Expert Tips For Taking Care Of Galaxy Tiger Shrimps

Tip 1: Get All Basic Supplies Altogether

When you bring a new shrimp as a pet, your first duty should be ensuring proper habitation. Sometimes, it becomes hard to provide all facilities in the captivity like wild habitation.

But, you must mimic the wild habitation in the closed enclosure of the shrimp aquarium. Otherwise, it’ll be hard for Galaxy Tiger shrimp to thrive in captivity. For this, you must add some basic equipment for these unique freshwater shrimp.

Before going into the set-up process, let’s see the following list of basic supplies to set up the Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank. The following list will help you buy all of the required things at once.

1. A 10-20 gallon tank
2. Substrate
3. Heater
4. Filter
5. Aerator
6. LED light
7. Plants
8. Décor items
9. Wavemakers
10. Stones
11. Shrimp food
12. Supplementation
13. Water test kits

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Tip 2: Make A Proper Habitation Set-up For Galaxy Tiger Shrimp

Selecting An Enclosure

Before bringing Galaxy Tiger shrimp, you should prepare its enclosure where you are about to keep such stunning shrimp. The shrimp owners often remain confused about the tank size.

In that case, you should remember that the water of a small tank can get foul faster. On the other hand, a larger tank will provide sufficient space to move and play for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

The experts suggest buying a minimum of 10-gallon tank for keeping Galaxy Tiger shrimp. Since shrimp make less biological waste than fish, you can keep shrimp in a smaller tank. But, you shouldn’t choose a smaller tank than 10 gallons.

Since Galaxy Tiger shrimp are social creatures, you should keep them in a colony. When you keep a colony of Galaxy Tiger shrimp, you should choose a 20-gallon tank. Besides, a 20-gallon tank will be more suitable for breeding these Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

How Many Galaxy Tiger Shrimp Should I Keep In An Aquarium?

The number of Galaxy Tiger shrimp should depend upon the size of the aquarium. According to the experts, the thumb rule is to keep only 5 shrimp per gallon. But, you should keep fewer shrimp if they are larger.

In the case of Galaxy Tiger shrimp, these shrimp can grow up to 1.4 inches. You can keep a colony of 10-15 Galaxy Tiger shrimp in a 5-gallon tank.

Substrate: What Substrate Is Best For Galaxy Shrimp?

Although you can create a bare bottom tank for your shrimp, an active substrate can help your Galaxy Tiger shrimp thrive in captivity. From the overview, you might understand that Galaxy Tiger shrimp are freshwater and Caridina shrimp.

So, Galaxy Tiger shrimp prefer a bit of acidic water. In addition, these shrimp do not like much hardness in the water. Keeping an active substrate can help you fulfill these conditions for Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

When you keep an active substrate, such substrate tends to lower the pH of the water. Moreover, the such active substrate contains nutrients that help rooted plants grow well in the aquarium. If you plan to keep live plants, you should make the layer of substrate for around 1-1.5 inches.

In addition, you might know that the grading of Galaxy Tiger shrimp affects its popularity and cost. The shrimp owners tend to focus on brightening the stripes and patterns of Galaxy Tiger shrimp. If you want to know the secret behind this grading, one of the most significant factors will be a darker substrate.

Galaxy Tiger shrimp tend to camouflage with the background to hide from predators. While camouflaging, the coloration of their patterns and spots becomes darker. Hence, you should choose a dark-colored substrate.

The experts recommend ADA Aquasoil or Fluval stratum as one of the best active substrates for Galaxy Tiger shrimp. If you look for a darker substrate, you can check out dark brown Amazonia soil.

Adjusting A Heater

Another tip to keep your Galaxy Tiger shrimp healthy is to keep the optimal temperature in the shrimp tank. But, it will not be necessary if the room temperature ranges from 64-78 degrees Fahrenheit.  These shrimp can tolerate slight temperature changes.

