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First Red Cherry Shrimp Acclimation Journal

hinterhalt

Seedling
Joined
25 Nov 2019
Messages
3
Location
London
Wanted to start a journal describing my first RCS (Red Cherry Shrimp) in my first, though established, planted tank.

Background:
1.5 years old nano planted tank:
40x25x25cm glass rimless tank
Overkill Fluval LED light
Eheim classic cannister filter (350)

2 Layer substrate. Lower some nutrient rich. top layer is fluval stratum
Driftwood bonsai tree
Java moss
Dwarf Baby Tears (carpet)

Timeline:
First 6 months:
Started doing homebrew CO2 (yeast), Left it at a pretty high rate as no livestock. Carpet was growing well, moss growing well and starting to look like a tree. Algae bloom then started to subside, but left some thicker filament algae. Here I decreased CO2 and got some 3x amano shrimp.

6-1year, amano shrimp making work of all algae including string algae, maybe due to 0 feeding from me. Tank was super clean of all algae, only some green algae on glass next to outflow probably cause shrimp could not get there. Carpet fully grown out and overgrown, my bad on maintanence. Full trimmed and lower levels a bit yellow but greened out over a month or 2. Stopped CO2 as refilling yeast every week was a chore. DBT still thriving and growing even without CO2 surprisingly.

Just after 1 year an amano died :( was found red and stuck to the inflow. Inflow didn't have pre filter sponge and it must have been set too high and got stuck.

2 Years, moved flats. Was so overgrown didn't think the shrimp was still alive. Hard trimmed and found them still alive though pretty small as no feedings for 2 years. Removed 90% of water from tank but left water in canister filter and moved in Uber. Did not plan this out very well and filter intake connecter snapped in transit. Ordered spare part but will take a week to come.

Refilled water from tap with seachem prime. Looking back it was pretty dumb. Should have kept the water I took out during the move and transported in jugs. But these amano are bulletproof super shrimp. 2 years no feeding and 90% water change from a different tap though the move was still in a similar area so don't think it was too different. Left with no lights (left next to window for natural light) and no filter for a week.

Fixed filter, still no light as have not built a light stand yet but have started regular daily feeding with shrimp pellets. These guys were hungry and grew. 3 weeks in from move and both have molted successfully at the same time, looks like we are in the clear. Got a TDS pen and GH/KH test kit, water params:
GH: 13
KH: 6
PH: 7.8
Amonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: 0/0/20
TDS: 380
 
Started to get interested in more shrimp and initially wanted to try CRS but water params are way too far out of optimal and no RODI. Decided on RCS for now and maybe setup a new tank in the future for them or Sulawesi Shrimp.

Found some DI water in Sainsbury for cars and started doing water changes with that. Managed to lower TDS to 330 in prep for RCS.

Got 5 RCS yesterday. To my dismay, they were kept in CRS water:
GH: 0
KH: 0
PH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0
TDS: 60

Saw test results and knew i'm in for the long haul. Temp was within 1 degree so started drip acclimating at 1 drop ever 3/4 sec, so very slowly. First 4 hours raised to 140 TDS. Gave them some food and they seemed happy to eat it, took it out after an hour to avoid ammonia. Added 2 drops seachem prime just to be safe. 3AM and its up to 240 TDS, decided to call it a night and slowed drip from 1drop/2sec to 1drop/5 sec. Woke up this morning to see its 270 (almost there) and increased drip to 1drop/sec. Ammonia still at 0 so left it for an hour/2 till TDS was at 310. Felt it was close enough and set them loose into the tank. Looks like 3 females/2males. Males fairly low grade but females looking really good, still fully opaque even after the stress. Started munching away at the biofilm happy on the bottom, no erratic swimming and signs of stress.

1 male has a palish ring thought i dont think it goes the full way and his bottom side looks a bit fuzzy, really hoping its not the ring of death but as they were kept at GH 0 not sure what to think. Hopefully he will survive. Will continue to monitor them and maybe get a macro lens for my phone to get some nice pics for them.

Please do let me know if there is anything I missed and can do to help them survive the move!
 
Started to get interested in more shrimp and initially wanted to try CRS but water params are way too far out of optimal and no RODI. Decided on RCS for now and maybe setup a new tank in the future for them or Sulawesi Shrimp.

Found some DI water in Sainsbury for cars and started doing water changes with that. Managed to lower TDS to 330 in prep for RCS.

Got 5 RCS yesterday. To my dismay, they were kept in CRS water:
GH: 0
KH: 0
PH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0
TDS: 60
@hinterhalt Those are some crazy water parameters for shrimps (and almost anything else I can think of...) - If you get more, I would try and get them from a source that keeps them in appropriate water. Hopefully the CRS will be ok in their new home.

When I started to introduce shrimps a couple of months ago I made sure the source had water that wasn't too far off my mine... The breeder's water, I got all my shrimps from, had it at ~6 GH and TDS 230-260... (I also measured the water they came in to double check). When I introduced the first batch my water GH was about the same, my TDS however was quite a bit higher at around 380-400 ppm. (similar to yours) so out of an abundance of precaution I drip acclimated for about 6 hours (rising the TDS 20-25 ppm/hour) ...far too long and stressful for the shrimps (and me), and they were hiding like crazy when first introduced and I didn't see them much at first (I think most of the ones from the first batch are still there, but I cant be entirely sure) - in between the first and 2nd batch I got my TDS down to around 290-300 ppm. and pretty much did the drip acclimation over the cause of an hour or so... all went well, and the shrimps were all over the place from the get-go.... the bigger ones bugging my tetras :) I've later added a couple of more batches (all different colors of Neocaridina davidi) and they all seems to be thriving.

There is a big focus on the TDS number when it comes to shrimps, and hardly any discussion about what makes up the TDS in the first place, which I would think would be more important than the "number"... I haven't figured out yet what it all means. Perhaps it has something to do with sensitivity to sudden changes in water conductivity (TDS and conductivity are correlated).

Thanks for making this journal and good luck with the shrimps!

Cheers,
Michael
 
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