All Activity

There isn't much to report on this at the moment, I am 50/50 as to whether this is going to work or not long term. I have seen 2 dead shrimp since adding the new ones and counted about half of the new shrimp bought, that I saw yesterday! This is going to be a long term experiment I guess, the best I hope will happen at this point is that the remaining shrimp survive and reproduce and that new borns born in the tank should be more suited to the environment/water etc. There is an element of the acclimating didn't go as well/to plan as it should with my knowledge/experience, but I did the best I could, so that is what it is! Simon

The pH of drinking water is very important and should be between 6.2 and 8.5, with a domestic ro system the alkalinity level varies depending on location, but may vary from 80 to 400 ppm (mg/L). Although domestic ro systems are great for removing contaminants that have low solubility at high temperatures, they are not good at removing dissolved metals or organic chemicals which have high solubility in water. Another interesting tip is that domestic ro system filters should be changed on a regular basis, some domestic ro systems have cartridges that need to be replaced every 3 months, while some domestic ro systems can last up to 6 months.

Welcome Franks! Glad to have you here.

How is now the condition of pH?

Hello everyone! I am Franks, glad to be part of this community!

Summary from the old thread; I managed to destroy my wonderful Taiwan bee tank with a faulty heater that cooked them. I then set up the tank afresh May 2019 using shrimpking substrate, new plants and wood etc. The tank looked very drab from the start and several batches of new taiwan bee were added and died out instantly. Covid came along so I decided I would give up with the taiwan bee shrimp and get some fish instead about a year later (1 kilie and 12 mosquito rasbora). September 2020 I tried another batch of tawian bee but they fared no better and the tank was still very drab looking (and still is to this very day). I very much doubt it is the substrate but won't be using that again but have aquired a large bag of the old type of substrate I used before, but I really don't know what caused the problem, maybe there was some sort of bacterial infection or I accidently poisoned the shrimp, or there was something on the new plants/wood??? The parameters were always perfect and I have to just accept I will never know? At some later date I dumped some wild type red cherry culls into the tank as food for the killie but he didn't seem to eat them (they were clear/brown so maybe he didn't see them) and they seemed to settle into the tank and bred! Fast forward to a month ago and I decided that now the postal service is better than it had been early in the pandemic, I should maybe try some more taiwan bee as the cherry shrimp had been in there for a year or so and doing well, so I assume whatever the problem was had gone, although the tank is still not as healthy looking as the other tanks using the other substrate! I ordered 15 black shrimps 2 weeks ago and put those in the tank and they seemed to be surviving so earlier this week I order 20 red/blue shrimp and put those in the ttank yesterday. This morning I counted 18 shrimps (about half) so it looks as though it maybe going to work now, the tank is so densely planted that I would never expect to see ALL the live shrimp anyway! The killie fish died a few days ago so he isn't a threat anymore and I doubt the rasboras are either. I am now in the process of fishing out the wild type cherry shrimp as/when I see them! Here is the link to the full thread about the above but I decided to start a fresh thread from here on, https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14523-here-we-go-again/ I will keep this thread updated and get some photos at some stage, though the new shrimp are a bit small at the moment. Simon

I think I should start a new thread on this now as this is getting a bit long and it seems to be working now, and to keep it tidier and easy to find/follow! I will attach a link below once done! Simon https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/15621-here-we-go-again-again/

Hopefully it will settle quite quickly now and it was just everything sorting itself out, and at least you caught it before it caused problems with the fish and shrimps. As you also say, it will take a bit of time for the neneficial bacteria to spread in the new sunstrate as well! The packaging of the substrate should tell you if there is any routine you should carry out when first using it because of mineral build-up or ammonia, so if the packaging didn't say anything I think it is safe to assume it was not the substrate (Fluval stratum is volcanic soil), and other people may have just assumed it was the substrate without considering anything else if they had a similar episode to yours? Simon

Yeah true, i'm also thinking that maybe ive underestimated the influence of beneficial bacteria in the old substrate which i removed. Im being told different things regarding the fluval stratum, some have said it does others say it doesnt 😅 Additionally I also just realised that I forgot that I had also added fresh ADA Powersand (replaced the old one) before adding the fluval stratum. Cant find anything on ADA Powersand releasing ammonia but now I would assume it makes sense? Before the water change yesterday I tested the rest of the params and found 0 nitrites but superhigh nitrates (atleast 30ppm but i think its 50+ppm, hard to tell). Today ammonia is sitting at ~1ppm but yea going to do daily waterchanges until 0 ammonia present. Thanks!