On the contrary, a sudden temperature change can cause shock to your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. Besides, your tiger shrimp may stop eating below 20 degrees Celsius. Low temperatures can be responsible for the slow growth of Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Not to mention, the immune system of your shrimp can become weak due to the low temperature. If you breed your Galaxy Tiger shrimp, you must keep the temperature range constant. A slight temperature change can cause the failure of the breeding process.

For this reason, you should adjust a thermostat regulating heater in your Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank. Besides, you should be careful that the temperature level doesn’t go too high.

Adding A Filter

An expert tip for taking care of Galaxy Tiger shrimp at home is to do no compromise for adjusting a good filtration system. The secret to ensuring the long life of these unique shrimp is to keep their water parameters correct.

Since there’s a continuous process of generating biological waste, it becomes harder to keep the water clean without a filter. By using a filter, there will be biological, mechanical, and chemical filtration from the aquarium.

Due to biological filtration, beneficial bacteria will turn the ammonia and nitrite into less harmful nitrate. On the other hand, mechanical filtration of a filter can trap leftovers, decaying matter, shrimp and fish poop, etc.

Besides, a filtration system removes toxic materials. If you want to keep the closed enclosure habitable for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp, you must add a good filtration system.

In addition, you should check out the power and current of the filter. When the water intake of a filter is powerful, your tiny 1.5 inches size Galaxy Tiger shrimp can get stuck into the filter inlet.

The experts suggest bringing a sponge filter for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. You can keep your hands down for a sponge filter that can do mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration.

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Keep Proper Lighting

The experienced owners suggest choosing the type of lighting and their active hour appropriate. If you want to keep your Galaxy shrimp active, you should provide them with dark corners.

Besides, bright lighting can make your Galaxy Tiger shrimp stressed. So, you shouldn’t leave the lighting on for the entire day in your Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank.

Firstly, you should try to keep the aquarium of your Galaxy Tiger shrimp nearby a window where the sunlight can readily come. Then, you can consider buying lighting. If you have a plan to make a planted aquarium, lighting will be a must-needed piece of equipment.

Moreover, you might know that algae are the prime food source for Galaxy Tiger shrimp. To promote the growth of algae, you must add aquarium lighting.

But, keeping the light on for an excessive period may cause excess algae growth. You can keep the lighting on for only 6-8 hours a day. According to experts’ recommendations, you can use LED lighting for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Add Live Plants

To enhance the naturalistic vibe, you can add live plants to your Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank. Besides, these live plants oxygenate the tank water.

You might know that there’s a continuous production of ammonia in a shrimp tank. If you keep live plants, these plants will absorb such toxic elements. Also, several plants prevent nitrate spikes in the shrimp tank. In this way, live plants regulate the pH of the water.

But, you can’t keep all types of live plants in your shrimp tank. You should choose the safe plants for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. I’ve made a small list of safe plants that you can keep in your Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank.

• Anubias
• Java fern
• Java moss
• Water lettuce
• Moss balls
• Pearl weed
• Rotalas
• Cyprus
• Dwarf lily
• Hornwort
• Water wisteria

These plants will be good hideout options for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. Sometimes, shrimp tend to eat leaves. Besides, your shrimp may look for food between the leaves of these plants.

You can also pay a visit to this article to know more about the 7 best-floating plants for a shrimp tank.

Tip 3: Proper Acclimation Before Adding Into The Aquarium

Many beginners lose their newly brought shrimp due to lacking proper acclimation. Since Galaxy Tiger shrimp thrive in the water, the parameters of the water should remain constant for their survival.  

When you add your newly arrived Galaxy Tiger shrimp into a new tank, your shrimp may get a sudden shock. Dumping your shrimp into the newly-set aquarium can cause the sudden death of these shrimp.

For this reason, you must acclimate your Galaxy Tiger shrimp before introducing them into your prepared enclosure. Proper acclimation will help your newly arrived Galaxy Tiger shrimp adjust to the temperature and other parameters of the new enclosure.

