unwanted population explosion

[ineke]

So how is everyone going at the moment ?

As some of you are aware I started breeding shrimp back in 2012 , starting with some beautiful Reds then Chocolate and blacks. I also added some blue gene rillis. They bred so well I was soon overwhelmed with shrimp which I culled heavily. Back then we were very strict with culling and didn't sell or give away the lower grade shrimp that you see now. 

I had a shrimp room with 13 tanks but was fast running out of room and I had also started my journey with pure caridina- blue bolts, pandas, kk, wine reds ,etc. I was given some of the first Tibees bred in Australia and my love for Taitibees began.

My poor Neos were being neglected and continued to breed so I gave a lot of them away to other people especially beginners , which happened often here on SKF.

I had tanks full of Neo culls- they would probably have been much better than some of the lower grades you see now but still culls to me compared with the great quality shrimp I was lucky to have. I decided to try an outside pond and give them a chance to live- I didn't want to give low grade culls away at that time because our Australian stock was not high and it would have been a shame to degrade the stock we had. I wasn't prepared to feed them to fish so this seemed a way to get my tanks empty for my Taitibees and pure TB.

I got a very large bath, put a few tubs of substrate in to help keep the ph low-around 6.5  -as that was their normal parameters in my tanks. I had lots of plants so put them in loose and released about 100 shrimp. The pond was outside under a pergola but had no filter , heaters or lights. The experiment went well and soon they were happily breeding away . The pond gets very cold in winter -around 8C and 28-30C during summer again maybe a bit more during 40C days.

My basic maintenance for the pond has been just topping up with straight RO water weekly and once a year I take half the water out, catch as many shrimp as I can and top up with RO water with gh+. I do this because over the year with evaporation the TDS rises very high -as much as 400 maybe more.  During the last 3 or 4 years I have even had my cull Taitibees out there and they breed as well although not as well as the Neos.

Unfortunately I had to close my room down and although I gave away lots of shrimp I was forced to put even more outside. I only had 1 large 4ft tank left so wanted to only have a few Taitibee .

Several months ago I I was catching out the Neos from the pond to top it up and was agreeably surprised at the quality of some of the shrimp out there so decided to bring some Reds, chocolate and black/blue shrimp inside. By this time my 1 tank had turned into 3 !. The shrimp settled inwell in the Taitibee water parameters- TDS 110, GH 6, KH 0  Ph 6. 

So now to this reason for this long narrative. The Neos promptly started to breed and I have been culling hundreds of the beggars every week or 2.As they were left to interbreed at will I have some lower grades. However some are still very nice. I have Blues, Bloody Mary. Chocolates and Blacks with the occassional Rili. I have been putting them outside but I'm worried the pond will now be overstocked.

I would like to give away as many as possible but at this time I can only give them to SA people who are able to come and pick them up. I no longer have foam boxes so can't ship them. So if anyone is prepared to do a bit of work to improve the shrimp or just want some colour in their tank feel free to message me. The pictures are a mix of what I have been putting outside- some are better than these and are still inside- and the 2 adults are the parent stock. As you can see there is a variety of colour but I wouldn't put these culls in with a colony of good stock. the youngsters do look better as they grow and moult. Anyway I have several 100 to give away but I STRESS THESE ARE CULLS they would need a lot of selective breeding to get good shrimp breeding true. They would be a good starter to see if you can actually keep them or great for a child's tank. They are free to anyone who can pick them up

[jayc]

What a lovely bunch.

And good on ya for having a generous heart.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Those are lovelly pretty shrimp, you are very lucky to be able to keep some outside! It was interesting that you do the same regime of RO water + gh+ outside in the pond.

You can try posting in the 'for sale' section of this site,

https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/forum/148-selling-forum-livestock/

and/or try gumtree (below link) may be worth a try,

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-pet-products/cherry+shrimp/k0c18438?view=gallery

I haven't used it myself, but they don't do post so is only for pick up I believe? I think it is free as well so worth a try??? 

Simon 

Edited October 26, 2021 by sdlTBfanUK

[ineke]

Thanks Simon I don’t think I will have any issues giving them away I just thought I would offer them here first. I’m a member of quite a few Facebook pages - there is a SA one as well- I can offer them on those pages too . Biggest problem is the people who come and get them and then sell off again. I really want to be able to stress they are culls from culls . If I can’t find homes for them I might just buy another bath and put them outside LOL 

I’m quite surprised my Tangerine hybrids breed outside too. We get very cold winters and extremely hot summers here. I guess the large surface area allows the water to cool down.