All Activity

I would add that boiling discourages natural decomposition and would likely break down the antifungals present in the bark, letting the fungus actually grow.

I shall probably just call him bertie as I did the previous 2 I had.

What nice friends you have! Have you named the new betta yet?

I had friends round at the weekend, moving furniture around so now I can see the fish tanks from where I normally sit. The only tank that has been running since I moved has had bloody mary shrimps in it and they are fine. It was my betta tank before, and after moving my friends went out and got me a new betta;- As you can see he is ultra healthy looking (pic is of him in the fish store tank) and he has been very active from the moment he arrived and started a bubble nest within an hour of going into the tank. He is about half the size of a fully grown one! He is a bit bland to look at as just white but I went for him as the tank is quite (understatement) dark and so he is easily visible, even from a distance. Hopefully he won't devour the shrimps (the odd baby shrimp I don't mind) but I will have to see on that issue! All the water parameters seem fine aside frm KH which is 6 as this area has harder water than where I was before, but I will gradually get that down using the filtered water (RO) with GH+ shrimp remineraliser from this point, that has no KH and I will just do it gradually over a loooong period as neither he nor the shrimps seem unhappy as it currently is anyway! Apparently the store he came from also sell blue bolt (and some other taiwan bee type) shrimps etc so I will start thinking about setting that tank up (it is situ next to the betta tank) at some point in the near future, though that will be months away even when I do decide to start, as the substrate needs running-in, and the tank will need to cycle etc.

I see the 2 shrimplets, very exciting and the shrimp in the photo look very healthy! The KH is fine at 3 and slowly dropping because of the substrate, but still in the acceptable range. Not sure about your tank size, other than 'nano' but if you have fish in that same tank (I think I see one in the photo blrred and at the back) I would do 25% weekly water changes (mainly because of the fish) and that will help counter the substrate as well, until the substrate is 'exhausted' of its buffering ability. Use the same kh4 new water as currently and always add the new water slowly, a drip method is best. Obviously you will need to be extra careful when removing the old water that you don't remove any of the new shrimplets........ Try not to change too much though as you may do more harm than good and it looks like everything is actually already going well, visible mating behavour and shrimplets doing well. Hope you manage to get rid of the planaria and that usually involves sizeable water changes in the process so complete that first and from then do the 25% regular water change routine. As the population grows you will need to increase the amount of food but be cautious not to overfeed. The bacter AE should help with biofilm growth etc but it isn't actually a food for the shrimps, though you may see them eating some if it isn't dissolved fully. The scuds are harmless and I would (and did in the past) remove them manually when you see them.

I cannot see anything wrong with your shrimps. KH at 3 is fine for Neos. But why are you fighting the substrate by adding water with more KH? Fluval Bios stratum has a tendancy for slightly acidic water. Which means lower KH. I quote from Fluval website : "+ helps support a neutral to slightly acidic pH - ideal for live plants as well as tropical fish and shrimp commonly kept in planted aquariums + softens water naturally, reducing carbonate hardness" . If you want KH to stabilise at 3 or 4, some crushed coral is a good idea. I add some in my tanks in an old pantyhose, and bury it in the substrate so it cannot be seen.

Thanks for your feedback. I am coming back because I am uncertain on what I should do. There are some good and bad news. Bad news is that since last post, I think I lost one more shrimp. I see only 4 of them. Also I discovered some planarian. I just started the no planarian treatment yesterday. I have scuds too, I could get some but the remaining are now much more cautious and hide. Not sure what to do with it. The kh is very low, slightly under 3. I add water at 4kh but somehow it doesn’t evolve. I don’t want to introduce water too different since it s a nano and evthg can go so fast. I have the fluval bio stratum. I was thinking to add some crushed coral but I don’t have place in filter nor want to add it on the dark substract. On the positive side, the berried female is giving birth and I have seen at least 4 shrimplets. She still carries eggs. I put a picture of an adult and 2 shrimplets, can u see them? Finally this morning, I saw a male going crazy and actually mating the other female. Does it means that there are not so unhappy after all? Their behavior seem much more normal since last time. I barely feed them since they never eated my hikari shrimp cuisine but yesterday I did a test and they eated it. (Not the scuds) So I plan to feed them more regularly. I also bought bacter AE. Fishes go well

Thanks Jayc -)

Agreed with Simon. They are harmless.

