Caridina striata, or Sulawesi Red Lines shrimp

[sthh]

This is my first attempt at keeping Caridina Striata. Had them for 2 month now, and they are very challenging to keep alive.
A berried female drop all her eggs when I top up water!
1 shrimp died during molting, and another was shocked to death when i turn on the light. It started flipping in the water as though it was looking for cover desparately, and then landed on the substrate and promptly died after. After they started eating pellets for shrimps, I do not encounter anymore molting deaths.
I learnt never to approach the tank and switch on the tank light when they are crawling around. Now when I want to approach them, I will usually switch on the room light, and let them slowly retire to their burrows before switching on the tank light.

Highly territorial, and doesn't tolerate other shrimps, similar or different species near them. Most other smaller shrimps usually get chased out of the burrows when a striata decides to live there. May need a bigger tank with lots of hiding spaces if you want to keep many of them.
Seems to like shrimp pellet more than algae. Luckily, I found another berried shrimp. Likely to be the last batch I will keep, if they can stay alive and reproduce. Will update further if shrimplets appear.
Here's a snapshot.


Another snapshot:


These shrimps don't stray far from their burrow when they detect light.
The colour of the striata is very exquisite, especially if you look at a magnified view of the white strips, you will notice rainbow colour going down the entire line!

[Crystal Red Shrimp]

i want to try also maybe when you have shrimplets can buy from you

[Emokidz]

Nice shrimp! All the best in keeping them. Where'd you get your stock by the way?

[boxedfish]

great that you managed to keep them alive for so long. mine did not even last 2 weeks. haha

[sthh]

i want to try also maybe when you have shrimplets can buy from you

Haha, you will have to wait for a very long time. These shrimps are takes a long time to reproduce to a sizeable number.

Nice shrimp! All the best in keeping them. Where'd you get your stock by the way?

Thanks, I got my stock from Y618

great that you managed to keep them alive for so long. mine did not even last 2 weeks. haha

My belief is that if they can last for 2 weeks, likely cause of death after that is not the water, but more likely stress. I try not to stress them unnecessarily but switching on the lights in the night to look at them and also let them have lots of space.

[Crystal Red Shrimp]

hmm ok can just have a bare tank with sands but no hiding place for them?

[sthh]

Not a good idea. They are very easily stressed. Need hiding places, rocks...

[Crystal Red Shrimp]

what would you recommend to put in there? lava rocks and ?

[sthh]

You can put some inert rocks. If you can get Sulawesi lava rocks, that will be good. I would suggest you have a stable tank with Caridina Dennerli (Cardinal shrimps) living in your tank for a while before introducing the Caridina Striata. Difficult species.

[Emokidz]

Yup, I recommend keeping 2-3 sulawesi snails in the tank first. The will help the biofilm formation and tank's process of becomming more mature.

[Crystal Red Shrimp]

a ph of 7.6 can? cause i dont want to use coral chips

[griffinkid]

I think pH of 7.6 might be a little too low. Probably up it to 8.0 may help the shrimps to survive with a higher rate of success

[Crystal Red Shrimp]

hmm okok will try setting up 1 next month

[sthh]

I was just looking at the tank, and saw an unusual shrimplet. Didn't look like a Caridina Dennerli shrimplet, as there wasn't the characteristic dots.
Took a picture quickly, but this little shrimp disappeared into the crypt bushes very quickly.
I think it is a Striata shrimplet. On the magnified view of my camera, I saw lines running along the body. This is so exciting!



A magnified view

[anakkucing]

Wow, Congratz bro... This is my first time seeing baby red lines

[sthh]

Wow, Congratz bro... This is my first time seeing baby red lines

Thank you, this is my first time seeing baby red lines too! Now the challenge is for it to grow up. Hopefully, they will not be as finicky and difficult as their wild parents.

[bettafantastic]

Nice shrimps!
Mind showing your set-up?

[marle]

thanks for sharing! this thread is very interesting! first time i hear that shrimps will be shocked to death! sounds like chinchilla. May i know your water parameters(PH, GH), what kind of substrate you use and how you maintain the temperature? What temperature do you keep them in to?

Really good effort as i think few has achieved what you managed to!

[sthh]

Nice shrimps!
Mind showing your set-up?

Thanks. You should be able to see my setup in my previous threads,
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...eks?highlight=

and
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ure?highlight=

thanks for sharing! this thread is very interesting! first time i hear that shrimps will be shocked to death! sounds like chinchilla. May i know your water parameters(PH, GH), what kind of substrate you use and how you maintain the temperature? What temperature do you keep them in to?

Really good effort as i think few has achieved what you managed to!

Yup.. certain species of Sulawesi shrimps are very easily stressed and can be shocked to death when there is the tank light is suddenly switched on or when someone or something move in front of them, or when you try to catch them.
I had seen some of them die right before my eyes when I use the camera flash! Terrible. Eg. will be the Caridina Striata and the Caridina Spinata species.
Keeping these difficult Sulawesi shrimps means that one should try not to disturb them too much by looking at them when they are right in front of you and out foraging for food and switching on the lights in a pitch dark room.
You can look at them when they are in their cave or burrows, and they will not be so stressed. That's why it is important to design the tank in such a way that they can be seen from their caves or burrows.
The PH is maintained at 8.5
I use large pieces of coral to achieve this, and the coral rocks are covered with inert river gravel as substrate.
Most of the rock scape in the tank are inert rocks, such as granites.
Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate has to be zero.
Didn't have the test kits for measuring GH and KH and TDS, but i try to minimise TDS by not using fine coral sands and other sand.
The tank is on the window sill, which I suspect can reach up to 30 degree. No fan or chiller needed in Singapore weather.

[sthh]

Just took this picture in a not very bright room with no camera flash. I think the baby is going bigger, can see more definitions of the redlines.