[ikuzo]

The story is that i've been wanting to keep sulawesi shrimp for years. Some of the reason that kept me not to was that the price was so high and the risk of losing them since most of the shrimps was wild caught back then. Now it seems that their price has come down a lot and a friend convinced me that farm bred sulawesi shrimps has acclimatized to somewhat common waters has made them easier to keep, i decided that i'm willing to try to keep them.

the tank has been cycling for a month with 2 weeks of 24 hours light and 2 weeks of 12 hours light to induce algae, so forgive me for the not so clean look.

the shrimps arrived last night and after a 2 hours of drip acclimation i can't stand to wait any longer and put them in.

i measure the water they came with and these are the parameter:
pH 7,5
tds 130

my tank water:
pH 7,8
tds 150

i have no GH or KH test kit

there's a blue morph

shrimps are fine and actively grazing. this morning i found none dead and one of them seems to molt with a dead skin laying giving me a short heart attack :laugh2:

enjoy

 

[flynruff]

Love it. This is my next project too.
Where did you get the shrimp?

 

[Yukiharu]

Very pretty. I wonder if you could breed the blue morph out into its own line...

Also, what temperature are you keeping them at? I was under the impression that they needed temperatures in the 80's due to the warm Sulawesi weather.

 

[AoxomoxoA]

In my experience the blue is likely from shipping stress. They'll also sometimes be blue in the morning before you turn lights on.
Or maybe you have a blue one lol

 

[ikuzo]

Love it. This is my next project too.
Where did you get the shrimp?

i got it from a breeder / in bogor indonesia, breathing bagged, overnight shipment. thankfully only one casualty and the water parameter is almost the same.

Very pretty. I wonder if you could breed the blue morph out into its own line...

Also, what temperature are you keeping them at? I was under the impression that they needed temperatures in the 80's due to the warm Sulawesi weather.

they do need warm water, i kept them in this tank at 29-30 C

i believe they already breed blue form of this cardinal sulawesi shrimp. they call it blue phantom cardinals my friend got some photos in his facebook i don't know if you can open them but here's the link

edit : have not noticed before, there's a watermark of Aquarist Chamber maybe you can contact them for more info

 

[AoxomoxoA]

i believe they already breed blue form of this cardinal sulawesi shrimp. they call it blue phantom cardinals my friend got some photos in his facebook i don't know if you can open them but here's the link
https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.sutanto/posts/10207096173257450

The link isn't viewable, but would love to see. Is yours still blue?

 

[ikuzo]

In my experience the blue is likely from shipping stress. They'll also sometimes be blue in the morning before you turn lights on.
Or maybe you have a blue one lol

really?
well that's a bummer i really thought i have a blue one :grin2:
i'll take a look again tonight if that blue is still there

Bump:

The link isn't viewable, but would love to see. Is yours still blue?

here's one of the photos

 

[AoxomoxoA]

I was just looking over their page. They have a lot of very nice shrimp & plecos!
Those in the pic you posted are pretty neat. Yours looks more like the color they turn when stressed or lights out to me but I could be wrong. The 1st time I had them shipped to me (2010-ish?) I was shocked to see them all blue like yours when I opened it! They colored up nicely after settling in a day, but still would turn blue at night. They're strange! I've subscribed to your thread, am eager to see what happens :smile2:

 

[ikuzo]

lol i have been reading your thread from 2010
i guess i miss this blue cardinal information by almost 6 years

 

[AoxomoxoA]

LOL! Sometimes A Blue Notion!
Just went & read it too. Oh, the things I didn't know then! I was using play sand at that time (my 1st batch of Cardinals) & figured out later that I had dead spots in the sand. It isn't good as it gets too compacted. Killed them all within a month due to the sand gassing out.
I had 4 or 5 more, much bigger, adventures with Sulawesi at that time period.
It was a very, very trying time for many of us that were trying to establish how to keep them. I had mentally blocked it out, haha :grin2:

 

[ikuzo]

bga problem
i read that dosing kno3 etc won't harm shrimps. can someone confirm this and how much i should add just to prevent bga only

 

[WaterLife]

Nice! I'm going to be ordering my Cardinals within a week or two.
I would recommend getting a GH/KH test kit. At least so you know it's some what in range of what they require. Even if your friend has bred them in similar pH and TDS as yours, I personally would still like to test. At least take some water to your friend and have him test it real quick.

Regarding nitrates, shrimp are not as tolerant as fish are. Cardinals are one of the hardiest out of the "fancy" Sulawesi shrimp, but still, they are just shrimp. I know that people have kept them in up to 40 ppm NO3, but they usually would like to do a water change when it's around 40. 40ppm should be more than you would want to dose anyway. I'd stay below 20ppm just to be safe. I might just dose 5 or 10ppm. I'm not so sure you would even need to dose KNO3, there are a ton of shrimp only tanks and I don't think BGA/cyanobacteria is a common thing among those tanks, and they even have poor circulation with most simply running one sponge filter.

EDIT: oh, I just re-looked at your pics and see BGA starting to form on the rocks and maybe even the back glass. You would be safe dosing KNO3, just increase the levels gradually if you want to be more safe. I still would keep it under 20 ppm (5-10, maybe 15, not sure what ppm is enough).

 

[ikuzo]

EDIT: oh, I just re-looked at your pics and see BGA starting to form on the rocks and maybe even the back glass. You would be safe dosing KNO3, just increase the levels gradually if you want to be more safe. I still would keep it under 20 ppm (5-10, maybe 15, not sure what ppm is enough).

this is excellent info, now i have no doubts
i just added around 5 ppm and will add again after my next water change
thank you