All Activity

So do you have any Taiwan bees going right now Simon? Or just the red cherries/wilds? I forget some of the stuff that you and jayc have. Depending on the type you get, they could be targeted a lot more than your wilds are currently. Also I’m not too sure how the parameters would work, for neocaridina and taiwan bees. But I’d be very interested to see what comes of it if you try.

I agree with crabby, having fish in a tank tends to draw the eye away from the shrimp, and of course the shrimp won't be out and about quite so much! If you can resist the urge to get fish (for now at least) except a few ottocinclus (they don't move that much) that would be best and give your shrimp colony a better chance of growing quicker, but obviously the final decision will be yours! I have fish (tetra) in my oldest tank mainly as that tank is 5 or 6 feet from where I normally sit so wanted something I could see from a distance. I have rasbora and killie in the specialised shrimp tank because I was having difficulty with shrimp in that tank anyway and covid started so I quickly grabbed some fish before lockdown etc so there would be something in that tank - I am thinking I may try and get some taiwan bee shrimmp for that tank next week, before winter gets here, though whether it will work tankwise or with the fish??????????????? Simon

I’ve never kept shrimp with tetras, so I can’t speak from experience on that one, but I can say that I’ve found shrimp are more enjoyable without fish in the tank (through recent exploration). Maybe an Ottocinclus or two (or three even) could be an unobtrusive addition? They’re one of the best ‘suckers’ out there. Very cute too.

Thanks for the advice yeah everything is going good I’ve got 7 shrimp left one that’s carrying eggs and another that got a yellow patch just behind her saddle so I’m thinking that she’s going to produce eggs soon. Sadly no the cherry coloured one died absolutely no idea as to why it was fine swimming about eating when I went to bed and in the morning it was dead. The baths worked I think I’ve not seen any signs to say otherwise and I give them a good check every day so soon as I see anything I can hopefully sort it.

I keep ember tetra and eon tetra with bloody mary red shrimps and that works fine, though the tank is densely planted, and most of the shrimp have reverted to boring wild colour now. I exect the fish get some of the newborn shrimp should they come across them though, so the tank should be well stocked with plants/moss/hiding places. Dwarf Corydora should also be ok with shrimps. Snails are ok as well! I also keep wild type cull shrimp (from the bloody mary tank) with dwarf (mosquito) rasbora (and a killie) and they seem to be ok together but again it is a densely planted tank and the shrimps are very difficult to see, being clear and/or brown! Again though I expect the fish will eat any small/baby shrimps if they come across them. I wouldn't recommend guppies as they have quite large mouths and will go everywhere in an aquarium whereas rasbora/tetra prefer mid to top of an aquarium! The brighter the colour of the shrimp the more likely they are to be seen by the fish and if the shrimp are small enough they are likely to be preyed upon. With your dark blue shrimp and dark subsrate I think you will be ok, how many shrimp do you have left and is the berried one still doing well? Has the salt treatment been successful? Simon

Hey just thought I’d check in and say hi I’ve got a new tank cycling and I have some shrimp that’s going to be going into it but I was wanting to get something else to go into it I was thinking about some little tetras what is your thoughts also I would like to get a couple of suckers don’t know any proper names that’s just what I call them. If anyone has any advice I would love to hear thanks in advance 😁

Great to get an update with no horrific stories, look forward to seeing some photos in due course! I had a shrimp try to make a dash for it when I first got in to shrimps, I saw it crawling across the carpet, I don't actually know how it got out but as JayC suggests, lowering the water level will make it harder, however they try to get out? They can jump out or even climb up power cables. Really pleased your heater problem didn't cause you any big problems! Simon

Yeah it’s right up near the rim, I didn’t realise they could climb (I’ve had shrimp in this tank a few times before) and preferred the high water level look. I’ll drop it down a tad in that case.

Great essay on your adventures. It felt as if I was there 😄. Too bad about that one shrimp that was found outside the tank. Is your water level close to the rim of the tank? If it is, reduce the water level a bit to avoid shrimp climbing out.

