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Oh no Disciple shades of Bob he shared his crabs all over the place LOL.

I want Crabs too now! can anyone give me some? :D

Good afternoon my fellow Shrimp Keepers, I have received the answers for the 5th SKF interview. Today we have a interview from @Gbang. He is a very well respected breeder that is well known for his world class Cherry shrimp but he should also be known for all the other great shrimp he has. SKF - Hi Mr Ng can you please tell us a little about yourself? GB - Hi guys my name is Glenn Ng and I've been a shrimpaholic since 2010! I first started aquarium keeping back in 2003 when a friend got a job at a fish store and i spent my youth regularly hanging out at his place of work. I've been hooked ever since and have enjoyed breeding many varieties of cichlids, from malawi and tangs to americans and catfish. 5 years ago i started breeding crayfish for fun and that was highly enjoyable. And then the minature livestock bug came in where i went from dwarf cichlids to neolamprologus shelldwellers.One day i stumbled upon a shrimp website and after looking at an sss mosura crs, i have been hooked on shrimp breeding since!While my forte and success is mainly neocaridina, my love for caridinas is just as intense and ive had a lot of fun with breeding programmes of many kinds. To date i still do keep many cichlids and catfish but my main passion currently has been shrimps, pseudomugil, rasboras and fancy guppies. Question 1 - What is your weekly/monthly maintenance schedule? GB - My maintenance schedule is based on a 10-20% water change fortnightly. During the week i maintain a variety of stable and natural vegetable based foods while planning the occasional protein rich meals and a constant supply of nutritious leaves. Every fortnight to a month, i also perform a cull run and analyse how my breeding objectives are coming along. Question 2 - What is your favorite additive/products? GB - By far i am the biggesr fan of boss aquaria baby powder and booster. It has worked wonders for me and really increased the survival rates of not only baby shrimps but fish! They absolutely love it. Benibachi products also have a been a huge hit for me. In particular the benibachi bee max has been a great bacteria additive. But if you were to ask me whats my favourite product. It would be hands down saltyshrimp products. It is almost the sole reason why everyone in the world has great shrimp success!ALMOST Question 3 - What is your worst shrimp experience? GB - My worse shrimp experience was possibly spending over nine hundred dollars on a reputable breeder who sold me pure line shrimp. These were not technically good enough to be classed as prl and pbl and were some of the brownest shrimp i have ever seen. Assuming that they just were not acclimatising well to the tank i waited for the first generation of babies, which were probably worse then the parents. What frustrated me most of all was being there at the breeders house before the sale and seeing all the quality stock he had....which he clearly did not choose for me. In fact, i ended up using those shrimp purchased as part of my pinto mischling programmes.Luckily i have met many genuine hobbyists and fellow enthusiasts that have helped me achieve the status of a pure line shrimp breeder and i now have a wonderful colony of prl and pbl. wink emoticon Question 4 - What are the biggest myths in Shrimp Keeping? GB - That you dont gravel clean. I have seen some people with amazing success gravel cleaning every 3 months. After 4 years of shrimp keeping, i tried it myself and the results were amazing! Question 5 - Unusual things that you use with your shrimps? GB - I occasionally use brine shrimp to fatten my colony up and occasionally use a frozen food produce called fish fuel. Specifically the goldfish frozen mix and turtle veg mix are very popular with the shrimps! Question 6 - Can you give us tips on selective breeding? And how to improve the quality of our shrimps? GB - Well....when i am in low numbers i really only concentrate on the culling of males in my colony. Once the numbers are high the main criteria i base my selective breeding is on size, shape pattern and colour. Question 7 - What do you think will be the next big thing in shrimp? Will it come from crosses or line breeding pure species? GB - Mainly crosses are taking a huge wave of interest due to the surprises in store. Soon enough Aura blue crosses and tangtaibee programmes will be incredibly popular due to the genetic variability. It already is in europe and asia! I would kill for some aura blue to create an aura hybrid colony! I would also imagine that many purists will further continue the pure red and black lines and work on an sss and white pure line programme soon. Question 8 - How do you mineralize and what WP do you aim for? GB - I remineralise ro water with saltyshrimp gh plus to a tds of 100-120 for caridinas. With cherries i do the same with ro water to a tds of 150 using gh kh plus. However, ince the shrimps have settled, i do try to use a mixture of tap and ro remineralised again to tds 150 as i would like to "harden" cherry shrimps so to speak. Question 9 - What food enhances the welling being of shrimps and increase shrimplets survival rates? GB - 100% boss aquaria baby powder and benibachi baby food has been amazing for me. I am also a big believer of natural greenfoods and leaves as well as bee pollen which has a lot of nutrition. Question 10 - How often do you cull? GB - I normally cull ever 3 to 4 weeks and also pending if any shrimplets reach 12-15mm just before they are ready to breed! Question 11 - What is your funniest shrimp experience? GB - I dont have a particular funny shrimp experience but one incident that comes to mind was discovering the German word or term for the female shrimps breastplate. The word was "tigershaufel". Needless to say, many tasteless, inappropriate and countless jokes were pulled off....and constantly repeated lol I wanted say on behalf of SKF and its members, Thank you very much Glenn. I have to agree I love looking at the Tigershaufels on females.

