I can't say that I've ever tested my water for ph, so I'm not sure about that, but my tanks stay in the normal range for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. The temperature in my 55 gallon tank usually runs around 80-82 degrees. I keep two adult and one juvenile vampire shrimp in there with 4 bamboo shrimp, a few dozen amano shrimp and some fish (scissortails, buneos aires and pristella tetras and a flying fox).
My shrimp tank (which used to be for amano shrimp breeding) has turned into a home for the other 4 juvenile vampires and around 50 juvenile amano. I'm waiting for the amano to get big enough to sell and two of the vampires are for a friend. It's a 20 long that is kept around 78 degrees. I think a 20 long would probably be an absolute minimum tank size for keeping a couple of these shrimp when they start getting bigger. My adults are probably getting close to 5" and they are still growing, and they do like to wander about. So, the more space, the better. I'm really hoping to have a breeding pair in the shrimp tank, to try my hand at raising those larvae.
They are mainly a terrestrial shrimp, sticking to the bottom of the tank. This is particularly true with the adults. The juveniles seem to move around higher up in decorations though. The shrimp love caves or other types of decoration to hide out in. When they do move about, it's more of a mad dash to get from one piece of cover to the next.
I only feed flake fish food in my main tank, and the shrimp have done well so far, in the last two years that I've had them. I feed crumbled flakes as well as pieces of algae wafers in the shrimp tank. Those vampires seem to really enjoy the algae wafers. I keep meaning to try out the wafers in the main tank to see how the adults like them, but keep forgetting.
