# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Invertebrates >  Anyone kept Sulawesi shrimps for more than 3 generations?

## qwertiop

i have been reading the forums lately and it seems that no one has successfully kept any of the sulawesi spp. for more than 3 generations. Even if they successfuly established a breeding colony, it seems that the shrimps breed and breed less until they die off altogether?

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## sthh

Yup. Should be f4 or f5 now for caridina dennerli (cardinals) and F2 for tylos (very slow breeders). F1 for other species.

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## newlife

> Yup. Should be f4 or f5 now for caridina dennerli (cardinals) and F2 for tylos (very slow breeders). F1 for other species.


Wow now then I know Sulawesi shrimp death rate so high....and breeding is so difficult....

Bro sthh....does this happen only at aquarium tank or also applies when they are living in the wild???

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## sthh

In the wild, they don't get to live to 1 years I think. There are a lot of predators, esp many types of fishes that specialises in sucking them out of their crevices. In the tank, they just eat, and molt and breed, much better life, as long as the water is good.

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## sthh

Anyway, for beginners, you can try rearing white orchids sulawesi. Very easy to keep alive and breed. They forage in the day in the open as well, and is always berried. I think second easiest would be the caridina dennerli (cardinals) As long as the water is stable, and if they survive for the first 2 weeks, they will start reproducing.

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## marle

> Anyway, for beginners, you can try rearing white orchids sulawesi. Very easy to keep alive and breed. They forage in the day in the open as well, and is always berried. I think second easiest would be the caridina dennerli (cardinals) As long as the water is stable, and if they survive for the first 2 weeks, they will start reproducing.


Yup, those white orchids are not abit shy. Remember the very red coloured shrimp i told you about? Why don't you get some to try too? They look beautiful.

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## Limy

lol.. I used to try cardinals.. until f2.. all die.. sigh..quite difficult for me I think.. lol..

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## qwertiop

Good to know you kept at leasy a few species of shrimp so long. Alot of the tank journals seem incomplete. They report that they successfully kept and bred the shrimp for 1 generation then never update for so long...and most of these journals are pretty old, like 2008-2009... Anyway, I thought the cardinals are the easiest?
Anyone know what happened to the cardinals in c328? went last week got 1 tank full, now like all disappeared?

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## qwertiop

I found a good recent thread on Sulawesi shrimp on another forum. 
http://socalaquascapers.com/forum/sh...t=4386&page=37
these guys seem to be relatively successful in keeping various types alive, even breeding harlequins... read about 40 pages.
some things to note:
-seem to do better in high temperatures, like close to 30c
-water change is a real problem. advise small water changes, less often, use mixture of distilled and tap that is right ph. some use dripwater.
-use a newly cycled tank(2mths) as opposed to tank that has been previously occupied and still running(reasoning is that these shrimps come from nutrient poor environment, might overfeed)
-large number of shrimps die in early stages due to molting problems- speculate due to stress from change of water conditions cause them to moult prematurely.
-addition of guava leaves in the tank. (make sense because i read that most sulawesi spp. found in lakes with lots of leaf litter) soak guave leaves in water and leave them in the sun. let algae grow on these leaves, the shrimp will feed on them. also because guava leaves have antibacterial properties.
-dosing paraguard on quarantined shrimps first. reason is that they have poor immune systems, plus stress cause them to develop disease. Note: mix results, seems to work on some hardier shrimps like Cardinals. Proven, however, to successfully treat diseased yellow cheeks.
-diet. It seems that the Sulawesi shrimps like some meat in their diet. Some feed frozen bloodworms, cruhsed snail.
-addition of snails in the tank said to be beneficial. makes shrimps less stressed, they also feed on digested matter of the snails. said to be reason of success for keeping harlequins.

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## sthh

It is actually much easier for us to keep Sulawesi shrimps, compared to our western counterparts. We have the right climate, we don't need heater, and the cost is so much lower, and we don't have to worry about death on arrival problem or bulk purchases.

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## sthh

> I found a good recent thread on Sulawesi shrimp on another forum. 
> http://socalaquascapers.com/forum/sh...t=4386&page=37
> -use a newly cycled tank(2mths) as opposed to tank that has been previously occupied and still running(reasoning is that these shrimps come from nutrient poor environment, might overfeed)


Disagree with this. I actually advocate using an established tank and converting it to a Sulawesi setup for higher success. 
For example, you can bring up the PH of a cherry shrimp tank, and let it grow some algae and introduce your sulawesi shrimps. Will definitely have much less death compared to a newly cycled (even 2 months) tank. All you have to do is to vacuum your substrate properly prior to the introduction, and let the water sit for a while.
I also do not advocate dosing any chemical additives. Certain species are very sensitive to these, and can die rapidly, eg. Striatas.
One of the way to reduce molting death is actually to feed them with good commercial shrimp pellets. These pellets contains trace elements that helps with molting.

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## qwertiop

I see, thanks for the great advise. Yes it seems they got it rough, the shrimp seem to come to them in pretty bad shape. Anyway, i think i figured out why some colonies dont last long, it seems that the shrimplets need some diatoms in the tank, and after it runs out, they start to starve. can we use spirulina powder to feed these shrimplets?

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## qwertiop

so can we leave the cherry shrimps with them? will they outcompete the sulawesi shrimps for food?

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## qwertiop

also i read that anubias is toxic to the shrimps, and hardly see them in sulawesi tanks. Is it true? becos anubias seems to be a good choice for these setups(low-tech).

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## sthh

> I see, thanks for the great advise. Yes it seems they got it rough, the shrimp seem to come to them in pretty bad shape. Anyway, i think i figured out why some colonies dont last long, it seems that the shrimplets need some diatoms in the tank, and after it runs out, they start to starve. can we use spirulina powder to feed these shrimplets?


It is always good to have a tank that have some algae to feed both the shrimps and shrimplets. They may not recognize pellets as food.




> so can we leave the cherry shrimps with them? will they outcompete the sulawesi shrimps for food?


Yes. However, Sulawesi are more aggressive in terms of territory. But cherry shrimps reproduce very fast, and goes to any food very quickly. There will not be anything left for the sulawesi.




> also i read that anubias is toxic to the shrimps, and hardly see them in sulawesi tanks. Is it true? becos anubias seems to be a good 
> choice for these setups(low-tech).


Try planting crypts instead. Crypt Balansae grow quite well in high PH. My crypt wendtii is growing very well in the Sulawesi tank.

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