Leaderboard

Just a little post about how important it is to make sure that you have the right environment set up and running smoothly in your shrimp tank. I thought all was going swimmingly in one of my tanks until I experienced multiple sudden deaths overnight ?..The cause....PH spike from substrate buffering incorrectly, which took me explaining exactly what I had in the tank and sending pictures to my mentor (thank you oh wise one, you know who you are ?....If you haven't got one of those (mentor I mean)..get one! They are invaluable when it comes to learning and asking advice!), to figure out as I couldn't put my finger on it LOL. Silly me had a PH neutral substrate in with Bee shrimp....I can hear all you bee keepers groaning at me now LOL....So no matter how much fulvic grain, driftwood, RO Water, mineral balls or alder cones I used the PH would just creep right back up again! The cherries I had in there thrived of course, but the poor bees....?...Tank is now being stripped back down and added Benibachi substrate...Nothing but the best this time! ? So heed my warning and please make sure you use the right substrate for the right shrimp....AND...don't be frugal. You'll be thankful for using the "good stuff" when your shrimp are scurrying around happily, berried up all over the place......

Thank you for your replies guys. It is very interesting that all 10 of your tanks prefer the leaves and start shunning the processed food Ineke. I guess nature knows best...as far as variety is concerned, I might set up an experiment in one of my tanks to see what the result is, if there is any.

I used to feed a very wide range and variety of food both commercial and natural. Once I started feeding leafy greens and mulberry leaves my shrimp consistently left the commercial food which I had to siphon out each morning. My tanks are well established - 3 years plus- although they have had new substrate everything else remained the same - filters, mosses plants etc. I think now with the amount of biofilm in the tanks the shrimp show little interest in most foods except the mulberry leaves and shrimp snow - soya bean husks- my colonies are growing in large numbers and there are very few deaths so they must be getting reasonable nutrition from what is available. I have now stopped feeding vast varieties of commercial foods and cut back on a lot of other natural foods. i now have 3 staples in the tank all the time - I have an Indian Almond Leaf in each tank that is left there until only veins are visible, I have a mulberry leaf which again is left until only veins are visible - the leaf tends to get quite " mushy" after a few days and this is when the babies love it, and my final staple is a bit of snow which I end up siphoning out weekly and putting a fresh lot in - the shrimp like it best when it first goes in. I use a commercial food about 3 times a week . I just make sure it is a good brand shrimp specific food - generally I end up having to siphon it out the next day but I always offer it hoping the shrimp will get some benefit from it. i was feeding bloodworms once a week but I'm finding the shrimp don't seem to be interested in it like they used to so I feed it occasionally but not weekly. I used to feed cucumber, broccoli, spinach, lettuce but again the shrimp don't seem overly interested however I grow my own kale for them and offer that occassionly which they will graze on but not as much as the mulberry leaf which is their absolute favourite food. i use Boss Baby powder mixed with a variety of crushed foods including spirulina for any tank with shrimplets in it - I use this daily. i also use micronecton powder and BETA-G or Boss Mineral powder weekly after water change. I have high shrimplet survival rates now with this regime

I disagree with the premise that a shrimps diet is "consistent" in the wild. Firstly shrimp are opportunists in that they will eat anything they come across. Dead fish, dead insects, leaves, algae, detritus, pollen, fruits, ect. Secondly these foods will vary from season to season, and even over the space of days or weeks. For example, during times of floods/heavy rains, most of the leaves, moss, plants ect. are washed out of the system. I'd suggest the shrimp then rely on algae growth and detritus. Alternatively smaller rainfalls may wash lots of leaves into the system. Pollen and fruit are seasonal. Algae growth is somewhat seasonal too - higher growth in summer with warmer temperatures and longer day length. There are many more examples. It's probably likely that most people provide a greater variety of food than is absolutely necessary to provide all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are required by shrimp. This is not a bad thing, but it's important not to get hung up on it and ignore other important factors that determine the health of our shrimp - water quality being the obvious example.

Welcome to SKF Mysteryshrimp Blue Velvets are a type of Cherry Shrimp or Neocaridina Davidi. In Australia Blue Velvets are light blue shrimp that come from Red rili blue body shrimp. I am not sure if in America they follow the same definition as in Australia but I am still sure it will be a type of cherry shrimp that is blue. These are the water parameter that they handle ok but if you want them to be really happy somewhere in the middle. Name: Cherry Shrimp(Neocaridina Davidii) TDS: 100-250 PH: 6.5-7.6 GH: 4-14 KH: 0-10 Temp: 18-24 If you want to know anything else don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you! I have a lot of questions actually. Although I'm not new to the aquatic world I am new to shrimp. My guy talked me into bringing some home and I've been reading and searching for a solid week now. The shrimp we got were labeled "blue velvet." I read a forum on neos which is what I believe they are exited to learn and ask a million questions. I hope you guys are ready!!

I didn't realise there was a line. My bad. @Jo Am I before or after @neo-2FX ?? haha

Get in line Basri [emoji12]

Haha yeah, there's no way he could've known there were juicy cherries in the neighbouring tank. But I do think he's evil - the opportunistic sort of evil :P Makes sense about the air stone simulating flood/rain. I was kinda curious if that would happen, which was the main reason I added it, the other being there are so many juveniles now that I didn't want them to run short of oxygen while I figure out where to put them. But obviously I underestimated their athleticism by a long shot...

?????????