RO/DI water

Do we need RO/DI water or even distilled water in order to shrimp?

Personally I felt its not a must especially for shrimp keepers in Singapore because our municipal tap water here has very somewhat very close readings as those to distilled water, except for some heavy metals that were present in our water pipes.

In my early days of shrimping, I used to believe in optimal water conditions for species like caridina. Thus I went all out venturing into buying distilled water from supermarkets to change water for my CRS tank. At first it all works quite well, everything works alright-minimal deaths, shrimps eating like crazy, however as time passes, passion died down and I switched back to direct tap water change where water is only filter by a one stage 1-micron sediment catridge- purpose of this catridge is to filter off large heavy sediments.Initially, slow deaths (dying off one by one) seems inevitable But after a while, shrimps are back in action. Population is still gowing. Unlike previous way, this time I do not place too much calcium rich addictives into the tank.

Therefore I come to conclusion captive-bred shrimps are still able to adapt well to certain environment changes.

PEST indeed!

Photos courtesy of www.shrimpdiseases.com

Copepods are a group of small pests jumping around in our tank. They are often use as indicators of good water parameters- water rich in micro-organisms. Beside copepods, we have the cyclops, seed shrimps and many more. Often shrimp sites and many sources say they are harmless in which I doubt so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepod
Recently I did an experiment by setting up a tank full of these small jumpers and creatures, hoping to see better percentage of offsprings that survive. To my horror that 2months of experimenting kill more shrimps than it can possibly produce. 9 out of 10 pieces of pregnant CRS which were placed into the tank after cycled, die within 1 month. Most offsprings which hatched and visible all vanished within these 2 months.
During these 2 months, all parameters are well maintained. No major happeings. No addition other stuffs except some bacteria powder to substain the population of these tiny crustaceans.

I not very sure whether these pest are the killers but I am sure they are not well liked and I guess the only way to get rid is by introducing fishes. I have set up another tank, initially full of these small pests, has introduce "boraras" and introduce another 5 pregnant crs. Will observe and see how it goes.

So meanwhile please stay tuned.