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The pump flow jets into the corner of the tank and bounces the flow back out across the semi-circle of pebbles which provide "hang-on" spots for the shrimp. Not surprisingly this was set up to also give maximum viewing potential for me :D Feeding (infrequently) a mix of Sera micron powder, brine shrimp nauplii, and milk paramecium that I culture as fry food (I strain out the big ones on 50µm mesh). I also drop bits of mulberry leaf into the tank every now and then. I've found reproduction to be very seasonal. In the 18 months I've had them this is only the second time I've had berried females - last time was last summer.

fishmosy, cheers for such a detailed post your post really helped me out. update on my tanks, I have done a layout change and a trim, ultimately redid the whole tank which was a big task. Tanks have been going very well, I started pre-mixing the water and leaving it aerating overnight worked well. I also added a heater and found it was even more ideal. Thanks again for the advice. noGi, cheers for the comment, I haven't got a recent pic but here is a pic when i was removing my plants

So, after my spectacular fail to reduce my shrimp numbers at the last live auction (I sold 11 shrimp, bought 10 from @ineke , who very kindly sent 13: resulting in a +2 from my previous shrimp total PLUS a 2nd tank I'd had set up for breeding now stocked with the new shrimp), I thought I'd start a post to track my breeding efforts/mishaps of the new inhabitants in my little nano tank. So far, they've seemed pretty happy in their new home, no losses, plenty of sheds and at least two berried females. Then looking in earlier, I saw 2 tiny juvies as well, so everything is tickety-boo. I also realised why I've not been able to see the babies, they're a pretty similar colour to the substrate. Here is a (poorly shot) photo to demonstrate - adult at the bottom, baby is the blur on the glass in the middle near the top: So now I'm following on with my plan of breeding them with some of my blue bolts from my main Taitibee/Taibee colony. I'm just drip acclimatizing them now to be released later tonight. Will I succeed in my plans to breed blue Taitibees? With the blue bolts survive long enough in the new colony to add to the gene pool? Do I have any idea what I'm doing or is this just a random experiment with no real understanding of shrimp genetics? WHO CAN SAY? (Probably me in a few months - I'll keep you all updated)

The middle one is F1 Tibee, the first one F2 the red one is about F6

@Paul Minett do you have a sense (or measure) of the EC/TDS in that tank after your 2 weeks of rainwater changes? I would think some of those plants should be struggling more than they are. How low its gotten to will obviously depend on the size of the changes. I've managed to keep quite a few plants going in pure rainwater (lowest EC ~40 µS/cm) but these were all rooting plants and I have a rich DIY substrate loaded with osmocote. In my zeb tank I've just recently started floating some ceratophyllum (hornwort) from my outside pond to supply some "different" biofilm. The zebs go into the plants and graze a bit... but nothing special enough for me to say if its a great idea or not. My zebs are hanging on...but I wouldn't say thriving on no reproduction at all so I'm still experimenting.

Ok got a couple. this is a Royal oebt. Mid to high grade oebt. This is a high grade rusty oebt Mid grade oebt. I'll try look for some low grade and blondes.

some of the plants I have collected are from similar conditions I'm aiming for with them so shouldn't be too hard to keep them going I find plants very beneficial in the system I use for shrimp to keep them happy and healthy providing a lot of natural food sources. I have kept misch and a couple of crs in pure rain water for nearly two months doing large constant water changes so that's also doable they aren't totally happy in the environment but can be kept.it was just a curiosity question as I like to explore all possibilities when starting a new challenge. the disease transfer is probably my biggest concern if I don't fully reset the tank.

School yard brawl standoff! Betta guarding the food from the shrimps. I can literally hear the shrimps go... "Give me food! Give me food!".

I've been working pretty hard on a feed formulation the recently and one point that perhaps seems counter-intuitive to many shrimpers or aquarists in general is that the Phosphorus level in the food needs to equal or exceed the Calcium level. Some of our most popular fresh leaves, for example, have very limited P contents with very high Ca contents. The Ca uptake is then restricted due to a lack of available P. The same approach is slowly filtering into human health supplements via Vitamin D / Calcium supplements that also contain Vitamin K and Phosphorus. Your bones contain more P than Ca. There are several well-known (and undoubtedly more as yet unknown) mineral and nutritional ratios that should be observed in crustacean feeds and sadly very few of the feeds on the market seem to observe these recommendations. It appears as though they are formulated primarily to have an attractive ingredients list. I will continue posting on this nutrition topic as I get time.