My pond shrimp

[ineke]

About 3 years ago I put a heap of cherry culls outside in a pond. To my amazement they have not only survived but thrived and are breeding well. They are on a patio that gets afternoon sun in winter and mostly shade in summer. I added a solar fountain to move the water but have no filtration or heating. I have tested the water temp at 33 c in summer and so far about 8c in winter. I don't keep cherries anymore inside except some yellows so I caught a few of the pond shrimp out to see how they go. 
Originally I only put blacks, chocolates and a few blue gene red Rili . I now have a lot of blue diamonds, a few that look like carbons , a few red Rili, a few Bloody Mary , blacks and chocolates with very few wild types. 
I don't do a lot with the pond but top up with straight RO water when the water evaporates, I have a lot of moss, rocks and a small amount of both benibachi substrate and sand . I have a lot of frogbit also which grows wildly and needs thinning out monthly. 
I am surprised the colony has done so well and after 3 years all the shrimp in the pond have been born in the pond. 
Due to the success of the cherries I now have another pond setup for my cull Taitibees. I started this one in January this year and the hottest the water got was 28 c - this pond is on the ground under a pergola so only gets a small amount of late afternoon sun. The water has gone down to 8 in this one too. It's too soon to see how they go but so far the population seems to be stable and I haven't found any deaths. It will be interesting to see if these breed in the spring when the water warms up a bit. They are very active and eating well - I put mulberry leaves in that disappear and shrimp snow plus there is plenty of algae growing on the sides of the pond. 
Pictures are of the cherry pond and the cherries I caught out and put in a small tank to see how they are going - I'm mainly catching them to make sure no deformities are occurring. I have just had the first lot of babies born this week and all seems well.

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by ineke

[Zebra]

Awesome mate, what state are you in?

I thought about something like this at the end of last year but I've been busy with other stuff, and wondered about the cold we get where I am in winter.

great stuff.

[ineke]

I'm in SA. We have hot summers and cold winters. I hope my Taitibees continue to cope with the cold but so far they seem OK and it's been down to 1 c. 2 weeks ago.

[Cloudwarrior]

Impressive quality shrimp from no selective breeding

[ineke]

Thank you @Cloudwarrior the original shrimp were excellent quality and only graded as culls due to the number of higher quality shrimp i had. Compared to what is available now most of my culls would be up there with the best. I was given my original colony by a very very generous man - the original starter of this forum Dean- and at that time probably the best breeder of shrimp in Australia.I no longer keep many Neos- only my Yellows and a few of the blues from the pond- but I did have a lot of different Neos back then -2013/2014- there are very few wild type in the pond even after 3 years of leaving them alone , most seem to have gone back to the original colours however it would take several generations of selective breeding to get them to breed reasonably true to colour again. I'm not sure I want to go there but will see how these few I caught out go.

The TDS in the pond was quite a bit higher than the tank they are in and I have noticed some loss of intensity to the lower TDS so will let it get back up to around 200 -it's at 170 at the moment but the pond is over 300 almost 400.

[Zebra]

I didn't realise realise they were so temperature hardy that's awesome, I might setup something similar after winter. 

[OzShrimp]

Its a shame that the pond isnt clear so you can look through the bottom with a torch lol

[ineke]

The water is crystal clear Oz it just has a lot of frogbit on top and rocks with moss on. I have a sandy coloured quartz on the bottom and some containers with benibachi to help keep the ph stable. If I scooped out the frogbit and moss I could see all the shrimp but it's more important for them to feel safe than for me to be able to watch them. I do often push the frogbit out of the way to see how they are going. Numbers keep increasing and some of the old females are huge . Before the hot weather hits I will empty most of the water out , catch all the shrimp and put fresh water in with some of the old water. I will take the best blues out and put the rest back in. 

I have recently relocated the Taitibees to an old bathtub - a big old one that holds lots of water - they have survived the cold winter very well with a few youngsters seen and a number of saddled girls . I'm surprised they have survived as this winter has been extremely cold.

 

 

[ineke]

The shrimp I took back into my shrimp room tanks are doing well. The blue is becoming more consistent but still too many variable blues at this stage. I am still getting chocolates and blacks with the occasional Bloody Mary .

 

Edited June 18, 2021 by ineke

[NoGi]

Wow that's great. I was thinking of moving to ponds myself at some stage but was worried our temps swing too much. Doesn't seem to be the case with your cherries.

How are you handling mossie larva?

[ineke]

I don't seem to have many mossie larvae in the pond - perhaps the frogbit is a deterrent ? 

[Shrimpmaster]

Nice topic I like the idea of pond shrimp. Will try it some day.

[ineke]

I recently caught out most of the shrimp - not all as there were so many - and I'm still very impressed with them. They seem to breed all year round while my shrimp in climate controlled conditions always stop breeding in winter. I'm getting very few wild types and can see no deformities. 

I mentioned a trial with Taitibees in an old bathtub and these too seem to be doing well after a very cold winter. Although mostly males and juvies were put out there I notice quite a few of  the juvies are now saddled so I expect breeding to take place soon. The Taitibees have been outside since January this year so have survived our hottest part of summer and coldest part of winter. These don't have a fountain but I will get one for them soon just to add some circulation/ aeration in the heat. Apart from some rocks , moss, ferns, stem plants and frogbit they have some containers with buffering soil - it makes it easier to have the soil in containers in case I need to siphon out water etc- I topup their water with plain RO as required and feed them some mulberry leaves and pellets occassionally and basically leave them to it. 

[Quakeszn]

Very nice

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