some t op quality photos, would nearly mistake them for spiders if u didnt see the claws

Haha yep crayfish are like killing machines compared with these guys. These ones can't even kills large snails. I saw them fail. Biggest snail they ate was about 1cm.

They are chasing my shrimp around lol

I use a HM Digital AP01 TDS meter. The ones being sold by the SKF sponsors are good enough. They don't have to be lab grade, super accurate. If you are concerned, you can always buy calibration solution and calibrate the TDS meter with it. TDS meters are way more reliable and easier to use than pH pens. Afterall, you are only testing aquarium water, not drinking water.

A TDS meter is a must have for Shrimps. It comes in handy if you keep software fish as well. I use it to maintain parameters for both my shrimp tanks and my softwater fish tanks. If you already have pH, GH/KH test kits, then all you need is a TDS pen. Otherwise, those will be the first things I would suggest buying if you are starting out - TDS meter, pH, GH/KH. Of course, if you are cycling a new tank, then an Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate kit is essential. When you have more funds, you can get Calcium test kit, and anything else that takes your fancy.

I'd like to share a video about the best shrimp on the Hannover shrimp show 8th edition with you. Have fun.

I have a very shaky video of a small male finishing its meal of a ~1cm pond snail. Don't watch if you're prone to motion sickness - it was taken with 100mm macro lens and nothing to rest it on haha

I am liking these guys more and more. Need a video of them STAT!

http://jungleaquashrimp.com/blog/setting-up-a-cardinal-sulawesi-shrimps-tank-step-by-step-by-riversun/ Odoslané z LG-D855 pomocou Tapatalku Use anything you can from above setup. You may add tylomelania snails and if you really wants to add some fish use neoheterandia elegans. I also use sulawesi shrimp salt 8.5. Conductivity should be from 190 to 240μs as in all sulawesi lakes but generally higher value is not a problem. I also used oxydator and chihiros shrimp Odoslané z LG-D855 pomocou Tapatalku

Lol, that is really entertaining! Based on the extremely clumsy movement in the video, and the fact that they do the typical crab side-shuffle, I doubt that they would be able to hunt as effectively as crayfish species. Looks like your Tangs and Bloody Mary's are safe @NoGi ?

Yeah they just grip around the shell and turn them over. They have to kind of 'feel' the snail while wandering around before they are interested in it. They don't seem to be visually attracted at all. The only reason they can catch the snail is that it is too slow to escape once they've touched it and decided it is tasty. So far I've seen them brush a leg against shrimplets. The shrimplets just swim away, and this often frightens the crab a bit. Other than that they seem completely indifferent to the shrimp. and lols it looks like we have an epidemic going on ? They also quite like digging through the substrate for organic matter. Which is a plus to me clean-up-wise.

LOL Basri that went straight over your head! It was a standard joke sometime ago about Bob sharing his "crabs" - sorry I couldn't help myself!

