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Your a worrie Krzshrimp, yep I have used it when in a hurry and tight budget, in time it ends up giving me issues so I stick to the PVC now. I have 2 fish rooms to do and have been talking about them for years, when I get around to them I will do Journals on both and put them up here with DIY Bob

Got some few photos for you guys. I have a pair of J.BlackBees that I really like. I've been having a lot of success breeding my J.Bees so it's almost time to start my selective breeding projects.

I've always done the air system with cheap black poly, works fine. Even though the walls are thin the threaded offtakes still bite in with no leaks.

Hi SKFers! I"ve been a member for a few months and and I'm thinking I'm finally comfortable enough to make a journal that will be documenting my journey with breeding Japanese Black/Red Bees. A little info about me - I've been a shrimper for 5 years now and been into aquaria for 7-8 years. It all started with the GF getting me some goldfish to fit her theme of asking me to Prom (i'm older by 2 years and it was her prom and I didn't go to the same school) and since then have been involved with aquaria related stuff. What started off as an attempt to keep the goldfish (those $1 for 10 goldfish) quickly turned into a betta hobby which lead to breeding with lead to live plants which lead to aquascaping which lead to where we are now... Shrimping.... Currently, I'm keeping only Caridina species but did start off with Neocaridinas but have recently decided to drop keeping neos to clear up space and narrow my focus. My shrimpy passion is a little "excess" to say the least. It has driven me to travel all over Asia to visit aquascaping and fishkeeping as it is bigger there but the food was also a good incentive to visit. Of the Caridinas that I keep includes: Crystal Red Shrimp in the form of PRL and Japanese Red Bees, Japanese Black Bees, Red Wine - Ruby Red Taiwan Bees, Panda Taiwan Bees, Blue Bolts, Pintos, and Orange Eyes Blue Tigers (OEBTs). It wasn't until my most recent trip to Japan and getting to know a close friend that I discovered Japanese Red/Black Bees. These are (to me) a higher and purer form of Pure Red/Black Lines that we see available today. Originating from Japan, these bees were the predecessors of what we see today as Pure Red Line. I'm very happy to have been able to travel to Japan and bring back these precious guys. Although it did cost an arm and a leg, I'm very happy that I got the chance to experience the culture, the food, and the people. A little insight on my plans regarding the breeding project. I'm planning to do rack style setups where as I can have 2 main rimless 25G cubes whereas I can breed the main colony of Japanese Black Bees (JBB) and Japanese Red Bees (JRB) and have subsequent 10g tanks underneath whereas I can cull and selectively breed for specific traits. Apart of being a shrimper I'm a growing macro photographer (thanks part to said friend and his patience with me) and so as my shrimping abilities grow, I also hope that my photography skills also developes in the same positive manner. Nuff said, please enjoy photos I've taken so far. Japanese BlackBees: Japanese RedBees: The colony of RedBees and BlackBees started off very small but is growing quite rapidly. I'm very happy that I've been thus far successful. I hope to grow out my population within a few months and be able to start my selectively breeding process very soon! Thank you for reading!

I did mine with black poly and was a bit skeptical at first and expected there to be air leaks but its turned out very nice and definately no leaks. I did mine with threaded barbs (thread into the main line) and then use barbed inline taps separately that I locate just above the lid of each tank. I am very careful not to overtighten and strip the threads when insalling barbs. I used saddle clamps every metre to hold it to the wall and keep it neat. I bent the line around the corners rather than using an elbow fittings so it was a continuous loop without any breaks that could leak. The only reason I didnt use PVC was because I thought tapping each thread would be a pain - but Bob,s idea using a cordless with a screw shaft (or a tap for that matter) would make that task very easy. I'd consider PVC next time just for the neater look. Back to poly.. Bunnings do sell a white Holman branded poly in 13mm which is OK for smaller rooms or if just doing a rack. Anything big you'd want larger pipe. On my rack which has massive I beams I ran a line under each beam and attached it with electricians cable clips designed to hold cables to I beams. Photo below has an air line under the back beam, and a water line for continuous drip under the front beam. (sorry for the black on black!). The air droppers are regular silicon air line. The water droppers are black 4mm PVC irrigation line. This difference is only so I dont get them confused and spray water everywhere (any more than normal!)

Congrats man! I think the last one is female. The first one could be female. The others look male but I am sure other members will give you a better answer. So far they look good but after a few days they should look better.

