Getting some RCS soon!

[pbmax]

I keep ghosts with Malawa shrimp in my 29g (with platies, guppies, etc.) seemingly without issue thus far. However, some ghosts can be fairly aggressive and may munch on the babies. I'd put that off until your colony gets going and try it then instead.

From a safety perspective you can keep any dwarf shrimp with RCS. However, you don't want to keep shrimp from the same genus (or species) together because they can hybridize or interbreed resulting in unattractive offspring. The general rule is that you can keep Neocaridina (RCS, blue pearl, snowball, yellow) with Caridina (CRS, tigers, bee, etc.), but you want to avoid mixing Neocaridinas with other Neocaridinas and Caridinas with other Caridinas. There are some exceptions to this rule (Caridina babaulti, for example and Malawa shrimp don't seem to interbreed with any other Caridina species), but those are the basics. See this chart for more details:

http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/dwarf_shrimp_compatibility_chart.shtml

Most important is selecting shrimp species that will suit your water parameters. Then once you have that figured out, see if they'll interbreed or not.

 

[SidtheMonkey]

, and no anubias!

Why no anubias?

 

[SidtheMonkey]

They came today! So cute. I bought 10 of them, but she sent 18. LOL! There are 10 that are about 1\2", and the rest are various sized juvies. Amazingly, the females were pretty dark when they arrived. Must not have been too stressed?

pjrichar, I bought 10 RCS for $15 shipped priority mail. Basically they were $1 each, and that seems to be the going price for them.

Can I ask where you ordered them from? How are they doing, are they healthy? Have they colored up well?

 

[pbmax]

Why no anubias?

Some folks believe Anubias can be toxic to shrimp, especially when trimmed in the tank. I have anubias nana in my RCS and Malawa tank without any issues.

 

[Madilyn]

Max, I think I'll just stick with the RCS. Sounds too confusing and a hassle to keep other shrimp with them. Maybe in a different tank, someday.

Sid, I got them from 'fishrancher' on aquabid.com. I just emailed her and asked if I could get less than 25 of them and she said she could sell me 10 for $15, though she ended up actually sending EIGHTEEN of them (10 adults and the other 8 were juvies). Her packaging was amazing and she even sent a package of 'pro grow pellets' along with them. They are doing very well, and they are very healthy. Two or three of the females are berried too. They have colored up very well, and were even colored up when they arrived (which by what I understand means that they weren't very stressed). I would reccomend her any day!

 

[pbmax]

I keep Malawas with my RCS and I believe they're out-breeding the RCS even. They won't cross-breed with RCS (different genus) and they have similar higher-ph water requirements.

 

[sed03f]

I keep malawa w/my rcs since they require higher ph and harder water too, I agree with pbmax, they are outbreeding my rcs haha,

W/your sponge filter, I used a filter like that once, and the babies WILL crawl into it and possibly into your intake tube to be pureed. I used the sponge filter on my canister, and a month later, when I went to clean it, I found about 60 rcs living in it.

There are finer sponges you can get if you dont like panty hose. But then I found them crawling through the top of the sponge and squeezing inbetween the intake tube and sponge

I always buy a filter for 2-3 times the size tank and use panty hose since it will slow your gph rate.

Good idea not to but ghost shrimp in with the rcs, they are more aggressive. I think they will do great in there with all the plants the way they are. I have always kept species only tanks, and recently I started a 10g w/rcs and smaller endlers, the endlers are peaceful and non-aggressive, so the rcs come out and are always sifting through the gravel, and have gone from 9 to around 50 in just a few short months. I was very surprised, and pleased with the tank

 

[Madilyn]

Alright alright, I'll see about putting malawa in with the RCS, but I'll first have to do a lot of research especially because I've never even heard about them.

As for the filter, oh well, I can't do anything else about it, really. I will see if I can get a more fine sponge, though.

 

[Madilyn]

Oh, I forgot to ask; one of my berried females has eyes on her eggs. **bursts in excitement**
Is it okay to move her to a separate tank to study the birth and so that I can know how small the shrimplets are because otherwise they will probably dissapear amongst the sand. Or should I be able to find them if I look hard? Have any of you ever found them newborn?

 

[sed03f]

no rush, u should get your RCS breeding first Im actually going to be getting a tank just for the malawa shrimp, they are out breeding my yellow and rcs and using too much of the max capacity, they need their own world, and they are faster than the rcs, making them impossible to catch on shipping day!