I imported about 100 of these about 8 months ago. I sold off 60 and kept the rest to try and establish a breeding colony. In the meantime, its gotten nearly impossible to import them at all.
They are a very small shrimp; about 3/4". They also have very specific care requirements that are a bit different than most other dwarf shrimp. They like quite warm water, about 82-84. They require a high pH (8.0 or over) but prefer a lower gh/kh (ideally 5-7). Where they originate there is few plants but ample rocks so a planted tank is not at all necessary though I find it impossible to not plant a shrimp tank. They are not at all particular about light and can be quite shy so only extremely peaceful tankmates. I keep mine with amano shrimp and nerite snails.
For my set-up, I used black flourite and lightly planted the tank. I also added some texas holy rock to increase my pH and a fair amount of malaysian wood in order to reduce some of the hardness. For the first 4 months I used 1/2 ro water to 1/2 tap water to achieve the following tank parameters:
pH 8.0
gh 6
kh 8
temp 84
I do weekly 10-20% water changes. I feed the tank 1-2x per week a diet of crushed kens veggie sticks or a well balanced flake, about 1/2 pellet per 10 shrimp.
I am excited to say, despite the notoriety of these shrimp being very difficult to keep alive and breed, that I have not lost a single shrimp and my population has increased slowly to about 70 or so shrimp. I currently have 6 berried females.
A couple pics of these interesting and beautiful shrimp. You may notice that their color ranges from a very light red/orange to an almost burgundy/black with the characteristic yellow flecking. For reference, these shrimp sell for between $14-20 a piece.
They are a very small shrimp; about 3/4". They also have very specific care requirements that are a bit different than most other dwarf shrimp. They like quite warm water, about 82-84. They require a high pH (8.0 or over) but prefer a lower gh/kh (ideally 5-7). Where they originate there is few plants but ample rocks so a planted tank is not at all necessary though I find it impossible to not plant a shrimp tank. They are not at all particular about light and can be quite shy so only extremely peaceful tankmates. I keep mine with amano shrimp and nerite snails.
For my set-up, I used black flourite and lightly planted the tank. I also added some texas holy rock to increase my pH and a fair amount of malaysian wood in order to reduce some of the hardness. For the first 4 months I used 1/2 ro water to 1/2 tap water to achieve the following tank parameters:
pH 8.0
gh 6
kh 8
temp 84
I do weekly 10-20% water changes. I feed the tank 1-2x per week a diet of crushed kens veggie sticks or a well balanced flake, about 1/2 pellet per 10 shrimp.
I am excited to say, despite the notoriety of these shrimp being very difficult to keep alive and breed, that I have not lost a single shrimp and my population has increased slowly to about 70 or so shrimp. I currently have 6 berried females.
A couple pics of these interesting and beautiful shrimp. You may notice that their color ranges from a very light red/orange to an almost burgundy/black with the characteristic yellow flecking. For reference, these shrimp sell for between $14-20 a piece.
I have to stick with cherries and lower grade crystals. Once I get more experience with them! I might go for these!
