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I got 15 neocaridina shrimp almost a month ago and have my first berried female, but I’m still not confident about keeping them. I'm not sure if I should be worrying more, or if I should just chill out and see how things go and only try to make adjustments if there are problems (i.e. shrimp start dying).
Some of the care guides I’m reading are quite dire about doing tiny, infrequent water changes with water that’s been aged for a week (on top of a water conditioner!), but I feel like I see planted tanks with large shrimp colonies where it seems like they get no special consideration. I’m not sure what to make of the disparity. I am pretty fastidious about maintenance, so my concern is generally about doing too much. Before adding the shrimp I did 50% WC all the time - it's a 5 gallon tank, so took no time and my plants liked it. The water parameters that I measure (ph 7.2-7.4, dGH ~7, dKH ~2, temp 69-71F) don’t waiver even with big WC, but I don’t have a TDS meter and I am not sure how critical that is.
I also am worried about feeding a bit. The tank was mature before they were added, but there’s not too much algae though I always have some indian almond leaf matter for them, plus they are very into the micropellets my rasbora miss, but they don’t seem interested in the blanched vegetables I have tried to give them. I’m not sure if I should look into other ways of feeding them, or if they are doing fine.
I know there are very experienced shrimp keepers here and I could use some seasoned wisdom.
Some of the care guides I’m reading are quite dire about doing tiny, infrequent water changes with water that’s been aged for a week (on top of a water conditioner!), but I feel like I see planted tanks with large shrimp colonies where it seems like they get no special consideration. I’m not sure what to make of the disparity. I am pretty fastidious about maintenance, so my concern is generally about doing too much. Before adding the shrimp I did 50% WC all the time - it's a 5 gallon tank, so took no time and my plants liked it. The water parameters that I measure (ph 7.2-7.4, dGH ~7, dKH ~2, temp 69-71F) don’t waiver even with big WC, but I don’t have a TDS meter and I am not sure how critical that is.
I also am worried about feeding a bit. The tank was mature before they were added, but there’s not too much algae though I always have some indian almond leaf matter for them, plus they are very into the micropellets my rasbora miss, but they don’t seem interested in the blanched vegetables I have tried to give them. I’m not sure if I should look into other ways of feeding them, or if they are doing fine.
I know there are very experienced shrimp keepers here and I could use some seasoned wisdom.