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Shrimps in high tech: how to do water changes and dose fertlisers

neofy705

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Joined
21 Nov 2020
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82
Location
Birmingham
Hello all,

I'm fairly new to high tech tanks and shrimp keeping. I'm basically scared to do large water changes and to use a high dosage of fertilisers.

How do you keep shrimps in a high tech tank?

For water changes:
EI method suggests 50% weekly
Shrimp keepers suggest 10% weekly eco
I tried doing 30% weekly but that still causes me to lose a shrimp the day after and I'm starting to get some algae.
I age the water for a day, I match temp kh and gh and use a pump to add the water back in over the course of an hour. I can't match the ph.

My worries are I lose cherry shrimps every now and then and my nitrates are a bit high 20-40 on the api test. Amanos seem to thrive and get berried.

This is a 200L heavily planted tank with 17 rummynose tetras, 5 honey gouramis, 8 otos, nerites and amano, cherry and crystal shrimps
Ph 6.5-7.3 (co2), kh 2, gh 4, temp 23C
I'm dosing 6ml of TNC complete daily and have tropica soil.
 

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Hello all,

I'm fairly new to high tech tanks and shrimp keeping. I'm basically scared to do large water changes and to use a high dosage of fertilisers.

How do you keep shrimps in a high tech tank?

For water changes:
EI method suggests 50% weekly
Shrimp keepers suggest 10% weekly eco
I tried doing 30% weekly but that still causes me to lose a shrimp the day after and I'm starting to get some algae.
I age the water for a day, I match temp kh and gh and use a pump to add the water back in over the course of an hour. I can't match the ph.

My worries are I lose cherry shrimps every now and then and my nitrates are a bit high 20-40 on the api test. Amanos seem to thrive and get berried.

This is a 200L heavily planted tank with 17 rummynose tetras, 5 honey gouramis, 8 otos, nerites and amano, cherry and crystal shrimps
Ph 6.5-7.3 (co2), kh 2, gh 4, temp 23C
I'm dosing 6ml of TNC complete daily and have tropica soil.
Have you measured TDS?
 
Yes. TDS is around 250 in the tank.
170 in the bucket (after seachem equilibrium)


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I notice you say you age the water, do you use any treatment? ie dechlorinator

My understanding is that ageing the water for 24hrs may not remove all chlorine (as this can sometimes take longer to disperse) and will not remove chloramine which is not uncommon in tap water these days.

I also have high nitrate in my tap water (certainly 30ppm plus) and I fill straight from tap to tank (50% pw) but always use seachem prime based on full tank volume.

PH difference from tap to tank is around a 1ph drop (as I use Co2 and water change during photoperiod)

Cherrys are thriving. 😊
 
I notice you say you age the water, do you use any treatment? ie dechlorinator

My understanding is that ageing the water for 24hrs may not remove all chlorine (as this can sometimes take longer to disperse) and will not remove chloramine which is not uncommon in tap water these days.

I also have high nitrate in my tap water (certainly 30ppm plus) and I fill straight from tap to tank (50% pw) but always use seachem prime based on full tank volume.

PH difference from tap to tank is around a 1ph drop (as I use Co2 and water change during photoperiod)

Cherrys are thriving.

Nitrates from tap are zero. It's all from the tnc I think


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In my personal experience that seems unlikely. My tap is 250-260. (I have hard water around 11-12kh/gh) The shrimp tank (planted) sits around 330 - 360 and the main tank can top 400 depending on what ferts regime I’m using. (I experiment quite a lot with ferts).

I have cherries breeding in both.
D0D075A3-DCA2-4B86-8E2D-58180FBEB061.jpeg
79AF336C-D095-4708-B60F-3FC5A63B7149.jpeg

Whilst I won’t claim this is an ideal and I wouldn’t choose to keep anything other than cherries or amanos, I’ve not experienced any issues with these and have found them to be tough little critters.

I would personally be surprised to see your tds lead to losses.
 
Have you noticed any symptoms on your shrimp that have died?

A white ring around the body (failed moult) or any parasites. It could be that you have another underlying issue that is not related to your water change and spotting them a day after could just be a coincidence.

Happy for any shrimpy experts to leap in here with ideas!!
 
Have you noticed any symptoms on your shrimp that have died?

A white ring around the body (failed moult) or any parasites. It could be that you have another underlying issue that is not related to your water change and spotting them a day after could just be a coincidence.

Happy for any shrimpy experts to leap in here with ideas!!

Failed molts is what I suspect. Sometimes I see the white ring yes.


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TNC is a weekly dose? or 2-3 times per week depending on plant growth/water changes? Not saying thats got anything to do with your shrimp issues.

Its usually thought of that shrimp do not like big water changes and temperature swings. Seeing you say you're losing them after a water change im goin for that as a strong culprit.

Also, and im not picking here, but im not to keen about keeping neocaridinas with fish. If you like the idea of them maybe think of doing a tank just for them.
 
Are these shrimp new and did you get them as adults?

When I first got cherries it was recommended that I get juveniles because they adapt more easily, but because I could only find the color morph I wanted as adults, so I ignored the advice. My water parameters were nearly identical to the water they were in and I had a very mature, stable tank, so I figured it would be fine. But I gradually lost the original shrimp one by one over a period of months no matter how careful I was. It sucked. However, some did reproduce before they dropped and all their descendants have been very hardy and prolific. I don't do anything special for them during water changes at all now. I am still not really sure what I could have done to save the original set, but it doesn't matter now - the problem, whatever it was, ended with them. I have since read multiple other people report bad luck with their original shrimp and then no issues at all with the subsequent generations.

