Perfect Parameters of Breeding High Grade Crystal Red Shrimp

The artical: Breeding Crystal Red Shrimp, has listed the survial and breeding range of parameters.
Could there be perfect Numbers ## ??
Yes!!



A complete test kit for testing tap and aquarium water



To different breeders, those numbers could vary. The following perfect parameters are according to my experience.



Temp: 24°C ± 2

pH: 6.5 ± 1

gH: 4 ~ 6 dH



kH:  < 1 dH

NO3: < 10 ppm

TDS: 160 ~ 180 ppm

Welcome to comment and share your perfect parameters!!

Beautiful Lace Java Fern

Easy grow, easy taken care.

Great for shrimp tank!

One of my favorite.

Breeding "High Grade" Crystal Red Shrimp --- Substrate System

Breeding higher grade crystal red shrimp could be different from grade A/S. It has higher requirement on water quality, and needs more attention to small details. Two most important criteria: nitrification system and stability of whole environment. A well set-up tank is essential for future successfully breeding. 

One point of a well set-up tank is substrate system. 

Most crystal red shrimp breeders highly recommend ADA Substrate System -- - Aqua Soil - Amazonia. It works great to maintain good pH lever for crystal red shrimp. One of the selling agents is Aquarium Design Group. But it is costly, and shipping is not cheap,either ~~

http://www.adgshop.com/Substrate_System_s/1.htm

There are two generations of ADA soil. Hobbies reflect that the first generation seems to be more effective and stable than the second. It is also said that the release time of the product will affect its function. It seems to be true, but I can't prove it. 

I have used three kinds of substrate so far, aqua soil amazonia, aqua soil africana, and flora base. All of them work well. 

The soil may be composed of some relative large coarse soil and some small fine part. Here is what I do to filter out coarse soil. it is good to have around 2 inches of coarse soil on the bottom, and another 1 inches of fine part on the top. 

Flora Base Mix with ADA

Shrimps love to dig around when searching for food. This is what would happen if there is big gap on the top of the substrate: 

Little shrimp baby kept digging deeply ~~
"Help, who can get me out??

"DIY" do something, make it a safer home for those little babies. 

Crystal Red Shrimp Hatching Days Calculation

Here is an interesting website from Japan.

It can calculate hatching days depending on the temperature of the tank. 

Hatching Days Calculation: 

http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/tsurumaru/

The formula is: 

Hatching Days ≈ 63 - (Water Temp in Celsius X 1.6)

After you get into this website, you will see two blanks.
Fill in the first blank your tank water temperature (in Celsius), and click the bottom next to it.
You will get the days in the second blank.

This is also a link from the same website:
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/tsurumaru/

It has very nice crystal red shrimp photos from 2004. It is hard to imagine how fast the CRS has changed. The very first CRS are mostly in red, almost fire red color. At that time, they are amazingly beautiful already. Now, it is very hard to see such kind of CRS any more.

Very original CRS

from aquatailors official site

Distilled Water --- great value only 83¢ to treat high TDS

 A good TDS could help improve the solid coloration of crystal red shrimp, but high TDS could make it difficult to molt, thus threatening their lives. There are many ways to solve the problem of high TDS. Changing water could be one of the solutions.

I have interest in Carnivorous plant before, but don't have the chance to get one. A couple weeks ago, I catched up the last minute, and won the bid on a nice cephalutos plant on eBay. To take good care of this kind of plant, you have to use rainwater, distilled, or reverse osmosis. It seldom rains here in my area. And I have tried many ways to collect distilled water, but they don't work out well. So here I am:

This is one gallon of distilled water from Walmart, and it only costs 83¢. Haha~~ my little plant won't be thirsty any more, really great value.
 
The distilled water has 0 TDS, could I use it to lower the TDS of the shrimp tank?
I have a 30 gallon tank that needs to be rearranged. One of the biggest problem of this tank is TDS --- about 300ppm. I did the water change, using 3 gallons of distilled water. Right after I finished water change, the TDS lower to 207ppm.
 

The following picture shows TDS from the other tank of good condition --- 189ppm.

In my experience, TDS should not go over 250ppm, within the range of 160 ~ 220ppm would be ideal.

Distilled water has another good way of use. During winter time, the house heat is on, and the tank heat is on, evaporation will take away more water comparing to summer time. But nutrient of the tank remains the same. Adding distilled water could help you better achieve ideal position of the tank.

P.S. using distilled water to add water to your tank. You need regular water to do the water changing.