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Bloody Mary Shrimps introduction

MichaelJ

Member
Joined
9 Feb 2021
Messages
3,348
Location
Minnesota, USA
Hi, I am planning to introduce some (5-6) Bloody Mary Shrimps to one of my 40 US gallon tanks (I was told that BMS are similar to RCS in respect to water requirements etc.). One thing I am wondering about is acclimation and relatively high TDS... My TDS is in high 300 / low 400 range (in part because of high levels of N, P and especially K). My KH/GH is in the 5-6 range. I assume they will be fine in this water provided that I introduce them slowly ? I am planning 2 hours of drip acclimation and probably turn the tank light off before dropping them in to alleviate some of the stress. Anything else I should be aware of?

Cheers,
Michael
 
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I guess no one likes to talk shrimp... :)

This morning I got delivered (UPS) a bunch of Bloody Mary shrimps from Aquatic Arts out of Indiana USA (I’m in Minnesota so its not too far of a journey by US measures). I wanted 8, so I ordered 10 as I somewhat feared a couple wouldn’t make the transportation. Instead of the 8-9 live shrimps, that I had hoped for, I got 12 live and seemingly happy nicely sized shrimps delivered. These are my first shrimps.

I drip acclimated them in a tall 5 liter container, starting out with the water from the bag they came in (around 2/3rd of a liter of water at about TDS 260 ppm, 18 C), until it almost reached my tank water at about TDS 400 ppm. It took approx. 6 hours at about 1 drop per second - this might have been a bit too long…hope not. When the water was within about 25 ppm, I increased the drop rate to a very weak but steady flow to slowly raise the temperature in the acclimation container. When the temperature was about the same as the tank (25 C), I netted the shrimps and released them into the breeding box (sitting in the tank with a few plant pieces and frogbit in there) where I will keep them for the next 12 hours before releasing them to the tank. They are very active in the breeding box - I suppose thats a good sign. There is a lot of ‘conflicting’ advice about ‘TDS limits’ for shrimps…My takeaway from reading up on it, is that they are mostly hardy unless they get exposed to shock-like TDS changes (no livestock likes that anyway) - and for upper limits it depends on what makes up the TDS in the first place. I guess it will take a few weeks to fully know if this works or not.

I would really appreciate to hear from some experienced shrimp keepers about my approach here?

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Your approach sounds fine to me. My experience with cherry shrimp is that they’re actually quite hardy and adaptable, but best results may come from the generations born in your tank. I don’t test TDS myself, but I have bought healthy shrimp from LRB aquatics, and per his website he keeps them in TDS of 300-600+.
 
Your approach sounds fine to me. My experience with cherry shrimp is that they’re actually quite hardy and adaptable, but best results may come from the generations born in your tank. I don’t test TDS myself, but I have bought healthy shrimp from LRB aquatics, and per his website he keeps them in TDS of 300-600+.
@Cait1 300-600+ you say... well, that makes me less concerned about my 400 ppm. Thank you for your reply. Highly appreciated!

And welcome to UKAPS :)

Cheers,
Michael
 
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