I have just ordered the red shrimps for delivery tomorrow, so I should be set then and can enjoy the tank through the winter and hopefully a growing colony. I saw 7 yesterday and so feel happy that whatever the problem was has sorted itself! Killiefish is no longer a threat as he died the other day, but he was nearly 2 years old so nothing suspect about that? I will start removing the wild type neocaridina when I see them to make room for the taiwan bee! I have seen a very odd shrimp occasionally, it looks like a Calceo but I assume it isn't as there are only neocaridina in there. It is full grown size and has yellow eggs. It hides most of the time but I guess I will need to wait and see? Simon

Sorry to hear about your issue and hopefully you can just get on top of it with some time and large water changes (if needed). I would imagine it to be down to the plants as they will need time to 'establish' themselves before they get back to normal and parts may well be dying whilst the plants aren't absorbing as much yet. It sounds as though the bacteria should have been ok in the filter system but something may have happened there as well but there is no real way of knowing that! Just keep checking the ammonia and changing water if it needs it but I imagine it wil be fine in a week or so if it is just everything settling down to create a balanced cycle! I don't think it would be down to Fluval Stratum in any way? Simon

Hey all, been a while since I posted, I recently rescaped my 3 year old 10g cube tank cause I was having algae issues. All I did was swap out the old amazonia substrate for some fresh fluval stratum, added a whole bunch of plants and added some root tabs. just over a week later and I just noticed a cherry shrimp getting picked on by the CPDs. they only do this when the shrimp are weak or dying, so i decided to test the water and to my surprise discovered that the ammonia is at 4ppm. Dosed some prime and am going to the a big water change ofcourse but I was wondering if fluval stratum can cause a ammonia spike? I got it because i thought it didnt. Otherwise what else could've caused it? My tank is a waterbox cube which uses a sump system, so when I did the rescape, all the filter media and everything in the sump remained submerged with the same water. While the main part of the tank saw probably about a 90% water change. Did I crash my cycle somehow? This is the first time im getting ammonia problems with this tank. Prior to the rescape, the tank was cycled for the 3 year period, I could leave it unmaintained for 2-3 weeks with 0 Ammonia and Nitrites. I've done big water changes in the past with no issues as well. Stocking: 16 CPDs A bunch of cherry shrimp Thankfully fish all seem fine and other cherrys seem ok

Thanks for giving us the update and so pleased it seems to be going so well now, and that the shrimplets are also doing well. The last one that died may have just been weakened by the prior problems anyway, but you will get one die every now and again, and with the youngsters your colony is well on its way in the right direction! Simon

Hey guys just thought I’d check in say hello and let you know that I lost one more of my adult shrimp I’m pretty sure that the cause was a failed malt anyways all the other’s are doing great as far as I can tell so I’m down to six adults however I have counted 16 fry so far and I’m pretty sure that I’ve not counted them all they are in there second week since hatched so pretty much double in size. The other female that’s in the tank does have some eggs on her but only 5 o 6 at the most. Thanks for all the advice and help

That looks like a male to me as well. It depends on how big/old they are though as younger small shrimp do all look the same until maturity! You don't need to worrry about amano shrimp cross breeding with these shrimp, in fact you don't need to worry about amano breeding at all as they need saltwater for the larvae stage so you won't get any shrimplets from them. Simon

1. Male? 2. I am inclined to think male on this one because if size(small) and shape(straight) but wondering if that's ovaries in the saddle?

I think I know the sexes of my shrimp but want more experienced opinions. Also, I was told that an Amano shrimp will not breed with different types of freshwater shrimp. Is that correct? Thank you

I've had the ninja shrimp before I had some last year, they looked like my photo, I think serratirostris is from Queensland, we definitely have them here.

Our native shrimp is Caridina sp WA4. Common name being Chameleon shrimp. It has similar characteristics as Ninja Shrimp (Caridina serratirostris) that is found elsewhere. This is probably a case of clarifying with LCA which shrimp species they have before buying.

thanks mate, i don't understand why he has them labelled as ninja/chameleon, to my understanding i could be wrong.. aren't chameleon and ninja shrimp 2 different species? one being caridina serratriostris, and one being caridina sp WA4 id really love some definite answers its so confusing these native shrimps and thier names, i really like the ones that are black with the white markings, but they are proving too hard to find 😞 in the photo on LCA website under the chameleon/ninja shrimp the pictures look to be of 3 different sp. ? im after this one in my photo

Get in touch with Jeff at LCA when he's back from holidays. https://www.liverpoolcreekaquariums.com/store/c79/LIVESTOCK%2F_ALGAE_CREW_%26_NATIVE_SHRIMPS.html

Week one has passed and I have seen 5 of the 15 shrimps today, so I am very happy about that, they could have all survived but I will never know that as the tank is so dense with plants/wood etc (lesson for next time - less is more) and there are likely some hiding, but at least whatever the early problem was seems to have vanished/cleared as the shrimp previously put into the tank vanished by the next day of being added, and that was before I got the fish. I probably won't replace the fish though when they die if the shrimps carry on working as I am sure they would pick off any newborns if they see them. Whether I have the will power to hold off buying another load (the person I got them from have all the others I would like to get) remains to be seen? I should give it a bit longer, and it has turned quite wintery here all of a sudden! There is a quite small//bright red cherry (very pretty with the stripe) in that tank that has been there a while, so red taiwan bee may be safe with the fish as well??? Simon

im very interested in some true ninja shrimps if anyone has any? please email me if you have some curtis_green@hotmail.com