# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Invertebrates >  Shrimps that dont require high tech

## jermseah

Looking for shrimps that do not need chiller, just normal room temperature and normal aged water...

1. any?

2. Also, do shrimps like ketapang leaves and water in it? :Laughing: 

3. Has anyone tried measuring the PH level of ketapang leaves in water? though based on the chart - yellow is about ph 6...

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## tiintinn

Can try cherry shrimps or Amano shrimps


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## lcdscreen

I've had colour shrimps survive in my planted tank when cherries couldn't. Low tech non-chilled no-co2. Could be because at the time my tank was newly cycled and not yet 'settled' with regards to other parameters (that I don't have the equipment to test for).

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## jermseah

> I've had colour shrimps survive in my planted tank when cherries couldn't. Low tech non-chilled no-co2. Could be because at the time my tank was newly cycled and not yet 'settled' with regards to other parameters (that I don't have the equipment to test for).



how do you cycle the tank if there were no filters?

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## lcdscreen

There is a filter or course, and LED lights. But that's all, a basic planted tank. Are you not intending to have a filter?

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## Urban Aquaria

Cherry and malayan shrimps are usually the hardier species you can keep in a non-chiller tank with normal dechlorinated tap water, most keepers use that setup... you could still keep the more sensitive shrimps like CRS in such conditions too, just that their coloration may not be as nice and breeding/shrimplet survival tends to be much lower.

Ketapang leaves do offer some benefits to the majority of shrimps in the form of tannins which have some anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Its also a source of natural food for the shrimps, as they will also graze on bio-film and microfauna that grow on the rotting leaves too.

The only issue most people face with ketapang leaves is it tends to stain the water yellow and can get quite messy when it rots to bits. So thats a trade-off.

How much reduction in pH the ketapang leaves generate depends on how much leaves you add in vs the water volume (in some extreme cases there is a potential for pH to drop super low until 4.0+, like in some leaf littered blackwater forest streams)... so its best to add in small amounts of leaves at a time and monitor the pH along the way, until its at your required pH. Do not suddenly dump alot of leaves in a tank as that can plunge the pH down too quickly, which will negatively affect the shrimps.

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## jermseah

> There is a filter or course, and LED lights. But that's all, a basic planted tank. Are you not intending to have a filter?


yup i dont intend to have a filter, as what master Urban Aquaria mentioned, its a trade off if i were to introduced the ketapang leaves into the tank  :Smile:

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## happydanio123

You van Try Cherries. They grow and reproduce like rabbits.

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## jermseah

> You van Try Cherries. They grow and reproduce like rabbits.
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk



thanks! this is the one right? Red Cherry Shrimp

Red-Cherry-Shrimp.jpg

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## Urban Aquaria

Just for quick reference, there are many different grades and color variants of cherry shrimps, here is a chart example:



Source: http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/...ina-davidi-r1/

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## cheetf

What's your objective?

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## Ralph

I think what you want to find out, are shrimps that are pretty and yet low-maintenance. you would want to use non-chilled water and just dechlorinated tap water.

Normal temp: Generally Neo (like cherries) don't require a chiller. If you are talking about room temperature in Singapore context (25-29 degree), the prettiest shrimps around are the Sulawesi breed which is suppose to be kept in non-chilled conditions.

Water: Since you will not want to use RO, your concern should be selection of shrimps that thrive in the pH, GH requirement that is same as your tap water. Most local tap water's pH should be about 7.2-7.5 and GH 3-5 but different areas will have different tap water parameters, so you still cannot take for granted. You still need to measure your parameters. Cherry shrimps should still do well in this range of parameters. But if you want to go for Sulawesi shrimps, the GH will be higher, 7-9.

So cut to the chase. If you want easier set-up, go for cherry shrimps. If you want to bother to tune the water parameter abit more for a prettier shrimp, go for Sulawesi. But Sulawesi is not a recommended species for beginner shrimp keepers , there is a chance your tap water+mineral salt and set-up will not get you the ideal parameters for this delicate beauties, and your investments goes up the lorry for nothing (yes, sulawesi r not cheap). So if you are new to this , you might want to start with some cherries while researching your next move.

have fun and good luck!

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## jermseah

Thank you Ralph for the detailed explanation, i gotten 50 malayan shrimps to test.


the water im using is from - Hexagon 8 stage, which we are also drinking from (bought by my parents years back) 

what i did was to use the water from that filter, leave it overnight and dose a little of Prime Seachem.. but there are still a couple of shrimps dying everyday lol

im not sure if this is RO or not as i do not have much knowledge about RO..

