Water Parameters for Neocardaria Shrimp Stop Your Shrimp From Dying! 

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*Neocaridina :)

Doesn't matter for these shrimp.

There is bacteria all around us. I made sauerkraut a few weeks ago. Just cabbage, water, and salt. When you create a good environment for bacteria, the naturally occurring bacteria colonies will grow to do the jobs we want them to do. So, what you are doing is a very gentle establishment of a bacterial colony. In general, the amount of ammonia you produce will be so dilute that you can't see it on any test kit. If you take this approach, you must feed the shrimp because the bacterial biofilm they eat does not exist in a beginning tank. Plants also provide a useful buffer because if they are healthy they can absorb some amount of Ammonia and NO2 in addition to NO3. Conventional aquarium wisdom on the frequency of water changes does not account for the effectiveness of plants at removing these compounds. One thing I will say is if you don't do a fish food decomp cycle start is that your system doesn't have as much resiliency. So, if the plants become unhealthy, or you grow the stock too much too fast, the tank can crash.

Jesus loves you! He is coming back so repent before it is too late!

caradina

Neocaridina... don't forget the extra 'i'.

That's a good question. The question is similar to a question like: "why do most cichlids like hard water?". Well, there are biological reasons for the preference. There are underlying body chemistry particular in each species in terms of building bone and exoskeleton, regulating metabolism, and facilitating ion exchange. It can be hard to find in publicly accessible materials the biological drivers of certain water preference of a species while parameter information is easier to find. Sometimes, recommended parameters are based on the species' natural environment, sometimes through experimentation. Aquarists value those parameters more than an extensive look into the biological reasons for them because they are trying to have their animals do well. But, this why is really an underexplored area in aquariums. With parameters being trial and error based, the actual mechanism of how a parameter affects a species is ignored. If we knew that information better, it would probably help with more robust parameter recommendations.