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Caridina Zebra, best breeding conditions.


Zebra

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Nope the price def doesn't reflect how hard they are to keep, But it made me more inclined to have another go at $100 rather then $250 :) and I'm happy I'm having another go with them I love these little guys.

Well I ordered them and got 35 alive and healthy last week fast well packed shipping with lots of berried females too. Thanks Jeff from LCA.

Water in the bag was tds 36ppm so atleast they were kept in the right wp, unlike the others I had.

Theyve been in the tank a week or so now and no deaths so far, I do a small water change like 10% every 3 days or so with fresh RO that just drops in over hours.

Some must have hatched in the bag they were so tiny :) they've all been doing really well. Some really nice shiny solid colors on them.

ph 7.4

tds 27ppm- which is mostly GH and I'm still slowly bringing it down to around 20 but it seems to like to stay at 27, like the most stable out of the numbers either side of it, weird.

I haven't really fed them except a small bit of snow. 

I have a sponge filter and HOB with a sponge on the intake so lots of flow for them and lots of O2. There is a little bit of activated carbon in one filter which I'll either get rid off or change regularly. I've found it helps keep everything nice and stable by removing doc and some heavy metals- seemed like a good idea and they all look healthy "shrug" it's been in there since just before the deaths "stabilised" lol I have 2 survivors from that first lot which is also what made me want to get more lol.

So back up to 37.

Probably just going to start a new thread and keep it better detailed too, there's been too many variables in the first lot I had for anyone to get much useful info out of.

Also noticed there's absolutely zero snail so in their tank, maybe they can't properly form shell with such low tds? 

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Update*

Shrimps all seem really happy, I havent seen any deaths so far, maintaining the same wp, Need to get a better ph meter I think the el cheapo I have is starting to need calibrating to often and give out. 

I noticed half a dozen new shells so thats good, and Tonight 2 heavily berried females- I fed them a tiny bit of bloodworm tonight before their now weekly 10-20% water change.

Note: 1g Woolworths brand Epsom salts (Magnesium sulphate- Mgs04) raises TDS of 500mL RO water to 572ppm.

Setting up some form of diy cooling system tomorrow, Starting with just 12v DC computer fans plugged to the same system as the heater, and Ill upgrade to a mini window AC when I have the funds. :)

 

Edited by Zebra
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Starting another DIY build with shallow tanks and still have to start Building a PC fan straight into the acrylic lid haha,its been getting quite hot here now, Im gonna hook it up to a temp controller with the heater when I get the cash, For now its just going to be on in the day or whenever its over 22c and im home. Loving these Kmart tanks, Great value for money and you can really customise them well cause of the acrylic lid. :) Ive already cut holes for the HOB filters to fit nicely.

Note: I found you get the cleanest cut using a metal cutting blade on a jigsaw, and you need to cool the blade with water as your cutting or it melts back together and becomes a messy hassle.

Getting some really nice crisp shiny colors, Maybe its the few that have just shed. Clear sections are very transparent Whites on most shrimp are very deep, starting to see the nice spots on their back again that made me fell in love with these guys.

Its funny, Apart from their obvious black and white stripes typically resembling a zebra, They are also quite a different shape to any other shrimp Ive seen, With a very large head and yeah almost "zebra shaped" too.

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Ok so While checking out their tank this morning I noticed alot more activity then usual, And a female that was berried only yesterday chilling in their food bowl snacking on some snow, But it looked like her eggs were gone, I put my eyes on and look closer and....

I am now the proud father of a healthy litter of zebra babies.? 

I tried to take pics but they are just too small for my camera, Ill borrow my partners HD cam tonight

Soo happy.

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Best pic I could get, the big shrimp is staring at the baby, he's on the side of the glass feeding dish. 

Enjoy??

IMG_0870.JPG

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Looking in their tank now there's hundreds of them all swarming around! So tiny they must have just hatched over night.

