New Tangerine Tigers!

[Crabby]

Exciting news: I just purchased 15 tangerine tiger shrimp from a local breeder, in exchange for some of my abundance of endler fry. I’m starting the drip acclimation now, along with my other two tts males who I’m moving from my larger tank. I’ll add some photos down below once they’re in the tank. Will acclimate another hour and a half probably, and feed the fish a bit extra before they go in for safety. There’s heaps of good hiding places in this tank, and I can’t wait to see the shrimp utilising them (or hopefully not even see them)!

Will update soon.

Cheers,

Crabby

[Crabby]

Finally got them all in the tank, all is well, but it's 11 pm so it seems I may have miscalculated the duration of the acclimation. Top tip guys: if you wanna sleep, don't buy your shrimp at 7 pm! 

All the shrimp have settled in fantastically (in the 15 mins they've been in the tank) and I am already so happy to have this. Honestly, when I got into the hobby this is what I was looking for. Not 10 shrimp scattered through a giant 110 Litre aquarium, who I can never see. A small tank with nearly 20 shrimp, so I can see at least 10 at a time, with very small fish who interact with the shrimps, and the shrimp being out and about and happy. It's really fantastic, and I'm remembering again why I got into fish- and shrimp-keeping in the first place. Will assess the shrimp tomorrow, check for any problems, but for now I am stoked with my new shrimp. Here's a couple of photos below, of the shrimp on my hair algae tufts and moss balls. Made me so happy to see them enjoying those.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Crabby

[sdlTBfanUK]

It is exciting buying new stock and I am happy to hear it is going so well. If all is well in the tank the numbers will increase with time!

I sent someone out earlier to try and find my shrimps, they were delivered yesterday??? They found the parcel (behind a door to the garden?????????) and when I opened it all the shrimps were motionless and on their side, d'oh! I set the dripper up anyway and put them in and now all bar 1 are upright and alive so pleased about that? Very lucky as it was a cold night here. Definitely no more shrimp orders until back to normal?

I hope your new shrimps are still doing well today!

Simon

[Crabby]

Update: I have a berried mama! She’s looking well, carrying 10-15 eggs. Definitely only berried for at most a week. All of them are massive now, very healthy, only 2 losses early on. All sorted now. Lots of algae and biofilm that they’re constantly grazing on. Unfortunately I’ve had more Endlers give birth, and even some fry reproducing... plus a female endler who hasn't lived with a male for over a month looks to be extremely pregnant... ??

I might need to redo the substrate some time soon, as I think there’s too much crushed coral in it and the water is getting pretty hard. Would that be done by removing the shrimp, netting fish (I would seperate these and likely try to organise to sell them all on this day), then removing plants systematically before removing substrate (then reverse the steps)? Or would I have to drain the tank fully too? 
Anyway super stoked about the berried girl.
 

Cheers, Crabby

[sdlTBfanUK]

I'm so pleased to hear it is going well and you should soon have some baby shrimps, as long as the fish don't get them!

It would be easiest to catch the fish and shrimps and then drain most of the water from the tank to change the substrate, otherwise the water will get so merky you won't be able to see what you are doing, and if you drain the water you can use it to refill the tank as it will be clear and the parameters that the shrimp are used too already. Then you can slowly alter the parameters when you do your normal water changes/maintenance.

Simon

[Crabby]

5 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

It would be easiest to catch the fish and shrimps and then drain most of the water from the tank to change the substrate, otherwise the water will get so merky you won't be able to see what you are doing, and if you drain the water you can use it to refill the tank as it will be clear and the parameters that the shrimp are used too already. Then you can slowly alter the parameters when you do your normal water changes/maintenance.

Geez that’s a brilliant idea with the keeping water... wow. Wonder why I didn’t think of that before... I mean even if I get it a little murky I could probably drain through some filter wool if I wanted to save some time clearing it up. Thanks Simon! Also just realised I didn’t post a pic of the berried girl, so here it is:

[jayc]

12 minutes ago, Crabby said:

Wonder why I didn’t think of that before

Because your mods here are Super mods.

[Crabby]

Oh with that whole catching the shrimp and fish out idea - would it cause my berried mama to drop her eggs possibly? I don't really want to risk that, but then again - neither do I want to lose any more adult shrimp. Maybe I could gently catch her out in a jug, so she stays in the water the whole time? I've found my shrimp will often willingly swim into the net, at first, if nothing has been disrupted. Opinions, anyone? Or super mods? :)

[jayc]

1 hour ago, Crabby said:

Maybe I could gently catch her out in a jug, so she stays in the water the whole time

That's the way to do it. It's the least stressful for berried shrimps. Keep it in water the whole time.

[sdlTBfanUK]

That had occurred to me. I would try and catch the mother shrimp first and do it very gently and not rush it and put some plant etc in the place she will be transferred to, there is a risk, but then there is also a risk once the babies are born as they will be so fragile/sensitive/small, so it is probably better to just catch the 1 adult instead of 15 virtually invisible babies?

Simon

Edited May 4, 2020 by sdlTBfanUK

[Frosty]

Try putting a vegetable or bit of shrimp food inside the net. Then when the female is in the net pull her out and pop her in the breeder box and then remove other shrimp or leave one to make her feel more comfortable.

-B

[Crabby]

Yeah I’m going to use a container not a net, so she stays in the water the whole time. Defs considering breeder box, only question would be can the shrimplets get thru the holes?! I’ve heard newborns are tiny. I was given the advice (by the guy who bred them before me, that I bought mine from) to not risk a breeder box, and just go for the natural ‘survival of the fittest’ method. I plan to do that. But yeah will have plants with her in the jug during that process. Thanks guys again.

