# Tap water for shrimp?



## freshwater.rain (Oct 15, 2018)

I'm using water from my kitchen tap for my shrimp tank. I get my shrimp tomorrow and I'm getting worried that there may be too much salt, copper, etc. in the water. I'm using dechlorinator but I am really stressing? Can anyone help?


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

All tap water is not created equally. I've been keeping cherry types on tap for many generations with no issues, but my tap is darn consistent. I find Neocaridina (cherries, etc.) to be very adaptable little creatures, Caridina shrimp (crystals, bees, etc.) on the other hand never did well for me until I switched to RO and buffering substrates. I wouldn't expect salt in your tap unless you live near the coast. 

If the shrimp are homebred in water similar to your own they should acclimate fine. Imported shrimp have higher mortality even in the best conditions. Drip acclimation can certainly help.


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## freshwater.rain (Oct 15, 2018)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> All tap water is not created equally. I've been keeping cherry types on tap for many generations with no issues, but my tap is darn consistent. I find Neocaridina (cherries, etc.) to be very adaptable little creatures, Caridina shrimp (crystals, bees, etc.) on the other hand never did well for me until I switched to RO and buffering substrates. I wouldn't expect salt in your tap unless you live near the coast.
> 
> If the shrimp are homebred in water similar to your own they should acclimate fine. Imported shrimp have higher mortality even in the best conditions. Drip acclimation can certainly help.


I'm getting neos. I live in AZ if that helps. The shrimp are from Aquatic Arts which is also in the US. And I have the AccuDrip system ready for them. Thanks for the response!


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Excellent. They seem to list when something is tank bred, so those should be a lot easier to acclimate. Even if you do have some losses early, these things are crazy prolific so you should have a tank full of them within a year if nothing goes wrong.


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## freshwater.rain (Oct 15, 2018)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> Excellent. They seem to list when something is tank bred, so those should be a lot easier to acclimate. Even if you do have some losses early, these things are crazy prolific so you should have a tank full of them within a year if nothing goes wrong.


I got my shrimp in and have had them for 2 weeks. I now have about 10 to 15 missing and I've seen 4 bodies. The bodies are bright white (the shrimp are light blue). I cant figure out what is wrong. Parameters all look good. I'm freaking out. Any ideas?


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Important factors

1) How long had the tank been running before putting shrimp in?
2) Do you have any idea what parameters they came from, is in your tap, or in your tank? Of primary importance is GH, but KH and TDS can play a role as well.
3) Temperature?
4) If you were to ask most experienced shrimp keepers about Aquatic Arts, you would not get favorable feedback. They are a huge company, and I'm sure some things they do better than others. Sadly, most shrimp are not their strong suit.

Unfortunately, white bodies indicates a bacterial infection, and by the time they are where you can tell they are turning white, it's probably too far gone.

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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

natemcnutty said:


> 4) If you were to ask most experienced shrimp keepers about Aquatic Arts, you would not get favorable feedback. They are a huge company, and I'm sure some things they do better than others. Sadly, most shrimp are not their strong suit.
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Which companies do experienced shrimp keepers recommend?


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

Not who you were asking, but I've had far and away the best luck getting shrimp from other hobbyists. I've bought from several on these forums with great results. Most of the bigger names out there import a lot of their stock out of necessity to keep inventory. I've bought from several big names that I won't mention also, and will not again going forward. I've gotten sturdier stock at better pricing that breed more true from the classifieds here and elsewhere.


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> Not who you were asking, but I've had far and away the best luck getting shrimp from other hobbyists. I've bought from several on these forums with great results. Most of the bigger names out there import a lot of their stock out of necessity to keep inventory. I've bought from several big names that I won't mention also, and will not again going forward. I've gotten sturdier stock at better pricing that breed more true from the classifieds here and elsewhere.


 Thats what I plan on doing next time. 

I was just wondering if there were also some reputable, smaller sized companies that were recommended.


