[ScarletFire]

After an issue with the pH too low, I've netted 6/10 shrimps and brought along 20 new painted reds with me. They're currently dripping.

I've dripped the shrimps until the pH in the container was the same as the tank. There was a bit of an ammonia issue, but that was easily resolved with a mature sponge filter. I did a water test and here are the results:
pH: 7.6
high range pH: 7.4
GH: 9
KH: 6
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrates: 0 ppm
TDS: 199

The shrimps are shrimps swimming around pretty fast. Would this be normal behaviour?

 

[ravensgate]

Yes normal when they are introduced to a new environment. I keep lights off the first day so they can settle a bit.

 

[ScarletFire]

Is it a bad idea moving a BN into this tank? I can never see him, and I'm slightly worried that he's not doing okay due to the low pH. If I do move him, I'll convert that tank (29 gal) to a crystal shrimp tank.

 

[sbarbee54]

He will make snacks out fo shrimplets. Also what do your nitrites read...?

 

[ScarletFire]

oh my gosh. API test tubes are durable. I just dropped one and it doesn't have any scratches. Anyways, nitrites read 0 in both tanks.

By the way, before putting shrimp into this tank, the sand was clear of anything. I came back after 10 hours, and there are these brown dots all over the place. I don't know if you can see it, but I tried to take a photo of the sandy area. Is this poo? Is it good or bad that there is so much (there's around 20 "pellets" for a 1cmx1cm space, less as you move away from the one-eighth of a wafer that I fed them)

In addition, whenever I want to remove the wafer piece, a shrimp goes to eat a bit from it. Should I leave it in the tank, or remove it when I wake up (going to sleep in 30 min or so)

 

[GeToChKn]

Good that nitrites are down to 0, they are may more toxic than the ammonia would be in even small amounts.

Have they settled down from swimming everywhere in the tank a bit by now?

 

[GeToChKn]

Yes, that's shrimp poop. Part of the reason most people use black or dark substrate, can't see the poop. It also helps the red shrimp look more red. Shrimp, try to a very small degree, to blend into their environment, so on a darker substrate, they will be a bit redder and darker as they try to blend in. On a lighter sand like that, they will go a bit lighter. Decent fire reds shouldn't go very much lighter though. Cherries can go almost clear though as they aren't as dark as the fire reds.

 

[ScarletFire]

They're all settled down now, except for 3 shrimps who can't really see the end of the tank. On the bright side, they finished the eighth of a hikari wafer.

For feeding, is this okay?

Mon: hikari algae wafer
Wed: hikari shrimp cuisine
Fri: hikari algae wafer