First Foray Into Caridina

CassCats · Jul 7, 2026

No troubles with these guys, have had several successful molts.

They *really* like Northfin Bug Crisps the most of all the food I've offered

gimme30 · Jul 7, 2026

Very pretty bowl, but how do you keep algae off the buce with that lighting?
I haven't had a bowl since my first goldfish but yours is making me want to set one up again!

CassCats · Jul 7, 2026

gimme30 said:
Very pretty bowl, but how do you keep algae off the buce with that lighting?
I haven't had a bowl since my first goldfish but yours is making me want to set one up again!

It's a super low cruddy light, meant for lighting a room. Like literally a $5 light not even meant for aquariums. It works for the buce though so no complaints.

MuddyWaters · Jul 7, 2026

That bowl is gorgeous! I have a 3 gallon tank with crystal red shrimp and chili rasboras. I love it. They have actually reproduced. I just use tap water (which, like yours is very soft- KH 0-1 and GH is about 2 if I remember right). A guy came to our club and said Caridina are impossible to keep without using RO water.....heheh...finally I'm the exception to the rule in a good way. Good luck on yours- is that bowl a kit? I love the way you have scaped it- just beautiful.

TwoTankAmin · Jul 8, 2026

I keep both the Neo. davidi and the amanos in the same water, sometimes both in the same tank. I also keep assassin snails as well and in some cases all three of these are in the same tank. Because the davidi and the assassins reproduce like crazy, I worry more about calcium than anything else.

I handles tis in two ways. One is I feed them veggies sticks with calcium from kensfish.com. I also have crushed coral and every now and then I will drop a table spoon (five or take) into the tank. Also, in heavily planted tanks with both shrimp and snails I may add a small amount of SeaChem Equilibrium. I finds the combo of lots of plants and the snails and shrimp tend to use ups a lot of the things in the Equilibrium and it was the solution to the plants starting not to do as well as is normal for them in my tanks.

I have been doing this for well over a year now with great results. I used only a small amount of the Equilibrium as I am trying not to add enough to raise the TDS/Hardness.

CassCats · Jul 9, 2026

MuddyWaters said:
That bowl is gorgeous! I have a 3 gallon tank with crystal red shrimp and chili rasboras. I love it. They have actually reproduced. I just use tap water (which, like yours is very soft- KH 0-1 and GH is about 2 if I remember right). A guy came to our club and said Caridina are impossible to keep without using RO water.....heheh...finally I'm the exception to the rule in a good way. Good luck on yours- is that bowl a kit? I love the way you have scaped it- just beautiful.

The bowl isn’t a kit. A neighbour gave it to me years back to use for a terrarium and I converted it over to aquatic use when I moved the buce plants out of another tank.
I'm really happy with how the buce is growing in the bowl, and it's been a pretty sturdy plant.

My tap is low, but I am using distilled water I buy from the grocery store for this tank because my tap water is also a little funky.

CassCats · Jul 16, 2026

Sad to update that the last couple weeks of extreme heat here has taken its toll on my tanks and this was one of them affected. I lost all of them due to temperatures reaching over 90F in all my tanks

No heaters plugged in AND I have AC running, but not enough to keep up with the 96-100F temps we have had for extended periods of time.

Have lost some fish as well, unfortunately too. But to lost all of the caridina is hard

Mazain · Jul 16, 2026

Adding a few hydrilla plants can improve your neocaradina shrimp tanks. Best to purify your water from toxins and shrimps love the dead leaves on hydrilla stems. It's a good indicator on your water hardness and a hardy plant resist dying in your shrimp tank.

CassCats · Jul 16, 2026

Mazain said:
Adding a few hydrilla plants can improve your neocaradina shrimp tanks. Best to purify your water from toxins and shrimps love the dead leaves on hydrilla stems. It's a good indicator on your water hardness and a hardy plant resist dying in your shrimp tank.

Hydrilla is illegal where I live