Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi all, just wondering anyone tried put in the lava rocks that peoples use for their barbecue. Considering to put in some into my Red Cherry shrimp tank, don't like the white colour of the clushed coral/sand. My Red Crystals are breeding like no tomorrow, but the Red Cherries are very slooooow, would like to bring the ph up a bit too see it'll help or not! Thank you in advance!

Set up a separate tank for the cherries. The water needs of these two species makes it tought to get both to be productive in the same tank. I have some bumblebees in with amanos and the amanos are breeding like crazy but nothing from the bumblebees. Bumblebees and Crystal Reds need the same sort of water. In another tank I have cherries with the exact same water conditions and the cherries are breeding like roaches.

Cherries like hard basic water. Crystal Reds need soft acidic water. If you want both to do well, you need two tanks.

Don't stick strange material in your tank. Who knows what that stuff is made of and what will leach out of it.

lava rock is fine. it is totally harmless, just don't use any that has been in the grill.

Sorry, forgot to mention, my Red Cherry and Red Crystal shrimps are in 2 seperated tanks. Ya, the Red Crystal's water is around 6.7, and the Red Cherry's water is around 7. But don't have much action from the Red Cherry. That's why is considering to bring up the ph of the water a bit to see it will help to improve. Theoretically, the Red Cherry should breed much faster then the Red Crystal! Am I right?

Are you asking if lava rocks will raise the ph? If so, no they won't. If you are just asking if you can safely put lava rocks in a tank, then the answer is "yes," as long as nothing was added to the lava rock (i.e. chemicals.

As for which shrimp species reproduces faster, the answer would be the red cherry shrimp, if the right conditions are given. Other than putting crushed coral in your tank or filter the only other option is really to use baking soda (tiny amounts) to bring the ph up. Crushed coral is really the best idea since you do not have to worry about adjusting water parameters again when you change your water.

By the way, there are tons of people here who would LOVE to have your problem (crystal reds breeding faster than red cherries).

Get a phosphate test kit and test for phosphates. I could not get my shrimp to breed because I was using a phosphate based buffer and that absolutely inhibited breeding. Once I got rid of the phosphates, got my hardness where it belonged (turns out my tap water isperfect) with a pH of 7.4 the shrimp immediatley showed saddles and since then have been having babies like crazy. My tank is litterally crawling with young shrimp.

How often do you do water changes and how much? How to you set your pH?

As for lava rock, be aware that some of the stuff sold for grills is synthetic and chemicals will come out of it. Natural pumice would be fine, but that is not always what you get.

I went to home depot and they had some real cheap red & green slate stone squares. Cost about a buck each. A hammer reduced these to nice chunks that I could build all sorts of hidely holes for shrimp. The color are cool and it looks very natural.

What PH level are we trying to achieve for the cherry reds? Back in my African Cichlid days I used a product by Seachem called Marine Buffer and it kept my tanks at a constant 8.4. Is that too high for the cherries?
I really like lava rock and a piece or two usually ends up in all my tanks. I think the surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow on must be much greater on lava rock compared to other rocks.

After my experience with other buffers, I'd be real gun shy with that stuff. I use R/O right for hardness then tweek it with seachem acid buffer and alkaline buffer to fix the pH.

Hi Mustafa, maybe I'm just lucky bought a very productive team! I would like to see a tank full of Super Tomato Red colour Red Cherry shrimps on top of my green plants too.

The reason that I asked this question is, I read on the net, some peoples saying the lava rock will increase the ph a bit. Also, the moss can attached on the lava rock very easily becasue of the porous surface.

At this moment, I'm planning to bring the ph up to 7.5 to give it a try and see! Thanx for all the replies! Happy shrimps keeping! I'm also a wet green thumb that keep plants too! The last line is not shrimp related!