# Crystal Red Shrimps and Fancy Guppies



## V1etguy08

Hi,
Im new to the forum and a shrimp beginner. I wanna ask if I can put my CRS together with fancy guppies in a 29gallon tank. I know both of them breed pretty fast. But will the guppies eat the baby shrimps ?

Extra question : before putting shrimps into a new tank, beside cycling the water, do I need to put conditioner in ? And do the same when i change water ?


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## TarantulaGuy

Do you have your crystal reds yet? If not, I *highly* recommend starting with cherries over crystals. Will save your pocket book a world of hurt. Crystals are far more finnicky about their water than cherries are and are harder to keep. You can put shrimp in with guppies, but if you don't even have a tank set up, you need to do that, cycle the tank for 4-6 weeks or so, and yes, add conditioner. Chlorine in the water will gas out, but the chloramine is a much stronger bond and will not without the addition of some kind of treatment. Unless you're on well water, in which case you probably don't have either of these. Fill us in a bit more on your plans, we'll try and get you started with shrimp, they're fun little buggers!


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## h4n

Yes i suggest starting with red cherry Shrimps first. If you can keep and breed those. You move to the next step. 
I couldnt waste money of more sensitive Shrimps for a test.
And the guppys. Will eat any baby Shrimps you have or get.
Rule of thumb is if the fish mouth is big enough to fit a shrimp they'll eat it.

-Sent from my Samsung Note, a "Phablet"


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## V1etguy08

Thanks for the informations guys. Im still at the first week of cycling my tank. I plan to put some driftwood, alot of moss, frogbits, red tiger lotus, and some snails. I dont have CO2 but hope the moss grows nicely as i want lol

Ps: i picked up some rocks on the street. Washed it carefully and put in the tank. And a week later it poison my water. I have to start all over again. Threw away my $20 worth of Fluval Stratum....lesson learned : always buy driftwood and rocks from a pet store


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## h4n

V1etguy08 said:


> Thanks for the informations guys. Im still at the first week of cycling my tank. I plan to put some driftwood, alot of moss, frogbits, red tiger lotus, and some snails. I dont have CO2 but hope the moss grows nicely as i want lol
> 
> Ps: i picked up some rocks on the street. Washed it carefully and put in the tank. And a week later it poison my water. I have to start all over again. Threw away my $20 worth of Fluval Stratum....lesson learned : always buy driftwood and rocks from a pet store


bummer~! yes you must boil everything down. And with rock you can do a vingear test to see if its aquatic safe, I think (never done it myself)
But how did it "posion" you water?


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## V1etguy08

LOL i saw the water getting kinda browish after a week cycling, and there was some soft of clear layer wrapping around my driftwood, look kinda like spider web. I thought it was weird so i put a feeder comet in to test and it died the next day with white spots around it. My snails are living well but not the fish. I threw away the rocks and wood and substrate and started all over again. I dont wanna keep any of those, its too risky


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## h4n

V1etguy08 said:


> LOL i saw the water getting kinda browish after a week cycling, and there was some soft of clear layer wrapping around my driftwood, look kinda like spider web. I thought it was weird so i put a feeder comet in to test and it died the next day with white spots around it. My snails are living well but not the fish. I threw away the rocks and wood and substrate and started all over again. I dont wanna keep any of those, its too risky


oh... ya definitely dont want to risk it, Start fresh now then in 2 mnoths after losing everything.


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## ICgalaxy

It good to use aquasoil and drink water. When you cycle the tank good check for ammonia and nitrate. After everything 0 than you can the shrimp in.


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## V1etguy08

How come my CRS are always hiding under the driftwood and rocks ... and their color isnt bright ?? Help ! (


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## Bananariot

1. Crystals should never be kept with guppies. No shrimp should be kept with guppies unless you want them to become food. Adults and babies get eaten by any fish with the exception of ottos. 
2. Crystals survive and thrive in water that is slightly acidic, so a pH of below 7. They could live in higher pH's like up to 7.5 but they won't breed as well most of the time.
3. Correct cycling gives you 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and x amount of nitrates. Any presence of ammonia or nitrites can and will kill your shrimp. 

The symptoms you described with your water "poisoning" was actually caused by the driftwood. The wood you got most likely sounds like mopani and a lot of times it starts to secrete sap in the water. Bacteria start growing off the sap and then fungus start eating the bacteria or something a long those lines. That.....doesn't kill your fish however. 
Also the brown water is caused by the tannins that the wood secretes, basically a sort of acid that turns your water brown. Not harmful for shrimp or fish, crystals would probably enjoy it because of the acidity. 

The white spots sounded like ich for the goldfish, probably succumbed to the parasite because you threw it in while the tank was cycling. 

Crystal shrimp are certainly not a beginner shrimp, I would suggest you go out and buy an API test kit as well as a gh/kh test kit immediately. Then adjust as necessary to meet the below params.

Ideal Parameters for Crystals would be the following:

pH: 6-6.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Meh (just not too high)
kH: 0-2
gH: 4-6
Temperature: 70 deg F
TDS: 100-200 (you need a TDS pen for this, you can get one off amazon)


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## Bananariot

But yes I do recommend following an ACID test with any rock you get. Drop some vinegar (some recommend a stronger acid, I'm too lazy to shop for it so I just use vinegar) on it and if it fizzes, it means it'll react with the water and cause general hardness to rise (gH)

Too high of a gH will be deadly to CRS (crystal red shrimp) as they need soft acidic water.


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## TarantulaGuy

Bananariot said:


> 1. Crystals should never be kept with guppies. No shrimp should be kept with guppies unless you want them to become food. Adults and babies get eaten by any fish with the exception of ottos.