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## babystarz (Sep 25, 2012)

Discusluv said:


> Which companies do experienced shrimp keepers recommend?


Flip Aquatics has a very impressive quarantine process - I have had zero deaths during shipping and acclimation with multiple shrimp orders from them. I like buying from them or other hobbyists/my LFS.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Trying not to do a vendor review type thing, but good experiences with Steve Barbee (he's on here occasionally too), Grant Eder (The Garden of Eder), Erik Lucas (buypetshrimp), and Blue Crown Aquatics who does import but has a good QT process (two good experiences with PRL, BKK, and BB so far).

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## freshwater.rain (Oct 15, 2018)

natemcnutty said:


> Important factors
> 
> 1) How long had the tank been running before putting shrimp in?
> 2) Do you have any idea what parameters they came from, is in your tap, or in your tank? Of primary importance is GH, but KH and TDS can play a role as well.
> ...


4 months but I made sure to add food daily and I had lots of snails. Gh is 7 Kh is 4 and I don't have a TDS meter. Temp is between 72 to 75. They only turn white once they are dead. Is that still bacteria?? Now I'm really freaking out!


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## Blue Ridge Reef (Feb 10, 2008)

When shrimp have died in my tanks, they tend to turn either orange or white. I'd try to look at your surviving ones with a magnifier rather than dead bodies. How many shrimp are in there? What size tank? Supplemental feeding may not be needed; I tend to feed on the very light side.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

freshwater.rain said:


> 4 months but I made sure to add food daily and I had lots of snails. Gh is 7 Kh is 4 and I don't have a TDS meter. Temp is between 72 to 75. They only turn white once they are dead. Is that still bacteria?? Now I'm really freaking out!


As stated above, they do turn white or yellow upon death, so inspect living ones. Bacterial infection is one of the most common diseases for shrimp, and keeping good parameters will keep up their health.

So the tank was matured for 4 months? Not sure what AA's homebred parameters are. I know imports are 0-1 KH and lower GH, but your parameters, including temp (though I prefer a few degrees cooler), should be fine for US homebred.

Are you still feeding daily? If so, you'll want to stop  I usually mature a tank for 3 months before adding shrimp, and I feed them a small amount once per week until I hit about 50. At that point, I up it to twice a week. I refuse to keep colonies larger than 100 and plan to split up the colony at that point, so twice a week is the most I go.


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## freshwater.rain (Oct 15, 2018)

Blue Ridge Reef said:


> When shrimp have died in my tanks, they tend to turn either orange or white. I'd try to look at your surviving ones with a magnifier rather than dead bodies. How many shrimp are in there? What size tank? Supplemental feeding may not be needed; I tend to feed on the very light side.


I've looked really close at all of them and I haven't noticed any off coloring or signs of infection. I have about 25 in a 10 gallon. I don't feed much, just BacterAE qnd a few tiny shrimp pellets. I'm not sure if I mentioned that before or not.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

OP - these deaths are most likely happening because of the issues raised in your other thread on this matter. 

_____

But about sourcing.

For me, I pretty much refuse to buy from any large-ish retailer or any of the web-based companies that claim to be the largest in the country/world. They're frequently straight-up lying (largest? haha, no, not even in the US), which befuddles me, and most of them have been keeping shrimp for such a short amount of time that they don't fully understand what they're doing. When you're retailing a bunch of imports on a large scale, it's just not possible to provide the level of care and observation a typical hobbyist provides. Some of them claim to do 30-day quarantines but... I'll bite my tongue so as not to alienate everyone. Just do a lot of research before buying and don't take risks with unknowns if you can help it. 

My only exception to the importer rule is Rachel O'Leary because she's a serious hobbyist. 

Large: avoid if you can. Smaller = usually better. Experienced hobbyists on forums like this = best. Feedback ratings for members = a good place to start. Not everyone will have tons of transactions but most reputable members with quality livestock will have enough feedback for you to get a sense for what's up. Most will also have tank journals that allow you to see how their critters are raised.


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