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A Guide To Crystal Red Shrimp

I do the water change with remineralised RO to a TDS of 130 but I top up with 'pure' RO.
I'm still in the mode of checking the TDS daily and it's stable at 150, the GH stays at 6 and the KH is negligible.
What makes the TDS jump to 150?
 
My TDS readings are lower GH are similar but KH are 0. Temperatures are pretty high at this time of the year and I am dropping in large ice cubes to try to keep them down in bigger tanks but so far the CRS and PRL are staying reasonable.
 
I'm starting my cardinia journey with regular bee shrimp first (i.e. the 'normal' black striped version) as they are supposedly less sensitive than CRS (and cost a lot less, at least the low grade ones I got). When I measured the TDS of the water they came with, it was 162.
 
I'm starting my cardinia journey with regular bee shrimp first (i.e. the 'normal' black striped version) as they are supposedly less sensitive than CRS (and cost a lot less, at least the low grade ones I got). When I measured the TDS of the water they came with, it was 162.
Hi @erwin123 Congrats! The breeder I will get mine from is in the 150-160 ppm range. So 162 seems fine. Of course, your tank needs to be in the same range as well. Drip acclimate for sure - but I am sure you did that.

Cheers,
Michael
 
After 6 months of trying to get the CRS to breed, they now won't stop. I've put the issue down to a heater that fluctuated wildly.
Since replacing it with an Eheim thermocontrol, the temperature has remained between 21 and 21.5. The tank has new shrimplets once a week for the last 3 weeks. Stability is the key, via effective monitoring of all the relevant parameters.
 
After 6 months of trying to get the CRS to breed, they now won't stop. I've put the issue down to a heater that fluctuated wildly.
Since replacing it with an Eheim thermocontrol, the temperature has remained between 21 and 21.5. The tank has new shrimplets once a week for the last 3 weeks. Stability is the key, via effective monitoring of all the relevant parameters.

You’re doing better than me then - my CBS still haven’t bred. Not sure where I’m going wrong on this one. What do you feed yours CRS?
 
Hi. They took ages and I couldn't see the wood for the trees but I got the parameters right and kept it, without messing and chasing.
I feed them a variety of foods, including some home made.
They get bacter ae and a nettle/dry bloodworm/fish food/algae wafer dust I've milled down, as well as dehydrated nettle (fresh blanched when in season) a mixture of dried leaves and snowflake. I vary this but freed them tiny amounts.
Best advice? Run a daily log of pH/TDS and temperature, do this several times a day to ensure your parameters are constant.
 
Storm can you post up a photo of stinging nettle. Not sure if its the same one we call stinging nettle here in AU.
Good mix of foods. Amazing how different tanks of the same shrimp won't even look at the same foods.
 
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica)
 

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Hi, I know the answer but I'll ask anyway.

I have a Dutch style tank, I don't have a ro system, my tap water has GH 10 and kh 8, my tank has aqua soil - GH 6.5 and Kh 4, I do WC of 30% every week.
Ph 7.3 co2 off, 6.6 CO2 on

Do you think that I'll be able to keep CRS alive and healthy?
 
I have 0-1 KH, ~5 GH, pH 5-6ish for my 2 tanks with CRS, they have been breeding ok - I would say your KH is on the high side.

However, nowadays I think it is highly dependent where do you get your shrimps (how long do they acclimate them at what parameters, and/or do they successfully breed them under your local conditions). Apparently my local breeder keeps them at around pH 7 and with RO water, so my soft tap water with lower pH work out ok.
 
Thanks, for replies.

If I decide to go with ro system, can I do 50% tap - 50% Ro on WC day?
is there a way to calculate, giving fixed tap water parameters, with an amount of 30-50% WC change, how many ro water should I add, to achieve and then maintain, good params for them?

if I cut 50% ro and 50% tap (so no need to reminalize it), can I add ro and tap directly to tank, without mixing them in a container? The tank is a 300L and I don't have anything that can hold 100-150 litres of water
 
Little update, I've bought a RO system. I'm transitioning the tank water to 100% RO, right now I'm using MgSO4 and CaSO4, 0 KH.

Last week I did 50% WC, GH is 7 (still 50% ro and 50% tap) and KH is 3.

The TDS from Ro unit is ~20ppm (scale500), I add GH 5 (3:1 ratio), I don't add any alkalinity due to aquasoil. GH 5 should give me around 110-130ppm of tds (+20ppm from RO)

This way I should be able to have CRS. But now I have some doubts.
The tank has cpd, ember tetra, otos and pygmy.

  • embers (10) swim mid to top, rarely see them at the bottom. Should be safe
  • cpd (8) are always at substrate level, they eat from the substrate
  • pygmy (6) are safe, they ignore everything in the tank

The tank is 90g 110x50x60h, Dutch style inspired.

I want a clean up crew made by shrimp, I have 1 amano, I plan to add more friend to this guy (maybe 9 more, so 10 in total for 90g of water)

But what about CRS? Would they be just a snack for cpd or I'll be able to have a colony?
Photo of the tank below.

I would like to add Rummynose but they are hunters, and very active, maybe aren't even less safe for CRS.
 

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