 

 

It takes a [shrimp forum] to raise a [shrimplet] ?

Edited May 4, 2020 by Crabby

[jayc]

14 hours ago, Crabby said:

It takes a [shrimp forum] to raise a [shrimplet]

Love that statement !

[Crabby]

4 hours ago, jayc said:

Love that statement !

Calling with Blaze currently while we do water tests, and came up with this one: Shrimp-stagram! Where we can share pics of our shrimp! ?

...now I'm sort of wishing I had some skills in coding :) 

[Crabby]

So, an interesting development:

I have a second berried girl, and other ones with large healthy saddles (one has a giant pink saddle, as opposed to the regular yellow, thats still okay right?), lots of moults. So shrimp are doing great! Woo! *shrieks of childish excitement*

Unfortunately I noticed the first berried female has lost maybe 80% of her eggs. Would she have just got scared by an endler (one of the thousands) and dropped them? She has maybe 5 left. Any ideas? Ad back up on gumtree and plans for a nano rack in the making, so endlers should be mostly gone soon. Let's hope, at least! Trying to get them all sold at once so I don't get them breeding - either the older group of my fry have already bred, or my jap blues have. Shame I can't tell if they are jap blues or not at this stage. Hopefully I can still try breeding those pure in the future.

-Crabby

Edited May 11, 2020 by Crabby

[sdlTBfanUK]

Maybe the female had the baby shrimp already, they don't all hatch at the same time? Of course the endlers may have eaten any  babies unless they are very well hidden?

Hopefully the one with the different colour saddle is fine, you may have some unusual babies if it has mated with some other variant!

Simon 

[Crabby]

On 5/11/2020 at 6:25 PM, sdlTBfanUK said:

Maybe the female had the baby shrimp already, they don't all hatch at the same time?

No, she still has the 3-4 eggs now. I guess she just lost some. 

 

On 5/11/2020 at 6:25 PM, sdlTBfanUK said:

Hopefully the one with the different colour saddle is fine, you may have some unusual babies if it has mated with some other variant!

She isn't in with any other caridina species, so I'm guessing it's just an odd saddle. Who knows...

 

Also, does anyone here know the gestation period for TTS? I've read 2 weeks, and 30 days from seperate websites. Not exactly close numbers... Just wondering when my girls are gonna drop.

 

edit: just noticed I now have 3 berried girls from my 15 shrimp! yay!

Edited May 20, 2020 by Crabby

[Able]

On 5/2/2020 at 10:32 PM, Crabby said:
 

Unfortunately I’ve had more Endlers give birth, and even some fry reproducing... plus a female endler who hasn't lived with a male for over a month looks to be extremely pregnant... ?

Guppies can continue to reproduce for

months without mating

Edited May 20, 2020 by Able

[jayc]

31 minutes ago, Crabby said:

Also, does anyone here know the gestation period for TTS? I've read 2 weeks, and 30 days from seperate websites. Not exactly close numbers... Just wondering when my girls are gonna drop.

Because it varies with temperature of the water.

The most accurate way of estimating gestation period is to use this formula.

Hatching days = 63 - (1.6 x water temp deg C).

So if your water temp is 22degC ...

63 - ( 1.6 x 22 )

= 63 - 35.2

= 27.8 days (or 28 days rounded up).

[Crabby]

17 minutes ago, jayc said:

Because it varies with temperature of the water.

The most accurate way of estimating gestation period is to use this formula.

Hatching days = 63 - (1.6 x water temp deg C).

So if your water temp is 22degC ...

63 - ( 1.6 x 22 )

= 63 - 35.2

= 27.8 days (or 28 days rounded up).

Okay, that’s pretty freaking awesome... so basically higher temps = quicker hatch rates? 

21 minutes ago, Able said:

Guppies can continue to reproduce for

months without mating

Yeah I’m aware of this, phrased my statement a bit incorrectly. She had never given birth before, so she wasn’t holding sperm from a previous mating. I bought the fish as virgins, and the only time they spent with a male while being sexually mature, was when they were shipped to me, which was over a month ago at the time. So I thought it wouldn’t have been possible for her to be pregnant. I can’t tell if she dropped though, as I have fry in that tank too now ?

 

Also very exciting news: I just spotted that I in fact have 3 fully berried girls, not including the one with 3 eggs! So excited!

[Able]

Immaculate conception?

[jayc]

29 minutes ago, Crabby said:

Okay, that’s pretty freaking awesome... so basically higher temps = quicker hatch rates? 

Yes, but within reason of course. You can't set the temp to 30degC to get gestation period down to 15days without killing the shrimp. ?

Temps should be withing the range of 22-26 degC for the type of shrimp.

Also note that temps can affect the sex of the shrimplets.

Cooler 22-23 for more female shrimplets; or warmer 25-26degC for more male shrimplets. This is only for the 3-4 week duration while the mama is berried until hatching. You don't want to keep them in temps that are not close to ideal for too long. 50-50 split of sexes is around 24degC.

So if you need more females, keep the temp cooler. 

 

The forum discussed this in an old post here ...

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/4403-temperature-effects-on-shrimp-eggs-hatching-gender-of-shrimplets/

Edited May 20, 2020 by jayc

[Able]

Is it ok to keep the neos and cardinias at 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit? As an all the time temp?

[Frosty]

As I am aware as long as you keep your shrimp between 18-25 degrees centigrade. As long as there aren’t any temperature swings. Stability is key.

-B

[Able]

Ok ty