What kind of RO brands do you all recommend? as there are so many around..

IMG_0823.jpg







> I think what you want to find out, are shrimps that are pretty and yet low-maintenance. you would want to use non-chilled water and just dechlorinated tap water.
> 
> Normal temp: Generally Neo (like cherries) don't require a chiller. If you are talking about room temperature in Singapore context (25-29 degree), the prettiest shrimps around are the Sulawesi breed which is suppose to be kept in non-chilled conditions.
> 
> Water: Since you will not want to use RO, your concern should be selection of shrimps that thrive in the pH, GH requirement that is same as your tap water. Most local tap water's pH should be about 7.2-7.5 and GH 3-5 but different areas will have different tap water parameters, so you still cannot take for granted. You still need to measure your parameters. Cherry shrimps should still do well in this range of parameters. But if you want to go for Sulawesi shrimps, the GH will be higher, 7-9.
> 
> So cut to the chase. If you want easier set-up, go for cherry shrimps. If you want to bother to tune the water parameter abit more for a prettier shrimp, go for Sulawesi. But Sulawesi is not a recommended species for beginner shrimp keepers , there is a chance your tap water+mineral salt and set-up will not get you the ideal parameters for this delicate beauties, and your investments goes up the lorry for nothing (yes, sulawesi r not cheap). So if you are new to this , you might want to start with some cherries while researching your next move.
> 
> have fun and good luck!

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## Ralph

What you have may be purified drinking water, i am not sure. For RO water, TDS is low, maybe 3-5. It is almost like distilled water in terms of purity (or the lack of dissolved what-nots). More serious hobbyist will use such water and top up with mineral addictive to get the water parameter that they want to breed shrimps in. Even more hardcore ones will do RODI to get TDS to 0.

But right now, you need to know the water parameter that you are playing with.

Advise to get some test kit to check for the pH, KH and GH and maybe a TDS pen. If you aiming to breed shrimps, this is the bare minimal you should be doing.

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## Urban Aquaria

For that Hexagon 8 stage unit, do test the processed water it generates to make sure it is still working properly (the filter medium inside has not worn out or exhausted yet), especially if its been used for a few years.

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## jermseah

Do you have the recommended kit to buy for testing the water? not so exp pls! hahah getting shrimps is a real headache... 





> For that Hexagon 8 stage unit, do test the processed water it generates to make sure it is still working properly (the filter medium inside has not worn out or exhausted yet), especially if its been used for a few years.

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## jermseah

i have ketapang water - because i have betta fish, i dont have any kit except for the API PH tester.... should i just try add the ketapang water? do you think it will improve the survival rate for the shrimps? haha

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## Urban Aquaria

> Do you have the recommended kit to buy for testing the water? not so exp pls! hahah getting shrimps is a real headache...


For water purification systems, usually we just use a simple TDS pen to test (a common model is the TDS-3 pen, usually costs around $10+ at most LFS, can be even cheaper if you order online from Aliexpress or Taobao).

Just use the TDS pen to test the unprocessed tap water and then test the processed water, see the difference in TDS levels. Ideally the processed water should be very low TDS (ie. 5-10ppm), or even better still at 0 ppm. If the TDS didn't decrease much or is still high, then the water purifier isn't working well or its cartridges need to be changed.

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## jermseah

I shouldnt have followed this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9HMcPaUPAI


I think the water has not cycled properly as i did all at one shot - added water and shrimps after the wabi kusa was done, i think by end of the week all die lol lesson learnt





> For water purification systems, usually we just use a simple TDS pen to test (a common model is the TDS-3 pen, usually costs around $10+ at most LFS, can be even cheaper if you order online from Aliexpress or Taobao).
> 
> Just use the TDS pen to test the unprocessed tap water and then test the processed water, see the difference in TDS levels. Ideally the processed water should be very low TDS (ie. 5-10ppm), or even better still at 0 ppm. If the TDS didn't decrease much or is still high, then the water purifier isn't working well or its cartridges need to be changed.

