# Do my shrimp need a slight change to water chemistry?



## maj74 (13 Dec 2008)

I have had some amano shrimp in the tank for just over 2 weeks and they seem happy enough and appear to have evaded the discus long enough for me to consider trying to increase their number in the new year.

My only concern is that, being a discus tank, I use rainwater, and as a result have a very low gh and kh (3 and 1 degree respectively). This combined with the addition of CO2 in the water means that the ph is of course quite low, at around 6.

Given the 'acidic' nature of the water, and the fact that there are so few carbonates in the water, might this be a long term problem for the shrimp who presumably have a calcium based shell?

Should I try to increase my gh and Kh at least a little, and if so, what is recommended in order to achieve this. I don't want to change from using the rainwater, it's worked so well my tank for several years now!

Thanks in advance for any advice!


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## aaronnorth (13 Dec 2008)

to increase gh, use a GH Booster

Alternatively you could feed them a calcium based food, or buy some calcium and coat the food in it, there is lots of choice HERE


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## mr. luke (13 Dec 2008)

Most foods for inverts have calcium in them so im sure this would go a certain way towards fixing the problem, is there no way you could put the perams up a little? most discus easily do well at ph7, especially tank raised ones.


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## maj74 (13 Dec 2008)

Yes I would indeed like to raise the water parameters slightly! That was why I asked what would be good to achieve it with as I guess the plants themselves would probably benefit from slightly higher gh and kh values. Gh booster will only raise gh so how would I up the kh value slightly?


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## maj74 (13 Dec 2008)

I dont want to start 'feeding' the shrimp if I can help it as I want them eating as much algae as possible!


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## vauxhallmark (13 Dec 2008)

Amanos are probably the hardest shrimp to to start breeding, as the young get washed down the stream they're born in to an estuarine area with seawater concentrations of salts. Also the young go through a larval stage, during which they are minute, and need tiny food.

Most of the other shrimp kept in the hobby can be raised entirely in fresh water, and in addition, mostly do not have a larval stage (ie, the shrimps are born as tiny versions of the adults), and so are much easier to fed from the start.

A great site for info on all freshwater shrimps in the hobby is planetinverts.com. The easiest shrimp to have a go at breeding is the cherry shrimp.

There are lots of shrimp specialists on this forum, so keep posting your questions!

Best regards,

Mark


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## Ed Seeley (13 Dec 2008)

I keep rainbow shrimp in RO water with a little RO Right added.  This gives me water with 0dKH and 3dGH.  The shrimp are fine and breed merrily.  If your fish and shrimp are happy at the moment then I wouldn't worry about it.  If you see any having problems moulting then maybe you need to up the GH.  KH is simply carbonate hardness and the shrimp should get all the carbon they need from the food they eat.


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