# Simple crystal shrimp keeping and experiences



## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

What is the simplest shrimp keeping setup people have ever had that kept crystals healthy, and breeding and most importantly surviving from egg to adulthood. Please provide pictures of the simplest setups you have and cost. The purpose of this thread is to help people understand that it is definitely possible to spend very little to setup a successfully breeding and flourishing crystal shrimp tank. This isn't a thread that discusses about maximum survivability of this and that.

In my experience a 10 gallon, with a thin layer meaning 1cm layer of substrate with a good sponge filter and a bit of plants and moss is more than sufficient to build a colony of crystals. (pictures will be provided in the next post).

Indepth:

Tank: for the purpose of this thread, I will use an easily accessible and cheap tank size, although i'm not saying that other sizes aren't readily available, but majority of people can get this size for super cheap like 10 dollars or less.

Filtration: a double sponge filter http://www.aquainspiration.com/productdetail.asp?PIN=FS&PNAME=UP&PSIZE=SGX&PTYPE=Internal filters is more than sufficient for a 10 gallon. Reason I chose this sponge filter over the conventional sponge filter with a weight is this sponge filter has much greater surface area for bacterial and micro-organism activities or in simpler terms, is more than enough to handle the bioload of shrimps.

Substrate: For this purpose I chose ADA, but i'm sure netlea is more than enough. Powder or non powder is self preference. I chose ADA1 but ADA2 works just as fine, at least for me it does.

Water: I live in Vancouver B.C. and we are fortunate enough that our water is utterly awesome where tap water is basically RO water with a pH near neutral and a TDS of 20-35. Although the TDS of RO water in Toronto is around 17. That does not mean much as the measurement of TDS is the electronegativity of the water and so ions like calcium and magnesium which are cations and aren't picked up as much by a TDS meter, or in other words a more extreme example: If both Vancouver and Toronto's water has a TDS of 20. Vancouver's water is so soft that if you measure GH and KH it would register both a 0. Whereas Toronto's RO water although same TDS. May register a GH and KH of 1-2. The hardness of the water in toronto even if RO water is used is mainly the contributing factor to the trouble of bringing down pH. However, even with a pH of 6.8-7. It is perfectly fine to keep crystals so long as the water is stable. How do you ask do you do that? Well, whole purpose of having the substrate so thin is so things can break down fast and cleaning is piece of cake. You can just suck of uneaten food and debri without any problems. This prevents any nitrate/nitrite/ammonia and what have you spike. The water is only topped off and from what I do, I have tap water bubbled over night in a bucket before I top it off in the tank. The TDS in the tank is usually at around 100-150. Africian cichlid water conditioner or Kent's R/O right is more than enough to bump the TDS to that range.

Plants: a bit of moss and floating plants is always good to take up any excess nutrients. I personally have frogbit, the dreaded duckweed, and some moss.

additional additives: Well, because vancouver's water is so soft, I just put in scraps of mineral rock for the baby shrimplets and bacterhouse for additional filtration.

Total cost of setup is max of $50, but more like $30 or less if you sell the excess substrate.


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I've got my SSS in a 20gal with the fluval plant substrate, a crappy light and some plants that are just floating around even though they're supposed to be rooted.

They've been in there for a couple months now, no filtration or anything as I moved the tank and was too lazy/preoccupied to bother plugging it in.

In the last week or so, I've spotted 2 berried females. This morning, I saw 3.

20gal tank - $20.
Fluval substrate - can't remember.
Effort - virtually none.

Forgot to mention that they are kept in straight tap water, aged for a day and treated with prime.


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## CrystalMethShrimp (Apr 27, 2010)

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25606


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

Brian said:


> I've got my SSS in a 20gal with the fluval plant substrate, a crappy light and some plants that are just floating around even though they're supposed to be rooted.
> 
> They've been in there for a couple months now, no filtration or anything as I moved the tank and was too lazy/preoccupied to bother plugging it in.
> 
> ...


incredible Brian, such a simple setup yet great results. Although that did take awhile for them to berry but hey its great that they are happy enough to even get berried.

