# Need some advice on shrimp keeping!



## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

I've been keeping a 10 gallon cherry shrimp tank for over a year now. It's quite disappointing as I can't seem to have them breeding. I so envious of everyone's tank with all those shrimplets! I hope to some day keep CRS!
And I tried to keep CRS before..but.. they didn't last...

Any advice on water parameter, feeding water change etc would really be appreciated...

Following is my setup:
10G
Florite
Java moss
moss ball
HOB aquaclear filter with a sponge over the intake
10 hours of lighting per day

Shrimps:
8 cherry shrimps (mostly female)
1 tiny amano shrimp (same size as the cherrys)

Water parameter:
Ph 7.8
KH:7
GH:6
NO3:0
NO2:0
Ammonia:0
25-26C

Water change:
I use Seachem dechlorinator, equilibrium, Alkalinity for water change
10-25% water change
bi weekly - monthly (Because the tank not populated at all. some time i don't change water for 1.5 month - tested no ammonia build up)


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

That's odd, your parameters check out fine based on my brother's setup. He just tops off too, doesn't even do WC's often and they are breeding fine.

I really have no advice at this point in time, hopefully someone more educated can lend you a hand as I have nothing.


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

I'm wondering If doing water change is actually doing more harm by causing slight change in water parameters. I tried to adjust the tap water to similar water parameter during water change though.
Btw I'm not sure If I'm under feeding them? I feed them daily, a quarter of a piece of CRS food. 4mmx4mmx2mm.


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## Pamelajo (Feb 9, 2011)

From what I was told when I got into them a couple years back. If there are any babies in the tank they can get sucked up through the prefilter on the aquaclear. I never saw any berried females, but once I switched to a intake sponge filter started to see some little ones. 
This one is from experience two tanks side by side, 
same water, 
heat about the same 
lighting time the same
same food
one had lots of plants the other minimal plants
the one with the plants is breeding like crazy the other numbers seem to be dwindling
so now make sure I have lots of plants in shrimp tanks, floating clippings, guppy grass etc. and now am scooping shrimps out at least once a month to take to the lfs.
When doing water changes use a nylon over the intake, to assure if there is little ones they are not getting sucked up. Now that I have so many I don't use the nylon. Or siphon into a bucket and scoop out the babies. 
As for feeding they eat very little so that is probably enough, I would give them some variety though. Throw in left over little pieces of vegetables from supper, beans, peas (shell off), cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato. If you ever have shrimp or muscles etc throw in a tiny piece.
Hope this helps!


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## Tn23 (Apr 21, 2010)

Stan, 

Try lowering the pH a bit and adding some Indian almond leaves(PM/txt me I'll give you some) to help buffer the water. 
I noticed mine breed better in lower pH water.


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

I used to put almond leave in my tank. stop using it because of the tann. I actually have several almond leaves sitting around. I think I should start add almond leaves again.!


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## Tn23 (Apr 21, 2010)

The tannins it released was the reason why I stopped using it as well


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## Nanokid (May 18, 2010)

zero NH3 No2 and No3? most tanks have at least a bit of one of those....


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## mysticalnet (Apr 22, 2010)

I think your pH is a bit too high, try going for closer to 7.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

wouldn't lowering the amount of alkalinity you add solve the PH? try half as much and in a few water changes your PH should be lowered and your KH will still be in the safe zone (3-4) to prevent PH crashes.


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## waynet (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi Stan:

I am a beginner too. But my CRS seem to be doing a lot better these days. 

I think you need ADA or Fluval soil or a bare bottom tank with a little bit of ADA soil in the corner.

My water in Richmond from the tap is about pH 7.0.

You should raise your GH to 4-6.

The GH from my tap is 0 when I measured it

I have 2 pregnant CRS but still waiting for my first batch of shrimplets with these parameters.

I was using bare bottom before with lots of moss, I had one batch of 6 shrimplets. But they died because I was changing water too frequently I think.


Wayne.


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

Sounds like my first focus should be lowering the PH! Btw.. I have some crush coral in my filer.. I wonder if it would keep the PH high? I added it originally hoping to maintain the KH?


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## Tn23 (Apr 21, 2010)

Crushed coral is suppose to bring up the pH, probably would be a good idea to remove that actually.... you can use other products to increase the GH and KH other then crushed coral.


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

Nanokid said:


> zero NH3 No2 and No3? most tanks have at least a bit of one of those....


I find that odd as well. Because the tank has been up for over a year. I wonder if it is because the tank is extremely lightly populated (under 10 shrimps). Perhaps that's why the NO3 is so low? In fact I can spot traces of blue green algae between the gravel and the glass. I read that low NO3 will cause BG Algae. I wonder if i should Introduce a few otto cat and dwarf cory to "Populate" the tank?


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

Tn23 said:


> Crushed coral is suppose to bring up the pH, probably would be a good idea to remove that actually.... you can use other products to increase the GH and KH other then crushed coral.


I wonder what should have in my HOB filter. Right now I have a sponge, crush coral (Which I should remove, Since my ph is too high),and those bio stuff. that leave my filter quite empty??


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## Pamelajo (Feb 9, 2011)

Extra sponge!


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

Remove only the crushed coral, you can leave the bio media from your filter where it is. If you want to provide food for your shrimp purchase abit of Ada as your shrimp will eat the substrate too.

The reason why CRS wasn't a success for you is because you didn't have the right parameters, and if they don't breed then they will slowly die off.

You should add some ADA soil and see if you can keep CRS, I had the same problem as you but now all my CRS are breeding since I added ADA!


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Other substrates besides ADA that stabilize your PH lower: Florabase, Fluval's substrate. I personally like less messy substrates, as replanting in ada (or equivalent) will cause a nice ammonia spike sometimes. Remember that our water is bang on neutral here, so its really easy to slightly adjust what we need.

CRS can breed in 7.0+ water, just not as quickly, but theres little things you can do that doesn't tinge the water brown like adding peat, using lots of driftwood or using almond leaves. If you have a PH probe, i'ts fairly easy to adjust the PH before you put the water in the tank. How? Citric acid. More so, many recommend to age your water before adding it to the tank. So fill a bucket, treat it for hardness, have a pump to circulate the water so it dissolves over night, then measure the PH, slowly add lime juice until you get the PH down to around 6.5-6.7

By far the easiest method would be injection based co2 with a ph probe, but thats $$$


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

I heard alot of good stuff about ADA before! I got florite back then (instead of ADA or florabase) as I've heard that It could be mess to handle? And ADA don't last too long in the tank? I wonder if it would be a good idea to add ADA now, to my existing tank with florite I was thinking of filling the front part of the tank with some ADA? may be 1/3 of the base?

Or should I all together start a new tank if i ever consider using ADA? I'm afraid It'll cause more harm if I add it in now? I wonder if adding ADA in the filter would work?

I'm kind of interested in the Fluval' substrate! Anyone have experience with it? I heard it's less messy?


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## stan (Aug 30, 2010)

stan said:


> I wonder what should have in my HOB filter. Right now I have a sponge, crush coral (Which I should remove, Since my ph is too high),and those bio stuff. that leave my filter quite empty??


LOL! I dug into to my filter realizing that I've removed my bag of crush coral and replaced it with more bio stuff long ago! How forgetful I am.
I wonder if I'm just adding too much Seachem alkinity when i do water changes. I'm going to do a water change to try to lower the ph over the week. while maintaining 3-4 KH


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