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With such a great number of hobbyist joining the forum, thought I'd start a thread on some basic shrimp maintenance/breeding advise and techniques I'm guided with..... Water Parameters (WP) is critical, so depending on the shrimp type, do some research and ensure your tanks (WP) are within the recommended range. There are extreme cases (i.e. PH at 5 or 7.5 where CRS are successfully kept/bred, but on avg. these WP are theoretically a good starting point.... Caridina (CRS, CBS, SW/GB, TB*, Tiger**..) PH - 6.4 KH - 0-2 GH - 4-6 TDS - 100-200 Temp - 21-23 *TB (KK, WR & BB) - Some breeders prefer a slightly lower PH (5.6 - 6.2) for Taiwan Bee **Tigers - Some breeders prefer a slightly higher PH (7-7.4), KH - 2-8 and GH - 6-10 for Tigers Neocaridina (All colour variants of Cherry Shrimp) PH - 6.4 KH - 0-2 GH - 4-6 TDS - 100-200 Temp - 21-23 There's several thread on the forum with regards to soil type/recommendations, filters, chillers etc, so I'll just focus on the "day to day" maintenance and breeding habits I practice religiously... * Weekly water change (WC) is beneficial to even the best filtered system. I only do a 5-10% weekly WC per week, just to "freshen" the water. Add minerals like salty shrimp, mineral powder etc... On each WC. * The quality and consistency of Tap water varies. Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is recommended, to avoid any imbalances/pitfalls that can occur. Control what goes into your tank, to ensure minimal unexpected deaths. * Ensure a varied diet of commercial and fresh food to your shrimps, including. Powdered food to feed your shrimplets.. I daily feed all my shrimp, and depending on stock levels and shrimplets, two feelings per days are done. * Do water top ups caused by evaporation. I use straight RO water to top up all my tanks. * filter maintenance is done every 6-8 weeks for all my nano tanks, and 8-12 weeks for my breeding racks. This ensure the filters/bacteria is running efficiently. Ensure the filters are only rinsed off with the tanks water...do not over clean, and or use tap water, as this will kill the beneficial bacteria. * On a established system, ensure your nitrates are kept below 20ppm. Low nitrates do promote breeding ! Other notable mentions.. *Shrimp consume their exoskeleton that they shed during molting. This is a a rich source of essential minerals for the shrimp, so do leave them there for their consumption. *Iodine supplement is not necessary as freshwater crustaceans obtain iodine from their food. *Metals like zinc, lead, and elemental copper, are toxic for shrimps and will kill them. *Majority of fish feed on shrimps. Although through clever aquascaping, a co-existance can prevail, But it really depends on the seriousness you take your shrimps/hobby, i.e selective breeding program's, exotic shrimps ... *Hiding spots/shelters are important especially in periods of molting. Shelters can be bought or created via aquascaping. *Avoid chemical, and short term solutions...i.e. PH Up/Down.....I personally don't use ferts, and anything chemical.... *During our summer periods, have a Plan B even if you are running chillers. Have some RO ice blocks in the fridge for emergencies.. *Observe your shrimps, and develop an eye to notice any changes in their behaviour. This may highlight some potential issues before it becomes real issues. *Shrimps require oxygen rich waters. Ensure ample aeration, surface agitation etc... *PATIENCE IS KEY Mother Nature, whether purely natural or influenced by us do throw all of us a "curve ball"... So don't be discourage, get advise and share the grief with this forum, as your experience will help others.... No doubt, there's '000's of other advise, so please do add it onto this thread.......

Why don't you diy it? You do realise it is just a Calcium and Magnesium mix. I have a thread in Water Parameters with the recipe. For the price of a 100g Borneowild product you can make yourself a huge quantity, and share with friends.

sweet rack jc! thanks for sharing :) you have some nice shrimps there.

Ended up collecting quite a few leaves... 150ish haha. Also managed to fall over and get covered in mulberry juice lol. (Its on an organic certified farm too :P ) my shrimp didn't seem to touch the fresh leaf I put in there, but it could be the newish tank. Dried a few leaves and froze the rest; put in a frozen (and blanched) leaf after a week and its mostly gone after 3 days haha. It's just a small tree (the lowest leaves are about 6ft off the ground... a combo of cows and alpacas)

Tank has been neglected the last week or so (as you can tell from the glass) but I feed some pellets for the first time in about a week and 31 shrimp came from nowhere!!! The photo does not do the colour justice either. These guys were my first batch of babies too! All grown up (well almost) - gosh I am proud. Will give the glass a good clean this weekend though - I promise!! Excuse the dodgy mobile phone photo quality.

I know this journal is in dire need of updates. For now, I can't (or won't) say much. I have been shuffling things around a bit, the hex tank still has my shrimps in it, but they lost the croc. They gained a few plants for now, I've been moving plants back and forth between tanks ( @Disciple thanks again for the hairgrass, but that thing refuses to stay put! haha) I had misadventures with my ember tetras, I'm down to 6 from 16, I will not restock them. I'm open to other suggestions for tankmates for my cherries. Including input on my previous post ^^^. I guess I can share a pic or two... hahaha What's a coffin without bones? Or skulls?

