Shrimp tails in shrimp tank

bobblehead27

Piranha
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Apr 15, 2010
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I've heard of people putting cuttle bone and egg shells in their shrimp tanks to help with calcium deficiency, has anyone tried shrimp tails? I figure it'd be good calcium source. Plus they can eat all the little scraps of shrimp that didn't come out. Is there some reason not to do this? I would obviously only do one tail at a time.
 

Hendre

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If shrimp tails with meat, then it could quickly decompose and cause ammonia spikes. You could also use a little bit of crushed coral if you needed. Shrimp exoskeletons are primarily chitin, cuttle bone should have a higher density of minerals
 

TheBtchWhisperersWife

Jack Dempsey
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In general, most shrimp keepers try not to feed their shrimp foods that are particularly high in animal protein. I can't say I've ever needed a calcium supplement for mine, outside of remineralizer in my Caridina tanks, which are rain-water based. Broccoli is a good source of calcium and shrimp enjoy that as an occasional treat.
 

Hendre

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In general, most shrimp keepers try not to feed their shrimp foods that are particularly high in animal protein. I can't say I've ever needed a calcium supplement for mine, outside of remineralizer in my Caridina tanks, which are rain-water based. Broccoli is a good source of calcium and shrimp enjoy that as an occasional treat.
I have not noticed major issues either, and my TDS and hardness are seriously low. (<100ppm TDS, 1-2 degrees kH)

Keep a good diet and they should be fine
 

TheBtchWhisperersWife

Jack Dempsey
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What kind of shrimp are you keeping? Caridina cf. cantonensis (bees, tigers) will need GH+ added to RO. Neocaridina will need gh+ & kh+ added. They don't need RO and dare well on most dechlorinated tap water, or raw sewage (just kidding, sort of).
 
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bobblehead27

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I use mostly RO but I top off with tap water. I'm just nervous to use too much tap I guess because something in my tap was killing fish in my last house when I was stationed in south jersey. I would treat the water before using it and even let it sit for an hour before dumping it into the tank, and every time I'd notice my fish breathing heavy and many died. It got to the point where I just stopped doing water changes for months and the fish were doing significantly better. (obviously not a sustainable method, but just worked to bring the fish back from the brink)
 

TheBtchWhisperersWife

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 5, 2013
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MoCo, Maryland
I use mostly RO but I top off with tap water. I'm just nervous to use too much tap I guess because something in my tap was killing fish in my last house when I was stationed in south jersey. I would treat the water before using it and even let it sit for an hour before dumping it into the tank, and every time I'd notice my fish breathing heavy and many died. It got to the point where I just stopped doing water changes for months and the fish were doing significantly better. (obviously not a sustainable method, but just worked to bring the fish back from the brink)
If you were using a dechlorinator that doesn't also remove ammonia (a byproduct of the chemical reaction caused by dechlorinators) and/or doesn't remove chloramines, you may have your culprit. Another possibility is aging copper pipes. Copper and shrimp are no bueno. Were you on base? Military bases have a long and sordid history of supplying bases with water that is not actually safe to drink.
 
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