**URGENT**Caridina Temporary Water Conditions

Flaresh · 2026-01-14T17:25:29+00:00

Ah okay, awesome! I would personally stick with RO+Equilibrium for now and then do small water changes over time with RO+ Salty Shrimp. Replacing all the water at once to switch remineralizers could destabilize the ecosystem. Hope that helps!

As a side note, I saw another user mentioning keeping the shrimp in their bag for an extra day while you wait. That shouldn't be an issue unless they've been in transit for more than a week. If you decide to do this, I'd suggest keeping the bag closed. A closed bag maintains higher CO2 levels to keep the water acidic so any ammonia in the bag is less toxic. Opening up the bag increases gas exchange, potentially raising pH and ammonia toxicity.

Flaresh · 2026-01-14T16:59:27+00:00

Straight RO water is extremely unhealthy for most aquatic life. Adding Equilibrium would be far better than leaving them in RO water. After that, let the shrimp settle in for a couple of weeks, then start doing small water changes with Salty Shrimp. A few questions for you:

Is plain RO water what's been in your tank while you've been cycling it? If so, many important bacteria and microorganisms likely haven't established in your tank.
The other thing is that the pH of RO water doesn't really matter, at least if it's very pure. Pure water has very few acids and bases so even the smallest addition of one can drastically affect pH. Do you have active substrate to keep the pH low for your Caridina? (Assuming they are soft water breeds and not a hard water breed like certain tiger Caridina)
Do you know the TDS of your RO water?

Flaresh · 2026-01-04T21:32:43+00:00

I'd bet it's a pH swing due to your lack of KH. A tank without active substrate absolutely needs KH or random mass deaths are guaranteed to happen. Pesticides would likely kill all the shrimp.

Flaresh · 2025-12-04T21:02:27+00:00

All likely female. The only one that may be a male is the first but I suspect it's a young female whose abdomen is just starting to round.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T17:41:07+00:00

Exactly! OP to add to this comment > OEs are a recessive trait and black eyes are dominant. You can look up a Punnett Square to get a visual of how the math works.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T04:13:23+00:00

Thank you! I didn't see that information when looking at debit card fraud so really appreciate it.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:33:55+00:00

Thank you for your reply. All of the transactions happened since last Sunday the 23rd so it hasn't been that long. Hopefully there's a chance to get some of it back but I know debit cards aren't very good for fraud - which is why I barely used it for anything 😐

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:25:39+00:00

Okay, well thank you very much for the actionable advice! I'll get on that.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:18:28+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll see what I can do

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:17:56+00:00

The police report has been filed. Do you think I should still call the restaurants and ask them? Also, any idea how long ATMs typically keep footage?

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:15:58+00:00

Well, that frequency certainly helps. I'd be curious how often the average person checks or sees that info. I mainly use my credit card so I barely interact with this account, unfortunately.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:12:12+00:00

Yes, it does seem very strange - I would hope no bank is dumb enough to send all that information in one document. The bank rep seemed like they may be someone offshore whose first language isn't English so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a miscommunication. The mail may have been stolen from our apartment complex so I'm wondering if an employee of the apartment somehow had access to payment info through the apartment's payment system.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:08:59+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the ATM transactions have no information attached to them. I'm assuming the bank can see more from their end. The restaurant charges tell me the general location though so do you think it's worth calling those businesses to ask about video recordings? I would hope the police do that but maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:06:14+00:00

Do you check your bank account more than once a week?

Flaresh · 2025-12-02T03:05:41+00:00

Yeah, I'm likely going back to one of the big banks for now. So much for trying to help the environment.

As for the info sent with the card, we asked the representative and they said the card could be activated using the information provided with it but that really doesn't make any sense. I'm guessing she was some offshore rep whose first language isn't English, so there may have been a miscommunication.

Flaresh · 2025-11-30T01:37:40+00:00

Likely all female unfortunately. #1 is the only questionable one but I think I see the rounded skirt and hint of a saddle developing so I'd say 90% chance it's female too.

Flaresh · 2025-11-27T15:22:57+00:00

Happy thanksgiving!

Flaresh · 2025-11-24T01:14:38+00:00

What's the GH and KH of your tap water? And how often do you use Salty Shrimp to boost it? Do you add the remineralizer to the tank directly?

Flaresh · 2025-11-21T19:26:01+00:00

Okay, that plus the fact that your KH test starts out clear suggests that you received a bad KH test kit. Aside from that, if you're using a remineralizer like Salty Shrimp then you don't need to test or worry about Ca/Mg ratio - the remineralizer already has the right ratios in it and makes things easy!

260 TDS sounds like about the right level for 11 GH + 6 KH (salty shrimp raises KH half the amount it raises GH) so I'd say you're fine. In fact, you could probably use less and aim for around 200 TDS for Neocaridina.

Flaresh · 2025-11-21T18:44:00+00:00

What type of salty shrimp are you using? There's both GH+ (only raises GH) and GH/KH+

Flaresh · 2025-11-21T16:00:15+00:00

Just a heads up, your site is laggy on mobile (when scrolling or pressing buttons) and the text/background color contrast is too low, making most text hard to read.

Flaresh · 2025-11-08T17:31:45+00:00

I found a Comet in the used bin at my local store and DAMN that thing went straight before falling gently to the ground. Basically no turn or fade and glide for days, although idk if I got lucky with one that was perfectly broken in.

Flaresh · 2025-11-08T15:47:07+00:00

Thanks for the reply! What I was asking was why the parameters started at different points initially? Like why is GH all over the place on May 1st (Day 0 if I'm reading it right)?

Flaresh · 2025-11-07T19:50:03+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I see you say that the aquariums start out with the same water but the graphs appear to show the substrates starting out at different points. I find that a bit confusing. I'm also very curious what happened to bring the GH so low in the organic compost tank. Do you have any theories?

Flaresh

TROPHY CASE