Alright, so for the first update: I’m really loving the shrimp. I’ve spent ages just sitting in front of the tank and watching them. I really surprised myself actually; I thought I’d enjoy them more in the tank with fish, as an addition to the stocking. But I’m REALLY loving them on their own! If all goes well for another couple weeks, I think I’ll move them all into the ‘fry’ tank. Luckily it sits next to a sink, which I normally use for water changes, so it’s extraordinarily easy to do small and often water changes. I’m going to do one once the water comes back on. I’ve got a couple things to cover. Firstly, I still haven’t found the shrimp with the brown head. The shrimp in that tank are hiding a lot more than the ones in my shrimp-only tank. Conversely, the CPDs are much more active, so I guess the shrimp are acting as dithers? In the shrimp-only tank, I’ve had a couple of mishaps. Firstly, my heater seems to not like me much anymore. After moving houses, it was out of use for 6 months. When I started using it again for the betta breeding project, the set temperature was different from the actual temperature, by about 3 or 4 degrees. By the time I started raising my first batch of CPD fry (which unfortunately didn’t go so well), I had it set at 27, and it was giving me 24°, which was what I wanted. But when I tried to drop it down by a couple degrees (placing it on 25° with the intention of getting it to give me 21 or 22), it just gave up. I woke up the next morning and checked on the tank, and I was shocked to see the temperature at 15°!!! A tiny freak-out ensued, and I set my heater back at 27°, because surely 24° is better than a frigid 15°. The water has slowly (painfully slowly) heated up over the last day to sit at about 22°, so I’m hoping it sticks there and I don’t have to mess around with this hellish heater any more. I’ll replace it next time I order something or go to my LFS. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like there was any problem that followed from that. All the shrimp in there are doing very well still. Except for one. I found him dried out on the counter, next to the tank, just this morning. I was shocked, and a little heart-broken. I’m not sure what could’ve happened… did he somehow climb onto the lid last night when I fed, and he fell off of it when I took it out of the tank, and I somehow didn’t notice? Did he climb out of his own accord, through the tiny hole in the corner where the airline comes in to the tank?? Did I somehow accidentally flick him out of the tank??? I’m flabbergasted, and rather upset. Anyways, it seems that at least everything else is going okay. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of perhaps moving the other CRS over to the shrimp-only tank, and having another go with CPD fry as well. That’s all for now though. Photos definitely coming on the weekend, because I totally can’t wait to bring out the camera and get some nice shots of them.

Hopefully you are over the problem and all goes well from here onwards, as JayC says, just keep a close eye on them for a while. I did have rust on a few in my mixed tank, always red ruby bizarrely, none of the others and they were all shrimps I had for about a year so can't blame the person I bought them from! It went on for a while with me just culling the odd shrimp every few weeks (1) and didn't seem to spread, so hopefully that will be what happens with yours and the remaining will be fine. All the taiwan bee have long antenae normally so as above just keep an eye on them, the antenae may grow back with time. I think it is usually down to poor water quality and/or nitrates which weaken the shrimps immune system and then the bacteria attack! That may explain why the large water change you did helped/stopped it? Or it may have not been properly cycled and hopefully it now is? A lot of times the bacteria are always in the tank but harmless to healthy unstressed shrimp! I see from your first post you were doing 20% water change each week and so that should be ok, as long as you add the new water very slowly (a dripper is best) and the parameters of the old and new water aren't too different. You could reduce that to 10% each week as shrimp aren't very messy and that should reduce any fluctuations? I hope it all continues to do well, keep an eye on the shrimp for now and let us know if you are still having problesms, hopefully you have a mix of male and female, and they will help replace the dead shrimps and increase your colony! Simon

Hi Simon, the one that had the rusty shell already dead... Hope everything gonna be okay, really desperate having high death rate in the tank.. may I know what causing the bacterial infection? The antennae is short.. is bb antennae is short or long?

If the deaths have stopped, then that is good news. Keep a close eye on them and look for brown spots, like the shell is rusting. All you should do know is make sure the tank parameters are stable and give them a clean, cycled tank.

Hi Simon and jayc After I read the shrimp disease topic I think my shrimps are having bacterial infection.. loss of colour, and the antenae, and when the shrimp dead their head have brown colour... The bb is still dying every week, than my friend ask me to water change for 40% and put seachem stability routine.. it have been almost a week now, and 0 death.. oh btw the bb is 5 left in the tank. They seem happy now and actively, but I don't know maybe I'm wrong.. Really sad having a lot of death in the tank...

Yeah they probably will be at a little bit of risk. Fortunately, I don’t have any fry currently in the tank, although I’ll have some in a couple weeks probably. We’ll see how it goes. There’s a heap of moss, and I’m sure it’ll grow loads, so by the time I have fry large enough to eat shrimplets, the moss should be dense and large enough that the fry can’t get to the little guys. Oh good spot Simon! I didn’t even notice that. I’ll see if I can find that shrimp today when I turn the lights on, and get a better look at whatever that is.

