Caridina Zebra, best breeding conditions.

[fishmosy]

Not much in this thread, but temperature for zebs has been discussed elsewhere.

Yes, temperature is absolutely critical. I believe around 22 is the absolute max they can handle, and I try to avoid that at all costs. I keep mine at 18-20 and that seems to keep them happy. Even short exposures to higher temperatures (think a day or two) is enough to knock them around - 95% of colony that was doing well will die over the next two weeks when temps are too high, and the survivors will often die in the following weeks or months. 

[Alex]

im not sure if it has been discussed elsewhere or howmuch looking into the literature people have done but J.W. Short who first described them lists the parameters as follows

• pH 5.5
• hardness <10ppm
• temp 18-20 degrees
• dissolved O2 5.8-6.0ppm

it is my belief that most keepers are still keeping them in water that is still not soft enough. and relying too much on TDS instead of gH

[fishmosy]

On ‎21‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 11:25 AM, Alex said:

im not sure if it has been discussed elsewhere or howmuch looking into the literature people have done but J.W. Short who first described them lists the parameters as follows

• pH 5.5
• hardness <10ppm
• temp 18-20 degrees
• dissolved O2 5.8-6.0ppm

it is my belief that most keepers are still keeping them in water that is still not soft enough. and relying too much on TDS instead of gH

I disagree on one point - I believe it is better to rely on TDS instead of GH for two reasons: (1) We don't know what the actual GH of the water is in wild zeb habitats. Whenever I've measured GH in wild zeb habitats, it has always been less than one drop = less than 10 ppm. There is no test kit that I'm aware of that has any higher resolution. In a chemical test kit, such as API, you might be able to use more water in the test tube (e.g. 20 mL) but when I've tried it the colour change was too difficult to see. Hence trying to monitor GH in an aquarium setting is not viable using chemical test kits. (2) You can get a reliable measure of TDS using a TDS meter to very low values. TDS is consistently low in wild zeb habitats (typically less than 20ppm, and often in single digits), hence GH is going to be very low regardless. I've found that keeping an eye on TDS is a good way to monitor water parameters in the tank, along with water changes using very small amounts of shrimp salts to have some minerals available for the shrimp.