# Ideal Conditions for Shrimp?



## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

I have a 10g Marineland LED tank with a Bio-Wheel HOB filter. It's got Fluorite substrate and some live plants (anubias nana, bacopa australis, java moss, junctus repens and marsilea quadrifolia), a couple of rocks and a piece of driftwood.

It currently houses 4 Amano Shrimp and 4 Yellow Shrimp, and I've hopefully got another 20 Yellows coming shortly. In a month or so, I may have a few male guppies to grow out in the tank.. or I may not. I know they are not ideal tank mates for shrimp babies.

I'd love some feedback on this set up and the appropriateness of it for shrimp. I plan to stuff a piece of filter sponge into the intake end of the filter. What would be the ideal water parameters (i.e. temperature, pH)? And what kind of water change schedule is needed for shrimps?

Sorry it's a blurry pic, but this is how the tank looks at the moment..


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

My recommendations would be your run of the mill general parameters/maintenance (aka. low nitrates, zero nitrite/ammonia, weekly water change) plus:

-6-6.5 pH, could go lower for CRS
-73-75'F, you can go higher to make the shrimps grow at a faster rate but keep it below 80'F.
-A high GH/TDS content, I believe my tank is around 150-200 ppm however I'll need to double check. I have heard of others keeping their tanks near 300 ppm.

Other than that not might else to say. There are supplements and addictives you can get, but they aren't absolutely necessary. With yellows and amanos it shouldn't take much to keep them healthy and happy 

Jim


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## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

Thanks Jim! Not sure I can get my pH that low, but I'll see where it is now that I've got the driftwood in there. How do you get the GH up?


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## qyrus (Apr 21, 2010)

You'll need a GH Booster. There's quite a few to choose from, I personally use Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner with good results. Just keep in mind to change GH levels gradually.

If you have trouble getting pH down, Ebiken has something called Sosei that'll safely lower your pH to levels suitable for shrimps. 

I would like to add though that these parameters are varied depending on what shrimps you'll be keeping. With yellows and amanos you can probably get by without doing anything specific aside from clean water and a slight GH content; for example I have a nice colony of fire red/cherries with amanos in my community tank at only 65ppm TDS. With other more fragile shrimps such as CRS and their variants you'll need to be more stringent with water parameters. 

Jim


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## Alkatraz (Jul 20, 2012)

Noticed you have a number of plants. Just a warning, careful with overdosing Excel (the co2 in a bottle stuff) to kill algae as something in there is hazardous to shrimp in high concentrations. I lost a few shrimp recently as I forgot about this and was using Excel to kill algae. 

Edit: I was overdosing excel to kill algae which is what caused the problem. As pointed out by others normal usage is fine.

Also, compressed co2 (from a bottle) will help you lower PH as well. (Increase the KH to buffer against Ph swings)


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## 118869 (Apr 24, 2012)

Has anyone else had this happen to them? because i have been dosing Excel in my cherries,pfr tank for the past year and havent notice anything bad. If it is proven then I better stop, i dont want my tank to become a graveyard


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## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

I've been dosing with Excel Flourish (same stuff?) for a couple of months and haven't lost any shrimp...


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## jaymz (Jun 29, 2011)

Alkatraz said:


> Noticed you have a number of plants. Just a warning, don't use Excel (the co2 in a bottle stuff) as something in there is hazardous to shrimp. I lost a few shrimp recently as I forgot about this and was using Excel to kill algae.
> 
> Also, compressed co2 (from a bottle) will help you lower PH as well. (Increase the KH to buffer against Ph swings)
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


I use florish excel and co2 booster in all my shrimp tanks ive never had a problem i keep my ph levels where they need to be for specific spicies, and use ada substrate in all my tanks my colonies are 50+ and i have alot of shrimp..

LINK
Shrimp Keeping
this is the parameters my shrimps are at......also i always test the ph in the water from suppliers before i add the shrimp into my tanks and never add the bag water to my water your tank looks great just keep your levels at species specific parameters and you will have a colony in no time....


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## Alkatraz (Jul 20, 2012)

To clarify, I was overdosing excel to kill algae (which worked) and that's what caused the problem. Confirmed by others that this happens: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/shrimp-other-invertebrates/31003-does-overdose-excel-kill-inverts.html

Updated my post to make it more clear, sorry about that! 


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## covertune (Aug 10, 2012)

I tested my water again today and just can't figure out my pH reading.. using the regular pH test I get 7.6 which is as high as that test goes, but using the high-range pH test it seems more like 7.4 (actually, it's even more yellow than that, but 7.4 is as low as that test goes), so I'm not certain on where that level sits.

GH is 5
KH is 3

I should probably try to get those up, I'm guessing. Also, will adding more driftwood help bring the pH down more? I've got a big piece in my other tank that I could use.

I also lowered my temperature to 75, and put that bit of sponge into my filter intake. Looking forward to getting my new additions!


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

covertune said:


> Thanks Jim! Not sure I can get my pH that low, but I'll see where it is now that I've got the driftwood in there. How do you get the GH up?


I personally use Seachem Equilibrium. I was dosing Excel before switching to injection. Worked fine as long as you don't overdose. I believe I was only using half dose on a not so regular schedule. My bad memory led me to a 10 lb cylinder. Lol


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