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Hahaha, yeah a lot of people say that. I breed full red Halfmoons cause they are one of the hardest to get perfect with no iridescence. This is a couple of my boys.

just thought it might be a good idea to put up a list of wood suitable to use as " driftwood creations" in our tanks. If like me you see nice pieces of wood when out walking or looking in creeks how do we know if they are safe for use in our tanks. Are there any types of wood we definitely can't use? Please add your thoughts here to help us all out.

If you have Purigen in the filter and feed only once every 2 to 3 days, you could change 10% water every two weeks. Make sure you have dim light (not too dim, just enough for moss to grow). If you have dim light and you see green algae appearing fast, then it means it is time to change water. Recharge your Purigen every time two weeks when you are changing water. Don't wait for it to turn dark brown. It will be convenient if you have two pack. You could swap in the clean one when you are changing the water. The dirty one, you are able to take your time to recharge it. After recharge, put it in a ziplock bag and put at the least cold area in your fridge. If your tank does not have heater all year round, you may need to warm up the clean Purigen (when you take out of the fridge) by using lukewarm water.

Frequent WC will kill shrimp. Never do it. ;) You can't do anything now. You only can pray for the shrimp.

If shipping cost is not a problem for you, I will suggest to get 5 shrimps first. Once they are doing fine for 3 to 4 weeks, then get more. I treat shrimp as pet, thus I will feel bad if I kill them. Which why it is better to get 5 to test first. If your tank is good and they are getting enough nutrients, they should survive the first moult (it happens within 2 weeks after entering the new environment). Given said that, if you are very experience shrimp keeper and know what you are doing, you could order as many as you like.

