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TDS guidelines for shrimp

Abcdefg

Abcdefg

Member
Joined
9 Nov 2016
Messages
92
Location
South east london
Hi,

I am new to the hobby and I am looking to add shrimp to a 50 litre planted tank that's 7 weeks old.

I switched to RO water about a week ago, in order to stop using London tap, in the hope of being able to get some nice shrimp down the line (orange eye blue tigers hopefully)

I won't be getting anything expensive straight away, but perhaps around mid February, when the tank will be 4 months old, and will hopefully be stable.

I am however planning / hoping to add amanos next week mid-week and then some small fish, celestial danios or similar, next weekend.

I want to get the water in the right place in terms of TDs and chemistry this weekend, and I to next week (before adding livestock) and was wondering if I could get some advice?

The chap in the LFS suggested:

GH = between 5 and 8
KH = 5
PH = 6.5 to 7.0

As something to aim for when remineralising.

Can I ask:

- are recommended TDS ranges that are quoted for particular types of shrimp important in and of themselves?

I.e. is a quoted TDS range just being used as a proxy for suggesting water purity?

- can TDS ranges be exceeded if using pure demineralised RO water? E.g if there aren't any tap water nasties and unknowns, will a shrimp with a suggested TDS of 150 - 200 be happy in pure RO (0 TDs) demineralised to 250 to 350 TDS using shrimp products and EI fert dosing?

Or are shrimp very sensitive to TDS levels irrespective of what the dissolved solids are?


- are there any processes to work out what the hard scape and plants in my tank are naturally buffering towards? So I'm not fighting against them? Or is that not worth looking in to with weekly 50% water changes?

Many thanks,

Tom
 
I keep CRBs in normal tap water and use Tropica ferts. The TDS in my tank was around 400 and the shrimp were fine but not hugely active. I've recent decided to get some Taiwanese bee shrimp so am switching to RO water slowly. Now the water in my tank is 270 tds with ferts added and I've noticed my CRBs aren't hiding as much and are generally looking happier. My aim is to get the TDS down to 180 with ferts. I add the Tropica ferts once a week and they increase my TDS by 20, I also do 50% water changes each week.

I've only been keeping CRBs (not PRL ones) for a few months now but from my experience the ones I have can cope with higher TDS but they are much happier with TDS below 200. From what I've read Tigers and Taiwanese Bees are less tolerant to high TDS so I think you should aim for a TDS between 150-200.

There are other members with much more experience than me keeping shrimp. I'm just passing on what I've experienced in the short time I've been keeping shrimp.
 
DavidW said:
I keep CRBs in normal tap water and use Tropica ferts. The TDS in my tank was around 400 and the shrimp were fine but not hugely active. I've recent decided to get some Taiwanese bee shrimp so am switching to RO water slowly. Now the water in my tank is 270 tds with ferts added and I've noticed my CRBs aren't hiding as much and are generally looking happier. My aim is to get the TDS down to 180 with ferts. I add the Tropica ferts once a week and they increase my TDS by 20, I also do 50% water changes each week.

I've only been keeping CRBs (not PRL ones) for a few months now but from my experience the ones I have can cope with higher TDS but they are much happier with TDS below 200. From what I've read Tigers and Taiwanese Bees are less tolerant to high TDS so I think you should aim for a TDS between 150-200.

There are other members with much more experience than me keeping shrimp. I'm just passing on what I've experienced in the short time I've been keeping shrimp.
Click to expand...


Hi David, Thanks!

Can I ask if you are going to head owards pure RO water? or whether you will cut it with tap water?

If you are going to pure RO, what do you plan on re mineralising it with? for the first big pure RO water change (90 to 95%) I used a shrimp remineraliser, but I have been dosing EI as well, and I'm thinking it might put the TDS up too dramatically, so maybe I should dose less or switch to a different fertilising technique... although I dont want the plants to suffer.

Thanks,

Tom
 
Hi im using pure ro which I really mineralise with shrimp minerals. I've read about an ei method that doesn't increase tds much but can't recall what is called. I use tropical all In one ferts once a week and easy carbo every day and my plants grow well. Here's my tank.
20161208_191614.jpg
 
Just to give you an idea, I have CRS in tap water with no problem. My tds is around 300 atm but increases daily due to mineral rock within my landscape rock. I'll be totally honest with you, shrimp can live in any sort of water providing you acclimate them correctly, the main thing shrimp need is VERY STABLE water parameters. Honestly don't worry to much about tds, worry more about keeping your water stable.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
 
Shrimp cannot live in any sort of water. What you will find, if you keep crs/taiwans/tigers in too high a gh, is that your shrimp will suffer moulting problems and at this point die. Tigers are usually happy in the same parameters as crs/taiwans but will be happy in slightly harder conditions with a slightly higher ph too. For taiwans I wouldn't go over 180 gh6 whereas Tigers can go a bit higher. Your kh is ideally low at 0 - 2.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 
I've been talking to a few shrimp breeder/keepers and they are now generally swaying away from the Re-mineralised water method as more and more people begin keeping CRS so shrimp are being introduced.

