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 ?

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!

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"

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

h4n

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?

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

h4n

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

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.

V1etguy08

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

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)