can i keep shrimp in water kh 10 and gh 20

[john6]

Is there any shrimp I can keep in this water, ph 7, kh 10, gh 20 or would I need to soften it?

 

[Andy Pierce]

I have kept neocaridina in Cambridgeshire tap water which has dKH and dGH both around 16. They did ok, maybe not great so not much breeding, but they did live reasonably long (years). The steady-state pH of Cambridgeshire tap water without active substrate or CO2 injection is comfortably above 8, not 7 as you show, and I suspect is the the pH rather than the KH that is the important parameter for shrimp health. You won't be able to maintain a pH of 7 with your water unless you have active substrate or inject CO2 gas (or both of those things). Caridina shrimp slowly die off if kept in Cambridgeshire tap water... they need a pH 7.5 or less (preferably less) which would mean a dKH < 1 in an otherwise inert material setup.

 

[hamfist]

10dKH, 20dGH is around the limit for successful Neocaridina keeping. A lot depends on the specifc colony in question, and its history of water parameters the individulas in it have been raised in.
I think Andy is about right in that Neos should live out decent lives at those levels of hardness but breeding may well be negatively affected to a certain degree.
As you are aware if you struggled then softening the water with RO or distilled is always an option. Diluting it down to somewhere around 14 dGH should create a more comfortable environment for them if need be.