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Hubby and I have just finished doing my new airline system using Squiggle's DIY thread. As my tanks are on a horizontal bench- not a rack system - the airline had to run over 3 1/2 metres along 2 walls. We went for the black irrigation hose (12 mm I think it is) -as opposed to the thicker plastic tubing - which is attached to a length of timber fixed to the wall and 4 mm connectors and irrigation hose. Then using a sprinkler system tap which is also 4 mm we attached ordinary airline hose for each filter and connected the pump. To connect the pump we filled the end closest to the pump with silicon with the air line in the middle of the silicon forming a good seal. The further end was just folded over and clamped shut. I have 1 extra tap that is left slightly open to relieve any pressure buildup- again as per Squiggs instructions. We opted to use the irrigation connectors , taps and hose as it was easier to tap holes into the hose instead of drilling into rigid plastic. The 12 mm hose acts as the reservoir for the air and I have spare connectors so I can add more lines if needed. I am running each side with 2 Schego pumps , which then run 5 tanks one side and 6 tanks on the other. So far it runs extremely well and it is so much easier to get at the individual taps for each filter. It's such a small step but makes the world of difference from having to fish around behind the tanks to get to the control valves and also now running only 2 pumps rather than the 4 I was using. Each tank has 2 sponge filters- a couple have 3- and there is plenty air left so I'm very happy ! Thanks for the idea Squiggs!

just thought id chime in, i remember a forum discussion about gravel vacuuming in cherry tanks (gravel, not even plant substrate) here not too long ago and if im not mistaken - most of the thread contributors said they dont ever disturb the gravel and instead allow the mulm to accumulate and if the substrate is disturbed it will only upset the shrimp! love n peace will

Hi Will Explained it in the PM roughly, will write and article about it and most will be OFFENDED as it all come down to water quality not water make up so much, Crystal and Cherry types are conditioned to poorer aquarium water conditions being line breed for a long time, new species of any aquatic critter are more touchy to pollutants and over feeding= poorer water quality. As most shrimp including Crystal and Cherry types come from higher up creeks the water has less or no NO3 and phosphates as well as other pollutants we can not measure, water changes, not over crowding, not mixing species to make more pollutants same as over crowding and feeding sparingly is the key, they are not use to the high processed foods we offer YET, KISS keep it simple stupid. I keep the food to leaves, a bit of various flakes at times, timber and Algae wafers, water change heaps and thats about it, water quality stays in the soft range under 100 on Bens TDS meeter and PH ranges 6.8 to 7.2, tap water comes out up here at PH7.2 and around 60 to 70 on TDS meeter, if I don't keep Coral in the water the PH will drop to 6.8ish and with coral it stays 7.2ish, more coral the higher the PH will go that one is a trial and error and really the coral only apply's to really soft tap or starting water. I have had many conversations with people that have lost the Zebs and it always come back to poor water, if I say that I can sense the wall go up, not me I am a good keeper and my other shrimp are OK, yep the other shrimp are use to pollutants in aquariums and we all have them I sure do, but in the Zebra tanks/ponds I keep the feed down and the water change up, its hard where the water is not good, so the solution is keep the number down and keep the feeding down, feeding being the main one. There is a number of new species up here that will be tough for a while but worthy of persistence, Ben got to see a few on the week end just past. In a nut shell the longer aquatic critters are breed in thanks the more we are selecting Aquarium conditioned animals, unknowing that we are doing it, history shows well critters that were hard years ago are easy now, Bristle nose are a classic 35 years ago few people could breed them, now any one can, L number cats are the same 15 years ago hard now easier, I am sure I read Crystal types were hard to breed years ago. Neon Tetras were a tricky one 50 years ago now they are easy, it goes on and on a bit like I do. As a guide colour is a sign that the water is not to there liking, as we can not see sick animals like we can in fish, we have to use colour as a tell tail, the first sigh a Zeb will give of being stressed is they turn blue in place of black then zebras will loose colour if not happy with there water and long term exposure to that will stress them and bring on sick animals then dead and I like many have few ideas about shrimp diseases knowing when it to late and the battle is lost. Blue in a lot of native shrimp at least is a stress sign, Ben and I caught some Malanda shrimp on Sunday and near the end of the day there was a couple of really bright blue males in the bucket, when dropped in a tank they lost the blue and went clear in 15 minutes, just as a side not I never acclimatise shrimp just drop the in the tanks, I did not say that!!! Time to stop raving and write a article Bob