I lost track... I have some baby tears, blixya, hairgrass, I forget the names of the others... I'm new to planted tanks, so I'm not yet familiar with all the species. On other terms, I wanted to do a small update. I took possession of six boxes at the post office last week. Included was my substrate and xmas prize from @ageofaquariums (thank you!), my t-shirt prize from the crossword comp (Thanks @NoGi), a TDS meter, a pH meter, my return pump, a temperature controller, and other non hobby stuff. I had a few more boxes this week, finally got my mesh. Got that special piece I was waiting for, however it is not quite ready to be installed. I also received the supplement for the substrate and plants. I saw eyes in the berries of the first one I noticed, the one with the most eggs. Unfortunately that female died and my efforts to save the eggs failed... I also hope the last 2 days of 40+ won't affect them in a bad way. (still looking for a chiller) I did find a few shrimplets when I added an IAL to the tank, so I guess they don't really mind 28+ degrees. I still have lots to come, saddles and berries everywhere.

Hmmm... I have had an explosion of 15 shrimp to 50 in the last month. Maybe more shrimp are turning over the substrate? I try to be careful with overfeeding, but have been feeding shrimp pellets 4-5 times a week due to the jump in shrimp numbers, rather than the once or twice when I only had 15 or so. Regarding the gravel vac, just to keep things a little clean. I do a little section of the tank every water change or two as I use the gravel vac to suction the water out regardless. Is this an issue? What did you do to get rid of the cloudyness?

I'm trying^^^ Progress slowed down a bit. I'm waiting for some mesh to arrive and for the aforementioned special plastic part before I can put substrate and water in the tank. And my substrate has to arrive from AOA. I completed the sump intakes, added a plastic mesh and floss to the sump. I cemented about a third of the return line, I'm waiting for a return pump and the mesh I ordered before I can finish the return side. I sourced a 2ft light at Bunnings for $3.53. It's a 7W LED tube-like fixture. Discontinued model, got the demo at half price, plus I had a voucher... It'll be going under the stand, but for now it lights up the plants in the 3ft.

Currently 72% filled. No leaks so far, Minimal bowing recorded. I'm happy to say the bowing is under 20% of the bracing requirement, so no brace for me. I'll keep adding water gradually over the weekend to monitor the top end leaks. Then I drain and design the plumbing while waiting for my substrate to arrive.

No problems at all Will. It's a little bit of physics to understand how it works, but I'll try to put it as simply as possible. Let's start with the second question: If you look at the picture below, you can clearly see the piece of glass I put in the corner. My tank is 14 inches tall, that divider is 12 inches tall. So when my pump raises the water level above 12 inches, the water overflows into this corner compartment. It skims the protein layer forming on the surface as well as small floating debris. I added the plastic mesh later because of the size of my fish, they could go over easily, and I caught a shrimp walking on the edge today. An advantage of this is that my tank's water is always the same. Evaporation, water changes, adding or removing stuff from the tank, or anything else that would affect the water level of a tank with only, say a sponge filter, changes the level in my sump, not in the tank. The compartment also acts as a buffer, absorbs sudden changes, as when putting a large object in the tank. This leads to your first question, what happens to the water in that section? This is a flattened overflow: It sits on the tank rim, left being in the tank, the right side being out. Before fitting it, I mentioned above that I primed it, which consists in turning it upside down and filling it with water. Once full, I flipped it back. The water is stuck in because there is no air gap left. Gravity now equalises both sides, the two "U" at the bottom. When water is added on the inside pipe, the level rises equally in both sections. That tall pipe is there to vent the section outside the tank so it remains at atmospheric pressure. As the level rises on both sides, the water eventually reaches the "T" on the outside and drains down to the sump. Since it's not actually siphoning, but draining the excess, anytime the water level in the intake pipe gets lower than the "T", the flow stops. You add a glass of water, water will flow out until the level goes back down under the "T". The flow rate of water going down along the glass panel in the picture above is exactly the same as the flow rate in the clear pipe going to my sump here. I hope it helped.

Vebas is having a sales this weekend, everything 20% off. Got myself two pieces of driftwood, a big bottle of seachem prime, 4 new plants and a school of ember tetras. My 3ft is getting packed until the 6ft is ready for scaping... I hope the cuttings grow roots in the meantime. Funny thing, my female guppy joins the tetras and schools with them

So good day today. Even my ever bleeding stump ( ) from my major accident (!) couldn't stop me today. My wrist is still swollen, but even after today, it gained 300-350% more movement over yesterday. This was today: What's better to make a stand as level as possible for a glass panel, than a glass panel? I even put the most important part on before bringing it in.

It was dodgeball night tonight, just like every Thursday. But this week may have delayed my build. Do you think I can precisely maneuver a 6x1x10mm piece of glass with one hand? I have the will... I need to think about filtration, I realised I left this part out of my plans until now. I assumed I'd go sump, like my 3ft, but I might consider canister. Either case will be DIY, not spending hundreds on a $20 worth of plastic. I've been thinking of having the return on the far RH and the inlet in the far left. Unless 3 big sponges would be enough to filter 90 gallons?

So apparently, Phillips self-drilling screws need holes pre-drilled for them to go in. Otherwise the head strips... I knew I needed square heads. Couldn't find any. In other news, I got myself some more plants, I still have one bag left to plant in substrate out of the five I got.