PRL CRS Experiment Tank

[DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post at SKF Aquatics forum.  I came across this forum by reading the amazing post about breeding Taiwan Bees shrimp written by Jayc.  Regarding my first post, I just want to share with everyone the result that I've got from my little experiment with my current colony of PRL CRS.  A little bit about myself, I've been keeping all kind of shrimps over the last 3 years, starting with ghost shrimps, then move on the Amano shrimps, then cherry shrimps, and now I have 4 tanks of 2000+ PRL CRS and CBS.  About 6 months ago, after having some difficult time of finding ADA at a good price, I decided to start an experiment on keeping PRL CRS in a tank without active substrate to see if it's possible as well as if there are any problems of not having an active substrate.  I setup a 20 gallon tank with regular cheap gravel, 1 driftwood, 1 cholla wood, some annubias, and some subwassertang.  I use RODI water and remineralize it to the TDS of 130.  pH of my RODI water is 7.2 to 7.5.  I did not cycle the new tank because I was using two sponge filters from the other existing tanks.  I then moved 25 PRL CRS from well-established tank that has pH of 6.6 and TDS of 135 to the new tank.  After about 6 months, the result that I got is pretty amazing.  I've got tons of baby shrimps and lots of berried female.  Attached is the picture of the experiment tank ?

 

 

[jayc]

5 minutes ago, DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders said:

now I have 4 tanks of 2000+ PRL CRS and CBS.

? wow!

 

5 minutes ago, DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders said:

Attached is the picture of the experiment tank

Where is the pic?

And welcome to SKFA.

Edited October 18, 2019 by jayc

[DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders]

I am sorry for some reasons the picture did not go through the last time ?

Also, I am cycling 3 more tanks for a new journey with Taiwan Bee shrimps ?

Edited October 18, 2019 by DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders
Adding comment

[Cesar]

Welcome to SKFA @DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders !

[sdlTBfanUK]

Great picture and love the shrimplets.

Also pleased to hear it is all working so well! Do you now what the PH is of the new 20G tank?

Simon

[DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders]

@sdlTBfanUK

pH is around 7.4 in the morning and 7.2 at night.  I know it's dangerous and easy to have pH swing when you don't have active substrate.  That's why I measure pH at least twice a day using the pH meter.

[sdlTBfanUK]

That's very interesting. I have read a lot that PH fluctuates throughout the day naturally anyway but it is interesting that your Bee shrimp are fine at PH7.4 as indeed mine were also (although it is normally outside their ideal range)! The PH in my tank started at about 5.5 and then went up to 7.5 over about a year (rock caused that I suspect) but as it was a slow progression it didn't seem to have any affect on them at all!

It looks like you have some crystal black babies in that tank as well?

Simon

[DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders]

Yes, I can confirm that rock / pebble rock / gravel will cause the pH to raise over time.  My RODI water comes out as around 6.8 according to my pH meter.  And I did follow the manufacturer's suggestion to wait 5-6 minutes when measuring RODI water because of the low ion.  After adding it to the tank, the pH becomes 7.2 -> 7.4.  The highest that I've recorded in my journal is 7.6 but it never goes higher than that. Here is my shrimp's diet: On M-W-F, I feed Bacter AE + Shrimp Baby.  On T-TH-S, I feed Shrimp Dinner. And on Sunday, I feed Shrimp King Protein to increase shrimp production.  Water change is once a month because I have a ton of floating plants to keep Nitrate low.

@sdlTBfanUK It's probably because of the low quality image so it makes some of the PRL babies' color turn black ? But there are no CBS at all in this shrimp tank

[jayc]

6 hours ago, DNTM_Shrimp_Breeders said:

It's probably because of the low quality image so it makes some of the PRL babies' color turn black ? But there are no CBS at all in this shrimp tank

Thank goodness. You don't want to mix PRL with CBS. It's so hard getting Pure Red Lines as it is. 

Keep up the good work.

[sdlTBfanUK]

As you say it may just be the light that makes them look a bit black, the ones I thought I saw were all on the sponges which are black.

Simon