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Your best starting point would be to get the full set of test kits, for you that would be GH & TDS (as you have the PH and KH already) as if you are needing to work on the water it will be best to get that done and steady before you get the shrimps! As crabby states above you can use distilled water. or consider a zerowater filter jug which you can probably get on the internet delivered to you (they usually come with a TDS meter). I don't know which method would work better or be the most financially suitable where you live? The zerowater or distilled water will mean you need to add shrimp minerals back to the water but starting with tds 000 water and adding the minerals is by far the safest way to go and not as fussy as it may sound as the shrimp mineral products will create the perfect balance/proportion of all the parameters! Simon

Crabby and I are also both in Australia. And we are 100% definite that releasing livestock in waterways is not allowed. If you live on one of the big cities in Australia, our rivers are mostly brackish water, so the shrimp will die within a day. Same result as feeding your fish. At least the fish got some food. It's nature. Something will die to feed something else. Same with flushing them down the toilet, which is not a good idea and no worse than feeding fish. The shrimps will die almost immediately in sewerage. If you lived more inland where rivers are fresh water, releasing aquarium shrimps will impact our native shrimp, and expose them to diseases. Also not a good idea. Talk to your LFS and ask if they will accept low quality shrimp for free.

Absolutely agree with Crabby. There are many reasons why you shouldn't release unwanted pets into the local eco system. Which country are you from? There might also be laws in certain countries against releasing livestock into local waterways. You can give them away, sell them to a Local Fish Shop, or sell the poorer ones at a cheap price to beginners.

Definitely a must... shrimp are curious fellows, they love swimming into open filters! You can sometimes find sponge or mesh covers for filter inlets, but filter floss will work just as well. If your other tank has good water, that's a great idea. I use water from my south american tank (which is quite soft, with a low pH) for my water changes on my shrimp tank. You just need to drip the water very very slowly to make sure the shrimp adjust well. That's a way that people can sometimes accidentally kill shrimplets. Using the same gravel would be super good, to boost your beneficial bacteria. That's going to give you a huge head start, good thinking. And your English is really good! I think distilled water should be fine.

If breeders cull their shrimp, they will sell them as high grade shrimp, and charge more for it. But you still have to cull if you start off with good quality starting shrimp. You'll generally get a mix - some higher, and some lower grade shrimp, no matter what the parents are. Obviously with higher grade parents, the offspring will be much more likely to have high grade colouration. The reason we cull is to increase the quality of the genetics, so a bad quality one doesn't breed with a high quality and bring down the general quality. Does that answer your question?

Let the tank cycle for 18 days and got the water parameters to where I wanted them. Added some new residents 5 days ago. Already had 2 molt!

If it’s only for shrimp, it isn’t too small, but you’ll just have to be very careful to keep the water parameters stable.

I'm with JayC and Crabby, put them in with the fish and they will ether get eaten as a treat to your fish, and that is completely natural, or if the fish don't eat them then they can live/work in with the fish so either way is a win! Simon

Noooooooo don't do that please! Introducing species that aren't native to a local water system can be very detrimental to the waterway. People who cull choose to do so by either selling the worse-looking shrimp to other fish keepers for cheap or free, feeding to a turtle or large predatory fish, or keeping them in a different tank.

Thanks for your quick reply. Last time I bought a fish tank and the seller gave me a lot of shrimp, he said they are red cherry but I notice some of them have less color, some are transparent. I think he didn't cull it. If we breed the F1 together and cull it we still have the same color, is that right? Because I know we can't do that on human, when F1 cross F1, the F2 will be disabled.

I was going to use tap water, as I already use it with my other tank. Unfortunately, I don't have RO system, but perhaps I could use some distilled water to bring down KH? I'll check the internet for TDS and GH test.