shrimp questions

[fish 'n' fries]

Hi all,

I've been reading a ton about shrimp...and like keeping fish...there are a lot of different opinions of what to do. So I'm curious what people here do with their shrimp set ups and what has worked/hurt.

I've just got my RCS today. They're in a planted, shrimp only tank. I'm fertilizing and using excel. I generally add calcium and magnesium to my main tank as I have soft water and mystery snails in that tank. I haven't been adding it to this tank, thus far, as it only had plants. Should I for the shrimp exoskeleton? Anything else I should be doing extra in people's opinions? Thanks!

 

[TwoHobbies]

When you say soft.....how soft?

I fertilize my shrimp only tank also, but only about half the normal. I also do smaller more frequent water changes. It's a 10g and I change 20% twice a week.

 

[neilanh]

I've had issues fertilizing my shrimp tank, so I actually just stopped doing it. I found that it was killing the shrimp. I do add a little bit of calcium each week, however.

 

[JeffreyL]

Adding calcium and magnesium to raise gH should not be a problem for shrimp, and may help with their exoskeleton as you suspect. My tap has a gH of 1, so I add a mix of Mg and Ca to boost Gh. Without raising it, I could not keep livebearers or snails.

As for ferts, I just dose the shrimp tank with Flourish once a week or so. The plant load is relatively light, just a huge mass of java moss and some assorted rotallia. The light is low, so this is sufficient for slow growth. Others using a more aggressive fert regimen have reported mixed results. I have heard a few, like neilanh, have trouble mixing ferts and shrimp. But most people I've talked to can dose a level of ferts suitable for a moderatly planted, moderate light tank.

It sounds like the little guys aren't as quite as sensitive to nitrates as first reported.

 

[Lance M.]

I just have a bag of cc in my cannister filter to keep the KH up and buffer, replacing whenever it dissolves. I use to add Iodine to my tank ~every other week when I had smaller planted tanks with shrimp (amanos, bamboos, vampires). I no longer do since I combined my 5, 10, and 20 gallon planted tanks into a 54 gallon.

Right now I only have one bamboo and two vampires. My amanos disappeared a couple months ago. I want to get some cherrys but they are too small (I have two raphael catfish)and expensive.

My 54 is packed with regular java fern, lace java fern, java moss, three different types of anubias spp., an aponogeton, amazon sword, and lots of driftwood. I don't dose.

 

[Peyton]

IME the ferts that seem most harmful to them (cherry shrimp) is trace mixes and potassium nitrate. If I dose either of them I can expect a dead shrimp or two the next day. I keep them in low light tanks and only dose potassium sulfate once a week. Plus a 50% water change weekly. I would not use excel either if I were you.

At one time I had 100's of cherries in a 10g tank. I had to skip several water changes and before I knew it my cherries had died off to less than 20. Checked the nitrate level and it was around 80ppm. So again, IME, high nitrate levels do effect them. I've been doing the water changes and noticed several of them are carrying eggs again!

Bottom line... don't dose heavily and perform weekly 25-50% water changes and they should do great.

Now my amanos on the other hand are doing great in a high light, CO2 injected, EI dosed tank. :?

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I have crayfish and they shed often and successfully. By often I mean monthly. Does this suggest that I dont need to add calcium to the tank? I havent in the past and I think I have relatively hard water.

 

[Plowboy91]

is there anything else you can use to dose calcium rather than cc

?