chibikaie Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Hi, long time lurker here. I kept some wild type neocaridina in the past, but they took a bad hit after Hurricane Sandy last year and I gave them away (lost power and thus heat/filtration for three days; survivors seemed healthy but less than half made it through). I want to keep shrimp again. I'm a big fan of wild types, but I might like some more colorful shrimp this time around. There are a couple issues with me and shrimp. The first is my water. I will not be using RO; distilled and remineralized is an option for only really tiny tanks, which I don't like due to potentially unstable water parameters. So I'll most likely be using tap, which comes out with a pH of 7.6, GH and KH at 3, TDS 120. There don't seem to be a lot of shrimp that like those parameters. Neos were fine and I can boost calcium levels (and I see DK also mentioned magnesium) easily enough. Malawa shrimp look really interesting, and it seems like it wouldn't be tough to cater to them. I have also heard that Amano shrimp are very hardy and not fussy about their exact water paremeters. Secondly, I love plants but kill them with alarming regularity. I figure I will get around this problem by setting the tank up for several months with snails only, making sure that I have worked out how to keep the plants happy before I add shrimp. It should give the tank time to grow a nice crop of biofilm, too. I'm thinking floaters, anubias, marimo balls, Cryptocoryne wendtii, and moss. I know a lot of shrimpers go with moss only, but I'm not kidding when I say I have trouble growing moss. Lastly, I don't have a tank available. I will be rearranging my fish tanks some time next summer/fall and will then have a 20 gallon long free. This seems excessive, but maybe it would be a good breeding setup? I have a variety of nano tank options, from gallon jars to 2 gallon critter keepers; lighting those is always problematic, plus my aforementioned aversion to tiny tanks. I'm thinking of just going out and getting something, though of course I'm not supposed to be adding to my pet collection ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myklt8 Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soothing Shrimp Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Welcome! Glad you could join us. "I will not be using RO; distilled and remineralized is an option for only really tiny tanks" I'm curious why you think that? heh I use tenners and up for my shrimp. If you buy Salty Shrimp remin powder, it lasts a very very long time. Of course as you mentioned, bump the GH up to 6+ and you'll do fine with Neos or Malawa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art by Stef* Posted December 24, 2013 Report Share Posted December 24, 2013 Hello and welcome! We just set up a low light shrimp tank (our first, will post pics soon). As far as plants go, these are the non moss species I've have luck with for my mini (jarred) betta tanks, excluding what you mentioned. These tanks all have very low to medium light, and some of these plants are incorporated into the shrimp tank. Please excuse any spelling errors. Japan hydrocotyle or pennywort, can't really tell which one I got or if it's the same thing, sunset hygrophilia but illegal to ship across state lines (judging by the hurricane Sandy reference, it's usually available in the North East US), petite nano anubias, and java windelov fern. Water lettuce as floaters (shrimp love to hang out on the roots) but need to "prune" it back often or it will completely cover the water surface. Runner ups, meaning sometimes they "take" well, and sometimes they don't (depends on where you place them in the tank) are blyxa japonica and water wisteria. Other than java moss and the moss balls, I have a hard time keeping mosses looking good, although I am having some success with Christmas moss, but too soon to tell. -Stef* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chibikaie Posted December 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2013 Thanks for the welcome you guys are awfully nice. I didn't mean that distilled water wasn't an option for other people, just that I personally refuse to frequently lug several gallons of water from the store. Installing an RO unit isn't possible for me, so, well, if I'm going to cart water around, it'll be small quantities. For some reason, hydrocotyle died a very mysterious death in my tank. I am trying to grow some other hygrophila species (my state has a lot of restrictions on aquatic plants, and I do my best to respect the laws), although they do not seem to be as hardy. Okay, frankly, they're half-dead and I'm still trying to figure out what they are missing before they totally kick the bucket and I give up on them. Whoops? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mosspearl Posted December 26, 2013 Report Share Posted December 26, 2013 Welcome! So glad you posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OblongShrimp Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Welcome to the forum! You can easily keep neos in your water if you don't want to deal with RO or distilled. There are tons of color morphs of neos out there now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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