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I needed to know which wafer is the most water stable in my current arsenal. I set up the below experiment using foods that I already have at hand, thus some brands that I like more had more foods to test from than others. I put 6ml of RO/DI water, remineralised with SS GH/KH+ GH8, KH3 in a petri dish. I then placed a small food wafer, or a piece of a food wafer that was larger of equivalent size in the petri dish for 24 hours. Room temperature set to 19.5 degrees Celsius. I used a disposable pippette to drip some water over the wafers throughout the day to simulate water current. I also moved the wafers around slightly with sharp microscope tweezers to simulate shrimp picking at them. I included a few non-water stable food options as I had them already and wanted to see the effect it had on the water. They have not been included in the rankings as they either turn to powder or are powder. List of foods tested in random selection arranged from left to right on my kitchen counter: Benibachi Kale food (Not a competitor in this test) Benibachi Golden Mineral food (Not a competitor in this test) Benibachi Golden Food Lowkeys Spirax (Not a competitor in this test) Lowkeys Hiden No Esa Secret food EbitaBreed Spinach Tab EbitaBreed Quattro II EbitaBreed Hinomaro Bentou Shrimp King Pea and leaf Loops Shirakura Shrimp Ball food (Hard Wafer) Shirakura Shrimp Ball Food ( Soft wafer) Boss Shrimp Crack Hikari Algae Wafers Shrimp Nature Green (Not a competitor in this test) Mosura Brood Care Taiwan Breeders Fermented food ( the Vegetarian one) Without further ado: BEST water Stable wafers: #1 EbitaBreed Spinach Tab, Quattro and Hinomaro Bentou ( all 3 were exceptionally stable), tied with Lowkeys Hiden No Esa - these wafers looked good as new after 24 hours. #2 Shrimp King Pea&Leaf loops. The leaf loops were just as stable as the number one ranks, but the pea loop was a bit more squishy to the touch. #3 Taiwan Breeders Fermentation food tied with Shirakura Shrimp Ball food ( Soft and hard wafer) Least Water Stable Wafers: #1 Hikari Algae Wafers #2 Boss Shrimp Crack ( I have to mention that the centre of the wafer was reasonably firm after 24 hours, but the dissolving exterior compared to other food wafers was noticeable) #3 Mosura Brood Care Benibachi Golden food was in the middle, thus no mention in the rankings. Photos below are of the foods after 24 hours. Close-ups in last 3 pics are :EbitaBreed Spinach Tab, Shrimp King Pea&Leaf loops, Boss Shrimp Crack.

About a month or 2 ago I had a Very nice CRS that started to look quite unwell. I removed it to a HOBB and kept an eye on its conditions it's the idea to cull it if it didn't improve. Keeping it on its own seemed to do it some good so a couple of weeks ago I added it back to the general population - very happy I did ;) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Anyone else had a cull that made it back from certain doom?

Hello @budgiebreder If you are looking for a dark blue Cherry you will be after the Blue Dreams. From memory people are currently selling them for around $20 to $30 per Juvie. Another blue cherry is the Blue Velvet but it is a lighter blue and they are going cheaper at $5 to $10. Royals are a high grade Tiger shrimp and no one is selling atm but the last time someone was selling them I think they were asking about $150 for ea juvie. I hope this help you.

Little update on this tank. Had some deaths and a few other issues but I think it's now back on track. I've had to cull the CRS hard to try and better the quality of colour in the colony. It's a bit painful culling so many but it's for the better. Bloody Mary's have gone crazy. There's a few ripper males in the colony. I'll try get some photos tomorrow to share ? Reminds me, I really need to get onto a macro lens!

This will be the following chart but with actual pics: View full article

I have finaly gotten some Metabetaeus lohena and they are just settling in! Heres a quick video of them. For those who are not sure, these guys grow to about an inch in size and live along side Opae ula shrimp. They have large (in comparison) pincers and are primarily scavengers.

Update! First proper clean out of my canister and changed the fine wool filter - I hadn't realised how much 'oomph' the filter had lost till I plugged it back in after the clean - the fish thought it was a roller coaster whirlpool. All in all, everyone is happy. The oto's both survived, back up to about 60 shrimp I can count at any one moment, and all fish are happy. After fighting algae and losing since upgrading my light, I am back on top of it... took me about a month or two but I found the sweet spot. For the first time, I have actively seen a heap of pearling!!! I found that extremely exciting :)

Tank is still running well, added some crypts, a melon sword and some foxtail. I have a melting water poppy, my Monte Carlo carpet doesn't seem to grow. I believe my cheap ebay lamps are to blame, I want to add grow lamps over the tank for a few hours a day while I'm at work to help the plants flourish. Tank wise, I want to redo the bottom part, do a better, easier to maintain, sump out of glass and acrylic, and redo the aquaponics setup so it's not as soaked as it is now, my basil is not liking the flood. And last but not least, the Cherries. Now sole inhabitants of the Coffin, they are happy, it's a real orgy in there. Shrimplets everywhere, just look at an empty space in the tank and you'll spot a baby or 10 blending with the substrate. Adults are saddled and berried. Here's a small photo dump. not in any order... I also setup my 3ft outside, it's now my cull tank, with White Clouds, Guppies and my Gouramis & Tetras. I reserve my Hex for the most wanted, OEBT. I want them, and now I'm ready for them.