Hello all, I'm new here in the forum, having just registered and made an introduction yesterday. As promised, here are some current photos of my tank. I intend to keep a journal to document the growth and expansion of my blue velvet colony. My current tank parameters are: PH: 7.4 - I have tried to lower this to 7.2 with PH down but a day after seemingly successfully lowering the PH it shoots back up Water: Tap water treated with Seachem Prime Temperture: ~25°C Ammonia: 0ppm - I was struggling with high ammonia a few weeks ago but there was nothing in the tank except for some shrimp snowflakes (I left it in for a week, maybe that's why?). Interested to know if this happens to others here? Nititrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 10ppm KH: 100ppm GH: 100ppm Tank and Equipment: - Upgraded to Fluval Edge 46L lighting (42 LEDs instead of 21) - AquaOne 25w heater - Sochting Oxydator Mini - Eden 501 cannister filter with an extra bag of carbon (replaced HOB filter that came with the tank) - Aquael 3w UV sterilizer Fauna: - 13 Blue Velvet Shrimps - 1 Riffle Shrimp Flora: - Hairgrass (Elocharis Acicularis) - Flame Moss (Taxiphyllum sp.) - Phoenix Moss (Fissidens Fontanus) Without further ado, some photos of my tank: This is the front view of my tank: From the top down: Some of my blue velvets in the tank: My setup: Thank you for looking and feel free to leave comments! Best regards, Howard

Hi guys I'm thinking of Organising a day out Have a dip in the local water ways :) Plenty of natives with every scoop :) Meet up at our place then go from there I'm thinking Sunday 31st of May

Hi Will and Fishmosy, thanks for the advice and compliments, I'll check it out this weekend and maybe get a softener. I've read and heard from sources that as long as PH stays stable the shrimps should be fine inside. I've heard of using alder cones and leaves to lower PH but the tannins are putting me off. You've definitely got to try riffle shrimps if you have the chance, Will. I've got to say that the riffle is the most interesting shrimp I've kept, given that I've kept only Red, Yellow and Back Cherries in the past. Whenever I do a water change it swims around the whole tank, sometimes so close to the opening that it seems like it's going to jump out. Other times it sticks around places that have high flow to feed. Interestingly, it does not feed near the floating dome that I specifically set up for it. It was really shy in the beginning but now it feels as if it owns the tank and plays around in the ceramic cubes more than the blue velvets. As far as gender is concerned I think it is still a male but it being the only riffle I think it'll grow into a female very soon! Here's a shot of the Riffle and where he usually feeds: One of my two berried shrimps: As you can see they are messy eaters! I'm thinking of replacing the ceramic tubes for something smaller and have ordered some Minitem Tube S. It'll be a fun little project! Cheers, Howard

I can't get my head around cycling without livestock either. These commercial media like ADA etc provide some ammonia release to feed it but the idea that an aquarist, likely a newbie will add and maintain a realistic and stable ammonia level to cycle a new tank is absurd. How many highly experienced aquarists out there can tell me right now how much ammonia their fully stocked and cycled system consumes daily? The best a fishless cycle can really hope to achieve is some proliferation of nitrifiers before the main livestock are added. Certainly not a stable nitrogen-cycled system. There are some diseases that can persist for ages without a host. Mosy has pointed out viruses but there are more. Sorry to make a statement like that without citing any examples - you'll have to either trust me or look it up for yourself. As Bob said we don't normally have big troubles anyway. Will, I think Bob hit it above. Keep them alone and mix spares when you have them. You will have to do what you feel is best with the filter, I'm using media from a fish system and that has been ok so far. Like I said above we have a lot of speculation to work with here.