Most of the tds in their water is woolies brand epsom salts haha its hilarious I know. I forgot to mention last water change I also added a very very minute amount of Bi carb, kh2po4 and k2so4 as I had been reading a thread here on skf that said shrimp need potassium, And being a nutrient that can be over dosed quite grossly without any adverse effects (Other then raising the tds which in this case with zebras you have to be very careful of) I am going to incorperate this into my regime starting every second water change, The kh2po4 not being as ideal IMO. cause of the added nitrates and phosphates, But I have One anubias in there and some fiss on a bit of lava rocl which everyone says is inert but ive had mixed test results with different pieces containing higher amounts of impurities which raise tds and ph sometimes not always. But thats ok cause I did want it to be low kh with a mix of non metallic elements etc. still maintaining same WP religiously.

PH 7.4 (I think my meter needs calibrating again or I need a new one its just a cheapo)

KH less then 1dkh or ( maybe 5-10ppm?)

GH probably around 20ppm as its most of what makes up their tds.

temp below 23, a have a large room fan running 24/7 as its getting really hot here and I havent had the funds to buy and build my small window ac into the cabinet. Its the same cabinet as my 4ft shrimp safe sump build, The shrimp are on the bottom left, still 4c more tanks to go in, An ac and temp controller, And I need to make doors for the sump area so the ac can cool my 4ft build too as it was designed to be shrimp safe and incorperating into the same cooling/ heating controller.

So excited. So any recomendations of what I should get next? I have a 20L the same as my zebra tank cycled with plants and ready to go, ph is like 5 or just over.

The rain water I use before mineralisation is:

Ph 7.4

GH 53ppm

KH 17ppm

with a slight humic tannin  color, my cherries and plants love it cause the tap water here is too hard and ph 8 and above

Cheers guys, Merry christmas☺️

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Congrats mate. Best of luck raising the juvies.

Now the trick is to get your females to become berried, drop the bubs and get decent survival rates of those bubs - all within your tank. If you do it, let us know as that is the major challenge that the rest of us have yet to crack. 

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Thanks guys, Well the're looking really healthy now, even more so over the last few days, The whites are so crisp and vibrant. Will let you know if I stop seeing the babies getting around. But Id say so far so good.

 

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Good luck with the breeding program @Zebra

Dont forget you are going to need a cull tank so that spare one you have might come in handy as the shrimpets grow.

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Cheers,

Haha no such thing as a spare tank at my place, just one waiting to be stocked. I'm still putting another 4 identical tanks in this cabinet, I was thinking about sumping the top 4 and using the room where my zebs are now for the sump.

Just focused on raising the juvies, It could be my imagination but all the little ones are really starting to color up. 

With these guys thinking about culling is a bit over optimistic ?

My mate told me I need a macro lense for my iPhone. I had to hold a pair of jewellers glasses to the camera to get the last pic, best I can do right now.

Another theory I've been thinking about with these guys:

Their food source in nature must be very high in calcium for them to deal with such a Lowe kh maybe?

From what I've seen and read with other shrimp they can either intake calcium from the water but if the water has a low KH, they need it supplemented in their diet with stuff like shrimp snow, And are more likely to recycle and eat sheded exoskeletol remains etc.

Not sure but, I'm no expert.

Edited by Zebra
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On 06/12/2016 at 10:15 AM, Zebra said:

I am now the proud father of a healthy litter of zebra babies.

Well done.

I reckon you should change your name to "Zebra Dad", or something a little more witty.

Edited by jayc
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On 12/7/2016 at 4:20 PM, jayc said:

Well done.

I reckon you should change your name to "Zebra Dad", or something a little more witty.

Cheers mate, Haha ill have to consider that.

 

Update*

A few nights ago we had really unseasonally hot weather and I forgot to turn their fan on, I found 2 dead adult males later on. Could be coincedence though I doubt it. Cooling sytem is my next priority.

The babies have almost doubled in size atleast and look to be going strong. Ive been questioning whether 27ppm tds is too high? 

Edited by Zebra
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The babies are growing along nicely, And I can see a new smaller litter getting around the tank, Happy days right now. 

Edited by Zebra
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4 minutes ago, Zebra said:

Happy days right now. 

A completely different story back in October compared to today.

It's great to see when things are done right and the outcome is happy shrimp, happy owner.

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On 9 December 2016 at 8:27 PM, Zebra said:

Cheers mate, Haha ill have to consider that.

 

Update*

A few nights ago we had really unseasonally hot weather and I forgot to turn their fan on, I found 2 dead adult males later on. Could be coincedence though I doubt it. Cooling sytem is my next priority.

