Cardinal baby survival

[ryantube]

My temp is 82F, pH 8.0-8.2, TDS is 270.
They have been there for a while and doing fine, but for some reason they disappeared one by one, until only 1 berried female left. Then she gave birth to 3-4 babies.

Clarify, it's Sulawesi cardinal, not Caridinal

Originally Posted by Jorge_Burrito

Increase your pH to 7.5 or so (do it gradually). Also they like hotter temperatures versus other dwarf shrimp, low 80s. They seem to be able to handle a wide variety of kH and gH, but I think in the lake they come from they are relatively low actually, below 4 for both. If you improve your condition baby survival should go up quite a bit. With all the problems I've heard about keeping Sulawes I am surprised they are doing as well as they are in your conditions.

[ryantube]

Originally Posted by acitydweller

Are you feeding baby specific foods?

Mosura Bioplus, BT9, BW bebi. The adult ones just dont even touch any other food like spinach, frenzy, grow or color.

[dubels]

Try lowering the PH a tad. I have been reading up one them because I wanted to try them out. From what I have gathered they like the 7.6-7.8 range. TDS might be a little high for them too because they seem to be delicate. I am not sure about the temperature, I know they like it hot but around 78 degrees is what I have been hearing.

Sometimes you might be feeding too much. There are microorganisms in an establish tanked that can support babies.

[ryantube]

Last time my heater broke and temp went down to 76, 3 died within a night
. Keep it at 80 and they are happy. Can't do any thing with TDS since I added coral chip. I just top off and didn't even change water.

[acitydweller]

PH: 7.8 - 8.2
KH: 7 - 9
GH: 7 - 9
TDS: 90 - 140
Water temp: 25 - 27

their ideal conditions.
You understand that baby shrimp foods actually feeds the bacteria that babies feed on and not the babies themselves. IME, my shrimp breeding tank pretty much grows everything really well, mosses, plants, and babies. The beneficial bacteria built up in that tank is astounding.

with that said, know that whatever water parameters you have acclimated them to may not ensure the offspring survival as it isn't the ideal for this particular breed. they may be able to acclimate when older but certainly not when their organs and internal bits are still developing. Sadly, this accounts for a large amount of deaths in off param environments and hobbyists who refuse are in denial that their shrimps can live in other parameters. when you only see 2-3 out of 20-30 survive, the proof is in the pudding.

Ryantube, the gh/kh as these are crucial parameters for inverts. neglecting these params may significantly detriment the offspring survival.

[ryantube]

Found 5 today. How do you lower the TDS and keep it stable? Adding coral chips pretty much increase TDS to ~280 unless you change water everyday.

Last time checking GH 9, KH 5.

Originally Posted by acitydweller

PH: 7.8 - 8.2
KH: 7 - 9
GH: 7 - 9
TDS: 90 - 140
Water temp: 25 - 27

their ideal conditions.
You understand that baby shrimp foods actually feeds the bacteria that babies feed on and not the babies themselves. IME, my shrimp breeding tank pretty much grows everything really well, mosses, plants, and babies. The beneficial bacteria built up in that tank is astounding.

with that said, know that whatever water parameters you have acclimated them to may not ensure the offspring survival as it isn't the ideal for this particular breed. they may be able to acclimate when older but certainly not when their organs and internal bits are still developing. Sadly, this accounts for a large amount of deaths in off param environments and hobbyists who refuse are in denial that their shrimps can live in other parameters. when you only see 2-3 out of 20-30 survive, the proof is in the pudding.

Ryantube, the gh/kh as these are crucial parameters for inverts. neglecting these params may significantly detriment the offspring survival.

[mordalphus]

I have had good luck with just feeding shirakura baby food every few days. I never see babies or adults eat, but I also stopped trying to feed them shrimp food. All I feed now is the shirakura food and they're breeding pretty good.'

I think the most important parameter to them is temperature above 80, next important is pH above 8, after that the GH and KH I've never checked just keep fresh coral chips in the filter and top off with RO water.

[plamski]

In my case.PH8.2,TDS 330,KH7,Temp 82.They love algae and if you like to see them more often increase the light intensity. Just spread spirulina powder every 2 days in the tank. Babies will be so happy.

[PuddlesAqua]

Originally Posted by plamski

In my case.PH8.2,TDS 330,KH7,Temp 82.They love algae and if you like to see them more often increase the light intensity. Just spread spirulina powder every 2 days in the tank. Babies will be so happy.

So in this case does the spirulina feed the babies or the bacteria that the babies eat?

[bigshawn]

I'm quite happy with my survival rate from my Cardinals.
Here are my tank parameters
Temp - 80-82
Ph 8.1-8.2
Kh 8-9
Gh 19
TDS 610
I started my colony with 22 shrimp and easily double my population with my first group of berried females. I don't feed anything special for babies. I feed blanched spinach twice a week to the tank. I have lots of algea growth in my tank that the babies eat up.

[wicca27]

from what i have seen the algae in the tank is what is most important. i have thought about trying them but my water is to soft and i have no way to up it cause i use sponge filters so cant put chips in them lol. if i do decide to try them i think the first thing i will do is plant and lots of rocks with light on alot for extra algae to grow. sorry for hijacking but just trying to figure it out as well before i try. can any one chime in?

[mordalphus]

Use aragonite sand or crushed coral for substrate if you have soft water.

Most important is temp, needs to be 80 at least.

My Cardinal tank doesn't have much algae at all anymore, in fact it only has one spot with algae, and the shrimp don't touch that spot for some reason.