I think the best way is to keep them on there own and move extras around when you breed them and that will expose them to new. Remember that Diseases for the most part wont last in a tank with out a host so if no shrimp in this case have been in contact with any thing for more that 10 days the baddies wont hang on, all Diseases need a host to keep going, fish diseases need fish and shrimp diseases need shrimp to keep going, rare cases some go dormant and wait for a host but most of them don't worry us. I never cycle a tank, I load it lightly to start with, don't feed every day and water change lots, its entirely up to what one thinks works for them. The one I can not get my head around is the cycling a tank with out any animals in it??? you need something pooping in there to start it and using ammonia to start it?? it aint natural and that is entirely my oppion, some times I will use dirty filter material to start a new tank. If your canister has been in a tank with out fish or shrimp the bacteria will be dead and dormant, but they start really quick when there some thing to feed on, so may be a light clean and away you go. Every thing is different for every one for a lot of factors, where you live governs you water quality, how you keep them and maintain them governs you water quality massively and what you keep together and numbers you keep, it all leads to stressed or not stressed and stressed animals get sick easier than non stressed. Raving again sorry Bob

The zebs dont come from an area with limestone, so the limestone water may have other elements that the shrimp dont like. You could try it, but I'm going down the route of using benibachi remineralising salts to boost TDS up. Squiggle had some success using this method. I'll be trying some other alternatives as well, but haven't fully made up my mind so I wont post anything here yet. The disease question: this is a complicated question that will depend on many factors. Bob and I spoke about this at some length while I was up at Cairns. Bob pointed out diseases require hosts to survive, no host = no disease. So if the canister is moved from your other shrimp tank, and left to run on your zeb tank for a couple of weeks to cycle the tank BEFORE the zebs are added, its highly unlikely that any disease causing organisms (specifically bacteria, fungi and protozoans) will be alive. No host = no disease. However if the canister is transfered when the zebs are added, then there may be disease causing organisms present in the water in the canister. I dont think zebs are prone to disease any more or less than other shrimp. It all depends on whether or not they are stressed. If you read through my zeb tank thread, I regularly exposed the shrimp to small amounts of water from a CRS without any problems. We need to realise that many diseases are actually oppurrtunistic infections by organisms that are normally harmless or even beneficial. For example, E. coli is normally found in the digestive systems of humans, where it is beneficial. However if they get into (for example) your ears or nose in an open wound, they can reproduce prolifically and without antibiotics, the toxins they produce would eventually kill you. Same with shrimp. If their immunity is low, they can get attacked by bacteria, fungi and other organisms which might normally be harmless. The point is shrimp will be far less vulnerable to disease if they are healthy and not stressed. What is the number one cause of stress for zebs? Incorrect water conditions. That all said, we mustn't forget that shrimp may also carry shrimp specific diseases such as viruses. These can last outside of hosts, sometimes for millenia. For example, scientists recently reanimated a virus found frozen in Siberia that had been in the ice for tens of thousands of years! However viruses are vulnerable to breakdown by UV, with a UV filter being the only option I see as a viable option. Even full sunlight hitting on the tank is not really going to provide enough UV. So as BOb suggests, keep your zebs seperate (at least for the time being) from other shrimp (which will also prevent hybridisation - another issue Australian shrimp keepers will need to come to consensus on at some point, but a subject best left until then).

Disease transfer could still be a problem, it's all speculation. I put 2 leaves in their tank that came from other shrimp tanks and will repeat that before moving some into a recirculating system with other shrimp. Hopefully we can have them live with other species soon enough. They will need some Ca and Mg in the water but probably get most of it from diet. I would observe the same parameter ratios that are recommended for exotic Caridina like TBs. Just keep to the low end, always below 100 TDS. Have to say thanks to Bob for making these available to us, I have wanted to keep zebras for many years and now finally have some here. They're more beautiful than I ever imagined.

Note the biofilm/algae on the side glass. This tank sits at 170-180 TDS so don't get hung up on the TDS -STABILITY is much more important for the Crystals. Once you go to Taiwan Bees then yes the TDS should be but doesn't have to be lower. I have a thread that shows this tank and there are hundreds of shrimp in there. I feed daily with powdered foods, have always got leaves of some sort in there and give the shrimplets lots of moss amongst the plants to hide in. Temp is another thing to watch too- 78 is getting a bit high- thats about 25.5 celsius and we recommend not going higher than 24 with 22 -24C being the ideal range so thats approx 71.6- 75.20 F. Temprature can make a huge difference to survival rates -especially here in Australia with our summers getting so hot.