Leaderboard

I just wanted to acknowledge and thank you for the wonderful shrimp you sent me and for all your advice and support. It only goes to show that there are some very gracious and informative members who will go out of their way to pass on their expertise and advice on this forum and that in my opinion makes it such a great place to be a member of. I was like a kid at xmas yesterday waiting for them to arrive and wasn't disappointed when I opened the wrapping. I hope one day to be in a position to return the favour. Thanks mate.

Not a very sophisticated tank - just 3 granite pebbles on a thin layer of inert sand. Eucalypt leaves and sticks (aged in the bottom of a pond) with some Indian Almond and Mulberry added for variety. ~ 30% rainwater changes 1-2x per week (water at room temperature from supply in fishroom). Lighting is strong because the tank is sharing the light with some algae cultures = green rocks and side walls. Tank is small 45cm tank (~20 litres) oriented end-on. Just waiting to move some fish around and will upgrade them to a 40l tank. Room temp is ~23C GH<1 KH<1. The light is over the front part of the tank. most of the zebras hang out more on the filter sponges or under leaves during the day but always a few visible. Seems to be more action at night. I've noticed lots of activity when adding fresh rainwater - they really seem to like the current and fresh water. This is perhaps not surprising given they are found in flowing streams. There are a few juveniles that arrived as eggs on berried females - but no breeding evident in this tank yet.

Some pics of my Caridina confusa from Short Creek

Good news , two berried females. I can actually take pride in these ones since they have become berried since their arrival into the tank. happy days

As alluded to here: Bob and I found a few varieties of fern that may be suitable for use in aquaria. Here is the one we found in Little Mulgrave. In addition to the one pictured above, I have another two which are similar to java fern. This is the first of the two: The rhizome on this one is really thick, about as thick as my thumb. The centre leaf has grown since the plant has been underwater. So far growth has been really slow. Bob gave me this one to look after as it was sitting in one of his tanks. I don't know where he got it or what habitat it came from, so hopefully Bob will enlighten us. This one is currently in my Sunkist tank with typical cherry water parameters - TDS 200, ect ect. can't resist showing off my sunkists. thanks again @‌Bluebolts

I hope everything went well.

I was hoping to see some nipple... disappointed, congrats on the win, I forgot all about the comp as I was in hospital.

Good stuff at least yours survived lol

Hello LC Bee, I remembered this post and want to write something but by the time I got home I could find it again lol. There are a lot of differing options about PRL in Australia. ‌@Shrimpmaster has don't a very informative post about PRL that may help you. http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/topic/7941-prl-quality-characteristics/ From different people I talk to there seems to be two main interpretations of what a PRL is. Some people believe that once your CRS breed true and do not throw out any other type of shrimp then it is a PRL. Others believe a PRL are Shrimps with the characteristics as explained in Shrimpmasters post above. This takes years and years of line breeding to achieve the above results. I am not sure if there are any breeders that are currently trying to breed their own PRL from CRS. If this is your goal I suggest aiming for the above characteristics. There are some actual PRL shrimp that have been bought here from overseas but it seems the ones that get sold are "low" grade or "culls". Occasionally good PRL are sold but they cost a lot of money. I hope this helps.

Your welcome Callan, You did not have to thank me but I appreciate it. I am glad you are happy with your shrimp. There is no need to return any favours but if you are ever in the position to help a fellow SKF member please do so, that is enough for me. Cheers.

Just wanted to send a thank you out to NoGi for the great chocolates you sent me. I apologise for the lateness of this thank you but I wanted you to know I appreciated the easy hassle free way the whole process took and the quickness that you sent them to me. Also thank you for the advice you so freely gave me.

It depends on what you want really. There are some very nice shrimp turning up with the crossbreeding but conversely that means we ultimately end up losing our pure breed stock. Once you put them in a mixed tank you can no longer guarantee them to be pure and will have to let the buyers know they are or possibly are a hybrid. if you have a spare tank then hybrids are great fun - the excitement of not knowing what you may get adds that bit extra to keeping shrimp but losing the pure strain is problematic. It's very hard to buy pure TB now most seem to have pinto genes and this will eventually happen with any other breeds that will interbreed.

Last night much to my pleasant surprise 3 of my Riffles decided to show themselves off in relatively easy places to photograph them. These three are most likely all ones I got from LIvefish, since the ones I bought home from Cairns are still small little guys that are impossible to find unless I dismantle the tank. My riffles all seem to enjoy fry food/ powder which is good because it floats around and lets them wave their baskets around catching the fine food.

Thanks Squiggle This lovely shrimp decided to show itself last night while I had been busy photographing my Riffle shrimp. And her eating a Wardly Shrimp Pellet

These are some shots from Little Mulgrave, a tributary of the Mulgrave River (near Cairns Australia). Enjoy. Water parameters were: pH 7.0 - 7.1 GH: < 20 ppm KH: < 20ppm Temp 22.5 TDS 29 Crystal clear water. 'Red' Vallisneria - It's a deeper red in other places further downstream in the Mulgrave, and I'll post those shots soon. Here is the natural habitat of a submerse growing fern which we believe is identical to one which was being sold on another forum for serious money. Bob and I will be putting some up for sale soon, if not into the August auction. Finally a couple of pictures of an interesting organism that totally fooled me into thinking it was a snail. Bob knew better and correctly pointed out it was the home of an insect larvae. Amazing engineering to create the snail shape using grains of sand.

The other thing I have been asked about is feeding. And this relates far more to water parameters than you might think. Firstly in tanks with inert substrate, food is going to be the major contributor to increases in TDS. More food equals greater increases in TDS. As we know, zebs like low TDS. I minimise any increases in TDS caused by food by: - Feeding only every two or three days, although 1 mulberry leaf is always available and replaced when it is completely consumed - feeding small amounts which are totally consumed overnight (excluding snow which tends to be consumed over several days) - feeding foods that are low in protein (Benibachi kale pellets, Boss Aquaria Snow). Proteins are high in nitrogen. If the food rots, the proteins decompose straight to ammonia. When the shrimp eat and use the proteins, they release the nitrogen stored in the proteins as wastes. This increases the TDS of the tank, but also exposes the shrimp to 'high' levels of nitrogenous wastes. Nitrogenous wastes are not detectable in the water of their natural habitats so any level where these are detected is really too high.

Awesome thanks Nogi. 1 in 4 chance to win I like those odds!