shrimp rcs question

jabo01

jabo01

Member
Dec 23, 2009
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Hemet, California
I have a 29 gal planted tank with mystery snails and just added 15-20 rcs. I have been reading that tap water (with copper pipes) is not good for the shrimp and flourish excel is not.
I suppose it is the heavy metals that is not good. Questions are:
1. Is CO2 okay for rcs and snails
2. Do you just age the tap water for a few days befor a water change
3. How often do you feed shrimp, every day or every few days
4. what are good plant ferts to use in a snail/shrimp tank. I have dry and liquid ferts.
5. I was going to add a few ottos but want to breed the shrimp is there any fish that can be added that wont harm the shrimp

Thank You for any help
 
Copper is pretty much nonreactive unless your water supply is very acidic or otherwise corrosive. If it were your pipes would probably have decayed by now and been replaced with PVC. If the matter concerns you though there is an API test for copper--this is the Drs.Foster&Smith one since that's the catalog I have in front of me.
Test the water as it first comes out of the tap, and if that produces detectable levels try letting the water run for a few minutes and then test again. Sometimes water will pick up contaminants if it sits in the pipes for a long time, but once that's flushed out the level drops to zero or negligible. The test reads 0-4% copper so it's pretty sensitive.

"Aging" tap water is useful if you're on municipal water that is treated with chlorine or chloraminides (sp?) to kill bacteria. This is bad for fish but will evaporate (not the right word but I can't think of the right one at the moment) out as you note. A day or two is usually plenty of time. This saves you money as you don't have to use dechlorinator when doing water changes. Get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it up every time AFTER you do a water change. By the time you're ready for the next one it's all ready to go.

I don't CO2 or fert so am unable to offer advice here. As to the fish, just about anything tiny or vegetarian enough will be fine. Tetras, mollies are good...some people have had trouble with guppies so you might avoid those. Adult shrimp will be fine in most cases but you don't want them hiding in the plants in fear for their lives all the time. Never had ottos myself so cannot testify. Good luck. :)
 
I use Excel with my ghost shrimp and snails and have no troubles. I do underdose though.

Otos would be fine with shrimp. Cories are also a good choice.
 
The Pipes in my home are copper and were all replaced 4 yrs ago. I just wanted to check because a few websites mentioned it. I have city well water so I am not concerned with CL2. Thanks thus far.
I did have mollies with my snails but they were eating them so I moved them (the mollies) out, have not tried with shrimp. I might have to get a few corys as well, I have some juliis in another tank and they are interesting to watch.
 
I think the copper pipe issue is over-blown... my house is 24 years old with original copper pipes and I didn't get any detectable levels with my seachem test kit, even using hot water (which they say is the worst).

Mollies are a bad match for shrimp - anything with a mouth big enough to eat them can and likely will eat them. Otos are safe and I've heard dwarf corries are as well. I'm thinking of giving celestial pearl danios (max size about 1") a try, even though I've read that they'll eat baby shrimp. With enough vegetation and good food for them I imagine I can keep my shrimp population up :)

I have 1 tank with pressurized CO2 that doesn't seem to bother my malawa and ghost shrimp or my nerites. I've used excel in my RCS tank before with no ill effects.

I use seachem liquid ferts and aquariumplants.com substrate pellets in my tanks without issue.

I feed monday, wednesday, friday on my established tanks. If the food is still around after 3 hours, consider reducing the amount.
 
If you are concerned about copper in your tap water I would recommend you get a bottle of prime or other water conditioner that neutralizes heavy metals along with chlorine and chloramine.

Although the bottle of prime does not say it neutralizes heavy metals the manufacturers website mentions that prime does neutralize heavy metals.

If your water comes from the city then you most likely do have chlorine/chloramines in your tap water. I am pretty sure there is a law of some kind that requires cities and towns in the U.S. to put chlorine/chloramines in the tap water.

Also aging tap water will not remove copper and to remove chloramines you would have to age the water for a very long time (I think it is something like a week-a week+). So I would just pick up a bottle of prime so you can pretty much instantly neutralize chlorine/chloramines, heavy metals, etc.

But back on topic, I believe my house has copper pipes but when I tested my tap water with an API liquid test no copper was detected. But just because there was no copper in my tap water does not mean there is no copper in everyones tap water so I would get a liquid copper test kit and test your tap water.
 
If your water comes from the city then you most likely do have chlorine/chloramines in your tap water. I am pretty sure there is a law of some kind that requires cities and towns in the U.S. to put chlorine/chloramines in the tap water.


Some cities do add CL2 to their well water but that is only done when there is a reading of high patogens like, gerardia and crypto. Ammonia is added to hold the CL2 in the water longer Hence you get chloramines. Municipalities use CL2 or Ozone because they use water from lakes and canels. They need to disinfect because bodies of water are open and animals crap in them. So it is law to treat some source but if they are non detect like the wells in my city are they do not add CL2 or ammonia. I work in the water industry at a treatment facility. BUt I do thank you for your advice and I still use a chemical simaliar to prime to treat anyhow. I like most people would not like my pets to die if I can help it thats why I asked.
 
jabo01 said:
1. Is CO2 okay for rcs and snails
2. Do you just age the tap water for a few days befor a water change
3. How often do you feed shrimp, every day or every few days
5. I was going to add a few ottos but want to breed the shrimp is there any fish that can be added that wont harm the shrimp
Click to expand...

1. I use Flourish Excel in a tank with an amano and blueberry shrimp, and it doesn't harm them.
2. I never age my tap water. It goes right in after I treat it.
3. I do every other day.. very little.
5. I have 2 ottos in my shrimp tank. I would imagine most fish would be interested in eating shrimp fry since they are so small. I think cat fish are a safe bet, however.
 
Here are some pics of the shrimp
picture.php
Does any use pressurized CO2 with the RCS tanks
 
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