You can choose drip acclimation to save your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. For this, you need to siphon the water from the aquarium to the bowl of your newly arrived Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Make sure that there are only 2-3 drops per second through the tubing. You can also adjust the dripping by screwing the nozzle of the pipe.

You can keep this acclimation period for 3-4 hours. After acclimation, you should scoop your Galaxy Tiger shrimp from its container. Afterward, you can introduce your shrimp to the new aquarium.

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Tip 4: Keeping The Correct Water Parameters

Like all shrimp, Galaxy Tiger shrimp is sensitive to minor changes in water parameters. The water parameters can cause a life-death situation for your pet shrimp. If you do not want to lose your Galaxy Tiger shrimp early, an expert tip will be to keep the optimal water parameters constant.

What Are The Water Parameters For Galaxy Tiger Shrimp?

You can go through the following chart to have a quick look at the optimal water parameters for Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

pH	6.2-7.5
Temperature	64-78 degrees Fahrenheit
KH	2-6
GH	4-8
TDS	100-220
Ammonia	0 ppm
Nitrite	0 ppm
Nitrate	Less than 20 ppm
Chlorine	0 ppm
Chloramine	0 ppm

Tip 5: Keeping The Optimal Water Temperature

Temperature plays a crucial role in the growth, metabolism rate, breeding, lifespan, and other factors of shrimp. If you want your Galaxy Tiger shrimp healthy, you should keep a constant temperature range. The optimal temperature for these tiger shrimp ranges from 64 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

An additional tip is to keep your Galaxy Tiger shrimp in a larger aquarium. After all, it takes time to warm up or cool down in a big aquarium. So, there will be no chance of sudden temperature shock for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

1. pH Level

You should keep the tank water a bit acidic for the survival of your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. The optimal pH level for Galaxy Tiger shrimp ranges between 6-7.5. You should remember that your Galaxy shrimp can not survive in alkaline water. Do not forget to keep pH test kits to check water pH.

2. Water Hardness

To keep your Galaxy Tiger shrimp healthy, you should keep an optimal level of calcium, magnesium, and ions in the water. The GH level should remain around 4-8.

3. Carbonate Hardness

The KH level of water refers to the carbonate hardness. For Galaxy Tiger shrimp, the KH level should remain within 2-6.

4. Nitrite and Ammonia

You can consider ammonia and nitrite as poisons for Galaxy Tiger shrimp. In your shrimp tank, there must be no ammonia and nitrite in the water. For this, you must add a powerful filtration system, live plants, and so on.

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Tip 6: Cycling The Galaxy Shrimp Tank For 4-6 Weeks

Sometimes, the new shrimp owners do not understand why their newly arrived shrimp die after adding to the tank. An expert tip to take special care of newly arrived shrimp is to cycle the shrimp tank beforehand.

You might know that the biological wastes of shrimp start turning into ammonia. When you introduce your Galaxy Tiger shrimp in an uncycled tank, there will not be present sufficient beneficial bacteria. Since there are no beneficial bacteria to turn the ammonia into nitrate, there will be an ammonia spike in the water.

For this reason, the experts suggest letting the shrimp tank mature for 4-6 weeks. The experienced owners often use filter media from established shrimp-tank. You can add liquid nitrifying bacteria to cycle the tank.

Tip 7: Keeping Compatible Tank Mates for Galaxy Tiger Shrimp

Since Galaxy Tiger shrimp are social creatures, you can’t keep these crustaceans alone. In case you want to keep Galaxy Tiger shrimp as pets, you should keep a colony of these shrimp together.

Some owners love to keep different types of pets together. In that case, you should select compatible tank mates for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. If you keep larger inhabitants than your Galaxy Tiger shrimp, your shrimp will remain stressed due to their bullying and attacks.