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## Kingelliot

> Cherry and malayan shrimps are usually the hardier species you can keep in a non-chiller tank with normal dechlorinated tap water, most keepers use that setup... you could still keep the more sensitive shrimps like CRS in such conditions too, just that their coloration may not be as nice and breeding/shrimplet survival tends to be much lower.
> 
> Ketapang leaves do offer some benefits to the majority of shrimps in the form of tannins which have some anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Its also a source of natural food for the shrimps, as they will also graze on bio-film and microfauna that grow on the rotting leaves too.
> 
> The only issue most people face with ketapang leaves is it tends to stain the water yellow and can get quite messy when it rots to bits. So thats a trade-off.
> 
> How much reduction in pH the ketapang leaves generate depends on how much leaves you add in vs the water volume (in some extreme cases there is a potential for pH to drop super low until 4.0+, like in some leaf littered blackwater forest streams)... so its best to add in small amounts of leaves at a time and monitor the pH along the way, until its at your required pH. Do not suddenly dump alot of leaves in a tank as that can plunge the pH down too quickly, which will negatively affect the shrimps.


Hi guru, I always wonder what are the difference between malayan shrimps and amano shrimps? Are they same? Just one found in Malaysia (guess from its name) and one from Japan.  



> i have ketapang water - because i have betta fish, i dont have any kit except for the API PH tester.... should i just try add the ketapang water? do you think it will improve the survival rate for the shrimps? haha



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## Urban Aquaria

> I shouldnt have followed this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9HMcPaUPAI
> 
> I think the water has not cycled properly as i did all at one shot - added water and shrimps after the wabi kusa was done, i think by end of the week all die lol lesson learnt


Well, keeping shrimps in an unfiltered wabi-kusa tank setup could work... just that you don't just put in 50 malayan shrimps at once, that will naturally overload the tank very easily.  :Grin: 

Unfiltered tanks can only support a very small bio-load (compared to filtered tanks). For small unfiltered tanks, just a few small shrimps can already be at the limits of the tank bio-load capacity, any more and the water will foul up very quickly. You'll also have to do more frequent water changes and waste removal to keep the water clean too. Basically without a filter, you'll have to act as the manual filter.

Also note that the ADA wabi-kusa plants are usually grown out in separate emersed setups before usage, so most of the soil ammonia and nutrients are already used up by the mature plants, which makes it safer to add to a tank and then add livestock in immediately.

But if the wabi-kusa was freshly made with new ADA aquasoil and then immediately put into a tank, the soil will start to release ammonia into the water column like in a new tank setup, and that will affect any livestock that were also added in at the same time. In such cases, you should let the plants use up the ammonia and nutrients to grow, let the tank cycle and stabilize first, then add in livestock later.

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## Urban Aquaria

> Hi guru, I always wonder what are the difference between malayan shrimps and amano shrimps? Are they same? Just one found in Malaysia (guess from its name) and one from Japan.


Yeah, they are different species of shrimps from different countries and localities.

Some info:

http://www.planetinverts.com/malaya_shrimp.html

http://www.planetinverts.com/Amano%20Shrimp.html

Interestingly, their mode of breeding are different too, while their young both have a larvae stage, malayan shrimp larvae can transition into shrimplets and grow up in freshwater, while yamato shrimp larvae need saltwater conditions to transition into shrimplets (then gradually return back to freshwater conditions as they grow).

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## jermseah

UA... i think you basically nailed it with experience! haha 

guess i will have to wait and see how it goes from here, and do 20-40% water change every 2 days!






> Well, keeping shrimps in an unfiltered wabi-kusa tank setup could work... just that you don't just put in 50 malayan shrimps at once, that will naturally overload the tank very easily. 
> 
> Unfiltered tanks can only support a very small bio-load (compared to filtered tanks). For small unfiltered tanks, just a few small shrimps can already be at the limits of the tank bio-load capacity, any more and the water will foul up very quickly. You'll also have to do more frequent water changes and waste removal to keep the water clean too. Basically without a filter, you'll have to act as the manual filter.
> 
> Also note that the ADA wabi-kusa plants are usually grown out in separate emersed setups before usage, so most of the soil ammonia and nutrients are already used up by the mature plants, which makes it safer to add to a tank and then add livestock in immediately.
> 
> But if the wabi-kusa was freshly made with new ADA aquasoil and then immediately put into a tank, the soil will start to release ammonia into the water column like in a new tank setup, and that will affect any livestock that were also added in at the same time. In such cases, you should let the plants use up the ammonia and nutrients to grow, let the tank cycle and stabilize first, then add in livestock later.

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