The babies have almost doubled in size atleast and look to be going strong. Ive been questioning whether 27ppm tds is too high? 

Yep, no coincidence. Correct temp is crucial. Die offs happen once temp get too high. 

27 ppm is OK. lower is better, but very difficult to achieve in aquaria. 

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Thanks guys, 

Yeah I'll  get the cooling system happening ASAP. Right now there's a pedestal fan running full blast 24/7, so even when it's well over 30- 35c outside it stays under 22c in their tank.

thanks for the info fishmosy, I think I lost about 4 from that little heatwave, some fairly juvenile still.

Update*

I can't see quite as many babies, but the ones I see are very big now. You can clearly see them now just like mini replicas of the adults, so cool. Some of the babies seemed to maintain a pinkish sort of "hue" for a week or so which I can't notice anymore on the larger bubs, just big enough to see crisp colors, the stripes are soooo small on the babies.

Going to aim for a tds closer to 17ppm over the next few weeks. 

Maybe it was the rise in tds that brought on mating, like simulating low water levels in nature, which from what I've seen makes everything breed just before the floods. Just a random thoery.

Edited by Zebra
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  • 3 weeks later...

Feed them a tiny tiny tiny smidgen of baby powder by boss aquaria about 3 days to a week ago.

could be coincidence but since then I haven't been able to spot any babies.

im gonna call it, this litter is all dead.

lost a few adults in the heat wave too, back to the drawing board,

sucks sooooooo bad.

sad face

i knew I shouldn't have messed with it but I just couldn't help myself grrrrr. I still don't see how that small amount of food could have wiped them out. It was like a few grains of sand worth. I'm very careful not to over feed.

the only thing they actually seem to like eating is fresh or frozen blood worm and other fallen zebras.

if there is a dead one in the tank their will be others feeding off it inevitably, 

Note: seems they are total carnivores apart from them obviously eating algae lol, but from my understanding most algae is super rich in protein so still supports that theory. 

Edited by Zebra
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Just to clarify I still have a colony of 25 or 30 "healthy" lol juvies to adults.

Some of them are kind of pinkish, 

@fishmosyDo you think these are just the ones that have recently molted? Or am I looking at something else?

cheers

I pumped up the oxygen and flow even more, about as much as I can without annoying them.

I always used to see mini electronic oxygen emitters for aquariums on eBay, now I can't find them haha I've been thinking of using something like this in the tank, the video below explains why in the first 30 seconds. 

Imagine how amplified this effect is on water with tds of like 17ppm? Would make it almost impossible to get 02 in without huge waterfalls and lots of plants like they have in nature.

 

 

Edited by Zebra
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@zebra, isn't it easier to just buy a small Sochting Oxydator from Newbreed?- it's not expensive, runs on H2O2 and baby survival increases dramatically.

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Could very well be, I have no idea what that is haha I am still quite fresh into the hobby with only a few years under my belt. 

I will have to research that, thanks mate. 

Update,

brought the tds right down over the last however long, so I used to maintain it around 27ppm

Its down to around 20 and I'm still dropping it further slowly till I get to 17.

Fully cleaned up the tank and filters, but left all the algae growth on the side walls which is green/ brown. and didn't vac the gravel.

Fed like 1 tiny flake of shrimp snow which some seem to be taking to after not hugely excepting foods for awhile there.

All the mid sized still "juvies" look healthiest with very nice white,

some are still pinkish but seems to be going away. 

Still adding a tiny bit of k2so4 and khpo4 to their fresh water less then 2ppm each like a smidgen. Cause my theory with potassium, and if not the anubias will just use it fast enough anyhow.

need to get proper mineral salts I think.  

I use an activated carbon filter disc that's meant for drinking water to try to lower DOC and any heavy metals that may be present for whatever reason. So it's in the HOB now,

good idea?idk lol

Im changing them every week.

they seem to hang out under the sponge filter most of the time and haven't seen them out and about since the babies were around. 

Edited by Zebra
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I did a bit of research and figured I have everything I need to make a steriliser, so I ended up making this little beast (just as a very raw prototype) and I'm so impressed with how well it's working. 

Im gonna make a better one for my zebra tank tomorrow.

image.jpg

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8 hours ago, Zebra said:

steriliser

You NEED to share how to make this! 

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