So cool guys! They look awesome? I still don't trust the look of those pincers and will soon see if they eat newly hatched shrimp. How are they catching the snails? Do they just turn them over? I can't wait to get mine too. Mine is being shipped on Monday because I selected specific colours.

i reckon if my youngest daughter didnt have a betta in her kmart tank i could convince her to have 2 crabs lol

Hi @puddlejumper388, I would not recommend the test strips from API ( apologies, I should have clarified). The liquid ones with drops and little test tubes are the accurate ones- the drops last for ages ???. The TDS pens from suppliers like our sponsors are reliable. Some at suspicious prices on EBay, not so much!

I can see it now you all telling your wives and girlfriends, babe i am so excited i got crabs today! They look cool @waffle

Haha Oz I'll be sure to keep that in mind :P First set of happy snaps!!

Mine are here! They're epic!! They started going on a murder spree vs snails <5mm size as soon as they went in the tanks. But they completely ignore the shrimp. One of them just got shared dungless when a juvie neo touched its leg.

Thanks KeenShrimp, its that sort of advice and info that makes this hobby easier to enjoy. I don't know many who are cash heavy, so having those tested options that don't break the bank, so much easier than wasting money on gimmicks. Will do some more research on the ones you have used. Thanks again mate.

Hi @puddlejumper388, sure there are awesome laboratory spec testers out there for TDS and pH, but very accurate ones worth buying start at about $200 ( average $500 for a really accurate pH pen). It all depends on budget. As shrimping is already expensive, most people opt for the below options. I find the pH pens sold for aquarium use are not as accurate as they should be as the probe dries out- unless you keep it in storage solution. And they are also slow to indicate pH. API master test kit has everything you need apart from Calcium testing and GH/KH. API gets a bad wrap in reviews as people say they struggle to read the results. The reason for this is that they do not put the test tube flush against the white card as per the package insert. There also seems to be some colour-blindness issues. I have tested the API personally against a highly accurate lab pH tester and the accuracy to one decimal is acceptable. The KH/GH test kit from API is also the most popular. Be careful with Calcium test kits. Most are designed for Marine aquariums and are not sensitive enough for freshwater shrimping. The ONLY brand out there that I have found is highly accurate is the Salifert Calcium test kit. You only really need a Ca2+ test kit if you want to fiddle around with your Ca:Mg ratios. If you want fancy equipment: our sponsor The Tech Den sells an aquarium pH probe and controller. Our other sponsor Newbreed Aquatics also has really cool TDS pens for sale. If you are dead set on lab equipment, I can send you a few links. Good luck!

