GUIDE : Setting up a Crystal Bee Shrimp Tank with BENIBACHI

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Many people out there may have impression that keeping a Crystal Bee Shrimp (CRS) is difficult and requires specialized skills and knowledge. However, in actual fact, keeping the CRS is as easy as keeping tropical fishes, once you grasp the key to create good water condition with the many available products!

This short photo article gives you a basic concept of what to do and what to use, to set up a simple desktop CRS tank using Tap Water.

In order to raise CRS, water temperature is essential, you can use a fan, a chiller or even a heater depending on budget and location. First, prepare a tank that suits your table or cabinet, temperature control device and a filter. Filter is the one single most important equipment that provides aerobic bacterium that keep water quality good and pristine.

The basic item you need to start a CRS/Shrimp Tank are:

• The Tank
• Suitable Filter
• Suitable lighting (T5 10000K or MH)
• Cooling Unit (Fan or Chiller to keep ~23-26C)
• Substrate and Substrate additive for Shrimp Keeping
• Water conditioner for Shrimp Keeping

The basic water parameters to maintain the tank are:

• pH 6.5 - 6.8 (Some species may require water with slightly higher pH)
• GH 5-8
• Temperature 23-27C (23-25C Higher grade CRS or High altitude species, up to 27C for hardier species)

The many brands of product available here in Singapore consist of basically everything that you need to start a Tank are:

• MOSURA
• BORNEOWILD
• BENIBACHI
• EBITA BREED
• EBI TEN
• CHOICE

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Apart from tank and light, the most essential item is the soil. Select one that can maintain a low ph that is suitable for shrimps. Some soil has excessive nutrients and is not suitable.

Brands available in the market are GEX, AZOO, NISSO and others.

Similar to a planted tank, a shrimp tank has also its very own substrate system, usually made up of a mineral product and a bacteria product. Adding the mineral powders below the soil layer allows slow releasing of minerals into the water column, which aids in creating a natural water condition as well as health enhancement of shrimps. The purpose of using Bacteria product is to allow the substrate to mature quickly, and loaded with benificial bacterials. This allows you to add the shrimps in faster.

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
MOSURA: Old Sea Mud Powder, Bio-Plus
BORNEOWILD: Minerax, Bebi
BENIBACHI: Mineral Powder, Bee Max
EBI-TEN: Shrimp Bacter
CHOICE: Mineral Powder

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Sprinkle the bacterial powder over the bottom of the tank and top it off with a thin layer of soil.



Next, sprinkle a layer of the mineral powder before covering up the substrate to desired level. Practises differ in countries in terms of usage of soil and additive. For example, Japanese breeders use thick layer of powder form or smaller granules type of substrate as they believe that it provides more bacteria colonization space in the tank since granules are porous on the surface.

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Start adding water slowly to prevent stirring up the soil and additives. For a low maintenance tank, you can add some driftwood already grown with moss into the tank.

Moss and wood provide hidden spacing and grazing grounds for the shrimps and helps to keep them calm.

You can also use shelters specially made for shrimps.

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
BORNEOWILD: Click here to view >>

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After adding the water, start the filter to cycle the tanks. You can also add various water conditoners to remove toxic and speed up the cycling and maturation of the biological system.

There are also products to lower ph, increase gh, remove ammonia or other toxics, to make the water more suitable for shrimp keeping.

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
MOSURA: ShiZhen, BT-9, MINERAL PLUS
BORNEOWILD: RECHARGE, BACILIUS, CLEANSE, BACTER CRYSTAL, GH UP
BENIBACHI: Bee3, Black Control, Ammonia Remover, Nitrate Remover, Active Water
EBI-TEN: Bacterial, TB-10, UB-75

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After running the tank for several days, you are ready to add in some critters. First add some small snails that can help you remove algae from the wood, rocks and tank surfaces.

Many nice, cute and beautiful snails are available in shops such as purple, white, red and blue shelled snails.



After 1-2 weeks of cycling, you should be ready to add in some Crystal Red Bee Shrimps. To be on the safe side, it is advice to use some toxic and waste absorption media to ensure good water quality.

It is also good to add mineral releasing product to keep water parameter in the ideal range.

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
BORNEOWILD: MINEROCK
BENIBACHI: CRIMSON BALL, Charcoal Ball
EBI-TEN: MINERAL BALL

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Since shrimps are able to find natural food in a tank (with plants and wood), why do we still need to feed them?

The reason being that naturally occurring or available food source may not contain all the nutrients required by the shrimp for health, growth, coloring up and even breeding. We feed them specialized food and supplements to cater for all these needs, so that we can start breeding them and even selectively, in our very own tank.

Generally, "vegetarian-based" food is used to enhance color while "meat-based" food is used for growing mass. There are also supplementary food that aims to enhance immunity, or specific color pigment.

FOOD PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
MOSURA: Speciality Food, Excel, Tonic Pro
BORNEOWILD: Color, Grow, Spinach, Barley, White
BENIBACHI: Kale tablets, Gold Food, Bee Strong, Golden Food, Golden Mineral Food
EBI-TEN: Premium Food
EBITA BREED: QuatroII, Hinomaru Bento, Spinach Tab
CHOICE: Food, Vitamin Powder

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Apart from feeding them food, there is also much more you can do to try and improve color lustre of your shrimps.

There are products available that can help you intensify either the redness or whiteness of the shrimp shells, thicken the shells, and increase the breeding activities.

FOOD PRODUCTS AVAILABLE IN BRANDS
MOSURA: Eros, Gravidas, Mineral Plus
BORNEOWILD: Vital, Minerax
BENIBACHI: Breeding Liquid, Growth Enzyme, Shrimp Emergency
EBI-TEN: Ultra Pearl, UM-10, UB-75

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With good water, food, conditioners, the interest and effort in obtaining and selective breeding, it is not difficult to achieve better looking shrimps in your own tank!

Thanks for the informative post!