# who is keeping Sulawesi Shrimp?



## Bigdaddyo (Jan 23, 2010)

Just curious if anyone is keeping these guys. Who species do you keep? Have you had any success with breeding? The reason I ask is I bought some Cardinal shrimp about 5-6 weeks ago and I got 1 Orange Delight and I'd like to get some more. 
I will start a thread about my experience I've had them and I have had some success with them breeding.


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## bettaforu (Sep 6, 2009)

Hiya, I have kept both Cardinals, Yellow Nose and Blue Posos. I managed to keep them alive and breeding for about 18months, at which time I got bored with not seeing them as much as regular shrimps, and sold them to another hobbyist. They tend to hide a lot and are smaller and harder to find in a tank, for me anyway (needing glasses and getting old sucks )

Here is what I did.

Setup a 10 gallon with crushed coral for substrate, heater set at 86F and put red lava rock in for the biofilm to grow on. I used a sponge filter as they don't care for heavy water flow (mine set on a slow bubble stream)

PH has to be 8-8.4 for them to be comfortable enough to breed.

I lost a few right off the bat (brought them in from the US, so getting them here was very hard) they are very susceptable to temp change, so I needed to keep them on a heating pad till I got them home. At this time NO one else in Ontario had them, maybe out in BC, so the only option was to get them from the US. Later on I asked Big Als manager in Miss to bring them in which they did, and they have done so a few times now...also brought in the Yellow nose ones too. I got the Blue Posos from the US.

I bought about 6 of the Cardinals ($25 + each with express shipping etc) lost them because I didn't know much about them and with these you just can't make mistakes or their gone. After reading as much as I could, I figured out that I needed to have the tank already up and running for at least 2 weeks -month before I was going to get any more.
This way the biofilm on the rocks and sponge was well seeded.

Brought home another 6 of them and matched the water in the bag to the tank water over 24 hours, then let them loose. They immediately dissappeared in the tank, and I never saw hide nor hair of them for 2 weeks...finally thought ok theyre dead. Was going to give it one last kick at the can before calling it quits, so I put in some java moss from another tank as I had no plants in this tank the whole time. I found out later on that they like to eat a special plant (cherry something) that only grows in the Sulawesi lakes (and US breeders couldn't get it because it died very quickly once out of the water from there) so I thought I would try the moss, see if that made any difference.

WELL unknown to me there was a hitchhiker in the moss....a baby Yellow shrimp, I found it sitting on the rocks picking away and having a great time 

Next thing I know there's a Cardinal on the other side of the rock doing the same thing  what the heck....guess it felt safe enough to come out, and over the next week I noticed at least 5 of them at one time on the rock edges, hanging underneath the flat one (they like to hang upside down from things) 

I did finally get them to eat a bit of an algae wafer, maybe because that tasted similar to what they were eating off the rocks/sponge etc, but it took a while for them to finally come down and try some (care of the yellow shrimps...I put a few more in with them and it worked)

One day I discovered a berried female (excitement or what) I also learned that they have a symbiotic relationship with those tylomenia yellow spotted snails (seems they like to eat the shrimp poop) and many breeders kept these in the same tank with the shrimps, so I purchased 3 of them and over the 18 months they bred too. I had about 12 of the Cardinals when I decided to add some Yellow nose ones, but they were even harder to keep, so finally just left the Cardinals by themselves.

What I did learn from the experience with them is this....PH 8+ is a must, high temp over 82F is a must, and they don't eat regular shrimp food! This is why they die, they starve if there is no biofilm on rocks/filter for them to eat...they constantly pick the rocks. They hide until they feel safe enough to come out, mainly at night ( you can put a night light on the tank if you want to see them without disturbing them) They don't have a lot of babies, but the babies are identical to the parents and cute as all heck with those long white antennae and white feet that go a mile a minute up and down.


Very challenging shrimp, but very rewarding if you manage to keep them alive. I believe a few others on the forum have managed that too, and they will have done things differently from me, but my method worked for me, so its all a matter of opinion and basically trial and error.

Good luck, post pics of your shrimps, and keep us posted with updates.

PS: I tried to get the beautiful Harlequins but couldn't find a breeder willing to sell some....too bad, they are without doubt the MOST beautiful of the Sulawesi shrimps.


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## Bigdaddyo (Jan 23, 2010)

I'll by pass the quote option lol. I find my Cardinals to be very active. A few shy specimens but all in all they are out for the most part. I cultivate green algae in a spare 5 gallon and river rocks. They clean these green algae rocks in no time. I spotted a baby on Wednesday night and yes it was very exciting. I figure that my berried female is only carrying 7-10 eggs. I have an air driven lift tube and mattenfilter in the tank. I added an air stone a couple weeks ago and their activity increase substaintially. I'm keeping a journal so I'll pass on all my observations. They also like spinach, they ate that up very quickly the other night. Thanks for sharing.


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