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Wild bees


chibikaie

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Has anyone raised wild type Caridina cantonensis? How do their requirements compare to the red and black crystal shrimp that were developed from them?

I'm working on a planted blackwater tank, and I'm considering putting a colony of shrimp in it if I can find ones that would do well in the water. I don't have finalized water parameters yet, but I'm looking at anything that will do well in soft, acidic, cool water. It does not have an actively buffering substrate, so that rules out CRS, but I was wondering how the wild form might fare. If they are a little more hardy, I'm thinking that they might do well.

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A couple things, from what I have heard the wild bee shrimp are much hardier. The only reason bees need soft water is from the intense inbreeding used to create color and pattern variations.  Also you dont "need: an active substrate for CRS, if your water is soft then there shouldnt be any problem with keeping CRS in that tank. 

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Have you taken the RO water and gassed it off then checked its pH before you added it to the tank? If the RO after gassing off is still below 7 then you add it to the tank and the pH goes upt to 7.4 there is something in the tank buffering the pH

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I was under the impression that lava rock didn't have a significant effect on water parameters, but I could be wrong on that.

I have alkaline, soft tap water (yes, a bit weird). So I wasn't very sanguine about CRS being very happy in those conditions without a little help. I'm kind of fond of wild type aquatics, so I was thinking that the wild bees might be the way to go. I'll hope you guys are right and I'll see where the pH ends up after I get some alder cones.

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To gass off the water you can either let it sit in an open container for a couple days or run an airstone in the water overnight. This will usually change the pH of the water, dissolved C02 in the water will cause a lower pH reading, after gassing off (removing the dissolved c02) the pH will usually read higher.

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