This photo is making me smile... The fish think "thank you master, my snack is coming, and look delicious" While the shrimp one the left think "OMG I must runaway from this..."

They are very pretty and they look happy enough! The last photo shrimp in the centre, what is that brown patch on the head or is that on the glass? Any newborn shrimplets in the fry tank wil be at risk as well, especially with a bare base, not a problem yet clearly, but if the water parameters of both tanks with these shrimp in are close in parameters maybe you could just move berried shrimp into the other tank until they hatch so the babies have a better chance when first born! Just noticed the brown on the second from last photo as well, I would quarantine that shrimp for now? You don't want to risk the others? Simon

So far so good! I love these little guys! Yep, took me a few hours for the whole process. Parameters were pretty close anyways, but I always drip acclimate everything just to be safe. Unfortunately broke another airstone at the end of the second acclimation, it’s infuriating how easily those things break. But I probably shouldn’t expect any better for a $1 product. She was definitely curious, but yeah, I was also worried she thought they were food. They’re much more visible than the blue dream, so could definitely be seen as food to her. I’m not willing to try until I have an established CRS colony. Okay! Sounds like a good plan. One of the tanks keeps a low TDS very easily, but the other one keeps increasing slowly. I’ll do a small water change during the week to drop it down further. Very glad that my tap water has a TDS of 27, makes it much easier to play with parameters. Yep! I’ve got 11 in my CPD tank (with a work-in-progress iwagumi scape) and 11 in the fry tank (barebottom with IAL and lots of Java moss. They seem to be enjoying both tanks a lot!! Take a look! The pictures are kind of low quality due to file size restrictions, but I’ll get some good photos with the DSLR during the week and upload them to a gallery at full quality.

Thats a great photo, but can't help think she is viewing them as lunch, but if you have blue shrimps already in with her then it may work, though obviously the CRS are easier to see and shrimplets will probably get eaten if she sees/finds them unfortunately, but some may reach adulthood, you will only know by trial! I should aim for the lower tds figure of 150, though you don't need to be exact but the tds usually rises with evaporation and time so if you aim for the lower figure you have more chance of staying in the right range! Are you still splitting them between 2 tanks? Doing a small water change of say 10% each week is very easy and probably safer anyway than a less frequent but larger one? I assume you will be drip acclimatising the shrimp? I hope it all works out and look forward to hearing how it goes. Simon

Whoops. Forgot to ask, but it’s probably easier to just test the water in the bag. Also ahhh I really want to put them in with Tessa and my blue dream 😂 They look so good together!

Don't forget to ask for the current water parameters from the seller.

Well it’s been a while, but I’ve finally got the chance to pick up some shrimp! Due to lockdowns it’s been almost impossible, but I just saw someone (within my 5k limit) put up some cheap CRS on gumtree, so I’m gonna grab 22 (20, with 2 free). I’m thinking I might split them up between 2 tanks, to have the best chance of starting a colony. I’m going to put half in my fry tank and half in my CPD tank. I’m tempted to put them in with my blue dream shrimp and female betta, but I think it’s safer to ‘QT’ them, without other shrimp. I’m going to be keeping them at a temp of around 20-23, pH around 6.6 in both tanks I think, TDS between 150-200 (I think??), and I’ll feed them every few days. No major water changes, but I think I’m going back to weekly or fortnightly small ones due to some algae and fin rot problems. Any last minute reminders or advice for CRS? I’m so excited that I’m worried I might be forgetting something important. I’ll get photos as soon as I can.

Great advice from the seasoned shrimpkeepers to those new to the hobby. That's why I love this forum. 👍

Not much to update actually Simon. I had to take a break from breeding attempts with the bettas because Tessa got injured and she’s taken a while to recover. In the meantime I bred some CPDs, and now their fry are in the tank I was using to breed the bettas. In terms of the BN spawn, they’re all doing well it seems. I haven’t seen the fry much lately but I think they’re just learning how to hide in the tank now.

Yeah that’s not a problem because I have to take the inlet end of once a week or two to remove any waste that wasn’t able to get in. The spaces in the end cap are less than a mm ive had week old snails all over it and they have had zero problems but I would rather be on the safe side with the shrimp thanks again