Parameters for Aussie Native Shrimp- RNS + DAS

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Hi Guys, I have 20 odd DAS and 20 odd RNS. Just wondering what parameters you keep your aussie natives at please? Im reading so many different parameters on the Web. I suspect I'm too high. I'm on rain water and I have crushed coral in my tank as naturally my water is ph 7, GH 0-1, KH 0-1 (so low that my API test is already yellow/green on the first drop. My rainwater has a TDS of 7. It's pretty close to RO water! My temp is set at 27 and I read some websites saying that's fine and some are saying too high. I can slowly bring it down as I'm set up to an inkbird. So my tanks parameters are ph- 7.4, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites- 0ppm, Nitrates- 0-10ppm, GH-5, KH- 3, TDS- 150-187 roughly in that range. I do have to raise my GH slightly as the crushed coral wasn't enough and I have been using seachem aquavitro GH+. Im thinking I'm way off but that's what a lot of websites had said go DAS and RNS. I have the ability to reduce it slowly if it's needed. My shrimp are really happy, not showing signs of distress. I also have 10 baby delicate blue eyed fish (aussie natives) and a baby bristlenose pleco. He'll be moving onto a 235L community tank I bought, when he gets a bit bigger. Anyway, helllppppp!! Am I on the right track or do I need to reduce? I can slowly take away the crushed coral and do 10% water changes over a month or 2 if too high. Thanks guys! 

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Also I added boss aquaria mineral balls. They haven't impacted on the parameters and TDS is in the same range. Are they a good idea to use on top of the seachem aquavitro GH+ or unnecessary? I have a lot of moulting going on and I thought I saw one with the white ring of death so I added the mineral balls in hopes of helping her. Im unsure if that's what it is, as she is also heavily berried atm and I'm very new to shrimp keeping. My tank is also very heavily planted. Thanks! 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I have used 'mineral balls' in the past (not boss aquarium ones) and I'm not sure/convinced they do anything but as you have them you may as well leave them in the aquarium, they shouldn't do any harm anyway!

You are likely to see more moulting at this point as that is triggered with changing water parameters, ie yours and sellers water would be different? Doing a large water change can also trigger moulting. Don't try to alter the water parameters too quickly or in too larger steps, especially if the shrimp seem otherwise happy, as that will actually make things much worse.

I expect JayC will be able to advise you on your native shrimp parameters when he is next on here.

Hope your shopping trip to the city went well and you got lots of ideas and stuff?

