Looking for advice - getting ready to add the shrimp!!!

[ShrimpNewb]

FYI, for those following this... the Blue Dream Velvets from Aquatic Arts are from the Chocolate line, not the Red-Rili line.  From my reading, it sounded like it could be from either.  They confirmed:  Chocolate.

[jojowhisky]

Hi there!
Just wanted to put it down here since i assume the ohko stones aka dragon rocks are still in your tank?
Those are beautiful stones.
But i would not use those for shrimp tanks.
Just really sharing my experience with them.
If you read many online articles on them, many say they are inert stones.
But i have experimented with them and they do raise ph and leak a small amount of carbonates into your water. (Something to take note of if you plan on using ro, kh is 0 so with alot of these stones in your tank, ph can be constantly swinging about without you knowing why)
Not as drastic as seiyru rocks but they do leak a little.
I would think black lava rock or lava rocks are the safest for shrimp tanks in terms of hard scape choices. (100% inert, with the same "holey" appearance)
If you put a little acid(vinegar) on dragon rocks you will notice a little fizzle coming out on them, not significantly, but it will fizzle. (Have tried it)
So i guess the idea is if especially the tank capacity is real small and you got quite the volume of dragon stones in it, parameters can change overtime.
Just something i like to share, dont know if this would help you at all.
Hope things turn out for the better for you.
Regards,
Jo


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[ShrimpNewb]

Thanks jojowhisky.  I am keeping a close eye on parameters.  If my pH fluctuates, I will probably take your advice and remove the big stone.  You mean fluctuates UP, right?  I haven't seen that in the 1.5 months I've had the tank cycling and starting up.

Edited March 7, 2019 by ShrimpNewb

[jojowhisky]

Thanks jojowhisky.  I am keeping a close eye on parameters.  If my pH fluctuates, I will probably take your advice and remove the big stone.  You mean fluctuates UP, right?  I haven't seen that in the 1.5 months I've had the tank cycling and starting up.

Yep i meant ph will go up.
But if you mentioned that parameters have been the same for the past month, thats good news than.
Just thought i shared with you what i experienced with dragon stones, i have them in with my tetras instead now.
Had originally bought them to be used in the tank of yellow neo caridinas but changed my mind after testing them.
I have black lava rocks for hardscape in the yellow neo caridina tank now.
Beautiful setup by the way! Those holes in the dragon rock can be stuffed with mini or petite nana!
Regards,
Jo

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[ShrimpNewb]

1 hour ago, jojowhisky said:

Those holes in the dragon rock can be stuffed with mini or petite nana!

Cool idea.  I've been wondering what to do with plants in the middle of the tank vertically.  Thanks.

[jojowhisky]

You could also stick some moss on them or tie ferns to them!
So many things to do!
You got me thinking of starting another tank myself! Haha
Have updated myself on your thread and looking forward to hearing you update on things here with this tank!
Regards,
Jo

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[jayc]

14 hours ago, jojowhisky said:

they do raise ph and leak a small amount of carbonates into your water.

I DID warn ShrimpNewb about it earlier. ✌️

 

[ShrimpNewb]

Well, I am impatiently waiting for my drip acclimation to complete.  Still 10-15ppm TDS to go to match the two water sources.  Looks like it'll be around 2.5-3 hours.  The shrimp look like they have great color.  I received 12 live ones, which considering the fact that I ordered 10 is a win.  Can't identify male and female, but I have no experience doing it.  Size is good, with all of them in the 3/4" range +/- a little.  I'll post pics when I have them in the tank with the light on.  Plan is for the tank to be dark for 24 hours - advice on The Shrimp Farm's acclimation instructions.

[ShrimpNewb]

Yay.  Shrimp are in the tank.  Now, let's see if they survive...  Thanks for all your help.  I'll keep updating until it is clear they are thriving. 

Water parameters:  TDS 245, Gh 7, Kh 2.  I did go with Seachem Equilibrium, which I think is responsible for the high number (more potassium than shrimp need?), because the TDS prior to putting the solution in the tank was already in the 230s.  That could be the key reason to go with a shrimp only product, which I will probably quickly transition the tank to in the coming weeks to slowly creep TDS down into the proper range.

