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Hooray!!! A new batch of Sulawesi shrimps arrived yesterday!!! This time around, I originally got 15 cardinal shrimps. However, 4 of the cardinals arrived dead in the bag when Ken (from Aquatic Paradise) delivered it to me. The seller was nice enough to offer a substitute for the dead shrimps ... Sulawesi harlequin shrimps. He gave me 3 harlequin shrimps (which is what he has left alive) and offered to refund me the money for the 1 shrimp ... thanks Ken!! :) However, after looking at it further, I think the 3 shrimps are not harlequins ... and a little googling revealed that they are actually Sulawesi Red Tigers (Caridina sp. Tigri) ... looks just as nice as harlequins.
When I got home yesterday, the shrimps do not look to be in good condition as they are not very active, losing color and I can even see some jumping frantically once in a while. Instead of the proper acclimatization techniques usually used to accustom new shrimps, I decided to dump them straight into my tank. Hopefully I made the right decision. FYI, I tested the water that the shrimps came in and its pH was over 8.8 (beyond what my test kit can measure) and that was what prompted me to act.
No dead bodies yet as of this morning but since I bought so many this time, I've lost count of the shrimps since they are all mixed up with the rest of the Brown Camo shrimps. Here's the count that I should be having (yes, some of the Brown Camo shrimps died :( ...):
Cardinal Shrimp (Caridina sp. "Cardinal"): 12
Brown Camo Shrimp (Caridina sp. "Matano Red Orchid"): 7
Red Tiger Shrimp (Caridina sp. Tigri): 3
Should I quit on Sulawesi shrimps? That's the question that has been going on in my mind for a while ... but I managed to convince myself to not do it. In fact, an opportunity came up to acquire some new species (non-Cardinal shrimps) when a friend of mine (J-wing) wanted to get some from a seller in Johor. So I jumped on the band wagon and ordered 10 pieces of the Caridina sp. 'Matano Red Orchid' a.k.a. Brown Camo shrimp.
Sure enough, the shrimps arrived yesterday evening but there was only 9 pieces in the bag. :( I guess the seller may have miscounted when putting them in or one died and got eaten by the rest during the transit. I hope the seller will honor the 100% DOA guarantee (or in my case, a missing shrimp).
Anyway, I spent quite some time last night trying to acclimatize them in hopes that they will survive in my tank. I kind of guessed that one will not make it until morning (since it was already jumping in frenzy and turning pale) and I was right. So I'm now down to 8 pieces of this magnificent shrimp ... and hopefully they stay that way or multiply ... :)
Just an update that I'm now down to my last cardinal shrimp (picture attached). :( Lesson learnt ... do not change the water in a shrimp tank unless necessary. Just top up water lost due to evaporation.
I'll be getting more cardinal shrimps soon when Aquatic Paradise (Ken) comes to Penang. Hopefully, this time around, I'll have a good chance to keep them alive and eventually breed them.
Currently also have plans to get a few pieces of another type of Sulawesi shrimp i.e. the Caridina sp. 'Brown Camo' or Caridina sp. 'Matano Red Orchid'. I hear that they are as hardy as the cardinal shrimps and so I may give it a try. Keeping my fingers crossed ... :)
It is mid June now and still no new Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimps. Ken said that it will now be end of June or early July before the shipment arrives ... sigh ... and to make things worst, 3 out of the remaining 6 cardinal shrimps that I currently have died over the weekend after a water change. As far as I am aware, I did nothing different from the other water changes. But I did see 2 of my RCS in another tank dying as well and so this leads me to suspect it is either the water that I used that day, the Mosura Shizhen or the Shirakura Ebi-Chi that was added. Need to find out soon before the new batch arrives ... don't want to risk killing more.
June ... time to add new cardinals into the tank!!! Eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new cardinal shrimps from Indonesia. Very hopeful that the survival rate is better this time. According to Ken from Aquatic Paradise, the shrimps should be arriving mid June so it should just be about 1-2 weeks away ... keeping my fingers crossed. :)
Hooray!!! A new batch of Sulawesi shrimps arrived yesterday!!! This time around, I originally got 15 cardinal shrimps. However, 4 of the cardinals arrived dead in the bag when Ken (from Aquatic Paradise) delivered it to me. The seller was nice enough to offer a substitute for the dead shrimps ... Sulawesi harlequin shrimps. He gave me 3 harlequin shrimps (which is what he has left alive) and offered to refund me the money for the 1 shrimp ... thanks Ken!! :) However, after looking at it further, I think the 3 shrimps are not harlequins ... and a little googling revealed that they are actually Sulawesi Red Tigers (Caridina sp. Tigri) ... looks just as nice as harlequins.
