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Picked a stray bit up off the floor in the lfs I work at the other day. Asked my mate "is this poo?" He said "yep" "awesome" I replied, and put it into one of the planted displays. I turned around to see the most mortified looking customer who had over heard. "uh I can explain......"

Though I'd start a thread on different pattern TB's. I'll start with this .....

Iam from south east qld and i know what u meanin iam waitin on my mischlings like a kid waitin for xmas lol but on a good note partner and i had our first son today (next gene shrimp breeder an lover) he is heathly and happy and so tiny

I'm really glad that I can help you and also the shrimp keeping community. ^^

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Hydra would have been introduced. Most likely from those plants. It's just taken you 2 months to notice. All it takes is for one to be stuck on a plant, and they will slowly multiply by budding off polyps. Hence the name - cut off one head and two appears. They don't just appear. They need that constant source of water, or else they dry out and die.

nice looking shrimp mate :)

I agree with what people are saying here. A lot of the products you are using are doing the same thing and doubling up on it's functionality. Mosura denitro isn't doing anything more than what a healthy filter is doing, assuming you have sufficient filtration for the size of tank you have. If this truely works you wouldn't be seeing nitrates. I'm sceptical a powdered product is capable of turning nitrite and nitrates into "a harmless gaseous state of nitrogen". Mosura rich water is just adding fulvic acid, nothing a cheaper bottle of blackwater won't do, or a few Indian Almond leaves in the tank won't do. I'm convinced Old Sea mud is just Montmorillonite Powder with some other additives. You don't really think they dredge up old sea mud from the ocean for use in a freshwater tank do you? All the other products have no description of what it contains. Which means we have no idea what it is doing to the water in the tank. And that's the problem with using these big name products. Their ingredients are a closely guarded secret. But once you realise what it is, you will understand that there are cheaper alternatives. You only have what the manufacturer's description of what it does, but have you questioned the description about what it REALLY does? It seems like I'm picking on Mosura, I'm not. I like using some of their products. Take Borneo Wild Vigor for example. It's description says - "You can observe that shrimps stop dying during unsuccessful moulting. Vigor also helps in boosting plant growth in a planted tank." Really?? Yet you have shrimp dying, most likely from moulting issues if I was to take a guess. And how does it boost plant growth?? I'm not picking on Borneo Wild either. Again I use some of their products. But not all at once. You have a lot of food products. So with the exception of the food products, I would cut down of all the other additives to just one. You mentioned using Salty Shrimp mineral. Does this mean you use RO water? If you do, then that is all I would use. Salty Shrimp with RO water matched to the parameters in your tank and added slowly. This assumes your filter is well established and sufficient in terms of size to cater for your bioload. Water changes at 10%, no more, to maintain water parameter consistency. You can continue feeding using the foods you have. The key is to keep the water parameters as stable as possible with as little fluctuation as possible. The weekly addition of tonics in the regime above, whether you need it or not, is creating constant changes to the tank's parameters. Adopt the K.I.S.S. principle. Keep It Shrimply Simple. Good filtration and stable/constant water parameters suited to the shrimp you are keeping. Use the processed foods, they are good for a staple (that means you feed it regularly when you are too lazy to make fresh foods). But give your shrimp fresh foods occasionally ... leaves, flowers, fruits (we have a list in the Food & Nutrition section). Give your shrimp protein ... frozen blood worms. They will get more nutrients out of blood worms than you can find in any processed foods. Not only will KISS save you money, your shrimp will probably be better off for it.

I keep most of my sensitive Taiwan Bee shrimps in TDS ranging from 250 to 350 and they are doing great. GH is more important than TDS. To be exact, it is the individual nutrient levels in the water. For example, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, Zn, Sr, SO4, PO4, Cl, MoO4 and BO4. GH is a easier and cheaper method of measuring the meso minerals (Ca & Mg), however, it will not tell you the exact level of the rest of the nutrients. If you are using RO replenishing minerals from respectable brands, be it it is for fish or "specialised" for shrimps, they should be more or less the same. The lesser the TDS the salts, the less substances are inside. In theory, it will be even more lacking in those nutrients I mentioned above. Most commercial salts are in the TDS race against each other. They accomplished this by using salts that has lesser free electrons, such as chloride. In actual fact, TDS does not tell you anything, except how conductive the water is. Generally, field scientist or I only used it to measure the changes to the amount of dissolved solid to detect overdosing, changes to ecosystem or pollution. The absolute value is pretty meaningless. As such, don't get too obsess with TDS. With frequent water change, your tank water's TDS should remain the stable from 1 month after you start up your tank till 5 years later. One thing to take note about GH. The lower the pH, the higher the GH you will need; the acid will soften and wear out the shell faster. For example, you may need 6dGH for pH 5.8 water and you may only need 4dGH for pH 7.4 water. Shrimp needs stable water parameters instead of the water parameters of other's tank. Hence, if the salts you are using are working fine with your shrimps, then just continue using it and avoid changes. If you are intending to change anything major, it is better you use it in a new tank.

Drumroll....... And the winner is Kym Biber!! Who is yet to respond to the notification so keep it quiet!!! The post reached approx. 3800 fb users, 258 confirmed entrants, though there were many who did not quite qualify by missing a step. We have had a great response, much interest and many new friends of the forum!!! Now to get them on here to share their experience and setup pics!!!! Thanks to all whom entered, it was a fun comp to run. Keep your eyes peeled on the SKF facebook page, you never know what might be on there next........

Update. Well the CBS tank is now decidely CRS. Oh well, at least my average grade is getting better. Think I'm about an A average now, up from B. Only two generations.

White tail KK….growing up… Normal white tip tail of KK's for comparison…

The Phantom of the Opera KK