Sulawesi shrimp lover

**fla04gbf** · 13th Jun 2009, 01:12

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I am in love with the sulawesi shrimp. Currently have two tanks, one is 4 feet heavily plant with DIY CO2 and the other is a 2 feet tank with half a dozen white dot sulawesi shrimps (6 died

). Would love to share knowledge and learn from follow sulawesi shrimp keepers. Any one with good and cheap source for sulawesi shrimps?

**joydiv** · 13th Jun 2009, 03:15

HI

It is not advisable to kep sulawesi shrimp in a CO2 injected tank.
Do read up on them. They are fragile beauties that require specific water parameters.

**siansian** · 13th Jun 2009, 11:00

Originally Posted by fla04gbf

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I am in love with the sulawesi shrimp. Currently have two tanks, one is 4 feet heavily plant with DIY CO2 and the other is a 2 feet tank with half a dozen white dot sulawesi shrimps (6 died

). Would love to share knowledge and learn from follow sulawesi shrimp keepers. Any one with good and cheap source for sulawesi shrimps?

Bro Sad to hear that i new to this shrimp too 1piece $5 cheap ?if u buy 20 or more can be cheaper

**fla04gbf** · 14th Jun 2009, 00:16

Hi joydiv, totally agree with what you said. I kept the CO2 minimal and also give a bit of bubbling to bring the pH up. I am constantly monitoring the pH and hardness, and the parameters has been pretty good and stable so far (pH ~7.4, 1-4 GH). Possible I am not getting much CO2 into the water because of that but since I have the setup, I just keeps running it anyway, until it messes up my parameter and I will stop completely. Will be getting some exotic sulawesi plants tomorrow and hopefully they will survive in my tank

Originally Posted by siansian

Bro Sad to hear that i new to this shrimp too 1piece $5 cheap ?if u buy 20 or more can be cheaper

Hi where did you get urs for $5 a piece? I brought mine in Y618 and took quite some effort to get $55 for 10 pieces

**mozaqua** · 14th Jun 2009, 00:42

Originally Posted by fla04gbf

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and I am in love with the sulawesi shrimp. Currently have two tanks, one is 4 feet heavily plant with DIY CO2 and the other is a 2 feet tank with half a dozen white dot sulawesi shrimps (6 died

). Would love to share knowledge and learn from follow sulawesi shrimp keepers. Any one with good and cheap source for sulawesi shrimps?

I keep mine at 27-28C, same temp as my fish room. Also Sulawesi shrimp need lots of oxygen, more than other types of shrimp! Any PH above 7.0 is good for Cardinals (white spot kind), but make sure the hardness is medium to high.
Make sure to keep the Nitrates (NO3) below 20ppm, and Nitrites(NO2) less than 5ppm (or Zero on those cheap test kits).

Regards

**fla04gbf** · 14th Jun 2009, 09:25

Originally Posted by cobalt99

I keep mine at 27-28C, same temp as my fish room. Also Sulawesi shrimp need lots of oxygen, more than other types of shrimp! Any PH above 7.0 is good for Cardinals (white spot kind), but make sure the hardness is medium to high.
Make sure to keep the Nitrates (NO3) below 20ppm, and Nitrites(NO2) less than 5ppm (or Zero on those cheap test kits).

Regards

Sounds similar to my parameter

Hope mine (white spot) will breed soon. Will keep everyone posted.

Frank

**Wackytpt** · 14th Jun 2009, 10:23

Welcome to the forum.

Enjoy your shirmp keeping hobby

Cheers

**mozaqua** · 14th Jun 2009, 22:22

Originally Posted by fla04gbf

Sounds similar to my parameter

Hope mine (white spot) will breed soon. Will keep everyone posted.

Frank

I had around 10 the first time I got them, and no babies for 6 months! Then I decided to get some more, and within two weeks a female had eggs! So make sure you have both sexes to start.

They should breed, but don't expect miracles on the numbers.
I think my first successful batch of shrimpies was around 4 from one female. Seemed like she had 15-20 eggs probably, not sure what happened to the others. Anyway hope next time there will be more. Oh, the little ones are really cute, same color as the adults! Hard to spot them, but then you will see their little white feet as they are searching for a snack.

Good Luck to you too.

Regards

**fla04gbf** · 16th Jun 2009, 22:31

Originally Posted by cobalt99

I had around 10 the first time I got them, and no babies for 6 months! Then I decided to get some more, and within two weeks a female had eggs! So make sure you have both sexes to start.

