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Just a quick thank you to Jo for the large selection of moss she sent me. It was way more than I was expecting -Thank you Jo Much appreciated.

Well because i'm obviously lacking in things to occupy my time (between keeping fish, shrimp, children, work and study that is :-P ) I'm embarking on a new shrimp project. Thanks to Gbang I have some lovely Taitibee x PRL tiger looking shrimp that are going to be the backbone of my (hopefully) new red tiger line. Unfortunately had some hiccups with incorrect substrate right at the beginning so am waiting on some more male tiger stock to come in to put with my remaining of these beauties. This thread will hopefully serve as a type of diary for how it's all going and I'll update regurlarly with the results of the breeding program. Having said that, I have no idea of what I'm doing really, so I guess we'll wait and see what I end up with :-P Am currently in the process of moving these guys over to a new tank with the right substrate, so will post up pics of the new setup once done too.

This shrimp seems like the holy grail of aussie natives. Bad luck grubs You did well man. It seems @fishmosy has the magic touch. One day i would like to test my self with these shrimp as it seems like a tough challenge.

That's a real shame that you lost all your Zebras, they really are an amazing looking shrimp. One of these days I might try them again in a tank whoely and solely for them, or trail them in my 1000L pond that seems to have most things thrive in there.

That JBJ Mini Artica is a good chiller. @fishmosy it's one of those brands we don't get in Aus. Our market is too small and it's already dominated by Teco, Hailea, and Resun. As always we miss out on many things. @chad590, that chiller you have is rated at Flow Rate: 110-160 gph. As fishmosy said, most will run chillers off a canister filter. It's a lot more convenient, and clean water flow into the chiller is recommended to avoid blocking the chiller. So if you have a canister filter rated around the recommended flow rate, then plumb the output of the filter into the chiller's inlet 1/2" (13mm for everyone else on metric) connector.

I'm not familiar with that make/model of chiller. However most chillers have a rating system (for example 100-200 gallons/hr). Select a pump rated around the middle of the chillers range (for example 150 gallons/hr). Alternatively you could connect the chiller to the outlet of an external canister filter. this is better than using a stand-alone pump because the water will be filtered prior to entering the chiller, meaning the chiller is far less likely to become clogged. Once again the filter needs to have a similar flow rating as the chiller.

Damn grubs i was rooting for you mate. Hope you have another go and with more luck next time. As you know I've been researching and considering every aspect I can think of in relation to these and I also came to the conclusion that a massive tank is going to be a big benefit for sure. And that some kind of automatic water-change mechanism (using RO or otherwise very pure water) would be key to keeping these successfully. It really sounds like they need as natural as possible conditions including food and not just WP. It would be cool if Bob, Ben or indeed whoever could document some more details about their conditions. It would be helpful to have accurate information about when they breed and the variations in seasonal temperature, WP, and food that is available among other things. These shrimp are truly legendary.. I'm likely to move house again at the end of this year and when I do I will seriously consider trying to keep them in a pond or stupidly large aquarium like 6foot or something lol. If so many veteran keepers such as yourself are having such difficulties then I'll need every bit of margin I can get! love n peace will

Bugger. Better luck next time. I agree with everything you have said as I've come to the same conclusions. I think you have to treat them the same way you treat Sulawesi shrimp. You are better off not feeding them anything as they are just going to ignore it most of the time. They seem to find enough food from the algae that grows on the rocks.

I was told it will be on the Sunday 15th of May 2016. @kizshrimp Can you please confirm for everyone. time and location?

I would love to attend. I have emailed the Victoria shrimp club and not received any response so I am assuming it is Dead in the Water. If anyone is organising this, I would like to volunteer my services with registration or with wherever they need assistance as I am assuming that sponsors are not exactly falling over their feet for such a niche National event. I will also put my hand up for sponsoring a small prize.

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)

So the breeding experiment has been going really well. I've started separating out the culls (watch this space for a giveaway when they're big enough), but I'd like to introduce you to my newest arrival, 'Zoolander' (He is really really really good looking and has mastered blue steel). Can't believe the colour given his size/age, am so excited to see what he grows into!

Hehehe, my thought process was something like this: These tiger stripe shrimp look awesome, but they'd look more awesome if they were blue. These blue shrimp look awesome but they'd look more awesome if they had tiger stripes. [Lightbulb moment] :)