cheers to SKF

[revolutionhope]

Hey SKF,

My snowball and my rcs colonies are perishing - succumbing to bacterial infection I believe. I moved house not very long ago and for some reason my YCS and CRS have taken it in stride, not lost any berries or shrimplets at all as far as I can tell. I'm not sure what has gone wrong with those other 2 colonies - I think it may relate to some of the cleaning process of the gravel/tanks or whatnot.

The RCS have a purplish/bluish section on their abdomen and the older ones are the first/quickest to give up but others are following, most have poor colour. They first became ill after being placed in a food-grade bucket I bought from bunnings (but probably didn't wash well enough.. who knows what was the reason as other shrimps did perfectly well in the exact same buckets)

My snowball colony was obtained a few months ago but were compromised by being placed in a tank of doom from the getgo, I never saw any saddles and 4 of the 20 I bought had died over that period. Since moving them to a new setup (with completely new filter/media, new gravel and tank) they have been dying 1 or 2 per day and I now have 5 or 6 left.

Due to time constraints I have failed to mitigate the illnesses in either of these 2 colonies and I'm going to bin the rest of them so I can focus on my other colonies and once they are thriving I will consider setting up other tanks again,

ANYWAY -  you win some and you lose some but I know my shrimp breeding hobby will bounce back stronger,

My future tanks will be setup much better given planning and time to do it properly.

I joined the forum after having accidentally bred thousands of mixed-grade RCS in a large 4 foot planted tank. I sold many of these very cheaply and thought "wow how cool I can pay for my aquarium hobby as I go!".

It took some months before I realised truly how fun shrimp breeding is. The process of selection/culling is so rewarding and despite lots of hiccups I have still made progress improving the quality of my shrimps.

I am especially proud of my YCS colony as I struggled and struggled when I first got them, barely managing to get them to reproduce but over the course of the year I now have "hardier" shrimps while keeping the same colour quality as I initally bought.

I look forward to sharing experiences and knowledge on SKF in the year to come.

I really want to thank all the members of SKF who have contributed over the course of 2015 to make this such a wonderful and helpful community I have learnt a lot.

I won't single anyone out for thanks but there are people here who go well out of their way to guide noobs like me through their shrimpkeeping difficulties and they deserve a big pat on the back.

I'd also like to thank the wonderful sponsors here. and a huge thankyou to Nogi for putting in so much time to manage the forums here!

Cheers SKF and may the forum continue to grow and thrive into the new year to come.

love n peace

will

[jayc]

Sorry to here about your snowball and RCS colonies.

Usually CRS any to some extent YCS are the ones that are more sensitive and RCS are the hardier ones. So you must be doing something right for them at least.

Post up some close up pics of the RCS. Maybe we can ID the issue. If not, I could use some new pictures for the "Disease and Diagnostics" thread at the very least.

 

[NoGi]

Almost missed this thread lucky I copy some threads to Facebook 

if you can post some pics it would be great, we can try and work out what's going on.

I haven't got any cherries at the moment otherwise would have sent you more.

[revolutionhope]

Cheers nogi you rock.

You just gotta love the skf spirit it is such a positive community here.

I had two horrible days which were 42 and 43C respectively during which i experienced some airconditioner issues and i felt like i was not at all cut out for shrimp breeding.

I have persisted and with all the information that is accessible here I have kept my head above water and I'm feeling upbeat about the hobby. My CRS colony is doing very well I've had several batches of shrimplets in the last 2 weeks since i move and i think 3 newly berried ladies so I'm very pleased.

My ycs tank was languishing due to neglect prior to the move and there was only one saddled female in the whole colony! Now I can see 4 and their colour is great indicating they are happy little campers!

Thanks again to all for the advice and help to keep me going. Big thumbs up@fishmosy for all his advice re setting up my rack (i more or less copied his rack-it setup from his thread)

love n peace

will

Edited December 30, 2015 by revolutionhope

[revolutionhope]

Almost missed this thread lucky I copy some threads to Facebook 

if you can post some pics it would be great, we can try and work out what's going on.

I haven't got any cherries at the moment otherwise would have sent you more.

Sorry to skip this point - with regards to what's going on. I'm afraid to say it is a catastrophic meltdown.

I believe no recovery is possible unfortunately. If the genetics were unique I would give it my all but they're not ...

The snowballs are succumbing to a fairly straightforward bacterial infection so far as i know.

There's no obvious clue of anything and given their colour it is safe to assume that the varying "whiteness" i have seen is unpromising.

With regards to the RCS I'll try to get a good (with my phone) photo if and when I can. There is still one remaining mafure female with a blue/purple abdomen.

The rest just seem generally stressed and due to life. circumstances I'm beyond caring I'm sad to say ...

For now I've decided to focus my efforts on my ycs,dark cherries and bees until I feel ready for a new challenge.

I have got to tip my hat to those who continue to selectively breed their colonies for several years and sharing their efforts with others.

Several members here have sold me fantastic exotic shrimps over the past year and I hope they continue their great work !!!

love n peace

will

[NoGi]

It's hard work but it pays out in the end with some cool looking shrimp. Just hang in there mate.