Leaderboard

As a noob I've had more setbacks than wins over the last 12 months with my yellow cherries. BUT...after reading about mulberry leaves on here I was amazed by the coincidence of finding a tree on a remote, pristine farm we regularly visit west of Wauchope NSW. After 4 weeks of feeding one big leaf per week to my tank of about 100 shrimp (30/70 adults/babies) there is no doubt that they have greatly improved the condition of my shrimp. The most noticeable things are the nice clean moults when they often died from that, the stronger colors, huge increase in activity and for the first time a bunch of shrimplets surviving and growing out. I don't mean to gush, but it's good when you get something right and I'm hoping this will help other noobs like me. I'm using leaves the size of a small plate. I put them in a pyrex baking dish and poor hot water from the kettle over them, then let them sit till they are sinking. When I drop them in they charge over to it, but tend to not start eating till the second day. Once they start eating it every single shrimp in the tank seems to be on it and they smash a really big leaf in 24-36 hours, stripped right back to the white fibres/veins in the leaf. Quite amazing. I would suggest that this is one of the super foods for cherries at least, don't know about others, and well worth using.

Not strictly the best of my reds, but they where mostly crammed around one of the plants in easy focus range for the camera. Some of the girls are really showing amazing clarity in their red. This girl would have to be one of the best blacks I currently have, I know there is at least 5 similar girls in the tank but they are not all that obliging in coming within camera range even with the bribery of food. At least one of the girls I know is berried so I have my fingers crossed she throws some more stunning black babies. I think the glossiness of her shell is what really takes my breath away, that and the undertones of blue like a male jaracini finch in sunlight.

Hi guys, thought i'd sign up here after lurking for a while. I got into aquariums 6 months or so ago, after my mum was getting rid of her 4ft tank. Cleaned it up, then went nuts haha. Currently looks a bit different after a BBA outbreak + a lack of ferts killed off most of the plants (1 val left living, and the nardo was looking a bit sad after it changed to its submersed form.) Replanted with some ambulia, "monte carlo", hairgrass, some java moss and a couple of java ferns. There's still a few glass shrimp in there getting pretty big :P Main reason for joining is my latest purchase, an aquaflora 42 This one. Planning on it being my shrimp tank, and as of tomorrow afternoon should be housing some red rillis. How it looked straight after filling. Will be adding some x-mass tree moss to the wood when it arrives. Hopefully manage to start breeding a few, and see where it goes from there. Cheers, Tom

Mulberry leaves are a firm favourite of all my shrimp , they will leave everything for mulberry leaves. I always have a leaf in every tank, I replace them as soon as there are only veins left. I prepar them several ways- 1) fresh from the tree boiled for 2 minutes then cooled with cold water ( blanched) then fed straight away - this is the preferred method by the shrimp, 2) do the above then roll and fold the leaves and freeze them - they can then be taken out and put straight into the tank as needed - they defrost almost instantly- 3) put the fresh leaves in a pillow case and hang them on the clothes line for several days until perfectly dry - the clothes line is the perfect place to dry them as it gets sun and allows the breeze to fully dry the leaves so no mould grows on them, the dried leaves can be placed straight into the tank or refreshed in a bowl of water until they sink . I doubt you can over feed on mulberry leaves . I have been doing this for sometime and my shrimplet survival rate has improved impressively. A plate of mulberry leaves ready for the freezer! Did you know it's very easy to propagate a mulberry tree? Just cut a thin branch into small sticks , place into potting mix and keep well watered. I have about 6 small bushes that keep my 12 tanks supplied with leaves

@ineke i know the benefits of mulberry leaves, but have just run out, my shrimp love them too and it seems they go very quickly when I put them in the tank. I have just found a tree near my house....bonus!!!

Not with the mulberry leaves. They are safe as they are not a sappy type of leaf. I have been feeding them straight from the tree but always blanched. I pick them as I need them which is a luxury of growing your own. I dry or freeze them if I'm going on holidays so they are on hand ready to feed when someone comes to the house once a week to feed. I have been doing this for a couple of years now with my home grown leaves and my colonies are thriving so definitely safe to pick from the tree

I have what looks like a wild grown tree about 15-20m tall with some leaves the size of dinner plates. I bring a bunch home in a wicker basket then freeze them flat in a clip seal bag. Definitely the goji berry of the shrimp world!

Hi welcome to SKF. glad you found us.

If you need to clear out those red rilis I would be happy to give them a good home :)

I was lucky enough to be given 4 pure TB Bluebolts at the beginning of December - they were given to me because I had mentioned I had every colour pure TB except the BB. I have quite a few Taitibee BB but no pure ones. I decided to keep these guys in a seperate tank from the other TB because they came from a line that bred only BB when bred to each other. Anyway we thought there might be 2 pair but definitely 1 female. I was very pleased to see her berried within a few weeks of getting her and settled in inpatiently to await the arrival of shrimplets. Imagine my acute disappointment when a couple of weeks later I saw her not berried -complete devastation. The BB's don't come out much during the day as there were only 4 in the tank and probably didn't feel safe. The girl came out a bit but didn't get berried again so today I thought as they didn't seem particularly happy I would put them into my main TB tank so they had company. The other TB haven't given me any BB so I would know the BB were from these guys initially. Anyway I caught out a very berried female- surprise number 1 and excitement plus- then I caught out a male - no surprise, then another male -oh well we weren't sure there were 2 pairs. I had taken out the plants and couldn't find the last shrimp which was very disappointing but I thought I better just double check the plants and sure enough there was this most gorgeous deep blue berried girl- surprise number 2- so maybe the first one didn't drop her eggs after all and I had been seeing a different girl . Anyway on to the next tank they went and they are already out and about- nothing like a bit of company to make them feel a bit more secure. Back to the empty tank and replacing the moss etc. now for surprise number 3 and one of those moments- sure enough once I was tidying up the tank i saw movement -blue movement -there were little baby - like very little baby - Bluebolts swimming around! so not only did my girl have her babies but she must have gotten berried again straight away. The sad side is now That I have moved the adults I can't really move them back straight away -even though my tanks are all very similar I don't want to take the chance that the girls might drop their eggs with 2 moves on the one day. So if the babies survive -my shrimplet survival rate these last 12 months have been excellent so they should survive- I will be overun with Bluebolts both pure and hybrid! I would never have dreamed of owning so many Blue bolts just a few short years ago - I'm very very happy- apart from having pulled a family apart -bring on the blues.