Moreover, the larger inhabitants may gobble up your tiny Galaxy Tiger shrimp, which grows up to only 1.4 inches. Besides, you should assure that the tank mates of Galaxy Tiger shrimp can thrive in similar water parameters to the shrimp.

You can go through the following list if you look for some good recommendations.

• Red Nose shrimp
• Cherry shrimp
• Neon tetra
• Crystal shrimp
• Amano shrimp
• Tangerine tiger shrimp
• Endler guppy
• Chili rasboras
• Blue bolt shrimp
• Bamboo shrimp
• Malwa shrimp
• Pygmy Corydoras
• Nerite snails
• Malaysian trumpet snails
• Ramshorn snails
• Other small invertebrates

On the other hand, you should avoid aggressive tank mates like rainbowfish, fancy goldfish, betta fish, etc. In addition, you should not keep African dwarf frogs in the same tank as Galaxy Tiger shrimp. Because of poor eyesight, the dwarf frogs may consume your Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Tip 8: Feeding A Nutritious Diet

Being omnivores, Galaxy Tiger shrimp are not picky eaters. Generally, these shrimp feed on biofilm and algae. So, the experts suggest growing a large amount of biofilm in the tank before adding your Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

You can feed your Galaxy Tiger shrimp varieties of vegetables. Such as lettuce, spinach, boiled carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, kale, cucumbers, etc. Make sure to peel the vegetables first.

Then, you should chop these vegetables into small pieces that help your Galaxy Tiger shrimp digest the food. Afterward, you should boil these pieces of vegetables until these pieces get soft.

After boiling the vegetables, the experts suggest keeping the vegetable pieces in cold water to chill down. The process helps the vegetables break down readily.

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Tip 9: Do Not Overfeed Your Galaxy Tiger Shrimp

Since shrimp are tiny creatures, these crustaceans do not require large meals. You can feed your adult Galaxy Tiger shrimp 2-3 times a week. Also, these Galaxy shrimp depend on algae and biofilm as a large share of their diet.

So, you should not provide food to your Galaxy Tiger shrimp regularly. Overfeeding can beget multiple diseases in your pet shrimp.

The danger of overfeeding is fouling the tank water. When your Galaxy Tiger shrimp do not eat the excess foods, these foods start to decay.

As a result, the excess foods contribute to ammonia and nitrite in the Galaxy Tiger shrimp tank. So, the experts’ tip is not to overfeed your Galaxy shrimp.

Tip 10: Take Special Breeding Care For Your Galaxy Shrimp

The high-grade Galaxy Tiger shrimp are so pricey that shrimp lovers often do not afford these shrimp. For this reason, people think of breeding shrimp to achieve Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

Hence, you should breed Taiwan Bee shrimp with Tiger shrimp. In this way, you’ll get Tibees.

Now, you need to breed between Tibees and Taiwan Bee shrimp. Thus, you’ll achieve TaiTibees or Galaxy Tiger shrimp.

However, breeding Galaxy Tiger shrimp isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. You should maintain all guidelines to have successful breeding of Galaxy Tiger shrimp. The first thing to do is multiply the number of male and female Galaxy Tiger shrimp in the tank. 

You should keep the ratio of male and female Galaxy shrimp at 1:3. Besides, you should take care of the temperature and water parameters of the tank. Make sure that the temperature does not fall all of a sudden.

In addition, you must provide constant food sources in the breeding tank of your Galaxy Tiger shrimp. The experts suggest keeping foods for your Galaxy Tiger shrimp fry too. If the water intake of the filter is too strong, it may suck these baby shrimp into the inlet.

Before You Go

I hope you got detailed expert tips and tricks for taking care of Galaxy Tiger shrimp at home. People often make some common mistakes in shrimp care. Like Galaxy Tiger shrimp, you can also bring Pinto shrimp as pets.

Let’s check out the following article to remain careful about not making these common mistakes.

Pinto Shrimp Care: Don’t Make These 14 Common Mistakes!