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@ineke I 100% agree with Jayc and Fishmosy. Pick the colour first especially in the legs. Getting solid colours in the legs is my holy grail. But saying this I would like to add beautiful is in the eye of the beholder. If you like something go for it. My tip is be really harsh on the males you choose. Think of what you want and find the males that match. In my experience and what i have been taught is males are important. Its also just as important what you add to your colony to help improve it. I know its a huge debate about getting rid of culls. I know when i just started i would have taken any shrimp to try. I agree with fishmosy sell them cause for them it will help them improve their colony. You can then use that cash to buy something that will improve your colony. Do you research when buying though.

If a moss tree fell over in a tank and no one was there to hear it, does it make a sound?

good reminder about picking the best males. IME It is better to have a few really good males breeding with average females than average males with good females. Hence I'll always remove crappy males when I see them, but leave the females until I get a chance to do a proper cull.

Update for section 3. I continue to breed my red rili's and cull any that do not show the colour or pattern i want. Nothing new to report the % of culls is still too high. I believe the culling will pay off in a couple of generations. Only time will tell. I have moved my pintos, the pintos i won from auction, some tbms i had with my mischling into this tank. Was planning on moving the tibees i current have in there out this weekend. Unfortunately this morning i found a berried pinto. Whoops dont know who the father is. Oh well. For some reason the front of the glass is really dirty in this section and it made it hard to focus in the shrimp so please excuse my pictures.

ok soo here she is in all her glory! wast flows in to the filter sock-> then up and over the marine pure spheres ->in to the k1 chamber-> tumble tumble tumble and out the other side to a currently empty chamber that I intend to use for random bags of media when I need to add them, carbon, chemipure that kid of thing. Then though to the return pump! I haven't put the chiller in yet because it's still cycling.

Hello SKFers, I am in the process of organising mini interviews with some of the very best shrimp keepers around these parts. I have been luck enough to get our own SKF members @newbreed and @Gbang to be the first two interviewees. So this is your chance to ask these legendary shrimp keepers what you would like to know about them. So in the comments below add one question to either Newbreed or Gbang. Each question needs to be on a separate comment and needs to be address to either one of the above. If you like a particular question please like it. The top 10 questions based on the likes will be used for the interview. I will be asking other shrimp keepers for their permission to do an interview also but if you have certain people in mind or if you would like to be interviewed in this manner please pm me.

I have an abundance of CBS some have high grade patterns but no depth of colour. I have S, SS, SSS patterns but I have to accept that technically they are culls. My best colours are probably S grade where the black and white have good coverage and reasonable depth of colour. I probably have in excess of 100 CBS. Today I caught out all the shrimp in one of my CBS tanks and tomorrow I will pick out a few of the best to breed with. I still have another tank full of SS & SSS pattern to sort through. So do I go by pattern or go by depth of colour and coverage? If I go by depth of colour the majority of shrimp will be S grade. Some of the SS & SSS are very nice shrimp and probably better than a lot of shrimp available in LFS but if I'm honest I guess they really are mostly cull grade. It's such a shame to see so many nice shrimp that don't make the grade. This is what happens when you breed for quantity and not for quality. I don't generally sell my shrimp so I wasn't worried about quality although I did start out with mostly A grade shrimp and in essence I guess I have improved them to higher grade but in actuality I haven't gone far enough. I think I will take the best S grade and start again picking shrimp that have nice crisp black and white . I might have a few higher grade patterns that will pass as acceptable but I'm going to have to be tough - I probably will have to end up finding new homes for the majority to make room but it's very hard for me to let go. anyway any thoughts on culling ? What would you do? Go for pattern, go for depth of colour and coverage of colour ? It's something we all need to think about and then what do you do with the culls? Sell them to cheaply beginners to see if they can keep the Crystals alive ? Take them out of circulation completely - I can pick out the females either by sight or as they become berried and keep the sexes separated so eventually they die out. I can't come to giving them up as fish food - as I said I've seen much worse in aquarium shops- but then I can't spare too many tanks to culls. It is a dilemma and in my case I have to go through it with quite a few different varieties in the near future. Time to cull all my projects especially as the breeding season approaches. I will be taking it tank by tank over the next month or so but its so hard to decide what to keep and what needs to go. I NEED MORE TANKS!

We use a water pressure cleaner on the filter socks at work. Works really well.

