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this year I decided to use maternity/ rearing tanks for my shrimp. I had noticed over the last couple of years that although my shrimp let survival rate was good I still didn't have an overly large shrimp population. Watching the babies in the tanks I would see adults flick babies out of their way and even though I use plenty of powdered food I wondered if they were getting enough food. I also noticed in most of my tanks the males would annoy berried girls when a female somewhere in the tank was ready for breeding. i have 10 x 24" , 60/70 litre tanks in my main shrimp room which are all run independently with 2 double sponge filters per tank. I have never been very good at sexing my shrimp unless I could see a saddle - it's amazing how many males got berried! Most of my shrimp are Tibees or Taitibees and are related so mixing them isn't an issue. I decided the only way I could be 100% sure I had females to select for my projects I would catch out newly berried girls and put them into one of three tanks I set aside for the purpose. My tanks are setup identically and the water parameters are extremely close - just a slight difference in TDS so only a short drip acclimatisation is necessary - probably don't need to drip but I wanted to give them the least shock I could. the transfers went well as I never noticed any female lose her eggs. The females get along together very well and in no time there were lots of babies in my tanks. I gave the females a week to rest and feed up then put them into appropriate tanks with selected males. This has been so successful for me that I am now in the enviable position of being overrun by shrimplets. I have literally hundreds of them . I am now slowly sorting them into colours and patterns - I am still trying to establish a marble pattern in black and red . I also have some pure TB that I don't want to have anything else introduced into the genes so now that I know I have definite females I can safely put them into the TB tank and take them out once they are berried. If you have the room it may be worth while giving a maternity tank a go. You need to treat the newly berried girls carefully - I shift them towards the end of their first week of being berried- and you need to make sure the WP' s are very close so you don't upset them. Obviously if you need to know exact parentage then this may not work for you but I'm very happy with it and now realise I can keep less shrimp to breed with . I haven't done anything else different this year yet my breeding rate has probably trebled and it wasn't bad before. Now all I need to do is move the new shrimp on to new homes and cut back on my numbers ?

Mine love their nasturtium leaves - mulberry leaves are their favourite though - beware that the nasturtium leaves go soft very quickly then slimy so unlike most leaves I tend to siphon them out after a couple of days if there are any left that is!

Yes, I have. The shrimp will eat it like any other leaf. Prepare it by blanching like you would for a Mulberry leaf. I put a fresh leaf in once, and because they have that natural water repellent properties, it traps air under water and can look quite cool. My shrimp tend to like Mulberry leaves better however. Might have something to do with the taste.

I have few blue velvet. 4 males and, good surprise, 1 female! I thought I had none left and was trying to crossbreed the blue velvet with my carbon rili. This morning I took out the female and 2 males and put them in a special tank. The guys were dancing all around as the girl was trying to hide. I found a nice molt in the tank, so I think it's a good sign I may have a chance the colony will launch. Pray for me! I also noticed that the female is completely blue, a nice blue, as the little guys are from a lighter blue, but show red headgear. Should this last or do this red will disappear once they grow holder? It seems one of the male is completely blue, but the 3 others show this red headgear. That's funny and I like that too.

That's such a good way of breeding. Now if we only had ten 2foot tanks like you do.

If you had to do it again some other time. I would recommend doing it the other way round. Save 75% of the water WITH the gunk vacuumed from the substrate and ditch the rest of the water. There will be a ton more beneficial bacteria in that gunk than there would have been free floating in the water column. Yes, the new tank will look dirty for the first 30 minutes, but the new tank would essentially have been flooded with beneficial bacteria and no risk of a mini cycle.

How much water do you change and what is the temp difference between the two waters? Best to change small amounts gradually over a longer period than large amounts or suddenly. Keeping fish and prawns together looks great but can be stressful for the percieved prey. Shrimps in the presence of potential predators such as fish and other large shrimps often delay their moulting which then leads to complications. Providing lots of hiding places for the moulting victims is an option but if you want succesful breeding then best to do them in isolation from fish. Hang in there!

20% is on the high side. Cut it back to 10% (or 10L-12L) weekly. Monitor TDS closely. And if TDS is still rising with 10% water change then do it twice a week.

Very nice

Oh yeah, definitely heaps brighter. Almost 50% brighter I'd say.

Exactly what I was thinking. Thanks Ineke, for implanting this idea in my head. <edit> - just placed an order for Meta cubes!! Talk about impulse purchases.

Of course the mandatory pics is in order.

I received my light yesterday and WOW it is very bright. I can see bits of my tank I could never see before. Taking the hood of the Aqua one made a big difference in itself but the light is fantastic. I do have good LED plant lights in my shrimp room but they are no where near as good as these. As the tank is very deep and very wide I thought there would still be dark spots but it's great. The shrimp were stunned for a while LOL but they have plenty of hiding places. Funny thing is they are out even more than before.

Sure, I will take that on board for next time, although I hopefully will not be moving any time soon!!! There was more than enough gunk in the saved water I hope, as I disturbed a fair bit removing the rocks and plants out before siphoning the water.

Great, I will do this. Learning as I go! Thanks I saved about 75% of the old tank water as I put it in drums and transported with the stock and plants. The other 25% was taken out at the last moment, with a light gravel vac to get heaps of random gunk from the top of the aquasoil and ditched on the lawn. I took the opportunity to give the tank a good clean. When I set it up at the new house, I put in the 75% of old tank water, and put in 25% new water. Didn't have any more water drums to save any new water and after discussing the move on this forum, another forum and Subscape Aquariums in Richmond, I am under the impression that saving about 75% of the old tank water was a good way to do it. No info on TDS, sorry. Understand the point of fish and shrimp together. I am not looking to breed with any real intention. More looking at creating a more natural, enjoyable eco-system. I do have plenty of plant cover, and the fish and shrimp co-exist pretty well. The shrimp are happy to zoom around to their hearts content whether the lights be on or off. I currently change about 20-25L (in the range of 20%) weekly. Water temp is similar. The new water added sits next to the tank in a drum aging so both tank and water are always room temp. For reference, my tank and the level of planting/cover for the shrimp is here:

I have about the same size of tank. Did you put new water or did you refill with the old water after your move? Have you any informations about your TDS, No2 and No3 levels? If they are in range, I think you can change less and less frequently.

speaking of water changes and adding RO water with salty shrimp back in to the tank for a water change, is there a guideline for how much salty shrimp you should add in to meet current tank TDS? I was thinking if someone tried to match the TDS of say 150 in the tank and had the same TDS of 150 in the water change, this would obviously lead to a much higher TDS when the water change has been added and severely stress the shrimp? Thoughts?

How big is your tank? I have a 3ft tank (approx 100-120 litres of water) and do 20-25l water changes weekly. Too much you think? I did only recently move house and as I expected a spike in conditions I did frequent changes, but maybe I can pull it back as I do not have many algae issues...

I have also experienced deaths after water changes. As jayc says, you must add new water slowly. From my side, I now perform 15% water changes only every 3-4 weeks, as long as water paramaters (TDS, No2-No3) are safe.

I'd like to think so. I have lost five shrimp over a five month period, and all have died the day after a water change. Just more impactful as it was my biggest and brightest shrimp this time around who happened to be berried at the same time. Thanks for all the info!

It's ok. I only eat plankton. I cant Chew!

The female is now berried. The dad is one of these 2 males with red headgear. Looking closely, I found another male completely blue... I will do better next time when selecting.

That's a lobster!