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Hi Simon, how are you? Good to hear from you! Yeah I have no clue if these mineral balls will do anything. Because I have crushed coral and I only need a tiny bit of seachem aquavitro GH+, I thought I should maybe add some mineral balls, but now that I think of it, the crushed coral is calcium carbonate (? I know it's some form of calcium) so maybe I should ditch the balls. I'm sure they are not harming anything atm. I also bought the river mud powder too. The crushed coral is in a chamber in the tank, so I can easily take a few pieces out each week. I do just worry about taking out too much though as it holds BB too. Im going to be buying a fluval 107 for the tank, so I'll hook it up for a week or two before I start removing any crushed coral. Thanks, yeah water parameters...I found some reliable sites saying 4-8GH and 1-4KH for aussie natives and then temp i think is a maybe a tad too warm- not sure. My fish and shrimp seem very happy. They playfully swim around and eat a lot, appear very content. I think Jason said he keeps his in really soft water. I can get back to that slowly but I would certainly do it over two or even 3 months, just to make it hopefully unnoticeable to the inhabitants of the tank. Yeah I do my regular weekly 10% water change and the shrimp and fish love it. I do getting moulting afterwards. I'm still trying to find a decent plant fert that doesn't require a 50% water change each week. I feel 50% is way too hard for the shrimp. I'm just using API leaf zone currently as no water change is required but I'm going to buy the Seachem Flourish and give it a go. Shopping trip + psych appt trip last week was good. We firstly drive to Jason's to pick up the plants, then I ducked into Birkenhead Point which is a shopping centre that is all the major brands but at discount prices. I got some Merrell hiking boots and converse shoes. Then we raced over to Bondi to get to my psych. Then we were going to go to a pub for a decent lunch but my mum rang and she hadn't been able to get home to let the dogs off the deck to go potty (she babysits my niece most days of the week as my sister and BIL had to return to work). So dad and I just grabbed some KFC at Syd Airport (we'll just outside of it), ate I and raced home. We beat the peak hour traffic too, which was good. I have to go back up this Thursday and have to be in the city. There is a fish store I discovered in the city somewhere, so I want to find it. I also went past another in the inner west, near Birkenhead Point so I want to pop into it too. There is another on the way home too I would love to drop into as well. Probably a bad idea when I'm so low on cash- it's all gone towards the fish set up atm. Im going camping next weekend too, and there are some LFS's on the way there too. Im going with yowie- bigfoot- researchers. Yowie Dan is well known in Aus and is a good friend of mine. We have yowie activity at our place throughout the colder months. He has done an investigation at mine with doco maker Attila Kaldy buy it was in summer and no activity. They are going to return this winter once activity picks up again. But we are going to the megalong valley in the blue mountains as its Australia's biggest hotspot. It's going to be very very cold. Looking forward to it though. Dan also has a number of tanks and he is passing on a few tanks to me for a hospital tank and as a shrimp tank. It'll depend on the sizes, as im not sure what they are, but it'll be great to have a few spare. Anyway, I hope you are having an awesome Sunday! It's Monday here and it's a public holiday! Kings Birthday. I hope you are well, along with your Betta and Shrimp. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I have never used any plant fertilizers and my plants all do very well, in fact, if I could buy something to slow the plant growth down, that I would definitely buy.................. Do you think it is neccesary in your case? The faster the plants grow, the more maintenance you will need to do. I generally believe fertiliser is only needed for aquascapes without any creatures (so no waste produced to feed the plants)! Some fertilizers can even be harmful to shrimp especially.

The yowie trip sounds like fun, had to look up what a yowie was, plenty of exercise and fresh air in beautiful surroundings. I hope the tanks you get given are suitable for your requirements. We are having a heatwave here at the moment which affects me badly, but it probably won't last too long (hopefully anyway), but the mobile a/c is helping a bit, though it is runnibg on maximum and not really coping well by the afternoons. I think the cold weather is easier to deal with, wear a jumper and put the heating on, sorted???

Unless you don't like the look of the mineral balls, you may as well leave them in situ, at least for now.They MAY be doing something good?