Good afternoon my fellow Shrimp Keepers, I have received the answers for the 4th SKF interview. Today we have a interview from @newbreed. He is a very well respected breeder (formerly AKA as the Pinto King), He is also a retired admin of SKF and is now the owner of Newbreed Aquatics. You can find his new website at http://newbreedaquatics.com.au SKF - Hi Jamie can you please tell us a little about yourself? JN - I have been keeping aquariums for over 25 years and started to keep shrimp specific tanks just over three years ago. As there was not much readily available information on keeping shrimp successfully, after hunting around I was fortunate to find SKF. The sharing of knowledge and experience gave me the confidence to keep a large variety of shrimp species I had spent many months, many hours each day, assisting people with shrimp tank problem solving. At the end of each conversation I found myself referring people to other companies websites to purchase the necessary items to remedy their situation. In January 2015, I decided I would just establish my own business and have these essential items on hand, so if someone had a problem i could send the items directly and quickly. Seeing as most people within the hobby knew me as Newbreed, this is how Newbreed Aquatics found it's name. Question 1 - What is your weekly/monthly maintenance schedule? JN - Daily: - Lots of shrimp staring, keeping an eye on behaviours, moults, shrimplet spotting, taking many pics with my phone Weekly: - Evaporation top ups with pure (untreated) rain water - BeeMax Bacterial powder added (Boss Booster also used when Beemax not available) - Mineral Powder added (recommend Benibachi or Boss products) - General Tidy up of tanks, moss trimming, removing used/spent IAL - Water testing mainly via TDS test Monthly: - PH/GH/KH Testing - 10% waterchange, siphoning out any buildups and replenishing with rain water treated with Salty Shrimp to desired TDS Question 2 - What is your favorite additive/products? JN - Essentials to me are the bacteria and mineral powders. I dose either weekly or fortnightly, to maintain good bacterial colonies and to ensure minerals available for use by shrimp for moults, etc. Favourite product is Benibachi Bee Max. Always something I add if there are any issues and just reassuring to know bacteria levels are propped up constantly. Also Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) and Alder Cones are a must, again good for bacteria and have helpful natural properties. Question 3 - What is your worst shrimp experience? JN - I had a wonderfully thriving CRS colony up until last year. Started with 15 shrimp and gradually started producing in the 100's. I fed them well, daily and also used baby powder type foods daily. As the colony was thriving and all seemed happy I got lazy with maintenance and conditions worsened over time. I started having occasional unexpected deaths and put them down to age, etc. Only when it became consistent and more deaths regularly did panic set in. There had been a plague of bacterial infections reported but my tanks were isolated from any new stock. The usual waterchanges, adding IAL/Alder Cones and powders didn't assist it. As these were a line that had been selling regularly and consistently, it broke my heart getting messages from keepers asking to buy some, as I could not sell any and risk any issues with others tanks. As I had not identified the cause. In the end a thriving three foot tank which held a colony of close to 200-300 shrimp was closed down to be reset. I figured that the overfeeding and low maintenance had just made the tank unsuitable. TDS, KH, GH and Ph were all good and stable, but must have been a build up of organics that was affecting the shrimp poorly. Some CRS others had taken during this time, after my advice they may be unwell, had thrived in their new homes. The colony was closed down and only now starting to recoup in a new setting. Sad when things were going so amazingly, that it could turn around almost overnight. Has made me much more conscious of feeding regime and maintenance regularity. Question 4 - What are the biggest myths in Shrimp Keeping? JN - 1. Shrimplets will not get through wire strainers on sumped systems (when first rack closed down, I had some amazing sump dwellers) 2.Shrimplets will not survive going through a sump and back into tanks on rack (Sadly my Pure TB line was invaded by shrimplets from another tank on same sump, killing off my 2 year Pure Line program - very sad day when discovered) 3. Shrimp are difficult to keep. (consistency and stability is the key) Question 5 - Unusual things that you use with your shrimps? JN - Can't think of anything that 'out there', I use lots of fun quirky shrimp related products like bee shelters and moss ledges. Many non shrimp keeping friends think I am odd when I grab my magnifying glasses out, to show them my newest sexy shrimp. lol. That may count. Question 6 - Can you give us tips on selective breeding? And how to improve the quality of our shrimps? JN - I always love watching my shrimplets develop and always look for new or unusual traits. I like unique strains and cross breeding at present. I guess the main thing with breeding is to know your goal, and what you want to achieve. Then it makes it easier to start selecting shrimp for desirable traits. Once I have a goal in mind, I isolate candidates into their own project tank and let things develop. With the CRS I was aiming for more red colouration in the legs. So I asked another breeder for some males with that trait, I then isolated my best formed females and let them go to work. It is amazing how each generation can vastly improve on the previous one. Also, key factor is to understand the genetic history of the shrimp you are breeding. If they are not from your direct lines, ask the breeder for a history. Majority of the breeders I have talked to over the last few years are very willing to share their experiences and knowledge, especially here on SKF. It makes your job a whole lot easier if you know what you are working with. Improving quality again comes down to regularly culling the undesirable or lower grade shrimp from your breeding group. (culling is not killing. just isolate them to another tank, where you are not concerned with the outcome as much) Keep and Breed the best quality shrimp you can afford to. The best foundation of a good colony is good quality, well fed parents Question 7 - What do you think will be the next big thing in shrimp? Will it come from crosses or line breeding pure species? JN - Hard call. Tigers, Tibees and Taitibees seem to be all the rage at present. As there is so many variations to come from these, I think the trend will continue for a long time yet. Many have been getting into Sulawesi Shrimp and recently there have been international images that look to be a cross from Sulawesi to Caridina, that would be a whole new world if it is indeed possible. I am personally a fan of cross breeding lines and know there will be some great developments from there. But I think there will be much interest in getting back to more Classic Pure Line TB in the future too. And lets never underestimate the Cherries, Colour developments and patterns will arise in these in the future that will also turn heads. Question 8 - How do you mineralize and what WP do you aim for? JN - When I setup a tank I always start with a sprinkling of bacteria powder and mineral powder before adding substrate (Thanks Jay for sharing this with me ages ago). Give the tank it's best start. I add mineral powders weekly to fortnightly. Also I remineralise my rain water with Salty Shrimp minerals. Depending on strain being kept. I aim for TDS 130-160, Gh 5-6, Kh 0-1, ph 6-6.5 (my main tanks I try to keep all strains in, so i mainly use the GH+ minerals) I run all my tanks at 22-23 degrees. Question 9 - What food enhances the welling being of shrimps and increase shrimplets survival rates? JN - I am a fan of a varied diet. I feed Boss Shrimp Crack, Benibachi Red Bee Ambitious, Benibachi Kale tabs, Shrimp Snow alternating every other day and always have Indian Almond Leaves(IAL) in my tanks. When shrimplets are present i usually feed Baby Powder foods daily, and I always keep IALs as they colonise beneficial bacteria even the smallest shrimp can graze on. Also a good level of biofilm in your tank will provide a good food source. Question 10 - How often do you cull? JN - Any shrimp that have obvious deformities or negative traits i cull as soon as identified. I would cull on a monthly basis, especially now as I am delving back into cherries, my culling has to be more regular and more brutal. Question 11 - What is your funniest shrimp experience? JN - I took awhile to try out Alder Cones. When I first put these into my CRS colony tank, they went beserk, just nuts. The alder cones were being pushed around on the water's surface by the canister filter, and the shrimp were piled on them, about six per alder cone, surfing just under the water's surface, being pushed from one end of the three foot tank to the other. It was great to watch about ten alder cones racing around with CRS clinging to them madly. They kept at it under the alder cones eventually sank a few hours later. These shrimp never stop entertaining! I wanted say on behalf of SKF and its members, Thank you very much Jamie.

