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after finding the quality in my large colony of CRS just not improving late last year I pulled it down and changed the large tank over to my TB tank. I sold off most of the CRS and kept the best. I added some very good cull males from GBANG - Glenn - showing that not all culls are equal. After a few months the quality of my CRS began to improve dramatically. I now had them in a 2 foot tank and was able to see them better and started culling out any low grade or any worth poor colour. I only kept 3 males and 10 females initially and as the number grew I sold off more youngsters and also the initial adults keeping about 20 juvies of S & SS grade as my colony. I now have setup an oversize 30" tank that finally finished cycling this week. I have put about 30 CRS into this tank to finish growing and will do a final cull in a few weeks bringing the colony back down to 15 or so of the best. Hopefully I can continue to get good results with these new juvies. I'm starting to get some nice red legs - not full red yet but it's a start- and the white is much better, the red always was fairly good . These CRS have come from my line that has not bred any Goldens for 3 years and I have never had them in with CBS during that time. I was going to sell off the whole colony a while ago - that's why I sold off the adults as I wasn't going to breed them any more but after seeing the improvement it has inspired me to continue. I have included some pictures of the old colony, the new tank, a few of the babies and also some pictures of the old tank now used as my TB tank . I recently bought some extra TB from Newbreed - Jamie - he sent some lovely shrimp including some berried girls so hopefully a population explosion will be seen soon

Ok So the thing is that OEBT are Blind. (hence the orange eyes) Same goes for BTOE or anything with orange eyes. So they NEED to physically touch most things to explore them/'see' them. This is likely why your OEBT seem fearless. I used to breed OEBT, but I got out of it. Part of me had a hard time dealing with the ethics of selectively breeding something to ensure it was born blind. I think breeding OEBT with tigers would eventually get to Blue tigers (aka aura blue etc) that still had vision.

It would be good to know either way. I was told the orange eye was a recessive gene and unlikely to be passed on to hybrids but I have proved that wrong with many Taitibees with orange eyes - I wasn't believed initially but I sent a good number to the person involved . Without dissection from an eye expert there is no proof that I can find either.

Arguably the worlds leading crustacean expert, Chris Lukhaup mentioned in his lecture at Seahorse Aquarium ( 3-part lecture available on YouTube) that they suspect that the Orange eye tigers might be blind, but it does not sound like anyone knows for sure. I have spent a bit of time searching on Google Scholar without success. Where is a crustacean ocular expert when you need one?!

Sorry about the quality just took some quick pics to give you a rough idea. The garage is a standard double garage with an extension of 2 metres we did not add walls to seperate the garage and extension as it would have closed it in too much. Seeing we have one car cupboards were placed against the back of the 8ft tank to close it in with a option to screw mdf to the backs of the cupboards up to the ceiling, if needed. There is a window not shown in the pics between the 3 tier bank and the 8 ft tank. Cheers.

They look great @ineke I am very glad to hear you are sticking with your CRS. There has been a lot of improvement. Keep it up.

So I got the last of my stuff today and started to put it all in. First up, black vinyl to cover the back: Whacked in some temp stuff to help start the bio load: Done for the night: Can you spot the facepalm move in one of the pics above?

Of course you realise I need another tank no one has 13 tanks!

I have read that the shrimp are blind but still need to be convinced of this. Why do they head straight for my hand and sit on it -I guess their sense of smell may be keen. They seem to find their way around the tanks -even new tanks without bumping into things. I would like a definitive answer to that as well. I have a reasonable number of Taitibees with orange eyes -always the Tibee /Tiger pattern and a large number of Black /chocolate Cherries too. If it could be proven they are blind I would make sure I did not use them in any breeding programs.

Awesome post guys, @LaxLogic, I have been trying to find confirmation on the blindness of the orange eye shrimp in literature. Have you perhaps come across any literature that can shed more light on this for us? The most information that I could come across was that the blindness might be due to the complete lack of rhodopsin in the eyes, but I could not find any literature confirming this a hundred percent that it would result in no vision. I have been doing a few movement experiments outside my tanks and at the moment it looks like they have very poor vision, but not zero vision. I do also question the ethics of this as and would appreciate any scholarly information on this. @waffle, I have a whole new respect about the fearlessness of these shrimp and would attribute that to their aggression factor. I had 4 adult tigers shipped to me from a very reputable breeder. One female was very large. When the package arrived, there were only 3 tigers left: they managed to eat a Whole adult shrimp in 2 days! My large tiger female is so aggressive that she beats my ottos over the head when they come near food that she fancies...I feed her meat once a week just in case she tried to eat my cherries..

looking good man

Some recent pics.... Cold weather brings on the action! CRS from HeavyD My Misch tank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Will be over the moon once i get a stand and can set it up

I'm getting a new tank on Sunday for Free! Its gonna be my first real step in having a rack like yours. It was like a gift from the gods 40x40x40 just no stand to put it on but oh well super excited. Then i will transfer everything over. Those invisibulus plants are a pain in the ass, then my 6yo will have the kmart tank for a Betta. Shes super excited. Was keeping the new tank a secret but too excited lol

A few pics to update. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to SKF @schmacky Love the avatar! If you need any help let us know.