Happy with my Fire Reds but....

A

Anonymous

Guest
Lfs or bird pet stores would have them by weight. Dont buy the package ones, expensive.

Text about what you and tanya talked about?
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
SiRWesDragon said:
Make sure water changes are important part of your weekly routine.  Shrumps love water changes and promtes breeding. Leave the exoskeleton for shrumps to eat for calcium.  For calcium use cuttlefish bone or shrimp calcium supplements. I use the bone its cheaper but you have to tie it down with a rock and remove weekly it rot.
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You should tell that to the shrimp in my 20g walstad and 3g aquasoil tank. The 20g goes 4 - 5 months between water changes and the 3g goes at least a month, sometimes two.

Most important are stable water conditions and lots of surface area in the tank, in my experience. Don't mix up your water change frequency unless there's a problem. I do 50% changes in most of my tanks every 2 weeks.
 
jettej

jettej

Well-Known Member
SiRWesDragon said:
Lfs or bird pet stores would have them by weight. Dont buy the package ones, expensive.

Text about what you and tanya talked about?
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Okay gotcha!. Thanks!

I just texted you just now.
 
V

VernalPond

New Member
Since ya'll are talking south end, A Place for Pets has cuttlefish bone in their bird section for $1 ea. That is a wicked good price and it is in bulk. Very nice quality.

If you run a canister filter, put it in there and skip trying to tie it to something. If you just run sponge filters I suggest either breaking it up and submerging in the substrate or not using cuttlefish bone at all and use crushed coral for the minerals and leaves and such for the biocomplexity to help molting. There's no getting around the fact that cuttlefish remains a good supplement for aquarium shrimp minerals and molting for sure though. The fact that it floats like crazy just makes it inconvenient if you don't have a canister filter.
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
Lately I've been adding seachem equilibrium to most of my tanks at every water change. It takes a bit of time (measuring water replaced and calculating dosage in grams based on target GH), but I know I have a decent and stable amount of calcium in my water now. 8)

A elevated GH will help shrimp, snails, plants, and certain fish as well.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
VernalPond said:
Since ya'll are talking south end, A Place for Pets has cuttlefish bone in their bird section for $1 ea.  That is a wicked good price and it is in bulk.  Very nice quality.
If you run a canister filter, put it in there and skip trying to tie it to something.  If you just run sponge filters I suggest either breaking it up and submerging in the substrate or not using cuttlefish bone at all and use crushed coral for the minerals and leaves and such for the biocomplexity to help molting.  There's no getting around the fact that cuttlefish remains a good supplement for aquarium shrimp minerals and molting for sure though.  The fact that it floats like crazy just makes it inconvenient if you don't have a canister filter.
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Hi. Shago. Nah. Having to tie for a week is not bad at all it provides kappa leaf a paper weight. Once awhile I break down some of the cuttle bone for shrimps to snack on. Some of those shrimp supplements are pricey. While those natural alternatives like your products are less pricey, better, and natural.
 
jettej

jettej

Well-Known Member
VernalPond said:
Since ya'll are talking south end, A Place for Pets has cuttlefish bone in their bird section for $1 ea.  That is a wicked good price and it is in bulk.  Very nice quality.

If you run a canister filter, put it in there and skip trying to tie it to something.  If you just run sponge filters I suggest either breaking it up and submerging in the substrate or not using cuttlefish bone at all and use crushed coral for the minerals and leaves and such for the biocomplexity to help molting.  There's no getting around the fact that cuttlefish remains a good supplement for aquarium shrimp minerals and molting for sure though.  The fact that it floats like crazy just makes it inconvenient if you don't have a canister filter.
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All of my tanks are running HOB and some runs Sponge as well. I think just shoving it in between the bio filter and carbon filter will work. Thanks for the suggestion. How's APFP btw?
 
V

VernalPond

New Member
Yes, putting it inside the HOB works great. I did that for years.