Ok - thanks for that. I did some more research and found some useful info on this page https://aquariumbreeder.com/red-cherry-shrimp-grading-with-pictures/ I think i have some Rili's in there too lol. Now I know i need to keep up with the selection program! That is the first I have heard of Bloody Mary's, but just did some quick research from which I understand they have red pigmented flesh rather than shells. All the molts I see are definitely clear or white in colour - does that support the Bloody Mary theory? Or are CRS molts the same? Thanks for the input 😊

All shrimp molts are clear, sometimes called ghosts (I think that is a great description, not to be confused with ghost shrimp though) so you can't really tell by that (even caridina shrimp molts are clear as well) and very high quality Red cherry do look very similar to bloody mary shrimp. People thnk the last lot of shrimp I bought were bloody mary, but they were just very good grade red cherry (bloody mary were out of stock at the time).

That is the first I have heard of Bloody Mary's, but just did some quick research from which I understand they have red pigmented flesh rather than shells. All the molts I see are definitely clear or white in colour - does that support the Bloody Mary theory? Or are CRS molts the same? Thanks for the input 😊

Ok, great advice thankyou!

I would just carry on manually removing them as and when you see them. They will be harmless enough to the shrimp and, like snails, may even help with keeping the tank generally cleaner. Any treatments you could try would almost certainly affect the shrimps negatively anyway. As you indicate, they are interesting in their own way and add another dimension, but you need to just keep on top of them, before they do become a bigger issue though! Great photos.

The second photo looks like a bloody mary or a very high quality at least.

Hi and thanks for your response. One thing I thought to add afterwards is that she has the same patch both sides of her head - making it seem less "disease like" to me. I think her colour is just the photo at a bad angle perhaps. What do you think of the colour of the the girl in the other pics?

hi again - and on another topic! Limpets, or at least I fairly sure thats what I have. What info I can find says they are harmless, but could be a nuisance as they can get out of hand easily. I have started sliding them out of the glass whenever I see them I did put them under the microscope when I first found them and they were fascinating but not really great to look at! In reality they are just tiny white specks inside the glass - but could they be an issue? I have a pretty cool video of two of them almost sparring in a petrie dish lol - but not sure if I can/or how to go about uploading videos on here. But then you've probably seen it all before anyway. TIA

Personally I don't think there is a problem, the black is beneath the shell and in an area that is usually not visible where there are organs etc. This shrimp has very poor quality colouring unless maybe it was supposed to be a 'red rili', but is still interesting, and early berried (the eggs are still yellow, the yolks)!

Hi - I'm wondering what you peeps think about this black patch in the photo below. The shrimp population seems to have exploded and I would say it is a healthy tank. They are very active and out and about much of the time. I have seen one or two with this kind of thing - very few and far apart, and of the couple of dead shrimp i've had so far, none showed this. I'm pretty sure the other one I noticed like this was also berried. I'm adding 2 photos - on of the issue I'm asking about, and another of the shrimp in general so you can see their conditions etc. And also one more of another berried girl with no darkness. Thanks🙂

Like all creatures, they do rest, and also slow down and usually hide around/during molting etc!

Its also normal if they are lazy?

Not usually, it is just normal behaviour so I wouldn't worry!

Its not a sign? If there a problem on the water parameters?

Usually the swimmimg around (manic) is a male (or several) that is searching for a female that is ready to mate and released some pheromones into the water that he has detected! It can be just exercise (more relaxed swimming usually) but most of the time they walk around rather than swim.

Master whats the meaning of the behavior of caridina if they swim arround or they active to swim? Vs They just like a lazy in the bottom? Just walking arround? Is there a meaning of that?