Trouble keeping crs alive

[theinnkeeper]

I'm having trouble keeping crystal red shrimps alive. I killed off like 80 of them so far. Got them in a 44Gallon planted tank with 18L of ADA Amazonia and 9L ADA Africana. Running two hydro sponge filters. Gh 3 Kh 0-1. Whenever I try to raise kh my ph also goes up which is no good. 50% aged water changes weekly(tanned water due to almond leaves). The pH of the water I put in is 6.5 but always rises to about 7 or a bit higher after a day or so.


Any tips on keeping them alive and making them have babies? I rather not resort to co2.

[effox]

I kept my gh at 5 and they stopped dying on me. Before that I had mass casualties like you.

Although lower ph is desired, I think you'd be better off just making sure its not fluctuating at this point. Wait for Tang Daddy or MananaP to give some good advice, they're pros.

Cheers,
Chris

[tang daddy]

I am not a pro, that would be Mananap or Jiang604....

I will say that your parameters are probally jumping with 50% WC.

This is what I do, please take my advice as you'd like because it has worked for me but don't claim that it is the only way.

After a tank has been cycled properly, I try to not disturb the substrate much. I only top up my tank with aged freshwater and once in awhile I will do small waterchanges. To age my water I use tap water in a 5g bucket and conditioner to remove chlorine. I also add an air stone and 1/10 of a capfull of cichlid buffer to harden the water. The water sits for 2-3 days then I add the water to replace evaporated water from the system via a drip system. Even when doing waterchanges I drip it in. For the drip system I buy a container from the dollar store which is really cheap, drill a small hole and shove an air line valve, or you can use the irrigation drip nossels found at homedepot. I silicone that into the hole and use the same airline hose for the other end. It then takes 2 days to drip the container into my tank at about 1 drip every 2 seconds. You may have to adjust the nossel periodically because when the water level drops in the container the pressure is weaker.

That's all I do, I don't dose anything else like ferts or metricide as I've found the CRS end up dead when dosing ferts....

I will also add mosura products when I remember, like the mineral mud and mineral plus. Not very often tho, once every 2 months. Another product the microbacter is good to use aswell.

Introducing too many shrimp at one time can spike your tank, I have lost lots of shrimp this way too. Overall they are easy to keep aslong as you don't make any sudden changes.

Maybe someone else can chime in for more advice!

[AndrewL]

I keep CRS and Painted Fire in an EBI tank.

I take a similar approach to tang daddy. Water is aged in a 5 gallon bucket with airstone. Inside the bucket, I have the same type of soil as in tank and an almond leaf to try to simulate water conditions in tank. Fluval shrimp mineral supplement is added. I use a TD meter to check conditions are same in tank and bucket.

15% weekly water change. When my shrimps berried, I did 15% WC every two weeks with top ups to my tank.

[theinnkeeper]

Thanks a bunch. These guys sure are picky residents. Hope I don't kill off anymore of them. Attempt #2 now. rofl

[Morainy]

How long has your tank been set up, theinkeeper? I haven't used ADA myself, but I've heard that it releases ammonia. Has it completely cycled?

I hope that you have better success soon. It's heartbreaking to have so many losses.

[crs]

I keep my crs in 22g tank, with some yellow shrimp. my ph is 5.0. dont know kh or gh. they breed like crazy.. hahaaa.... so the point is keep water stable.