APfP has historically been a great place for fish. Terrible for shrimp because they keep all the neo color morphs in one tank. They recently got rid of the fish guy owner, Kevin, though so it remains to be seen how the fish section will go.
 
jettej

jettej

Well-Known Member
pbmax said:
Lately I've been adding seachem equilibrium to most of my tanks at every water change.  It takes a bit of time (measuring water replaced and calculating dosage in grams based on target GH), but I know I have a decent and stable amount of calcium in my water now. 8)

A elevated GH will help shrimp, snails, plants, and certain fish as well.
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I wish i'm a good chemist. haha I am not very comfortable with chemicals. especially with my small tanks. I don't want to make same mistake twice. I usually go remedies and generic alternative. But all input is something to look at. so Thanks!!
 
jettej

jettej

Well-Known Member
VernalPond said:
Yes, putting it inside the HOB works great.  I did that for years.

APfP has historically been a great place for fish.  Terrible for shrimp because they keep all the neo color morphs in one tank.  They recently got rid of the fish guy owner, Kevin, though so it remains to be seen how the fish section will go.
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Yeah i Know, That's the reason I asked how it was is because last time i was there, it was Kevin's last week but i didn't have any clue just found it out here .I rarely go there but when i do i usually get stuff/fish and i go home happy. especially on Bushynose plecos. I always call and check for new shipments. Rumors was the guy that stayed (Sean) is knowledgable but specifically on cichlid. I am not a cichlid guy even thou I wanna try keeping cichlids. anyways I should probably check the store on my own.
 
jettej

jettej

Well-Known Member
Oh No! So someone dropped eggs again!. But now its stuck on Hair alage. I'm keeping it aerated thou hopefully it works.




AND another thing is my shrimp tank is infested with Black and green hair algae.




To end this bad news let's go for a Literally TINY Good News. I see some Mini shrimps. I think the dropped eggs way back that started this post didn't really end up in shrimp heaven. They still Hatched :) Sorry for bad Pics!!!

 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
Congrats on the babies! :)

I have green hair / thread algae in 3 of my shrimp tanks and the shrimp don't seem to mind. Thankfully it's not terribly difficult to manually remove if you keep on top of it. It's quite pretty on sponge filters too. ;)
 
S

sea1

New Member
Congrats. When I first got fire red cherry shrimp, there was a pregnant female but it did seem like forever before there were little shrimplets. Pretty soon your tank will be overrun by them.
 
C

cichlid-gal

New Member
pbmax said:
Lately I've been adding seachem equilibrium to most of my tanks at every water change.  It takes a bit of time (measuring water replaced and calculating dosage in grams based on target GH), but I know I have a decent and stable amount of calcium in my water now. 8)

A elevated GH will help shrimp, snails, plants, and certain fish as well.
Click to expand...
What GH level are you trying to attain?
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
cichlid-gal said:
What GH level are you trying to attain?  
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11 dGH in 3 tanks where I have platies (4 dGH out of the tap) and 12 dGH in my snail tank (where I have some platy fry).  I'm boosting most of my other tanks to 7 dGH for the sake of the plants.  The shrimp are fine with my tap water, as far as I can tell.  In fact, a number of the blue-velvet culls I have in my snail tank aren't doing so well since I boosted the GH in that tank (tails turning opaque white).  They were fine and breeding before I boosted the GH in there, but they aren't breeding anymore.  This could be a short term thing, so I'm keeping an eye on them just out of curiosity.  The snails and platy fry are quite happy in there, however, so the GH boosting has so far achieved its goal.

Edit: I think the calcium needs of shrimp may be over-stated. I've never added calcium (crushed coral, cuttlebone, etc.) for my shrimp - it was always for crays or snails. Neocaridina bred just fine for me in my tap water which has relatively little calcium (4 dGH).
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
Neocaridina should be able to tolerate it without trouble. I have 2 tanks at 11 dGH and 9 dKH - one with a ton of RCS and the other with a ton of Malawa. I haven't noticed any attrition in either of them since bumping the hardness up.

Your water is perfect for mystery snails. :)
 
B

BallardFishGuy

New Member
My Sakura reds breed like crazy in my around 7ph tank...sometimes you won't see the baby shrimp for quite a while and then all of a sudden you start seeing them.

I also use cuttlebone, I just cut a bit off and let it float until it sinks or slowly goes away.

Hopefully you will start seeing some progress!
 
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