Cardinal Shrimp (sulawesi, Caridina dennerli) Care and Help!!!

[FrozenFins]

Hey everyone!
I am currently working full time at my local fish store. We have a huge freshwater shipment coming on Tuesday. Included in this shipment are some Cardinal Shrimp. Heres the main problem, the fish store is a predominantly saltwater based shop. They ordered some Neocardina shrimp and added cardinal shrimp because they looked pretty, not knowing how much different their care is compared to other caridina shrimp let alone neocaridina shrimp.

They will be put in the same aquarium as the neos, simply because when placing the order they thought care was the same. And now there isnt enough space for an extra one. Because cherry shrimp and neos can take a wide range of parameters and are a hardy inverts.. short term i think this will be fine??

So anyone have experiance with cardinals? I know @Cory does, I've watched all the co-op videos about the cardinals. Any general information we should know?

The Ph the tank is sitting at is at 6.8 - ive read mixed opinions online. Some say soft accidic water is best, others say harder water is best. Which is best in your experiance?

Ive also read about the importance of keeping parameters stable with these guys. Only waterchanging when necessary. I've also read that Nitrates should be kept below 20, would you guys agree with this?

Thanks!

[Lennie]

The care of caridinas change from one to another a lot.

if you are speaking only for sulawesi shrimp, then you gotta aim higher ph than that, around 8.0 or so. They are usually kept with rabbit snails. Rabbit snails also like the high ph warm water environment. I keep mine at 8.0ph, 26C.

sulawesi shrimp have very different likings compared to other common caridinas like red crystals, blue bolts, etc. They like warm water, want high ph, and want some kh in their water. However, other caridinas want ideally 0 kh, acidic and cooler water. Being “caridina” cannot really generalise their needs👍🏻

when it comes to caridinas ideally you should aim target parameters based on the specific species you are aiming to keep.

I would check up their required parameters online, but also ask where you will be getting your shrimp about the parameters they have been keeping them at.

and your ph seems low for Sulawesi shrimp. You can find Sulawesi shrimp products only, which I am not sure your store would be willing to invest. Even salty shrimp has one

[FrozenFins]

On 7/14/2023 at 7:56 PM, Lennie said:

I would check up their required parameters online, but also ask where you will be getting your shrimp about the parameters they have been keeping them at.

The problem is most websites have very different information. Which is why I thought I would turn to aquarists who had experiance with these guys, because usually they have more knowledge then some of the websites... like wikihow. haha.

Thanks for all the information! Higher Ph is good to know... will fix that probably with crushed coral. 🙂 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/14/2023 at 5:39 PM, FrozenFins said:

They ordered some Neocardina shrimp and added cardinal shrimp because they looked pretty, not knowing how much different their care is compared to other caridina shrimp let alone neocaridina shrimp.

Marks shrimp tanks! Please use him as a resource for any an all shrimp questions! He's got every species and a guide for everything. Select the type, watch the playlist.

Saluwesi, cardinals, and neo shrimp need to be in tanks by themselves and need to be acclimated a certain way. They also need to be in different PH water and slightly different care requirements.

On 7/14/2023 at 5:39 PM, FrozenFins said:

Ive also read about the importance of keeping parameters stable with these guys. Only waterchanging when necessary. I've also read that Nitrates should be kept below 20, would you guys agree with this?

Not entirely true. Keep water changes to about two weeks. Weekly is too often. Volume is 30%. I try to keep nitrates as low as possible. Below 10 is optimal and this is excluding any nitrate from fertilizer. That is not the same chemically as nitrate from waste.

[Lennie]

Here you go, I found this for you

https://sulawesikeepers.org/sulawesi-shrimps-experience-peter-baert/