Thanks for the questions @Disciple. Had to really think hard on some answers, lol. Hope I haven't bored everyone silly!! ?

We also just sit, count, find the new colour morphs and take on the slave role to their existence.

Share any funny ads for aquarium-related stuff here! I'll start. Someone was selling duckweed on Gumtree tonight for... well, just look, haha. One spoon scoop for $25? Pah-leese!

No, I don't need any. I've got too much already! Now that I come to think of it... I might have a few million dollars worth. I am, however, after some of the really small variety (the one that is the smallest flowering plant in the world) if you have - or know anyone that has - any of that I'd be interested.

I love these interviews.... Always learn something and even remember things I already new but overlooked. Also just reminded me to add IAL again. Thanks for the interview@newbreed ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum!! Love that pic haha

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.

I'm not 100% sure with pure Tigers but my love affair with F1 Tibees was for that very reason. They explored the tanks , even got out and went walk about until I sealed all exits. They are way more active than the other varieties and have fights over food or just because one is sitting where the other one wants to be! I also first witnessed the babies getting flicked away from food by the Tibees. As F1 Tibees are the first cross of a Tiger and a Bee shrimp I always thought the feistiness came from the Tigers! I just love them and now of course my pure Tigers too but I haven't noticed quite the same behaviour as with my first Tibees

I often see questions around culling and not selling culls etc.. Anyway, the main reason I cull is so that I can remove poorly coloured shrimp like: So that I can focus on breeding and improving quality of shrimp like: This is a new colony for me and I'm fortunate enough to get a pretty good start with some great coloured Bloody Marys. In the past I've started with nothing but quality similar to the first pic and it's a long and hard path but worth it in the end. All of the above are Sakura grade btw even though some of the pictures look a little on the higher side there are still a lot of patches of transparency that aren't showing up in the images and the legs are not solid. The grading applied should be consistent with the male/female and offsprings. No point grading something as fire red if all the offsprings are of a lower quality. And a couple of pics of happy coexistence

Crably and a few of his mates this arvo