Until recently I have used Subwassertang almost exclusively in all my tanks. It is fine on SS mesh and grows into a round bush. I grow it on large matrix balls, tie it to driftwood and rocks. All my tanks are low tech but the Subwassertang grows so well I have to regularly trim it and have a bucket full of it outside. I use fine fishing line to tie it down well.mr

Hi all, name's Nelson from Melbourne, Victoria. I've been keeping shrimps for about 6 months, originally planned to breed red cherries as feeders but ended up liking them instead and the rest was history. Currently keeping CRS, TBs, mischlings and sulawesi, that being said, my favorite shrimp would be PRLs yet never had the pleasure of keeping them. Thanks to members of this forum for sharing their experience and knowledge! Look forward to meeting you all! Nelson

Good to see things going well again fox. Well done mate. :) I may hit you up in the near future for a bit of a trade, or a buy to increase my numbers... Not sure how many I have left, and am moving in a couple of weeks time so will do a head count on all fish then. Too busy with a new born right now!! Hehe.

thanks bro. been looking forward to introduce new shrimp into the tank. but those that can live in 28C temp. those that are not neos. i got malaya shrimp already in there. not sure crs can live within 28C temp

Fox puppet, if you want to increase numbers you have to use a dedicated egg collector as the adults love to eat eggs and fry. Some will survive but if you want to increase numbers... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First shrimplet in the tank. Picking up my breeding rack this weekend! 12 2fters.

It really depends on which species of corydoras you get, Peppered I find easy as well as Strebia but never seem to have much luck with Bronze and Panda. The main things to remember with corydoras is that..... A. They love a crowd of their own kind, mixing different species can work in that they wont fight but they wont really gel and bond as a species only school will. Eg, Best sight I ever saw was 54 young peppered corys I had bred tightly schooling and swimming laps of an old bathtub I used as a pond. B. They love and need some protein in their diet and can not be expected to just "clean up" after other fish etc.They are also very partial to certain live foods like Bloodworms, Blackworms and Mosquito wrigglers but seem happy to leave shrimp and snails alone. They will also nibble at algae wafers. C. Mixing some species of corydoras can be bad because some will readily hybridise Pandas are apparently well known for doing this. D. Corydoras come from many sections of the Amazon and surrounding rivers, some handle cooler water while some can tolerate quite warm water. It is claimed that Strebia particularly can handle the heat that Discus are often kept at but really it is pushing their endurance a tad to far in my opinion. E. Breeding usually entails ensuring you have at least 1 female and two male, condition them with lots of live foods (or fresh frozen not freeze dried) and other quality foods, then do a large water change and use water that is cooler than their tank water. This often triggers spawning, if you can do it in conjunction with a rain event coming through your region all the better. The catfish will often eat their eggs so best to rescue them and you can put the eggs in a tumbler or put them in a suspended net fry saver near the filter return. The fry are ready feeders and once they get past insy newborn (hatched) and start to look like mini copies of their parents they are just too darn cute for words. I love corys and enjoy them as much as I like many Loach species, but if I ever get the chance (ie have the room) I would love to have some Hoplo catfish, they are related distantly to corys but amazingly make bubble nests like Siamese Figthers and Gourami. Catfish and loaches I fear are as addictive as Shrimp.

After @Disciple very kindly recommended a protein feed for my little guys every now and then, I went to the frozen fish food section and all the bloodworm products were from China ( sorry, I am still recovering from the melamine milk and dogfood scandal), I wanted to buy an Aussie product for my shrimp, so I settled for Cichlid food containing everything from shrimp, fish, octopus, garlic, spinach, spirulina and I didn't know what Wombaroo was, but it sounded delicious ( really didn't want to google in Petbarn, it's a marsupial milk replacer for those that are interested). I have 7 ottos in my 240 litre tank and 5 Ottos in my 130 litre tank that are well- fed. When I put the smallest piece of the new meaty goodness in, the ottos went nuts and hogged it all. I had to mash a little but up for the shrimp that wanted some. The ottos sucked that Cichlid meat food until there was nothing but a few sinewy bits left...so my question is, how do we really know that they are 100% shrimp-safe?

What a difference even a month has made on this tank! Got some of @Gbang's Bloody Marys and some low grade PRL from @Disciple. I'm blown away by the quality of both lots and can't wait to see how it goes. Thanks again to @Disciple for all his assistance!

sooooo whens it reopening? :P

Update time! This tank is going from strength to strength! First lot of shrimplets are growing so fast! And now a second lot have been dropped! I've also decided to chuck in a few of my best cherries from the neglected tank.