Hard water shrimps anyone?

[JK]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, and was wondering if there are any colourful species, that are suitable for keeping and breeding in my hard water.

My water has a GH of about 20, KH of about 8, and Ph 8.4, not nice but its very stable.

I am able to keep Caridina japonica, no problem they seem to live for years. But the only Neocaridina type that I can maintain and breed is a tiny little green one that originated in Sri lanka. I don't know what they are, but they only grow to about 15mm max.

Thanks

[Neonshrimp]

Hi JK and welcome to the forum . I would first recomend viewing the shrimp varieties section of this site since there are quite a few shrimp that can live in hard water including the cherry shrimp and snowall shrimp. What shrimp have you tried so far?

[JK]

Hi Neonshrimp,

I must have tried 10 or a dozen types over the last five years of so.
Some like the cherry's lasted a few months, but even the second generation gradually died out.

I did have two forms of blue ones, one with a red stripe down its back and the other predominately blue. These were actually looking pretty good until I had a distaster (my fault) I bought them as neocaridina tiwarii, any ideas what they were? I'd like to try them again if they ever become available again over here.

I have also had various bee shrimps including crystal reds...........if only I had had access to the info on this site I would have known it wasn't going to work.

Tigers lasted a while but never bred.

I'll check out the snowball ones, but sadly I've never seen them here.

Many thanks

[carbon etc]

You could try pearl shrimp if you can find them.

Might want to look into dwarf crayfish too.

[badflash]

Sounds like you have water issues. I've been there. Amano shrimp are by far the easiest to keep of the hard water shrimp. My experience is that the others, like cherry shrimp, need much cleaaner water with nearly no nitrates or phosphates, and very low metal ion content to live long term.

[Shrimp&Snails]

Yep water issues.

If you're keeping hard water shrimp in hard water and they are dying you need to re-read cycling a tank/new tank syndrome info and do weekly water changes.

[JK]

I guess because the C. japonica are so easy, I wasn't as regular on the water changes as I could have been. Ammonia, and nitrite were always zero, but there would have been around 30 ppm nitrate.

I have noticed on my little green ones, that they stop producing if the nitrate creeps up.

Assuming I keep the nitrate and in turn the phosphate right down, do you think they should be happy in my very hard alkaline water anyway?

Thanks everyone

[JK]

This is one of my little green Sri lanka shrimps.........I've managed to keep these going in my water for about five years now.

[badflash]

My water is so hard it goes CRUNCH. My shrimp do fine with a 50% weekly water change and good filtration. I keep my nitrates and phosphates at near 0 and my cherries and green shrimp ( Caridina cf. babaulti) breed like crazy.

Once the nitrates and phosphates get down to a few ppm the eggs & babies will be back.

[JK]

Thanks Badflash that makes me feel a bit more confident about having another go with the cherry's.

[Neonshrimp]

Assuming I keep the nitrate and in turn the phosphate right down, do you think they should be happy in my very hard alkaline water anyway?

This should work, so please keep us updated with you progress. By the way I like your little green shrimp

[JK]

The best bit is when the little green ones are carrying eggs....they're fluorescent green!

[Neonshrimp]

The best bit is when the little green ones are carrying eggs....they're fluorescent green!

Oh, you have to post a picture of the eggs next time!!!

[JK]

None with green eggs right now, so here's another pic.