Meh. Depends on your fish. I have CPD's, they don't bother the shrimp. Especially not the adults, the adult shrimp are as big as the fish. They may pick off the occasional baby, but it doesn't hurt my population of shrimp. It's entirely doable, you just need to pick your fish species carefully. And there are plenty of other fish that wouldn't touch shrimp as well.


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## Bananariot

TarantulaGuy said:


> Meh. Depends on your fish. I have CPD's, they don't bother the shrimp. Especially not the adults, the adult shrimp are as big as the fish. They may pick off the occasional baby, but it doesn't hurt my population of shrimp. It's entirely doable, you just need to pick your fish species carefully. And there are plenty of other fish that wouldn't touch shrimp as well.


My CPD's killed my SSS Mosura. Constant harassment. I don't keep my fish with Mosura or basically anything that costs more than $3 per shrimp. Every baby counts


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## V1etguy08

Thanks for the information but do u know why my shrimp color isnt bright like when i just bought them ? The red turns kinda dark brown n the white turns to see through color


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## Bananariot

V1etguy08 said:


> Thanks for the information but do u know why my shrimp color isnt bright like when i just bought them ? The red turns kinda dark brown n the white turns to see through color


A loss of color typically means disease or stress. If they're sluggish and rarely eat, then they're probably sick. If they're pale and always hiding, it's probably because they're stressed. This could be caused by water parameters as well as fish in the tank.


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## NYREPS

I also started with 30 RCS last year and had over 3000 of them in less then a year sold over 2800 of them for a $1 each made some quick cash and got 135 CRS and CBS from taiwan for $400 and they already starting to breed for me and had shrimplets already after 8 weeks ,I'm gonna double or triple my profit next year with those crystal red and black shrimps ......but yes you should start with RCS first I think is a must till you understand how to take care of them and what food to feed them ,no fish at all if you want to breed only Otto cats ,
























Look on the bottom right see the little guy ...they are popping out everywhere








The last I saw I had over 20 berried shrimp black and red all gonna hatch soon!!!!


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## phreeflow

Do the acid test mentioned above for rocks found in clean streams, mountains, etc. Never use rocks off the street or your garden as many pesticides and fertilizers in public and private gardens can leech into those rocks. Thereby, leeching into your tanks and poisoning your inhabitants. That white fuzz blob is pretty normal on new driftwood...never hurt my fish or shrimp. Usually an Otto or bristlenose will take care of that or it will go away on it's own.


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## MsNeoShrimp

NYREPS said:


> I also started with 30 RCS last year and had over 3000 of them in less then a year sold over 2800 of them for a $1 each made some quick cash and got 135 CRS and CBS from taiwan for $400 and they already starting to breed for me and had shrimplets already after 8 weeks ,I'm gonna double or triple my profit next year with those crystal red and black shrimps ......but yes you should start with RCS first I think is a must till you understand how to take care of them and what food to feed them ,no fish at all if you want to breed only Otto cats ,
> 
> View attachment 17614
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> 
> View attachment 17615
> 
> 
> View attachment 17616
> 
> Look on the bottom right see the little guy ...they are popping out everywhere
> 
> View attachment 17617
> 
> The last I saw I had over 20 berried shrimp black and red all gonna hatch soon!!!!
> 
> View attachment 17618


Wow. You have it all worked out don't cha? LOL. You got the magic hands to breed them that fast. I am jealous! That is really cheap though for the CRS/CBS. Only $400 for all 135 of them from Taiwan? :cheer2:


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## NYREPS

Yeah I got it on aquabid 125 and he gave me 10 free for total of $404 with PayPal fees


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## MsNeoShrimp

V1etguy08 said:


> Hi,
> Im new to the forum and a shrimp beginner. I wanna ask if I can put my CRS together with fancy guppies in a 29gallon tank. I know both of them breed pretty fast. But will the guppies eat the baby shrimps ?
> 
> Extra question : before putting shrimps into a new tank, beside cycling the water, do I need to put conditioner in ? And do the same when i change water ?


Not only will they eat the baby shrimps, but since guppies breed so fast, their mass in numbers will stress our your shrimps unless your tank is a jungle and there are sections where the guppies can't reach but the shrimps can for hiding. Overall the only type of shrimp I would raise together with any type of fish would be cherry because they are inexpensive and breed rapidly.


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## xenxes

They will actively hunt the shrimp babies. Just like my platies


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## rostick555

Cory cats and bristlenose plecos are a good mix with shrimp.


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## xenxes

Maybe the dwarf corydoras species. Larger ones will suck up shrimplets hiding in the substrate/gravel.

IME: Otocinclus 100% safe; Boraras 99.9% safe; CPDs, pygmaeus corydoras 95% safe; Dwarf Emerald Danios 90% safe.


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## rostick555

I just recently got into shrimp about 9 months ago and have kept Sterbai with mine since. I would like to know where you got the information that corys will eat baby shrimp everyone I have spoken to said they coexist just fine. I am not trying to be disrespectful but I just want to know for myself and for others where you got the percentages from? Thanks


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## xenxes

From watching a c. habrosus suck up a shrimplet hiding underneath the gravel. I made up the percentages, from watching the fish interact (hunting behavior) with shrimplets in a moderately planted tank, no documentation or control runs unfortunately, just sharing my experience.

Otos are herbivorous, so safe; though not zebra otos (omnivorous). Everything else? Fit in mouth = fair game.


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## bryanmc1988

if you want to keep shrimps with small fish... i say have lots and lots of moss and hidding placeabout 80% of your tank need to be covered for the shrimps to hide... i have done this before and got great results... but for the safe side i say pick of of the 2 and stick wit that as a display tank....


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