Personally speaking I am neither here nor there about it but I think the remineralised RO would give the shrimp the best living conditions and therefor you'll see them at their best. It's all subjective but I would say if it works for you fine! There is the belief that 150 TDS, KH 0-1 and GH4 is the optimum for CRS (IMO) and if anyone were to ask, that's what I would say but really, if your shrimp are behaving naturally, are breeding successfully with a decent baby survival rate and they look good then well done you and good luck.

I would by and large say the most important aspect is stability. If you have a tank that's 300TDS etc keep it that way, and you should be fine. GH is something you should pay attention to as Lindy points out - it's the biggest killer, and if I were to say levels of importance it's right up there with ammonia and over feeding. No point in getting everything right just to see your shrimp die because your making them repeatedly moult.:thumbup:
 
SinkorSwim said:
There is the belief that 150 TDS, KH 0-1 and GH4 is the optimum for CRS
Click to expand...

Thanks All!,

I might try starting to target these as something to aim for and see it I can keep the tank around here without too much trouble, if it proves difficult I'll see what the nearest to these that I can get is. As mentioned there's nothing in the tank but plants (and planaria :( ) at the moment so I have some time to try to get it right.

Can I ask what the guidelines for water changes are? I understand that trying to match the tanks wate rchemistry as much as possble with incoming water is a must, but how much in terms of percentage to people change? and how often?

could I ask; during setting up the tank I've had the luxury of being about to change water up to 95%, and with EI dosing 50% a week is recommended. Obviously the first one is out of the question, but 50% probably isn't possible as well I'm imagining?

Thanks
 
SinkorSwim said:
I've been talking to a few shrimp breeder/keepers and they are now generally swaying away from the Re-mineralised water method as more and more people begin keeping CRS so shrimp are being introduced.
Click to expand...

Interesting... is the reason for this that the shrimp will be going to tanks that aren't pure RO? or that they are coming from tanks that aren't pure RO?

Thanks
 
i don't suppose anyone has any planaria advice?

I'm trying the 'no planaria' product (betel nut based) but it really doesn't seem to be working. It has removed some hydra that I had, but there seem to be a lot of planaria left just worming around as per usual...
 
Hi all,
Abcdefg said:
i don't suppose anyone has any planaria advice?
Click to expand...
Fenbendazole (Panacur) works, I don't know whether it is <"shrimp safe">.
Abcdefg said:
but there seem to be a lot of planaria left just worming around as per usual...
Click to expand...
How are they moving? if they are looping, rather than gliding, they might be Leeches. I have them in some of the tanks, they aren't blood sucking but they will eat fish eggs etc.

There isn't any easy way of controlling Leeches, they aren't susceptible to most pesticides.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all, Fenbendazole (Panacur) works, I don't know whether it is <"shrimp safe">.How are they moving? if they are looping, rather than gliding, they might be Leeches. I have them in some of the tanks, they aren't blood sucking but they will eat fish eggs etc.

There isn't any easy way of controlling Leeches, they aren't susceptible to most pesticides.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

Hi Darrel,

They are gliding along smoothly and now and then they contract in to round dots when 'sleeping' or resting in some way presumably.

They look like this:

IMG_3538.jpg


this:

IMG_3538.jpg
IMG_3538.jpg


and heres a few hanging around in dot mode;
 

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I cant see the 'triangular head and eyes that is often mentioned and seen in photos" so now Im wondering if they are.

I am using a product made from betel nut palm extract on them, but I havent had any noticable results, so I'm dosing it fairly heavily... I started dosing on the assumption that they where planaria, before I got a chance to get the macro lens on them and have a proper look. perhaps they aren't planaria and I am being super mean to them with no reason, which wouldn't be fair...

Thanks
 
Thank Darrel,

The dot guys definitely seem to be the same as the gliding sort, if i plovoke them by shining light right on the glass where they are then them get in the move in the elongated way of the top photos.

the most distinctive feature they have seems to be three pale yellow dots at the rear of their bodies (the rear as in the other end from their direction of travel)
 
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