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Ok you have convinced me for now to go with no ferts. See how I go. I may just periodically add root tabs to the tank, but that'll be all I do for say 3-6 months and then just asses and see how much growth im getting. I have used the oliver knott aqua earth and his black iron sand. I'll see how the plants go. If I do need some, I know that seachem flourish and API leaf zone don't need 50% water changes, but just your regular maintenance, I will just keep an eye out though on higher end ferts to see if any dont need big water changes m, just in case it ends up where I need some. But for now, I'll just let it be. Not good to hear about the heatwave you and the the UK are experiencing Simon. I have seen those small fans you can direct down on the tank water or put frozen iceblocks in the water? We put in ducted A/C a couple years back. Summers where I live, used to be dry, hot but dry. We would still get to 45°C for a couple days on end, then longer days on end of 40°C+ but it was dry. Now it's humid and we get those severe arvo storms that usually QLD would get. However with global warming, our weather here, has changed dramatically. It was after the 2019/20 fires that dad and mum decided to put it in. That summer was extremely hot. Since, we haven't had nearly as hot summers, as we have been in la nina. We have apparently just shifted to el nino so that'll bring hotter, dryer weather and that means...drought! A couple tips to help you though...get a damp wash cloth and freeze it. Use that to cool you too. If you have fans, a wet towel over the front of the grill of it, turns it into a much cooler fan, run wrists and feet in cool water. Jump in a lukewarm shower or bath (what I love to do most!), cold drinks, wet or frozen washcloth on the back of your neck. These things can help. Yeah if these tanks aren't any good, I'll just turn them into quarantine tanks. I'm leaning towards doing this anyway, as I do have a look im wanting to accomplish in my fish room. They have big thick rounded silver uprights on the outside of the silicone joins and it's not what I'm wanting tbh. But it was such a generous offer from my friend, so I'll use them as quarantine and hospital tanks so they don't go to waste. I just want opticlear tanks in my fish room. I'll have to put up a post in the wipe ya chin section about our yowie and paranormal experiences we have had here...oh and ufo experience too! We have had some real hectic, crazy stuff happen. My friend Dan (Yowie Dan as he is known as in Aus) has a youtube channel you watch- Australian Yowie. He actually got one on film accidentally a few years back. He was putting his camera down and a huge creature was standing next to a rock wall. They measured it and I think it was over 9 foot by memory. Also Attila, who came to our place with Dan in Feb, he has 2 brilliant docos on yowies- track: search for Australia's bigfoot and the 2nd is tracking the lore. Tracking the lore is based around my area. When they go to a crater that a meteorite made, that is 5mins from my house. Anyway, I'm getting off track, but go check them out. Mineral balls- I have hidden them for now. I got a slight Ammonia spike (0.25ppm- Nitrites 0ppm) today I think because I added 6 fish. They are really small and the LFS had ordered them in for me and said they weren't going to be able to get anymore, and they had sold quite a number of them. So I quickly took the last 6 they had. Now I have 10. I just did a 15% water change and added prime, and stability. The GH is stable and I didn't need to add anymore of the seachem aquavitro gh+. TDS is just down slightly from 170 prior to water change to now 149. I'll give it a bit, and it'll raise back up. The fish and shrimp are showing no issues. Yesterday the Ammonia was 0ppm and only today did it increase slightly. I'll run it now for a few hours, then retest Ammonia. I'll keep testing all parameters each day. It'll be fine, I'll get them through this. Luckily the mineral balls also suck up Ammonia and Nitrites it says online. Hopefully those mineral balls are helping to absorb that extra Ammonia. My tank has been cycled now for a number of weeks im sure it's just cause I added these 6 fish. I'll def monitor though and do water changes as needed. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I know our heatwaves are nowhere as bad as you get in Australia, it is all reletive. At least my Betta likes warm water and so he should be ok and the water probably won't get over 30 so even the cherry shrimp should be ok! Thanks for all the cooling tips, aircon is great but working flat out and temperature creeping up as the day progresses, so not really sufficient, but better than not having it at all, so I won't complain too much. At present I don't need to worry about the aquarium(s) thankfully, though if I did have Caridina shrimps I would have had that added stress. I have a small freezer about 6 feet from the chair where I usually sit which is crammed with various ice creams,(Haagen Daz, Ben and Jerry etc), ice cubes and ice lollies. I remember going with friends to see my bother in 'The OC' around february many years ago, we went to Laguna beach in our shorts and teeshirts as it was in the 80 degrees, but when we got there the women were walking dogs and wearing fur coats - my brotheer said 'well it is winter here and only in the 80's' - they must have known we were just tourists, it's what your body gets used to with the weather wherever you live I guess.............

Adding the new fish may have caused the ammonia to creep up but hopefully they will survive ok and the tank will quickly cycle again. I have used fish to cycle tanks in the past and none have died, though this method is now a bit contriversial!

If you are gettin a couple of tanks from your friend you could use 1 as a quarentine/hospital tank as planned and other for a betta as the tank won't look out of place with the others if you keep the betta (and cull shrimp IF needed) tank somewhere else in the house other than your fish room?

I will try looking for the yowie videos on youtube.

