Tiger shrimp

saram521

saram521

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May 10, 2008
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Sara
Does anyone know if these little guys HAVE to be kept in soft water to be ok? I've read where they need soft water to breed, but breeding aside, would they be ok in moderately hard water with a pH around 7.5? It would be temporary, seeing as how I'll be getting an RO unit soon.
 
No, my Tigers are breeding in a tank where I use regular tap water (pH about 7.8 out of the tap). I do use Aquasoil which will buffer the pH down to about 7.0 though.
 
Tiger Shrimp will live in your water but will not thrive. They prefer water with a lower pH and fairly soft. They can be adapted to water with a pH higher than 7.0 but 6.8 is ideal.

Halibass,
Your response is confusing... The water they live in is neutral (almost ideal) and I am sure the Aqua Soil softens it up as well. It doest matter what your tap water is if you are treating it (Aqua Soil is a form of water treatment).
 
Danimal62 said:
Halibass,
Your response is confusing... The water they live in is neutral (almost ideal) and I am sure the Aqua Soil softens it up as well. It doest matter what your tap water is if you are treating it (Aqua Soil is a form of water treatment).
Click to expand...


Yeah, my response is a bit confusing. I guess I'm saying that Tiger Shrimp do not have to be in a pure soft water environment (eg full RO water). I don't even test the water in my Tiger Shrimp tank anymore, but with weekly 40% water changes, I'm pretty sure the AS doesn't buffer the water as much is could. I also inject CO2 so that'll lower the pH.

My CRS tank is pure RO water with AS. The resulting pH is buffered around 6.6-6.8. No CO2, shrimp only. Surprisingly, even with such a controlled, stable environment, my Tigers do better than my CRS.
 
pure RO water should have 0 buffering capabilities.

it is neutral 7.0pH but is subject to fluctuations since it has no buffers.

Adding CO2 may show as a lower pH as it causes the water to become more acidic(carbonic acid) but does not permanently lower pH..if you turn the CO2 off the PH should stabilize in 'normal' water. the Carbonic acid is only there while the CO2 is turned on.'Normal ' water usually has some degree of kh(harness carbonic)

that said..with pure RO..I suspect the aquasoils is adding some buffers to the water.
 
Yes, AS is well known to buffer water. pH will be acidic if you give it time to work and the water will be much softer. RO water has 7.0 pH and 0 kH.
 
That's cool Mg! The guy who sold me these tigers said they'd be fine in ph's above neutral, but everything else I've read online has said they like soft water better, which is true I'm sure. I'll try them in my tap water and see how things go for me.
 
With Tiger Shrimp it is true that they can live and breed in harder water with a slightly alkaline pH BUT they do much better in soft water with a lower pH.

I live in Florida and my tap water is VERY hard and has a VERY high pH. When I used to keep my Tiger Shrimp in moderately hard water with a pH of about 7.6 they would live and would breed. Once I moved them to Ideal conditions their breeding became much more prolific and their life span increased.

You can read Breeding Tiger Shrimp here!
 
So is it OK for inverts to be in soft water and still get the necessary minerals they need for their exoskeletons? How soft would be too soft? My friend had water at 25 ppm and the shell of his mystery snail seemed to chip away....
 
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