I also have some 5 gallon tanks with neos with absolutely not filtration which Leon had come to see before and I had berried snowballs in them. Goes to show how inexpensive shrimp setups can be. I can't wait to hear from Matti2uude and Killer007 as I know they have successful colonies as well with simple setups.


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## msnikkistar (Sep 29, 2010)

Funny, my Fluval Ebi, which is my smallest tank, houses my BREEDING BKK/Blue Bolts/Wine Reds and gene shrimp.

It has a crappy light, some fluval stratum, some moss, and a sponge filter. It's my healthiest tank lol

As a matter of fact, my custom is primarily run on sponge filters, I do have a canister on it, but the water is almost closed off as I don't need it for anything other then moving the water from the bottom compartment back to the top compartment. The water trickles out of the lily pipe. lol


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## RCode (Dec 12, 2010)

My brother has a 1 gallon tank with a few Crystals in it, and they had babies the other day. 

It made me go back and think about trying to get in the hobby and reading that they will only breed in a 20gallon.

Now the tank is planted, and he has suffered a few deaths over a couple months, but no more then I have really with a 10gallon. We have inspired a lot of friends to get small tank setups and do the same. But when we tell people they start at $10 a shrimp they loose a bit of interest. We have been just giving them to friends for free, just to help gain interest in the hobby.

The price needs to drop for more people to be interested. I've always believed they could take over a small part of the betta market, since they can be kept in a small tank, with no filter needed, just do small water changes, and they look nice sitting on a desk.

I'll take some pictures after work and post them.


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## killer007 (Feb 10, 2010)

here is my very very simple 10 gallon blue tiger tank setup...
1 sponge filter
2 taiwan moss
1 inch of ada 1

hahahahah um...and i didn't change water for 4 months already since the day i am away from this forum, i just top the water up

i have 10 gallon CRS, CBS, Fire Red too and they all doing fine with this simple setup, you can say i am a lazy guy @[email protected]
soon, i am going to redo my tanks, i will probably do more simple setup than my tiger tank too
like 1 moss and some frogsbit for plants, and that is it this way it is very easy to maintain...
its good to have rooted plants but sometimes they just run over your soil and when you take them up, you disturb the soil, and you really need to cut them when they get tall too

here is the picture of my tiger tank...


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I think the reason people are so concerned about the "right" conditions for keeping CRS is because they're so expensive. At 5$ a shrimp, nobody wants to waste 50$ because of some stupid newbie mistake.

However, if it was 2$ a shrimp, people would be more willing to take a risk, since it will only be 20$ even if they fail. So, from that aspect, there is no doubt that lowering the price of lower-end CRS will expand the number of CRS keepers.

From a strictly business point of view, that's actually a good thing for the seller. More people losing shrimps (and willing to try again because it's not too expensive) means more shrimps sold.

If the shrimps were more expensive, then you will have people succeed in keeping their shrimps alive the first time because they did all their research, or people unwilling to try again because they lost too much money. Either way, you sell less shrimps.


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## killer007 (Feb 10, 2010)

i think they are quite hardy (maybe just me), it is as hardy as my cherry for some reason


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

killer007 said:


> i think they are quite hardy (maybe just me), it is as hardy as my cherry for some reason


KIN?!?!?!?!?! your finally back in the scene! welcome back ^.^


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## killer007 (Feb 10, 2010)

Ebi-Ken said:


> KIN?!?!?!?!?! your finally back in the scene! welcome back ^.^


WAHAHAHAHAHAH  I AM BACK....


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

killer007 said:


> WAHAHAHAHAHAH  I AM BACK....


LOL bro I soooo missed your ass, you went AFK for the longest time. got me and matt so darn worried!


