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Noel, I've just seen this thread. Did you build the tanks yet? One critical factor that nobody mentioned is that the base should be floating between the sides, not supporting them as you described. If you've already built them, well you might be ok because they're small and there's no real structural stress. Good luck! But for future reference, that is not the way to build a glass aquarium. I'm sure there's plenty of online resources that illustrate the right way.

Just don't forget to give your tank the sheets!

Thanks mate.

Was so awesome to see some of these in person at the championship! Top quality @fishmosy

Hey guys, Here are some pics of some shrimp from the south of New Caledonia. The HC 'Cuba' give you an idea of their size. Thank you @Matuva for the plants ;-)

Hey all, after seeing @inverted's stunning snowballs we were chatting about what might come of crossing snowballs with other neos. Found a few neat threads here from a while back on this topic, but I'm wondering, does anyone have any updates or more recent observations? I'm gonna try putting a snowball female in with blue/black davidi and see how that goes. If she berries and they hatch right, I'm expecting a ton of wild reverts but perhaps something interesting as well. Worst case scenario she just looks fantastic in the tank as a contrast to the blue/blacks. But fingers crossed!

https://vimeo.com/164879809 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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.

So I wanted to try a new leaf on my Bloody Marys, and since Im in Canada and Maple trees are everywhere, I figured Id try that ! Well they dont flock to it like Mulberry leaves, but they do seem to like it more than Almond leaves. This is what it looks like after around a week. .... all holy ! Kinda neat looking :)

Went for a drive around to various places I could think of that might have some nerites and almost every where was a big fat NIL. Until finally we went to one last place and found quite a variety of shell patterns. I don't know if any or all of these will readily convert to freshwater but I am giving it a go and keeping my fingers crossed. So far its been around 4hrs and I might have gradually changed approximately 1/2 of the salt water to fresh and no deaths so far. Before even adding any freshwater the snails keep wondering up the sides of the bucket I have them in, I don't know if this is just because they are looking for hiding places or if they really don't like the bucket even with an airstone bubbling away. I am really in a quandary on how to convert them if they wont even stay put in the pure salt water???? I might try taking one of the lava rocks out of one of my tanks and see if the snails will decide to stay/ hide around it even with the change in water. Without further preamble here are some of my mind.

Hey @Chickini, it can be a good idea to process your rainwater through a filter before it hits your tank. While rainwater is close to pure neutral water, it does collect a few contaminants on the way from the clouds to the rainwater tank. What's in the air or on your roof from day to day can vary, so you're never 100% sure. I have 2 housings in series, the first with a fine spun poly prefilter and the second with a big carbon block. If you have to buy all the bits it can run to about the same cost as a cheap ro unit but it processes water much faster. @newbreed are you filtering your rainwater or just using it?

But in all seriousness Noel, I use this when building tanks http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium :) I use a safety factor of 5.

@lodo how about a SKF sponsored macro photo comp at the next show ? Criteria to enter - must attend show in order to take the photo

Hopefully i'll have some better gears myself lol. Probably uploading in an hour or so. final polishing, took only a week to get it all together :)

LOL AHAHAHAHAH Polystyrene insults tank.

Sorry I know this sucks but I couldn't help it ...

I can never sex mine right lol

It's a fairly basic system I've coded. For extra features like that, put them in the improvement register to prompt me to seek some external developer assistance.

Awesome pictures! gee i gotta get a decent camera...

Nice. I've got a canon 6D with their 100mm macro lens

Thanks for the wraps guys, and definitely be sure to redeem your Skf discount @Chickini!! I also exclusively use rainwater in my tanks and remineralise with salty shrimp. I mainly use gh+ as majority of my tanks are set for crystal/TBs and cherries can adapt. But if wanting ideal parameters for Neos then the GH/kh+ is the one. We have a 3000L plastic rainwater tank, I had it for a couple of years prior to using it on tanks. But I find TDS fluctuates from 4-10 depending on time of year and rainfall amount. Thankfully this year has turned out to be plentiful.

I've read a lot of article lately on selective breeding. Those species must be good candidates to that practise. But I'm struggle just to get them breed. Have to find the good parameters...

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for your compliment. @jayc and @Baccus About the species, I think there is 2 species in those pictures. Short rostrum should be Paratya caledonica And the long rostrum Paratya intermedia I collect them by myself. Done a selection, there are a lot of differents patterns/colors in those 2 species

I just want to give a big thank you to @JPN07: it has been -4 degrees Celcius in Canberra the last 2 mornings. He posted Sulawesi Cardinals 2 days ago from the West Coast. With his ingenious double-heat pack-sandwich insulation packaging, the shrimp were at least 24 degrees Celcius in the esky when I got them. I went to check on them just now and they are all happy and foraging a few hours after arrival. Thank you so much for the generous extra ?

Enjoy!! I'm seeing shrimplets now myself, awesome shrimps!!

@JPN07 is the nicest person you could ever deal with. I would recommend dealing with him 100%. Grats on your new shrimp @KeenShrimp Pics please.

Beautiful shrimp and great work by the photographer.

I know what you mean about the bull shark ^^ Each time have been diving in the brackish spot, I bring a long knife with me and constantly look behind me ;) As for the nerites, the only place where I have successfully acclimated them are my discus tank, and my mother's one: 100% success in these 2 tanks. Those 2 tanks have a high TDS level, around 300~380, opposite the others that are around 90~130 and in which all attempts ot acclimatation have failed. Is that the key?

Arround midnight lastnight I took the plunge and put all the snails in a floating fry saver in their future intended tank. I couldn't leave them in the bucket any longer as I knew it would have to have started getting a little foul in there even with me adding new fresh water. This morning I found some of the snails roaming about in the fry saver (thankfully I put the lid on because one determined possible escapee was on it upside down), and thought I might as well let them free, and then leave the suspect remainder in the fry saver and watch to see if any more start roaming about. Here are the confirmed survivors I put on a lily leaf but now seem to stubbornly not want to move at all. I am leaving them alone just watching to see if they do end up roaming off, hopefully onto the front glass which is nice and green with algae for them. It doesn't look it in the photos but the lily leaf they are on is mostly submerged and they are under water, also there is quite good flow across the top of them from the filter return. These ones I am more suspect on being survivors since they seem to have stubbornly shut up shop, but I can not smell any decomposing. I am hoping the lack of stink (and we all know the stench of a dead snail) means they are alive just sulking.