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Everyone Starts Somewhere...


Foxpuppet

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It's a fascinating hobby we have but we all got bitten by the bug at some point... so when and how did you first come into contact with shrimp keeping?

I'll Start -

i had a freshwater aquarium for years with never much interest other than keeping my fish fed and alive, plants were of no real interest to me. I had those african cichlids and the like cause i liked the colours ;)

then one day i started talking to the guys in my LFS about plants... well it turns out cichlids and plants dont mix too well so out went the fish and in went the plants/plant friendly fish. then i got into the higher tech (read DIY) side of plants. I was in another LFS (we have 2) and they had these awesome looking little red lobsters on some plants (otherwise known as RCS)

I asked about them and they said they would go great in my planted tank, eat algae, keep it clean etc etc, so i bought 4 for the princely sum of $30 and in they went (bag temperature acclimatised only) and off they went into the depths of my planted tank. they were happy and looked so cool, i decided i should get some more only hours later to find the ones i had being eaten by my plant friendly fish. intrigued as to why they were being munched i went online and found more info and lo and behold someone selling them for $80 for 60 RCS, much better than the $7.50ea i had paid so a date was made and off i went one night after tafe.

Upon reaching this kind fellows house i saw many cool tanks and fish and these other shrimp with red and white stripes. while awesome to see, he said he would sell me some at a later date once i had kept some RCS alive for a while. Intrigued further by these awesome multicoloured shrimp i went back online... a lot of research, heartache, joy, finally getting those red and white creatures, meeting other shrimp keepers, getting friends into the hobby and more time online, i am here... and still enjoying my journey!

how about you?

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I kept African cichlids for the last 20 years and late last year went into fishchicks and saw CRS CBS RCS and others!

Got some RCS and 2 weeks later got 5 $25 each CRS which slowly died over the next month .... They really don't like heat .....

So the seed was planted ....

About a month later I sold off all my remaining Africans stripped my tanks and got a chiller and set up for shrimps.

About 2 months later I got 40 CRS - 20 off 2 different people and 9 better CBS again fron 2 different people.

They are going great and getting some better quality in both regs and blacks!

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funny how similiar our stories are durro! i was heavily into cichlids, african, american and i was obssessed with catfish as well. one day i saw crs and rcs at a friends house and i was heavily intrigued! a month later, i started googling ard the internet and i saw a crs grading table at planetinverts and when i saw the mosura flower sss crs i was absolutely in love! i never thought i'd ever be able to buy such high grades but a few months later i saw sss grades for sale at fishchick aquatics!!! i spent $800 that day. didn't give a rats arse how expensive they were i was so happy. you wouldn't believe how many of my cichlid friends laughed at me and told me how much of a joke shrimp were! luckily enough that was during winter and they did really well. and then my friends all got the shrimp bug from me too after seeing my babies. made my money back from the first batch, spent all that money on CBS....and i've been hooked ever since :P

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I started keeping fish keeping when i was like 10, had a bunch of bettas i managed to breed them once but i didnt know how to raise the fry so they died. Then i got into tropicals with 2 barramundi and 3 oscars they unfortunatly died then i got into flowerhorn, still have them now got like 6 tanks running for them and always expanding. After christmas 2011 a cube came up for sale with aquasoil and plants fully cycled and everything so i bought it along with a bunch of cherrys and 2 b grade crs. the crs died a couple months after getting the tank, i was realy devistated. now i have 2 crs 1 cbs 1 brown crs and a heap of cherrys and shrimplets and im looking at getting some highers grades soon.

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I've had many aquariums when I was young; various types of goldfish, comets, guppies, hermit crabs, green turtles and bettas. I gave it all up before high school and after moving houses.

Fast forward to last year, when I got back into the hobby as I got the Fluval Edge. Originally planned to get some tetras or guppies but a friend gave me some plants with a RCS to start off the tank cycling. That cherry shrimp was a survivor and really got me hooked and I decided to get into shrimps. Starting with RCS was great, as they breed like rabbits and easy to keep. Then I got hooked on CRS and made it much harder.

After a tank reset, many losses, slowly getting the steep learning curve, and joining forums like this, I've finally getting a hold on shrimp keeping. I've got around 35-40 shrimps with mainly CRS and getting a run of breeding them.

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I started about the same time as Lachie. I started with some goldfish. After a few years and the goldfish becoming too big for their 70cm tank I decided to put them outside (Into a trough in which they have now bred) and I came across guppy`s.

They came in many more colours and looked much prettier than goldfish but found out you needed a heater. I got a heater and set up a smaller 100L tank with some guppy`s, swordtails and bristlenose catfish. After another year I decided to get into more and more difficult to keep fish and 3 tanks later I eventually came across shrimp... That was the end of my life!!

I got 10 A grade CRS for $70 so not too bad a price. Anyway that was nearly year ago now and they are doing quite well. I have had many shrimplets and only one or two deaths (Which is surprising). I am now starting to do some selective breeding and hoping to get some yellow cherry`s very soon (After I set up another tank.)

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i love how a lot of keepers almost abandon previous aquarium interests for shrimp ;) hope nothing else comes along that replaces them!

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