Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hi all, last I posted was in the spring when I started a thread about being in "shrimp withdrawl" due to living overseas in Italy and not having the ability to get my hands on the supplies I needed to set up any tanks. Well, I am happy to say I am back in the USA now and moving in to my new living quarters down in Washington, DC. Which means it's time to get back into the hobby once again!

Okay so one of the first things I did when I got down here was to go buy a new API test kit and the API hardness kit. Here are the results for the tap water for where I am living:

GH ~ 11
KH ~ 5
pH ~ 7.8 (comes out of the tap around 7.6 and then creeps up a few more tenths after sitting overnight)

Before I arrived here I was thinking that if my water was relatively soft and acidic (or neutral), I would have a go at CRS's. But that seems to not be in the cards, and I don't want to mess with trying to use spring water or any such thing. I'd just like to find species that will thrive in the water I have coming out of the tap.

So in light of those water conditions, any suggestions? Help me brainstorm!! I don't want to do RCS, as I have done them before and, while enjoyable, I am ready to move on to something else. Seeing some pictures of the Blue Pearls have got me interested. I am also a bit fascinated by Malaya shrimp and their color-changing properties--I think that would be a neat phenomenon to observe in a tank. I am also interested in possibly branching out into dwarf crays, though I've seen (comparatively) little info on what water conditions the cajuns or CPO's prefer. Some of the attempts to selectively breed the blue coloration in the cajuns sounds like a project I might be interested in.

Heck, I've even given a thought to the possibility of putting down aragonite substrate in a tank and trying my hand at Cardinal shrimps or other Sulawesis...but as far as I can tell, prices on those things are still running $100+ for a mere 5 or 6 shrimp, which is simply WAY out of my price range.

Anyway, sorry if this is a bit rambling, but I am just at the stage now of really trying to figure out what has the most chance of being successful in my water here. Any ideas at all are welcome!

P.S. -- As far as space goes, right now I am living in what is essentially a college dorm room, so I am looking at a 20 long (or, two 10 gallon tanks) as the max I am going to be able to fit, at least for the time being.

What fun deciding what shrimp you would like to keep.

Possibly:
Malaya
Sri Lanka
Indian Zebra
Snowball
Green Shrimp
Dark Green Shrimp (not sure about the water these like but they are really pretty)

I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now.

You should also talk to some of the breeders you are interested in. Some of the inverts and fish I have come across here in Toronto were bred here in our local water which means they are well aclimated. Our water tends to be about the same as yours.

BiffMalawi wrote:You should also talk to some of the breeders you are interested in. Some of the inverts and fish I have come across here in Toronto were bred here in our local water which means they are well aclimated. Our water tends to be about the same as yours.

This is very good advice!!!

Yeah, tomorrow I'm going to be attending my first aquarium club meeting in this area (it's actually an Aquatic Plant club but from talking to a couple of the members they say they talk a lot about livestock too--and there are at least a few members who currently have shrimp). So I'm definitely all over that.

There is also a pretty amazing LFS near here (recommended by someone from this club) that I visited a few days ago and is pretty amazing. Without a doubt the best fish store I've ever been in--huge, all the fish looked to be in fabulous shape, and they had a nice collection of shrimps, including a whole tank of RCS (with babies all the way up to berried adults, looks like they just keep a breeding colony going in-house), amanos, bee shrimp, and a few others. So in a worst-case scenario I know I have some options. They also have a pretty nice collection of live foods for sale.

Anyway...we'll see. I plan to set up at least one 10 gal this weekend to get going on the cycling and aging. I still have a little time before I need to make a final decision about shrimp.