I don't know if that fits your situation, but it's not unheard of.
 
TNC is a weekly dose? or 2-3 times per week depending on plant growth/water changes? Not saying thats got anything to do with your shrimp issues.

Its usually thought of that shrimp do not like big water changes and temperature swings. Seeing you say you're losing them after a water change im goin for that as a strong culprit.

Also, and im not picking here, but im not to keen about keeping neocaridinas with fish. If you like the idea of them maybe think of doing a tank just for them.

Tnc is daily using a dosing pump.

I do my water changes on Sundays. On Monday I'll have a dead shrimp and on Tuesday another one. Then nothing for the rest of the week.

I might do an endler/shrimp tank at one point but it's so common to see shrimps in a high tech tank. I thought I could do it too. I chose fish that are ok with shrimps for that reason. I haven't seen any fish bother the shrimps at all.


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Are these shrimp new and did you get them as adults?

When I first got cherries it was recommended that I get juveniles because they adapt more easily, but because I could only find the color morph I wanted as adults, so I ignored the advice. My water parameters were nearly identical to the water they were in and I had a very mature, stable tank, so I figured it would be fine. But I gradually lost the original shrimp one by one over a period of months no matter how careful I was. It sucked. However, some did reproduce before they dropped and all their descendants have been very hardy and prolific. I don't do anything special for them during water changes at all now. I am still not really sure what I could have done to save the original set, but it doesn't matter now - the problem, whatever it was, ended with them. I have since read multiple other people report bad luck with their original shrimp and then no issues at all with the subsequent generations.

I don't know if that fits your situation, but it's not unheard of.

Hello yes these shrimps are new and I believe are all adults except for 1 crystal that's a juvenile.

I've heard this before too. I'm hoping they breed so I can finally have a healthy population of them.


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Hi all,

You might have very soft, nitrate free /www.elanvalley.org.uk/discover/reservoirs-dams/birminghams-water']Elan Valley[/URL]"> water.

Cherry Shrimps don' t get on very well in very soft water.

What does your water report say?

Cheers Darrel

Hi Darrel,

Water report states 3gh, 0 nitrates and it tests 0 for kh (hence the ph value is not really reliably measured).
Tds about 60.

It's very soft. I essentially treat it like it's ro water.
I remineralise with seachem equilibrium and kh up and supplement with calcium blocks once a week.

I feed king shrimp mineral, complete and protein and bacter ae.

This is why I'm a bit disheartened.


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Tnc is daily using a dosing pump.

Im just going off the recommended dosage from them. Its just a side note as my father in law started using it in his tanks as a weekly dose per the instructions.

I'm hoping they breed so I can finally have a healthy population of them.


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I dont think you will achieve that in a tank with fish. Even if the shrimp manage to breed at all they will be so stressed with the fish nipping, and chasing them, and the young will be eaten. These shrimp are quite fragile especially when they molt.
 
I dont think you will achieve that in a tank with fish. Even if the shrimp manage to breed at all they will be so stressed with the fish nipping, and chasing them, and the young will be eaten. These shrimp are quite fragile especially when they molt.

This has not been my experience at all. I have large shrimp colonies with nano fish in all my tanks and the adult shrimp are entirely unbothered by the fish. I have only witnessed shrimplets being eaten a handful of times, and in every instance that was because I disturbed a shrimplet hiding spot during cleaning and caused a cloud of them in the water column. I don't know why my fish have never figured out there are snacks all around them, but they just haven't.

I don't disagree that keeping fish and shrimp together is a potential conflict that everyone should be aware of before combining them, but not a guaranteed issue. I've definitely read about people who had issue with micro rasbora and shrimp and I don't doubt their experience, but I've never seen my chili rasbora go after even the smallest shrimplet. (I honestly wouldn't mind some help with population control in that tank.) It seems every tank is different.

I would be more concerned about trying to keep cherries and crystal shrimp together, but I've never kept crystals personally and that's just based on stuff I have read.
 
This has not been my experience at all. I have large shrimp colonies with nano fish in all my tanks and the adult shrimp are entirely unbothered by the fish. I have only witnessed shrimplets being eaten a handful of times, and in every instance that was because I disturbed a shrimplet hiding spot during cleaning and caused a cloud of them in the water column. I don't know why my fish have never figured out there are snacks all around them, but they just haven't.

I don't disagree that keeping fish and shrimp together is a potential conflict that everyone should be aware of before combining them, but not a guaranteed issue. I've definitely read about people who had issue with micro rasbora and shrimp and I don't doubt their experience, but I've never seen my chili rasbora go after even the smallest shrimplet. (I honestly wouldn't mind some help with population control in that tank.) It seems every tank is different.

I would be more concerned about trying to keep cherries and crystal shrimp together, but I've never kept crystals personally and that's just based on stuff I have read.
Im not sure i would call Rummynose tetras, and honey gouramis nano fish. Im just going off what the owner has in his tank now. You might get pockets hiding out in quiet areas of the tank, but to me that not much of a life. Can you have them together? sure, but they wont thrive or achieve the colony hes looking for.

When these kind of discussions crop up i always try to persuade to keep these shrimp in a dedicated tank of their own.
 
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