I was just going to turn it inside out and wash it out under the tap, I’ve been told you can just " chuck them in the washing machine" but bugger that with a rack full of tb! I’ll get some happy snaps tomorrow, it’s not very exciting it’s just 60mm ( I think) non pressure pipe running the length of the rack and a few bends down to a Y join to the sock. the stand pipes dump straight in to the 60 mm. the strainers look a bit crappy but they are cheap and work well for now. I’ll go in to more detail on them with the new pics

Beautiful if I do say so myself! Thanks Jamie it's lovely to see them!

Some of ‌@inekes beautiful bettas as they grow!!!

just play ini mini miny moe with the shrimp :P ive never done, but id go colours first

thanks guys I will setup a bucket of green water and see how it goes, she only berried a couple of days ago so have a coupe of weeks to get the water ready before the bubs drop and hopefully be able to raise a few of the bubs

+1 to culling on depth of colour first. Crisp lines between the white and black. No blending. No black dots in the white areas. And no milky, washed out whites. Patterns will come naturally, you can't influence that very much. For example - Two "no entry" CRS wont necessarily guarantee you offspring with "no entry" patterns. But a strong, deep coloured CRS or CBS will be pleasant to look at no matter what pattern. As for culls, give them to meeeeee !! I've got a new 2 foot tank that's waiting for something to go into it.

I've been in a similar position lately with my CRS. I decided to cull based on the thickness of the colour first, then pattern second. Its been paying off as my latest shrimplets already have much better colour. Sell your culls off. Always good to have some money returning in to help pay for running costs or even new stock.

They go through in fresh AOK, but you CAN NOT have any thing else in the tank as every thing eats them, bite size. If you try to build a bit of bio film and rubbish (plant matter) but not to much rubbish, with small amounts of Chlorella powder and make green water, you will get some through and the ones you raise will be selected ones that are suit to you raising conditions, in turn the next generation will be more suited to what you do and more will survive and in a few generations they will be easy for you and how you do it, we all with out knowing select critters that suit what we do. If we always do things the same, food water changes and the like. Food don't have to be exact just close Green water is easy, a bucket of water from a tank, needs a lid, boil or nuk a bit of cabbage leaf, chuck it in and put the bucket in the shade, in a couple of weeks green water, OH not full shade it has to be bright with out getting hot. When it slows down through in some Mystery snails and a bit more Veg to keep it going. The best green water is like a glass of strong lime cordial and if you look under a scope you can see the little critters in it You need water form a well running and long running tank and best if you have put plants it at some time, the plants carry the critters. Once the shrimp stop free swimming they drop to the bottom and eat any thing soft, banana is good, in moderation. Time to stop banging on. Bob

Yeah i always try to buy the best i can afford. Also ask as many questions about the genetics and parents as you can. At the very least find the reputable breeders instead of the cheapest. Sometime the most reputable end up being the cheapest. If not its still worth the extra bucks.

Very nice pictures ! And not a bad one in that group at all.

Such a testament to the idea of starting with good blood lines! Those blue bolts are inspirational! Keep up the good work mate!

BIG LOVE for that Tiger :)

I really like the orange and the zebra. Well done.

Wow that is a amazing collection

Filled the tank so the water is a bit cloudy. Running a Fluval 306 canister on the tank. Waiting for the water to clear. the two mini bolbitis variants

The needle valve is very good. I make very small adjustments. I dont use the bubble counter i use a stand alone one. I didnt want to take the risk of water getting into it. The solenoid does get warm but not excessively. No noises either.

Update for section 2. The chocolates are going well. They are breeding and looking good. The shrimplets are mixed grade so need to continue to cull. My blue bolts are doing well. Last update i had 2 females and one male. A couple of weeks ago one female gave birth to 8 shrimplets and all 8 were bb's. The female is now reberried then other is due very soon. I cant wait for this colony to take off. Fingers crossed they are breeding true.

@OzShrimp. Mate the effects are more behavioural, more energetic shrimp. Like I said not scientific. also H2o2 easy to mix. Can send you the ratios if you like and a link for supplier of food grade H2o2.

Just wanted to update the journal since its been awhile. I will start with section one. So my little gamble paid off and i managed to get 5 females berried from the male I purchased above. Looking forward to seeing the results. The red cherries i keep in this section have not gone to plan. Instead of improving the red cherries i put in there it seems they are getting worse lol fml. Will cull the baddies and continue the journey. Might cull the colony and start with some better stock. Hint hint @Gbang. Fingers crossed I will have a population explosion in the next few weeks. Still a long way to go until i can match @ineke or @newbreed but i can dream.

And another one, these are such interesting shrimp. My tank is very densely planted and has plenty of spots to hide but there is always a few of these guys active in plain view.