[sdlTBfanUK]

7 hours ago, ShrimpNewb said:

Well, I am impatiently waiting for my drip acclimation to complete.  Still 10-15ppm TDS to go to match the two water sources.  Looks like it'll be around 2.5-3 hours.  The shrimp look like they have great color.  I received 12 live ones, which considering the fact that I ordered 10 is a win.  Can't identify male and female, but I have no experience doing it.  Size is good, with all of them in the 3/4" range +/- a little.  I'll post pics when I have them in the tank with the light on.  Plan is for the tank to be dark for 24 hours - advice on The Shrimp Farm's acclimation instructions.

If you want to try telling male from female it may help to watch this video.

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14104-telling-male-from-female-shrimp/

Great to hear it is going so well and look forward to seeing the pictures.

Simon

 

[Zoidburg]

Imported Blue Velvets are chocolate line

"American" bred Blue Velvets (not from imported lines) are generally the Red Rili line

 

Best of luck!

[ShrimpNewb]

12 minutes ago, Zoidburg said:

Imported Blue Velvets are chocolate line

"American" bred Blue Velvets (not from imported lines) are generally the Red Rili line

 

Best of luck!

Thanks.  I knew they were imported.  We'll see how they fare.  I am hopeful.

[ShrimpNewb]

And... here are some pictures.Or not... maybe later, when the upload works.  And now it is working.  Sadly, my iPhone camera is not very good.  It doesn't capture the color well.

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by ShrimpNewb

[sdlTBfanUK]

You may have to reduce the size of the pictures to below 1MB!

Look forward to seeing them.

Simon

[jojowhisky]

And... here are some pictures.  
https://skfaquatics.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2019_03/IMG_0193.thumb.JPG.c4788be1ffdb5d4d756080eebd10d8da.JPG' alt='IMG_0193.thumb.JPG.c4788be1ffdb5d4d756080eebd10d8da.JPG'>

Hey! Beautiful shrimp you have there!
Hoe everything is going great at this point?
Regards,
Jo

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[sdlTBfanUK]

Lovely col;our shrimps, you must be pleased. The rock looks great as well.

Hope it all carries on well!

Simon

[ShrimpNewb]

5 hours ago, jojowhisky said:

Hey! Beautiful shrimp you have there!
Hoe everything is going great at this point?
Regards,
Jo

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So far, so good.  They are eating, which is good.  I am feeding them Sera Shrimps Natural, which is what my LFS had in stock.  Trying to figure out what else to feed them.  What do you feed, Jo?

1 hour ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Lovely col;our shrimps, you must be pleased. The rock looks great as well.

Hope it all carries on well!

Simon

Yes, I'm very excited.  They all seem to be alive, though I never see all 12.  As with Jo, any suggestions you have for feeding, sdITBfanUK, will be appreciated.

Edited March 11, 2019 by ShrimpNewb

[jojowhisky]

Hi@ShrimpNewb!
Happy to hear that things are looking good for you!!
I feed my shrimps:
Shriakura baby Ebi powder
Glasgarten betaglucan powder
Spirulina powder
Dennerle 5 leaf mix
Fresh chinese spinach
Borneowild biofilm conditioner
Azoo(taiwan brand) shrimp pellet

So what i do, learnt from simon, all pellet food are crushed together on a pestle and mortar.
Than i keep the crushed powder in a tiny ziplock bag.
Every other day i will use a small plastic coffee stir to scoop a tiny bit, mix it in a tiny glass dish with distilled water. Than i will use a tiny pipette to siphon the mixture out to dose my tanks. This way, i am ensured they get a mix of everything and i will not over feed them.
Than on weekends, i boil chinese spinach for them to eat, they love these and will finish it in a day.
So every other day, i would either feed them crushed pellets mentioned above, or i would feed them shirakura powder with spirulina powder mixed.
Borneowild's bio film conditioner i tend to dose after a water change.
If im planning to feed them glasgarten betaglucan than the day before and after i feed, i do not feed them anything else. (Starve them before feeding).
Hope this helps?
Regards,
Jo




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[sdlTBfanUK]

I feed the dennerle 5in1 mix, ie you get 5 small sachets of 5 different foods, and as JoJo has mentioned I smash them with a hammer (best to do this before you open the packets) and mix in a tin or old ammonia strip snap top container. I also use the chi ebi same as Jojo, supposed to be good for babies/juveniles etc. I would think anything by the main shrimp specialists is going to be good, but would use several different ones alternating, or mixed, including something powdery for shrimplets, plenty of variety. I use an old shrimp lolly stick to put the food in the tank by wetting about a mm at the end, then dipping it into the food, knocking off excess back into the tin then swoosh it in the tank. I also use the beta glucan as JoJo but that is additionally, as food for the bacteria more than the shrimp (but again less than recommended by the makers). Every food I use a lot less of than the manufacturers recommend. In fact I don't really understand how the little food I put in supports the 100+ shrimps, but it seems to work so I won't mess with it. I do once a day feed but thats because I  have too many bloody shrimps.............. luckily it is winter here so they have stopped breeding for now so I am having a nice break from having to cull some.

