Totally with you on NOT chasing water parameters. We have hard, alkaline water here, so I stick with fish, shrimp, and even plants that do well in that sort of water. I have zero interest in trying to keep plants or critters than need soft, acidic water to truly thrive.
no shrimp in my local shops. only in one i can order them. Need to travel to main City 100km to shrimp shop. Looks like shrimp is not popular in Latvia
I’ve bought 8 shrimps 5 weeks ago and with it came 6 very little ones that got caught by mistake. 2 older ones died within 2 weeks without an apparent reason, 2 where berried within a week. A few days ago I’ve seen a lot of shrimplets about 2.5mm long. All of the shrimps graze all day long but don’t seem to want anything I feed them.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to comment. Shame you lost a couple, but good news you have some babies. Maybe there is enough food in the tank to keep them happy. Maybe just offer them some food every couple of days. If they aren't interested, remove the uneaten food so it doesn't spoil the water quality.
I have a heavily planted accomplished tank with platys and snails in it. I keep getting some nitrates when testing and there seems to be a lot of difference of opinion online about if they are harmful to fish but what about shrimp?
I find Neocaridina shrimp, such as Red Cherry Shrimp, to be very tolerant of Nitrates. Heck, my tap water comes out at 40ppm nitrates and they do just fine in that. Always be careful the advice you follow on line (yes, I appreciate the irony of you reading that sentence on line). Many people just spout the rubbish they read elsewhere without actually having their own experiences. 👍🏻
I'm not really sure neocaridina shrimp especially need hard water. My tap water comes out soft and people advise the RCS here thrive in this water. Based on my own experience too though I am new to the hobby. Bought some shrimp and even got an egger which gave me shrimplets. Noticed a few with saddles. Hoping to see more eggers soon.
Great video ❤ I just wanted to say that I really appreciate your content as a newbie to the hobby. I'm also into Orchids, and both hobbies seem to get some good-intentioned but somewhat misguided comments around ethicay of animal and plant keeping..its obviously a very complex discussion but I do think people like you who are clearly passionate about sharing your knowledge and care for these lovely creatures deserve to be recognised 😊 keep up the good work!
I didn't realize mixing colors would revert back to brown on first batch of babies. So. I now have multiple tanks. Went from 1 to 4. Wife was not happy. 😮
I found a guy selling 5 different colors of neocaridina today - he has black orange red blue and yellow and they're 15 for $10. SO glad you made this video before I went to check out his tanks!
Liked the video. Short and to the point. I liked the narrowing filter (which matches the video title) at the front of the video. Most dwarf shrimp sold are neocaradina or caradina (as mentioned at the front of the video). As for info, successful shrimp owners seem to be all over the place. I've heard of neo's breeding well as low as 6.2 and done it personally in the mid 6's. I'd warrant they can do it in the low 8's as well. And caradina's can do high 5's, or so I've heard (and I've heard they have trouble in the high 6's). As for "hardness", my impression from others as well as my own experiences say that a TDS (total dissolved solids) of 100-180 ppm (parts per million) and 3-4 degrees (a degree is 18 ppm) KH (or GH, not the same, but both indicate calcium + magnesium availability) is where neo's do best. I haven't kept caradina but I think they like less than 100 ppm and still want 1.5-2 degrees of KH/GH as they, like neo's, need calcium for their molts. Overall, caradina is more exacting than neo's, but both of them really appreciate consistent water conditions, perhaps even more-so than the target water condition.
i have recently got 2 cherry shrimp in my 34l tank along with other fish. First time keeping shrimp and was really exited when i saw the bigger of the 2 racing around the tank. I also noticed a white line running from its head to its tail. Is this normal? is this a healthy shrimp?
@@FishKeepingAnswers It is only a 25 gallon! Just plants as of now doing the cycles! It will be only a tank for shrimp & plants with pothos growing along the back as well
Hi Richard - good advice. My yellow shrimp doing well- the red not so well! Both sets bought on the same day - from same shop - got 7 red and had 4 already in the tank which were fine. Now only have 5 so guessing my original 4 are still alive and only 1 of the new ones😩😩😩 Both tanks have same conditions - so guess the shrimp had a problem???
I would agree, if both tanks are essentially the same set up, and one lot are doing well but the others not so well, it does suggest the shrimp themselves have an issue. ☹️
On chasing water parameters, make sure you do check them as a shrimp keeper cuz I didn't have a gh/kh test and thought it was unnecessary at first. a few dead shrimp later, I finally decided to get the test and found out my gh was too low but kh high. fixed that issue with some equillibrium and now I have approx. 15 shrimp fry and the start of a thriving colony.
I only found out a few weeks ago from a comprehensive YT history video that caridina in the wild are just as hardy and parameter tolerant as neocaridina but selective breeding for colour has made them far less hardy and fragile. It is a real shame. I think hardiness and water parameter tolerance could be bred back into caridinas but I don't have the patience or the nerve to try. I think even if caradina were just as easy to keep as neos though, I would still keep snowballs and blue dreams at least. I would be able to have a few mixed species tanks rather than cherry variety specific tanks but I still think neos have a lot of charm.
I think this is the problem with selective breeding. We've seen it in shrimp, guppies and now GloFish have the same problem. You take a hardy species, breed a very small group over and over to create a specific colour strain, then end up weakening the whole group genetically. 😔
@FishKeepingAnswers all crystal shrimp can be traced back to two males and one female kept by a specific Japanese collector and the now "ideal" parameters for crystal shrimp were the parameters he meticulously kept his shrimp at, starting with these three. I can't help but think that neos are fortunate that they do not mutate into in-demand patterns and eye colours like other shrimp and this spares them from the worst of these extreme genetic cul-de-sacs that plague other varieties.
such a great video. I was in the middle of writing some points for my next video about shrimp buying tips for caridina and my google speaker must have heard me, your video popped up! very great and informative with lots of great details. thanks for this video!
If you love animals be vegan and stop buying them to trap them in a tank. I'm sure you're a nice guy but this came up on my algorithm and I gotta stick up for animals. I know I wouldn't want to be bought and then live in a tank. Peace
I'm not sure your beliefs are relevant here.😅 he's not eating them, just looking after them! Also many vegans keep other pets, should they get told they can't own a cat or a dog because it's cruel? I think feeding them food like vegetables is damn cruel - especially for a carnivorous animal, but many vegans say otherwise. If you can't look after the animal properly regardless of your beliefs you just shouldn't own any. This wonderful gentleman is trying to help others who WANT to look after these beautiful creatures and does a fantastic job of it.
