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About 10 - 20 cherries were put into my spa (that is a pond) about 6 months ago and the numbers of these shrimp now is insane! Sadly their colour has been lost due to the absence of selective breeding, but their numbers just show how quickly these things can breed. Emptying the spa. The bottom of this bucket is about 7cm deep with shrimp, and this is only from five minutes of swishing around the plants in the bottom of the spa, there has got to be at least this much again still left in there. . Much more where this came from!

IAL and mulberry are two very different beasts though. IAL is a hard leathery tannin rich leaf that sticks around for a long time under water while the shrimp slowly skeletonise it over weeks/months. Mulberry is much softer and is eaten up much quicker and has much less tannin (however a yellow/brown leaf will colour the water). Shrimp will break a mulberry leaf into many smaller bits over a few days to a week. Other leaves that stick around for a long time like IAL are oak and loquat leaves. They are usually picked up off the ground already brown and dry. Mulberry on the other hand I prefer to pick green off the tree and then air dry (in a washing basket in the shed). I feed the dry leaves to the shrimp. No blanching needed as they soften when rehydrated.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. I've split most of them between my tanks for the fish to gradually pick off, and the rest I'm going to throw back into the pond. Shouldn't be too long until they're in those numbers again and I can sell them off as feeders. Thanks again.

Seem to be shrimp safe so far.

Awww, I completely missed this comp (and the last auction!) Prizes looked awesome, good work @newbreed and @Disciple (and all the others). Couldn't stop laughing when I saw @waffle 1D picture :)

I've been avidly watching these little guys since receiving them yesterday, and I thought I'd make a new thread for the observations! Fist up some pics! Next, some interactions with shrimp. First up, a pair getting intimate (or failing to - looks like the male was just seeing if she was in the mood) while ignoring some nearby shrimp. Next, a male getting territorial and chasing off a sunkist neo. Sorry about the lower quality - camera was set to low res accidentally. This movement is different from how they attack snails, so I think it's a territory issue rather than a hunting attempt. If you slow down the film you can see he raises his body and claws really high as though to look intimidating. But I'm not a crab expert so I dunno. Next a shaky-cam quick-and-dirty video evidencing snail-eating prowess. Don't watch if you get motion sick!! Next up, a rookie attempt at a close-up film. A bit shaky and focus is off, but you can see the female's cute face.

just wanted to share how much Taitibees can change in very short times and why culling too young is not always a good thing. This little light blue speck went to full dark blue then to this in 6 weeks. Not sure what it will end up like. There are 3 the same just a little difference in depth of blue. These are from the Blue Taitibee x with a Tiger but I'm not sure if it was a blue or a blonde tiger. Last picture is mum.

Hi is this poster accurate ? Best regards Jorge

Will, I think you dont need to meet my exact water parameters. I believe if you have a stable mature cycled tank that is within 10% of my water parameters you will be fine. The main thing is to have it cycled 100%. Have lots of mosses and biofilm in the tank. Instead of focusing too much in making the WP match up exactly. I think it will be impossible because as I explained in my chats with you. How I got to my water parameters is pretty unique and I dont think it is worth replicating haha. My recommendation is acclimatize the shrimp over a long period. In the long run tigers are very adaptable if you can get your WP similar to mine then just focus on keeping it stable to those wp. Within a month or two the tigers will be thriving. After a generation they will be going great. Just keep it consistent and if you have to make changes do it over months at a time.

Hey puddlejumper mulberry leaves seem to be the most popular food for shrimps. Boil them for a few minutes to soften them a little before feeding. They often stampede them! Love n peace Will Sent from my SM-N920I using Tapatalk

Keep at it Jo these 4 are the only ones I have so far. Taitibees are a funny hybrid the blacks are easy enough but trying to get a true line of blues and even the reds is much harder. That also makes it all the more interesting me thinks!

Hi Will, I was also having crazy pH problems in my tank after remineralising, but I think mine was due to destroying the substrate (which is a whole other story) which was meant to buffer it. I now remineralise my water up to an EC of ~150 before adding it to the tank (to bring the tank back down to 250-350 overall). Reading your account, I wonder if the brand of remineralisator has anything to do with the effect on pH, I would have thought if more people were doing the same thing we'd hear more about pH issues. Jo

Gah, I am so jealous of these @ineke ! Beautiful shrimp. My blue TTB project has stalled a bit - too many non-blue shrimp and the tank is now overfull. Still, onwards and upwards! ;)

Following. If these are shrimp/fish safe and available in Australia I'm interested. Anyone know? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well worth it, I have various colour morphs from my cherries including one (1) green shrimplet waiting to see if it holds its colour.

Cycling is definitely the worst part

Thats an awesome post. I have to agree with the gravel vaccing I never used to do it when i first started keeping shrimp in fear it would cause a spike in the water and they would die. After a while i started doing it to my shrimp soil and i even altered my gravel vac with some SS mesh and airline tubing to hold it on to prevent the soil being sucked up but allowed all the broken down silt to get out of the tank. My water quality improved and my parameters slightly as well.

Started with five cherries which have produced so many shrimplets, high grade and so many colours starting to seperate into different tanks slowly. Have advanced slowly to CRS finally four females berried attributed to advice and posts on this forum thank you all especially those mentioned in @addicted2shrimp post above. Thinning out current stock of fish and Lseries catfish converting tanks to shrimp tanks, thanks again to all. Just another shrimp addict, not a bad addiction though.