# Amano shrimp and soft water



## EnderUK (26 Apr 2014)

I'm thinking of adding some amano shrimp shrimp to my main tank and wondering if they'll be okay. The reason I ask is that I originally had 8 glass shrimp in there and am now down to 2. The biggest cause of death seemed to be after molting three of the deaths was when the females were carrying eggs under their tails.

Tap water is pretty soft 75 TDS, tank is around 200-375 TDS with EI dosing and 75% weekly water changes (done slowly). Tap has around 20ppm calcium so I don't add it but I do have a tub of CaSO4.

In my low tech tank I have oyster grit to raise the calcium and ph when it turns acidic but don't think this would be a solution in the high tech. I'm thinking that I could add CaSO4 to put some extra calcium into the water.

Am I over thinking this and the Amano shrimp will be okay?

Thanks.


----------



## sciencefiction (26 Apr 2014)

This sounds low to me and the reason for the glass shrimp not surviving after molting. The TDS is from the ferts but not Ca. 20ppm Ca is like 1dGh only?
Do you have snails in the tank? If their shell is ok then shrimp should be ok. If you don't keep soft water fish put some crushed coral in the filter.
Or maybe you can keep soft water shrimp instead though I can't think of a shrimp that eats as much algae as the amanos.  Or just add some shrimp minerals with the water changes.


----------



## EnderUK (26 Apr 2014)

I'll mix some CaSO4 in with the Traces and hopefully that will provide the Ca. I do have some cuttlebone that I could put in for them to graze on as well.


----------



## Ady34 (28 Apr 2014)

I have amanos in low  TDS water, tap same as yours at around 75 TDS and tank water similar, but lower TDS. I do 60% water changes weekly direct from the tap and my amanos are fine. I don't know my calcium levels, but  adding a little extra won't hurt.
Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## EnderUK (28 Apr 2014)

Think I need to add the Ca anyways, pulled up one of my swords in a shuffle around and the roots were tiny. Thanks for the info the amanos are looking good in the tank and no fights have broken out with the glass shrimp.

Sent from my Radar C110e using Tapatalk


----------