On saturdays I give them ORGANIC spinach leaves which the swarm too, so I usually use that as an opportunity to count them, it is really easy to use but must be 'organic':

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14035-spinach-fresh-or-frozen/

On sunday I treat them to a shrimp lolly which they love and swarm over. I give them 1 lolly which is supposed to be for 30 shrimps but I have over 100, so again a lot less than the manufacturers recommend.

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14030-shrimp-lollies/

My mentality for feeding is, a little is better than none but too much is dangerous. Some people even think you shouldn't need to feed at all, but the proper foods must contain some stuff that doesn't grow as biofilm. 

Hope all this waffling is of some help, i've forgotten what the question was............

Simon

 

[ShrimpNewb]

Thanks to Simon and Jo, and some research, I ordered the following foods:

• Dennerle 5 in 1 - hoping to find some go to foods in the samples and I suspect, with 11 shrimp, the sampler will last quite a while.
• GlasGarten Bacter AE - because it seems to be a requirement to successfully keep shrimp based on pretty much everything I read

I already have a jar of Sera Shrimps Natural I acquired from my LFS, and the shrimp definitely congregate every time I put a few granules out, though never more than 8 at once.

As for the tank, first water change was today.  I followed Simon's advice and dripped in the replacement water.

The experiment continues.  I have only one more question:  do shrimp go through a weak color period when they molt?  I have seen, so there have probably been more, three successful molts.  I notice that one of the larger shrimp is, at the moment, not as fully colored as the rest.  Result of a molt?  I am curious, although obviously I will be keeping my eye on that shrimp's color.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Weirdly enough I was watching videos on culling the other day and they warned that shrimps that have molted recently will have less colour after a molt and then colour up more. The video obviously was saying that as you can easily cull a shrimp recently molted because it looks like the colour isn't good, but it may be a really colourful shrimp given a few extra days.

I have been using the 5 in 1 mix (smashed up and mixed together) for over a year with 100+ shrimps and still have about 75% of it left, though I only use it tuesday and thursday, very sparingly, as I use many different foods to give them variety, and weekends I use, saturday spinach and sunday shrimp lolly!

The bacter ae I use the same as the feeding, dip an old shrimp lolly stick (or toothpick or other similar) about 1-2 mm in water then in bacter ae quickly, tap excess off then put it in the tank - I do this twice each time I use it (30L tank) and twice a week. Probably a lot less than they recommend on the packaging. It may seem to be a bit extravagant to use so many food and other packages but I actually think it is silly not to use the right things as most of the products will probably last for years and aren't very expensive anyway......... ie if you alternate 2 foods the food will last twice as long obviously.

Hope it all continues to work well with these beautiful blue blue shrimp.

Simon 

[ShrimpNewb]

Well, the Bacter AE went well, but for some reason when I looked at the stick of Dennerle Complete I just put into the tank I didn't think it'd be like 20X the amount I've been feeding the shrimp.  Oops.  About 30 minutes left and I'm vacuuming it up.  Annoying for me.  Next time, I'll crush it like Simon suggested.  Such a large portion makes an awful mess, too.

[sdlTBfanUK]

I'm not sure what they recommend as per 1 stick per ?? shrimps as I don't have the packets. I smash them all up (need a hammer though as they are very tough) and keep them mixed in a container, then use an old shrimp lolly stick dipped about 1 or 2 mm in the tank water, quickly in the food, tap off excess and then into the tank. I do this about 3 times each other day (I alternate with other foods). One thing is for sure though, I have 100+ shrimps and the total of doing the above is definitely less than half a complete stick in total, probably nearer a third of a stick. This also means the food gets spread around the tank better and they don't all have to fight to get to it, though there will still be some squabbling.

With everything though I use less than the manufacturers recommend as they are in it for the profit firstly.............

oops I may have repeated myself somewhat on some of this!

Simon