# Crystal Reds in Hard water?



## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

Good luck. I've stuck with the neos and babaulti's for the same reasons. There are amazing neos out there, although the newer ones can be every bit as expensive as CRS.

I've been told super tigers will do fine, but I've never tested them myself.


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## DTDPlanted (Apr 2, 2012)

As I understand it your water quality will not allow the shrimp to molt, so eventually yes they will die. If you don't want to adjust water quality to satisfy the shrimp maybe consider doing a RAOK for someone who has the right parameters to keep them?


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## Ebichua (May 13, 2008)

It's a hit or miss with survival rates. I had CRS live in harder water before, those are the hardy ones that hang in there and actually survive. Breeding however, was non-existent. It took approximately 3 months for ONE shrimp to even become pregnant and once the babies popped out, none survived past the first week. 

So to answer your question:
They can survive if they're super hardy and it really depends on the individual. Ones that do survive will most likely NOT produce offspring for you.


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

+1 I've kept them in harder water and they lived fine. No babies ever made it past day 10. If you can get the babies to actually LIVe then with each generation you will have a shrimp that is hardier to those type of parameters. Some folks have successfully raised many CRS in pH 7.4, not sure what their GH/KH was though.


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## DTDPlanted (Apr 2, 2012)

So it would seem that CRS are a bit more hardy than I thought. It looks like hard water is just a no-no if you want them to _propagate_ then? In general I feel you would, lol. Anyone working on a hard water birthing super CRS yet? lol


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## ravensgate (May 24, 2012)

There are folks raising them just fine in harder water (harder than ideal that is). There is a seller on AB who raises his 7.4-7.6 pH water. The lower grades adapt to it more easily. What I had was A grades in 7.4 pH. The breeder had them at 6.8. The adults did fine just no babies lived. Now I keep all mine in 6.8-7.0 water. CRS/CBS/Goldens are much hardier than they used to be


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## shrimpzoo (Sep 27, 2011)

Mine were able to live in 8gH for awhile till I changed it back down to 4gH lol.

It was when I was away and came back wondering why the hell my TDS was 400 and decided to test.


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## cjskier (Nov 21, 2013)

Update: its been over 2 weeks now. One shrimp died after 3 days. One vanished. 2 are still kicking!


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## bostoneric (Sep 7, 2011)

http://scapeclub.org/forum/showthread.php?17661-A-Crystal-Red-shrimp-experiment


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