19 gh 20 kh 8.3 ph Cherry Shrimp, Cajun Dwarf Cray, Malawa Shrimp

[Mighty Mite]

Hi guys. Tried shrimp twice before without much luck, and have some shrimp on the way from aquabid in hopes that the third time will be the charm. I heard that these three species are the easiest ones to keep and that is the main reason I went for them. In the past I kept RCS for about a year and they never did that great but they were in with large fish so no big surprise. There were a few holdouts for some time but eventually they all went the way of the dodo. Next I kept some ghost shrimp in a ten gallon and they were breeding like crazy and doing a great job cleaning up all my filthy plants from the other tanks, but eventually I added in too much plant matter that was too dirty and they all suddenly died off.

This time they are in a 40 gallon all to themselves with a bunch of moss and aquascaping of various kinds so I hope they will do better. This has an aquabridge to a 60 gallon tank with plants and aquascape and a few small fish in it. I will keep the shrimp and crayfish alone in the 40g tank for now at least. Maybe if they take off enough I will add in a few tiny fish like white clouds and so on that won't affect the shrimp much.

I believed my tap water parameters were good for virtually all aquarium needs but in some aquabid auction I saw that any kh above 8 would lead to shrimp being unable to molt and eventually kill them. The ghost shrimp actually bred like mad in the 10g, but the cherry shrimp never really took off even though there were lots of places to hide from the big fish. Is this water hardness a serious problem for those guys? RO water is really not an option because I am on a budget. Possibly I can afford to ameliorate the water with chems a bit if it is a serious problem though.

 

[jayc]

"19 gh 20 kh 8.3 ph Cherry Shrimp, Cajun Dwarf Cray, Malawa Shrimp"

 

hopefully not all in the same tank with the same water parameters.

Each specie is very different in their need for the right water parameter.

Only the Malawa shrimp, a type of Sulawesi shrimp is made for water with GH19, KH20, pH8.3. The Cajun Dwarf cray might also be okay with that hard water. 

Cherry shrimp will not survive for very long in such hard water. Their eggs wont fertilise and they will find it hard to moult. 

the Cajun Dwarf might a wider range of water parameter requirements, so will fit in RCS water or Sulawesi water.

[Mighty Mite]

Ok, maybe I can put them in a different tank I guess. Thanks!