 

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Hi Simon, 

 

Sorry for the very late reply. I was in Sydney and getting stuff ready to go camping. Camping was loads of fun too! No yowies, but very cold 🥶

How is the heat in the UK? Still boiling hot? Are you watching the ashes? Seems like you are all set up with your freezer full of icy cold snacks! Love it!! Haha very funny about the Laguna Beach trip! 😅 

I hope your lil Betta and cherry shrimp are ok, and still thriving. I have been looking all over for a betta and to see if I can buy one and keep it on hold, but no lucky yet. I still have to set up the tank anyway, so thats all good. I'm thinking though that I'll have to go find a betta breeder. I joined an Aussie betta group and there are some breeders in there, so hopefully I can find one I like. One day I may even do a sorority. 

I'm trying to decide what shrimp I want next. I tend to prefer cardina shrimp. Where I got my first gang of DAS, Hoang, the owner of the LFS, has an amazing collection of shrimp and so many to choose from. 

I got the 3 tanks off my mate! I'm not sure if I'll use them in my room, but I may set them up as quarantine and hospital tanks. The Biggest one though is fairly decent. 

Ooh if I could get a pic of my delicate blue eye's, I would upload it, but they escape me, but they are starting to get in their fins! Ok like they always had tiny ones, but now they are getting much larger and coloured. They are adorable! They are so tiny though and I'm feeding them baby brine shrimp, and micro pellets by hikari. So so small they are! 

Oh and I discovered that a couple of my female RNS are berried! Yay!! Apparently DAS larvae need brackish water to survive, but im sure I have a couple babies atm. Some are really tiny and they are smaller than the ones I bought. The ones I bought have definitely grown up. I'm going to get some more from Hoang though as I love his more than the other supplier. He has RNS too so I'll get more of those as well. 

Also, I'll make a separate post, but any ideas why my pH may be creeping up? I did have crushed coral in there, as my tank water only has a pH of 6.6 approx. Maybe that is ok for my fish? I'll have to do some research. If I could get it to hover closer to 7 I would be happier. Right now it's 7.6 on the regular api pH test, and saying 7.4 on the high pH test. Im going to try and do another water change today, probably a bit bigger one, and try to bring it down a bit. Not sure if its because of my rock. It does have white stripes in it and I wonder if that's limestone? I read somewhere that limestone can increase it. I hope I don't have to remove it, as I love the look of that rock. 

Anyway, I hope you and your family are doing well Simon. Speak soon 😊

[jayc]

@Aussie.Shrimp.Girl, did the plants survive the trip home?

 

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

7 hours ago, jayc said:

@Aussie.Shrimp.Girl, did the plants survive the trip home?

 

Hi Jason! 

Yes thank you very much! They are doing well. Was it also narrow leaf java fern you popped in there too? I have decided to buy some more and make a feature of it on my driftwood. The shrimp somehow pulled out some of my ricca fluitans that I had wrapped with fishing line on the driftwood, so I took it off and I'm going to buy a few narrow leaf java ferns and make a feature of it on the driftwood, instead of the moss.

Thank you again so much! 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Good to hear you enjoyed the camping trip, even if it was yabie-less!

It has got back to more normal here weatherwise. I did the tank this morning and there are still some cherry shrimp alive with the betta so no harm done there, but it only just got to 30 degrees on a couple of days.

I don't think you should have too much of a problem finding a betta you like once your tank is ready etc. I would have thought your LFS should have some?

At least you can make use of the tanks you were given, even if they aren't exactly the type you would have preferred.

Have you removed the crushed coral now. I'm not very knowledgable with rock but if you attach a photo I am sure JayC will be happy to advise on it.

You may find you are a bit resricted with the choice of Caridina shrimp as I believe you have restrictions on what can (and therefore has been in the past) be imported?

I have always had Java fern in my tanks, it is so easy to grow and care for. I use the aquasafe superglue to attach it to wood/rock, worth another try?