Name - Oatmeal Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Nothing Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Good Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Rating - 5/5 Pros - Sinks well, no preparation needed. Seems to be my shrimps' favourite food, actually. Long shelf life because it is dry. Cons - When put into water and when shrimps eat it, there is some oat "powder" floating around. Does not cloud the water but maybe if you are worried about overall cleanliness, oat breaks down quite a bit. Comment - Easiest food ever. Commonly available and can be bought for cheap in supermarkets. No preparation required, sinks by itself. Holds it shape but does break down a little bit. Shrimps love it, it is soft and seems easy for them to eat. Also contains beta-glucan which enhances their immune system. Name - Banana Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Weigh it down as it floats Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Poor Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Average Rating - 3/5 Pros - No need to blanch Cons - It floats, need to weigh it down. I do this by sticking a needle through it since it is too small to be sunk using a stone or a fork. Breaks down fast so might make a mess. Soft and mushy, making it difficult to handle. Comment - Use the soft part inside, I tried the stringy parts on the peel and shrimps do not want it. The shrimps prefer oatmeal over banana but they will still eat it. Banana is famous as a good source of potassium but I do not know what is the function of potassium for shrimps. Name - Spinach Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Rinse well, blanch in microwave for a few minutes Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Rating - 5/5 Pros - Holds its shape, soft therefore easy for the shrimps to eat Cons - If you do not find organic ones, pray that the possible pesticides were removed during preparation. Comment - They like it. Big surface area so a lot of shrimps can eat it at once and they do not have to fight over it. Floats even after I blanch it so I sink it down with a stone. Preparation is easy too, just put in a glass of water and microwave it for three minutes. Rich in iron but just don't expect your shrimps to turn into Popeye. Frozen spinach is also available. Name - Frozen green pea Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Microwave in a glass of water for a few minutes until soft Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Good Rating - 5/5 Pros - Holds its shape, lasts long. Sinks by itself after blanched. Frozen so it has long shelf life and the process during freezing it and packaging prevents it from being contaminated as well. Cons - If not blanched long enough, green pea stays hard and difficult for shrimps to eat. They will not eat it if it is still tough. Comment - Take just one pea, microwave it. The shell will break, discard the shell and just use the soft pea inside. Easy preparation, shrimps like to eat it and it lasts for 2 days (!!!) before they finish it. Makes a good holiday food if you will be gone since they will take their time to eat it. Often used for bloating in fish so perhaps it might help the shrimps as well since it is rich in fiber. Plenty of vitamins as well, especially Vitamin K. Name - Various leaves (Dry Riparian Leaves from Aquagreen) Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - $5 per 60g Preparation- Rinse and boil prior to use Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Average Rating - 3/5 Pros/Cons - Makes a good leaf litter. Cheap compared to IAL. Comment - http://www.aquagreen.com.au/plant_data/Dry_Riparian_Tree_Leaves.html Store unused leaves in a dry, airtight container. Takes a few weeks before the shrimps would graze on it, probably the time for it to build up some biofilm. If you layer a lot of it, it makes a good hiding place for shrimps as well. Boil and just leave it in the tank and the shrimps will graze on it after some time. Basically put and forget about it. There is tannins as well, but small amount and probably none left by the time you finish boiling it. You could use the boiled water after you cool it down if you would like but I am unsure if the tannins have the same effect as IAL. Intensity of the tannin colour is very light too so you would need a huge amount to make a blackwater extract if you want to. After boiled, there is negligible pH change as well unlike IAL which changes pH considerably. Lasts for a long time. Name - Indian Almond Leaf Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - $5 for 10 leaves, pricing varies Preparation- Depends on quality of leaves, I just put it into the tank as it is because it looks clean Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Rating - 5/5 Pros/Cons - Very popular. Tannin will stain water if used in big amount. I cut mine into half so it does not affect it very much. Lasts for long. Tannins have many positive effects. Watch pH as it will lower your pH. Comment - Store in dry, airtight container. Tannins from IAL have been said to be prevent diseases. Floats for a while then sinks after a day or two. Makes a good hiding and grazing spot as biofilm will build up on it. Shrimps immediately grazes on it after it sinks. Will last for a long time. Do not use activated carbon or it will negate the effect of the tannin unless you are using it intentionally because you do not like blackwater effect. But if used in small amount it will not stain your water. Name - Broccoli Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Rinse and microwave for a few minutes in a cup of water until soft Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Good Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Excellent Rating - 4/5 Pros - Sinks after microwaved, high in Vit C Cons - The shrimps prefer to eat the broccoli head. As they pick on it, there are little green particles dispersed around. Quite messy. The stalk holds its shape though, and is also edible. Can be left for days as it is big (takes long to consume) and does not disintegrate. Comment - Considering the mess (and the fact that I dislike to eat broccoli), I probably will not feed this often to my shrimps but it is good for variety. Name - Lettuce Type of Shrimp fed - RCS Price - Cheap Preparation- Rinse and microwave for a few minutes in a cup of water to blanch it Breakdown Time - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Good Shrimp Acceptance - (terrible, poor, average, Good, excellent) Good Rating - 4/5 Pros - Holds its shape. Large surface area. Soft. Cons - I could not find organic lettuce but surely it must be sold somewhere? Did not have any problems with non-organic vegetables so far though. Comment - Sink it down with a stone as it floats. The shrimps prefer the broccoli but good for variety, might as well feed it to the shrimps if you have it available as some variety. I used iceberg lettuce. I wonder if other types of lettuce will affect shrimp acceptance. Good source of Vit A and potassium. I will post more as I try more food! Imo natural food is more economical than commercial food and provides variety for your shrimps! Edit: - Added more food

In my opinion 10 - 15 is a good starting point. It will give you a good chance of getting males and females. I have heard some people buying 10 juvies and getting 10 males but that is pretty rare. If you are buying from a trusted source it should be fine. Just make sure you acclimatize your new shrimp slowly. There is a great post about acclimatizing shrimps in the forums.

Where abouts in Sydney are you? The last time I checked Sydney tap water, it was high in pH, around 8.0. And TDS was 80-100ppm. But 80 - 100ppm of what? is the real question. Tap water is usually made up of chemical stuff that is not aquarium friendly - flouride, lime, Chloramine, Aluminium, copper, ammonia, chloride, nitrate, sodium, sulfates. Are you treating the water change with prime and letting it age? Or are you doing it the other way round, where you age the water and then add Prime just before adding it to the tank? Hopefully it's the former. When you run out of Prime, try Supachlor from Tech Den instead. I did a review of it in Water Parameter subforum. I find it better than Prime for Australian tap water. As for the 30% wc, that's a bit too much. You can reduce your chores by only changing 10% weekly (or better yet, 5% twice a week). 30% is too much, and too drastic of a change. Stability is the key. Match TDS, pH, temperature when you put water back in. Drip it back in slowly if necessary. Emergency water changes can be more, but your weekly wc routine needs to be smaller. Let us know what your TDS values are when you get the pen.