Shrimps and water nitrates etc

[jueloo]

Hi all
I've never kept shrimp and was considering getting some cherry reds. I dose dry salts and My co2 comes on about 3 hrs before lights so after reading this on a website it worried me a bit.

Shrimp and planted tanks seem to be perfect for each other but, well.... there not. CO2 injection is probably the biggest killer when it comes to shrimp, the shrimp cannot handle the swing in PH nor the lack of oxygen. If you are going to use both make sure you do so carefully and cut back with the CO2. I have heard too many people forgetting to reset there light timers, and then in the morning when the lights don’t come on but the CO2 starts, not only is there a giant PH swing but the plants are not consuming any of it and BAM there all dead!. Also fertilizers need to be watched, certainly NO copper additives and heavy metals should also be avoided.

How do other people with high tech set ups manage with shrimps?
Cheers
Julia

 

[tim]

Hi Julia, I've kept cherry shrimp in several of my high tech planted tanks and haven't found any issues with co2 managed well, they also need copper in minute amounts as do all living things, dosed EI for two years and not had an issue so I would say that web site is mis-informed, plenty of forum members also keep cherries, crystal reds amano shrimp etc with co2 and ferts. Shrimp don't like drastic changes in parameters but in a well managed tank most changes are gradual and reset so to speak with the weekly water change.

 

[jueloo]

Thanks Tim. I'm wondering what would be a drastic change. When I do 50%wc it's tap water through hose pipe which is really soft water. So I add some Mg and Ca but my amounts are rough guesses going by what plants need. Plants are doing ok with it but not sure if levels of dissolved solids would be too high for shrimps.
I'm probably being over cautious but I don't want to add shrimp for them to suffer and die.

Oops -the hosepipe was relevant because it goes in at whatever temp it comes out tap. I warm it up with warm water from kettle. Fish and plants seem to be ok with this but not sure shrimp will be..???

 

[X3NiTH]

I accidentally knocked out a few of my Rummy Noses with a 70% water change that was 10c cooler straight out the tap (very soft water TDS 30-40), the Tank TDS before change was around 200ish due to me remineralising a little with BeeShrimp GH+ and adding EI at 1.5x rate over the week, the Rummies recovered within a couple of minutes, the Red Cherry Shrimp and Red Rilli Shrimp didn't even notice. If I over inject CO2 after a plant trimming the fish are the first to respond, shrimps appear not bothered. I've had my tank TDS climb beyond 370 after a 3 week water change gap due to a holiday (caretaker feeding amounts probably) and came back to berried shrimp!

 

[sciencefiction]

You'll hear both stories being true. Cherry shrimp are as hardy as snails in my opinion. However, although they are hard to instantly kill, if they are affected by something, expect them to start dropping dead here and there for "no reason". They just won't breed that well either if bothered by the environment. As for TDS, cherries do well in higher TDS, 300-400ppm is not a problem to them, possibly higher than that and they won't breed well but will live. They are more likely to suffer in very low TDS on the other hand, though they can live happily in quite a range of parameters.
I did accidentally do a very cold water change once and I had a few die from it the next couple of days(not many though) so not pouring temperature matched water maybe a problem if its on constant basis. However, they do very well when gradually acclimated to colder water, even below 20C but the higher the temps, the more they breed. Other than that I do 50% water change weekly with temperature matched water to within 1-2 degree and they don't even blink.
Dry salts don't bother them at all, but liquid carbon is not very much appreciated and in high amounts is toxic to them. If injected CO2 concentration is unbearable they'll act like crazy, try to escape, jump out of tanks, or "faint", or stay still. So one can use that as a way to decide how much CO2 is too much for them to cope with in the particular tank after monitoring for a day or two while adjusting co2 levels. CO2 concentration tolerance is largely dependent on species of fish and shrimp. Some are fine for life with what others die from.

 

[tam]

How do you deal with the chlorine in the tap water? I would think that might be an issue if you are going straight from tap to tank. Splitting the water change into to would help minimise change in water temp/parameters.

 

[sciencefiction]

I empty the tank halfway, then adjust the tap water to the temp in the tank using hot/cold tap and my hand as a measure of final temp, then dose Prime directly in the tank to treat the entire tank and pour the tap water via the hose straight into the tank, normally splashing from a distance to outgass the co2 my tap water is loaded with plus it helps with outgassing clorine, and I've been doing this for many years, not just on shrimp tanks. I've never had any issues at all doing it with 50% water changes this way. Even tiny little shrimplets are not bothered at all.
I've got very accurate digital termometers so if I've gone too hot/too cold I can see the tank temp changing while filling it up so I adjust temp of the new water if necessary. Temperature shock is the only thing I try avoiding.

 

[plantbrain]

I cannot kill them. Believe me, I've tried. Reason? To cull the lower grades and keep the nicer fire reds only.
I've never found anything that will not also kill the plants as well. I've tried things like algaefix(Busan 77), all sorts of extreme fert solutions.
Temps. CO2 gassing. Bastages still survive. I have to break the entire tank down to the bone. Take all the plants out etc.

They are as tough as snails.

 

[EnderUK]

I did clean of my filter loop turned everything back on but was in a rush and left the house. Came back 6 hours later with fish swimming at the surface, my otos and SAE struggling at the bottom and a few dead amano shrimp. In my rush I hadn't checked my bubble rate.

The cherry red were still quite happily foraging the tank. Lucky a quick water change managed to save all the fish. As other's have mentioned they are tough as nails, the one thing they seem to struggle with is temperatures over 28 deg C (in my tank anyway) but even then it was maybe a loss every other day during the summer heat.

 

[jueloo]

Thanks guys for your info.

Tam, I add dechlorinator to the tank as I fill. The filter is generally off for about an hour while I trim and tidy up etc so time for dechlorinator to do its thing before turning filter on.

Sounds like I need to find a way of joining 2 hoses from hot and cold tap to mix water - as the weather gets colder this is going to be a problem.