They should breed, but don't expect miracles on the numbers.
I think my first successful batch of shrimpies was around 4 from one female. Seemed like she had 15-20 eggs probably, not sure what happened to the others. Anyway hope next time there will be more. Oh, the little ones are really cute, same color as the adults! Hard to spot them, but then you will see their little white feet as they are searching for a snack.

Good Luck to you too.

Regards

Great news! I hope I will manage to breed mine someday. by the way, I got rid of my CO2 a few days ago and I am just wondering what is your water hardness exactly? I heard they like low GH, is that true? Do you add coral chips? I guess I would try to set mine closer to your parameters since you have successfully have babies

**mozaqua** · 19th Jun 2009, 17:14

I have not seen the Cardinals are too picky about GH, those are probably the other Sulawesi species which need extra hard alkaline water.

Mainly dissolved O2, and low Nitrites/Nitrates. Don't change the PH, or GH too quickly, this will stress them. If you have soft water, you might not want to use the soil based substrates, since they will lower the PH further. Sand will work fine for these guys. Make sure to give them a few hideouts, to make them feel less stressed.

Regards

**fla04gbf** · 21st Jun 2009, 09:43

Originally Posted by cobalt99

I have not seen the Cardinals are too picky about GH, those are probably the other Sulawesi species which need extra hard alkaline water.

Mainly dissolved O2, and low Nitrites/Nitrates. Don't change the PH, or GH too quickly, this will stress them. If you have soft water, you might not want to use the soil based substrates, since they will lower the PH further. Sand will work fine for these guys. Make sure to give them a few hideouts, to make them feel less stressed.

Regards

I use gravel, with quite a lot of over filtration (with one ubdergravle filter, one overhead and an external canister). I think my water is generally pretty clean but there was some death last time when I had to move my tank to a different area in my apartment

.

I still have two Cardinals left and they seem to be quite happy and all the parameters are stable now. I hope that they will start breeding soon but I will get some more new stock in a week or so. Thanks for your advice and I will keep posting the updates.
Frank

**mozaqua** · 22nd Jun 2009, 20:30

Originally Posted by fla04gbf

I use gravel, with quite a lot of over filtration (with one ubdergravle filter, one overhead and an external canister). I think my water is generally pretty clean but there was some death last time when I had to move my tank to a different area in my apartment

.

I still have two Cardinals left and they seem to be quite happy and all the parameters are stable now. I hope that they will start breeding soon but I will get some more new stock in a week or so. Thanks for your advice and I will keep posting the updates.
Frank

Frank,

I would stop using the Under-gravel Filter, they are not good for shrimp. This is because the debris are pulled from the lower gravel, and Nitrates are released. Main issue with UGF is too much nitrates. A sponge filter would be better since it can be cleaned without messing with the substrate. The lower substrate should not be moved normally, this area is colonized by Nitrate reducing bacteria in aged setups. The remaining Nitrates are used by plants, or can be taken out by water changes.

Hope this helps,

**fla04gbf** · 24th Jun 2009, 21:24

Oh, thanks Mo, I am considering getting rid of the UGF.... or adding a nitrate remover (the external type using algae colonies). But so far the conditions have been quite stable and I will keep monitoring the nitrate level and I am also vacuuming the substrate regularly (2X a week). Will keep updating my progress.

Frank

**fla04gbf** · 24th Jun 2009, 21:45

Just measured by water parameter... pH~7.4 and Nitrate level at below 10ppm

**chromes03** · 25th Jun 2009, 02:22

Frank,

I wouldn't keep the Sulawesi Cardinals in a planted tank b/c too much going on w/ CO2, ferts, plants nutrient intake..

I've been keeping Cardinals for about 2 months now. I first tried out 50 and ended up w/ 20+ that survived the water transition...Out of the 20 ...few were berried and after about 2 to 3 weeks I started seeing babies about 20 or so...Now the F1 babies are about 1/2+"...I also do see 2 pregnant females..One of them happen to released her babies ( I call them F2 babies :P) I counted 6 at one time....

From what I have experienced:
High ph above 7.5ph, temp 78-84F, gh/kh 4+ not too hard....slow water changes and don't feed too much....Filtration to let the water circulate they need high O2 b/c high temp leaves lower dissolved O2

Good luck!

Henry

**fla04gbf** · 25th Jun 2009, 22:41

Hi Henry,

Wow, I would like to see some berried shrimps, too. I just bought another 10 Cardinals + two sulawesi shrimps of unknown species. I am doing mostly what you have recommended, slow water changes and not too hard water and not over feeding. I have mainly moss tied to a piece of wood and I have just disconnected my UGF and have the external filter and the hang on filter running instead. I have also a chiller to keep the temp at around 27oC and bubbling air to provide them with pretty of O2. This time fingers crossed