Agree with kizshrimp. Aquarium filters by nature remove pelagic phytoplankton and zooplankton from the water column, so the only 'zooplankton-like' organisms that are found exist on surfaces (i.e. They are benthic), the example being seed shrimp. If wanting to grow zooplankton for your shrimp, you will need to grow phytoplankon and the zooplankton in dedicated setups. It may be mostly a waste of time though as the zooplankton is likely to just end up in your filter rather than the shrimps bellies. The only exception may be for filter feeding shrimp such as riffles, but even then BBS are an easier option. My feeling is that mosses and other complex structures will hide a wide variety of organisms that shrimp might feed on, hence IMO mosses are basically essential in shrimp aquaria. The question is, how do these organisms come to colonise the moss and how can we manipulate the process so that there is a ready supply of these organisms? One option is to have a moss refugium. If I was going to do this, I would set up an aquarium outside, covered to prevent insects getting in. In that aquarium I would have a series of tiles/plates/wood with moss attached. I would add water to that aquarium from a pond or nearby creek so that the mosses would become colonised with organisms from the creek/pond, ensuring of course that the water did not contain large nasties like snails and their eggs, fish larvae or eggs, insect eggs or larvae, ect. Filtering the water through a 100-200 micron mesh should do the trick, but still allow our desired micro-organisms through. Then I would rotate the moss between the refugium and my tanks containing shrimp. In fact, a moss refugium without adding water from creeks/ponds would probably be enough to allow the population numbers of the microorganisms time to recover between feedings by the shrimp. And if you wanted to be supertricky, you could plumb a moss refugium directly to your shrimp tank to provide a continuous inflow of microorganisms, the same way refugiums are used in marine setups to provide phytoplankton and zooplankton to the main aquarium.

Glad you've got it under control Will. Re the tests, the first colour change is the end point. You don't keep adding drops to get a clear green (in the case of API GH) colour. If you're using API Calcium make sure you follow the instructions on Blue Bolts thread and/or Aquotix GH page for higher resolution tests. Be aware that at the low CA levels in our shrimp tanks that the pink start colour is barely perceptible (looks clear) and without good light and a clean white background you'll easily miss the change to an equally imperceptible blue. Cichlids with bloat, you can usually get them to eat the epsom salts so not affect the water quality too much. And it usually doesn't work as a treatment because the bloat tends to be bacterial or protozoal.

Yevy has started something here with that yabby thread! You should both be able to just go catch a yabby, and so should anyone else in this country who wants one. I suggest an ordinary bait trap into a farm dam, municipal lake or often aqueducts have them too. Failing that, most fishing shops sell live yabbies as bait and occasionally aquarium shops sell them too. If grown up from small in good clean water most yabbies will be blue. Bait the trap with aquarium food. I often recommend Aquagreen as a supplier but in this case I don't. Dave sells quadricarinatus and bicarinatus, both tropical species. You guys want cold tolerant southern species, destructor if that's still the right name. I think it got broken up. BTW if you buy from an aquarium you may encounter the same problem, ie quadricarinatus sold as a normal yabby. Best to catch them, locally if you can. Crabs - yabbies will be better outside than RCS, won't need heating as Will suggests and will probably work out ok with small shrimp as Yevy's post shows. They may not get along with other yabbies however. They're soft just after moulting and prone to attacks. Similar with fish, if the fish are decent sized they may eat the yabby after moulting, if they're smaller they might become food. Believe me the yabby will be happy to eat a fish, just a matter of time till one ends up caught. Spotted Blue Eyes are lovely fish and Dave's form is a nice one. They won't go in cold water but might not damage a shrimp population too much in a tank. Threadfin Rainbows are probably less of a threat to shrimp though.

Well done. Glad we could be of assistance. Magnesium sulfate or epsom salts is a mild laxative, but only if you deliberately increase the dosage for bloat treatment. Keep to the correct ratio like my diy mix and it won't be a problem.

I haven't changed anything yet. Mine are constantly berried and dropping shrimplets at the water parameters listed above. I always make sure they have available dry leaves (either IAL or mulberry) which they consume 2-3 large leaves every 1-2 weeks and I feed daily with Boss Aquarias crack or snow, or the Benibachi shrimp pellets, and occasionally a kale leaf. I've fed zucchini in the past as a once off but the snails tended to get to it first. I might try pumpkin or carrots, something with a bit of carotenoids to boost colour.

Still got some growing to do on the right but getting there

Mine must not have been told.Breed lots of yellows with my crystals