Queensland Algae Shrimp - Caridina wilkinsi

[Proto]

I wasn't saying the distinct feature between the two was colour, just that the smaller of the two forms had a few with a fair amount of colour which should be interesting in a few gens with line breeding, since the majority are clear but these two are a rich dark brown/red colour (like coke) and only around 30% transparency.

 

There's a lot of physical differences between them, size (the larger ones are around two or three times the size and quite a bit fatter), eggs, lower body shape, slight differences in head and nose shape, etc.  The smaller ones are now at a population of at least 40 in their tank, while the bigger ones are often berried but population doesn't appear to have increased at all in their tank (they're in separate tanks)

 

liverpool creek aquariums is where they came from.

[northboy]

OK that helps heaps, I may be able to name them for you but will talk to Jeff first as they may have come from me.

 

I think every one should get 100% marks for trying to breed colour in our shrimp, but its a long term commitment and shrimp with bigger eggs are easier to breed, Ninjas = Serratterostrus = Chameleons and what ever the Darwin one are now are not a prospect as they are OS and if it could be done I would think they would have done it by now, produced new colours, not to say it can not be done. 

 

There is many many shrimp that fit the bill for breeding new colours, nobody is willing to put in the time on the right ones and get a AUSSIE ICON going, I don't have time at the moment or the near future.

 

The big thing with new Aussies will be, there will most likely not be colour for a few generations, it is something that has to be breed time and time again.

 

Bob

[northboy]

Forgot to add, the longer some thing is produced in captivity the easier it gets to breed, Aquarium compatible generations start to become stronger and breed better and colours comes.

 

A recent one is the L number cats, they have gotten easer in the last 10 years as we learn more and they become Aquarium conditioned, one theory is the bigger ones survive and produce stronger stock and that stock has lost breeding triggers so easer to breed.

 

Breeding triggers= drop in temp, increase in water flow, drop in hardness all of them and many more, for some fish it is even the stress of making the breeding grounds. 

 

Bob

[Proto]

Just an update on the patterns that have come through. Pregnant skunk (there's three with that pattern so far) and some weak tiger stripes (dozen or so with that) there's also been a few around without pattern but there bodies are more yellow orange coloured than clear. Egg colours range from bright green to black.

[northboy]

Wilkinsi for sure, they are looking good and have a fairly large young and that makes them one that can be raised with out to much drama.

 

Do you have fish or other shrimp in there?? they will eat a lot of the young, but some always survive. It sounds like there is not far to go until there is young, have you seen any swimming mid water yet??

 

Bob

[Proto]

They're currently in three tanks, they've bred a lot in the last 3 and a bit months from the original 23 (well 20, I swear the other 3 are a different species four times the size, as big as guppy females, eggs tiny to the point of not being able to distinguish individual eggs and they don't seem to survive since I haven't seen any more like those 3, I assume they're an algae shrimp of some sort or another), I've given away around 40 so far and still estimate around 100 among the 3 tanks (breeding tank, experimental/see what pops up, cull) but I could be underestimating that since all the tanks are heavily planted with low visibility past the first third of depth. Either way they're breeding about as well as guppies do. In one tank they are in with a few guppy/endler hybrids (and if one dies all that's left after a day or two is a skeleton, so the shrimp are omnivore scavengers if anyone wanted that further confirmed), they don't seem bothered by the fish and the fish don't pay attention to them. Other tanks by themselves, one of them will probably get some blue eyes at some point, just have to make a decision of species. There's always a lot of them on the limnophila (to my dismay, that plant spreads like a weed, constantly having to remove runners otherwise it'd take over the tanks fairly quickly) in each of the tanks  and in the various mosses. The smallest I've seen them is around 3mm which I assume are new borns or close to it, if there are smaller ones around they're hiding very well in the mosses. They usually aren't swimming in the water but do occasionally when they get startled and swim off to the other side of the tank. They appear to go after green spot algae (although I wouldn't say particularly well) that crops up on the anubis and glass in one of the tanks. I've had one jump out of the tank so far, so they can jump at least the 5cm from the water level to the top of the tank. 

So they appear to be doing pretty well so far, will be interesting to see where the breeding tank goes with the concentration of skunk/tiger patterns and the few shrimp that have displayed more coluration than most compared with the populations in the other two tanks.

[fishmosy]

Well done on breeding them. Wondering what your water parameters are?

[Proto]

I honestly rarely test (only when a tank is new or something seems off). It's just Sydney tap water (as treated by Prospect) with a dechlorinator (well chloramine since I don't thing chlorine is used at all here). Water I'd hard though, PH is around 7.8. Temp is 25.

Other parameters.

https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water-the-environment/how-we-manage-sydney-s-water/waterquality/typical-drinking-water-analysis/index.htm

On that it's Potts Hill or one of the Prospects.

[Proto]

Just a tiny update. These guys are resilient. I put a pregnant female and other (suspect male) into an approx 4ltr cube (so temp fluctuations would be pretty high) with some sandy substrate, small bits of wood that had moss attached on my balcony. It's been a month and temps have apparently been down to around 2 degree's. Still alive and babies have been released and they're swimming around (super tiny). They aren't nearly as active as the ones in the tank but that's probably a duh but. Other than that nothing much new to add. 

[s1l3nt]

Nice thread :) Do yours look like mine (which also came from LCA) in the photo below? Mine all seem to be the same species with same colouration as far as I can tell. It sounds like you may have gotten several species there or maybe just colour forms, though I would think they would all come back to the same colouration once accustomed to your water paramaters. I started with ~20 shrimp also, all 2cm+with most being around the 2.5cm mark. I have about 10 below the 2cm mark at the moment, and can see 100s (if not 1000s) of shrimp zoe/larvae around my moss at night with a torch.



P.s. for anyone interested, here is a shot of the eggs under a berried female.


Hope you don't mind me posting the photos Proto. If so, let me know and I shall remove them.

[Proto]

I have a few like those pictures. They are the bigger shrimp type mentioned (males are around 3cm while females are 4cm to 5cm for me) which either grow super slow or don't get past the larval stage well in my tank (they've bred to an extent since there's more of them from when I got them, was 3 in original order but I've counted 7 of them now approx 8 months since order).  I'm assuming they are North Queensland Short Nosed Shrimp aka Caridina Longisrostris rather than Caridina Wilkinsi though due to differences in size (wilkinsi seem to get to max of 2cm), shape, egg size, etc.