Is My Fire Red Sick?

**skyrex** · 10th Apr 2013, 04:27

Hi guys i am quite new to this shrimp keeping hobby so still have quite alot of things to learn. I have this one fire red which have this white patch down its back. I am not sure what is wrong with it or could it be because of my water.

I just got it tested today and this is the reading i got.

Ph:7.4
kh:4
GH:9

All the readings seems to be abit on the high side and i am unsure of what to do as well.

Will post pics soon of the "special" shrimp.

**skyrex** · 10th Apr 2013, 04:40

Here are the pics. all advice are welcome thank you~~

image 1.jpg image 2.jpg image5.jpg

**lucasjiang** · 10th Apr 2013, 07:01

Dont worry, its normal. Its a trait similar to the golden line you see on golden back yellow shrimp.

**xuan87** · 10th Apr 2013, 10:55

Your kh and gh is right in the middle for the acceptable range of parameters for fire red shrimps, so don't worry about them. pH is abit on the high side, but so long as your pH is not fluctuating, it's fine. Rather than trying to get your parameters down to a certain value, it's much better for shrimps to have stable parameters.

You can try putting in a piece of ketapang leaf. It serves the dual purpose of bringing down your pH and cultivating bacteria for your shrimps to feed on but be forewarn that it may turn your water yellow, and it will bring down the hardness of water.

**Urban Aquaria** · 10th Apr 2013, 12:38

The pale stripe over the back of cherry shrimps is quite normal, usually just a growth variation... it occurs on some shrimps and will sometimes disappear on their next molt.

**skyrex** · 10th Apr 2013, 13:06

Oh okay thanks. Because he was the only one having this issue so i wasnt sure.

One more question btw. Can i keep blue tiger shrimps in this parameters?

**shrimpster** · 11th Apr 2013, 22:25

IMHO GH 9 is pretty high

**skyrex** · 11th Apr 2013, 23:07

high for blue tiger or high for the fire reds?

Whats are the side effect of high gh? Difficulty molting?

**jemswira** · 11th Apr 2013, 23:44

Heh I was worried about the same thing for my shrimp. Like all the forum bros said up there, it's completely normal. Sometimes called a "racing stripe".

**emptysoulz** · 12th Apr 2013, 09:48

some of my fire reds had a white-ish tint to their shells too and they molted soon after

now some of them have black spots on their shells which doesn't look like a good thing

**hagenuk** · 1st May 2013, 11:12

Don't mind me hijacking this thread.....but what is the KH and GH range for various shrimp ? Sorry for the noob question as I just started this hobby 3 weeks ago.

**cheetf** · 1st May 2013, 19:18

Originally Posted by hagenuk

Don't mind me hijacking this thread.....but what is the KH and GH range for various shrimp ? Sorry for the noob question as I just started this hobby 3 weeks ago.

Why don't you start a new thread?

**Urban Aquaria** · 2nd May 2013, 12:20

Originally Posted by hagenuk

Don't mind me hijacking this thread.....but what is the KH and GH range for various shrimp ? Sorry for the noob question as I just started this hobby 3 weeks ago.

You can check at planetinverts.com:

http://www.planetinverts.com

Just click on the shrimp species list on the left panel of that site and it'll show the suitable water parameters for each species.