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## killer007 (Feb 10, 2010)

hahahahha very true, no one was able to find me for the longest time
i missed you guys so i come back, and of course....i missed your shrimps


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

*Simple low-cost setup*

My setup. less than 1 inch of substrate. 
With RO water, the pH can easily go down to 6.5

1 sponge filter. Water change once a month.
plants: frogbit, xmas moss, subwassertang, tiny bit of fern.










shrimp ball attacking Shirakura Food


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

It's nice to see you back Kin!
My set up is not as simple but still not very complicated either. I have a 16"x16" cube tank. I use an under gravel filter for 3/4 of the bottom. I have about 1 inch of ADA I over the under gravel plate and about 1.5 inches in the areas the plate doesn't cover. I connected an Eheim 2213 to the under gravel filter tube. I use the standard media that came with the 2213. I have plans of hooking up a second 2213 inline as a pre-filter in the future. I also have a small sponge filter for aeration and for the shrimp to pick at. I use a mix of RO and tap water and keep my Tds under 200 and I have Ph 6.4. 

























Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## brapbrapboom (Sep 2, 2009)

This is really a GREAT thread! +1 on you Frank!  darn it!! all these temptations of getting shrimp tank!! xD xD xD


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

brapbrapboom said:


> This is really a GREAT thread! +1 on you Frank!  darn it!! all these temptations of getting shrimp tank!! xD xD xD


lol =P thankyou =) i'll post some simplified setups when i get back. I'm just about finished my new brand and i believe it will launch wednesday.


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

Heres a post before I go for a well deserved vaca.

Here is one of my planted tanks which is very simple and does not require any media nor canister filter. All it is, is under gravel filter connected to a maxijet 1200 injecting CO2 for the toninas.


















with this setup you won't get high survival rate of babies but your shrimps will survive and breed just fine.

By keeping microrganisms up you can expect to have surprising survival rates with just a sponge filter for filtration and a thin layer of substate. 









For extremely high survival rates of shrimps you need to put in the effort and the rewards can be quite great.


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## dchow (Oct 30, 2009)

I hate you this [ ] much Frank. Count all those darn pixels. Its a lot!

Beautiful tank. I want my tanks to be crawling with shrimp like that. I found this thread to be amazingly helpful.


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

dchow said:


> I hate you this [ ] much Frank. Count all those darn pixels. Its a lot!
> 
> Beautiful tank. I want my tanks to be crawling with shrimp like that. I found this thread to be amazingly helpful.


that [ ] much isn't so bad =) we can fit a SSS in that space and I guess we all good? LOL oh wait I did send you it LOL so we're good =)


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## Beijing08 (Jul 19, 2010)

Ebi-Ken said:


> Heres a post before I go for a well deserved vaca.


Hmm where to? Lemme guess, come visit me? ^.^


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## Ebi-Ken (Jul 9, 2010)

Beijing08 said:


> Hmm where to? Lemme guess, come visit me? ^.^


your back in Beijing? I would! I can probably fit a few days in but not to Beijing only around Guangzhou area. Otherwise wanna come visit me =) Come with me to Merrit for fishing trip lol =P


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## dchow (Oct 30, 2009)

Ebi-Ken said:


> your back in Beijing? I would! I can probably fit a few days in but not to Beijing only around Guangzhou area. Otherwise wanna come visit me =) Come with me to Merrit for fishing trip lol =P


Go to the fake Apple Store!

Have fun on your vacation. Remember I expect sow son (I think that's cantonese) on return.


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## Fishyfishyfishy (Mar 3, 2008)

Ebi-Ken said:


> Heres a post before I go for a well deserved vaca.


What is the white cylinder thing? Looks like it would be a heaven for bacteria to grow on it.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I wish I had read this thread before I set up my tanks, it gives me some ideas when setting up more tanks. 

FFF, those are some Asia made filter media with a lot of surface area. Bigfishy had a post about it and he may have some for sale. I bought one from him to try but haven't used it yet.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

They have them for sale at Lucky's too.


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