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Hi All, Its been long posted any image in the forum, so here are some of my CRS/CBS images. Have been bugged badly by shrimp bug and put up multiple tanks. Currently having 7 CRS tank running. One 60*18*18 with all mixed grade. One 24*12*12 with all mixed grade. One 30*18*18 currentlty cycling will house mixed grade. One 30*18*18 housing PRL higher grade. One 30*18*18 housing PBL higher grade. One 30*18*18 hosing starting grade PBL. One 24*12*12 housing medium grade hinomaru and mosura. A mix grade CRS mommy. Clicking the mix grade is a pain, as the tanks are full with green algae and cant clean it as babies feed on it. A starting grade Taiwan PBL A 2 week old kid on powdered food A Mosura Shrimp A Hinomaru Shrimp, as I have very few female of Hinomaru so not culling her. Will see how the babies turn up. The males are good so finger crossed. One more Hinomaru Do share your thoughts, comments Will update this thread periodically.

It feels like an eternity since I had cherries in my tank but here a few shots I took today. Neocaridina davidi var Red (Brown lineage) aka "Bloody Mary" and I'd say Sakura grade.

Hi I have a problem identifying 2 plants I grew by seeds bought at Hong Kong. They were sold to me as cuba and glosso seeds, but it appears they are not.... I think the 2 first pics are showing Hemianthus Micranthemoides, instead of hemianthus callitricoides "cuba". The last one, sold to me as glossostigma ellatenoides seeds, I dont know

Blyxa japonica Continent: Asia Region: Tropical Asia Plant Structure: Stem Light Requirements: Medium - High Temperature: 20-28*C Hardness Tolerance:Soft pH tolerance: 6 - 7 Growth: Medium Demands: Easy Co2 Injection: Recommended (2bps) This Blyxa species is not too hard to grow. For proper growth it is recommended to use intense lighting (+2wpg). moderate co2 injection (2-3bps), fertilisation regimen (inc nitrates, phosphates, potassium, micro-nutrients and iron), Iron sticks/tablets are also recommended. With these requirements met, this beautiful bushy plant will stay low & bushy, colour of the growths (golden pink - deep purple). But if one of these elements are missing, leaves will turn green and will grow taller and thinner. This plants produces a large root system and appreciates a high nutritious substrate. If phosphate levels are kept high at 1-2ppm, this lovely plant will produce lots of small white flowers on a long and thin stalk. Once established, this plants produces many side branches which can be easily removed and replanted atleast 10cm apart. These can be very buoyant and tend to float, but these will take root very easily. This Blyxa japonica above has been talked about around the world for many years now, and was achieved by myself :) I was able to plant the blyxa onto of my java fern about 10cm below water surface, it grew towards the lighting (150watt Metal Halide and 2 x 24w T4s, between the blyxa and the lighting, it was only 10cm distant) and with the addition of 4 times the recommended dosage of iron and running 5 bps, I was able to turn my green Blyxa japonica to deep purple. All plants in the tank grew wild, with Cherry shrimps and fish all healthy. View full article

Welcome to SKF @PrawnFinger

First flush diverters are a great idea too for any rainwater collection. Tanks for adding that @zn30

My rainwater tank is filled off a roof that is only 4 years old, no large trees around and any bird droppings are at the other end of the house when birds sit on the ariel, however not much. The only debris that enters is dust that has settled on our roof. I was using filter media placed on the inlet of the tank however this proved to not be needed due to using the first flush system. As I stated earlier I have a first flush system that catches up to 7-9 litres of the first rain that enters the system however you need to empty this before the next rain I have a hose connected to the base and use this to water our plants. It actually has a slow drip system in the base however I opted to add a hose and discarded the slow drip washers.

Thank you Jarad and kizshrimp.

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

I just use a safety blade and scrape - it comes off fairly easily. I run 3 lights 8 hours a day. It did help when I had a break with lights off after 4 hours but I don't bother anymore.

This chart is my favourite reference!! Does that help?

There's been numerous queries/discussions on mischling's so I thought I'd start a thread for all members to discuss, and share their experiences...etc Mischlings are a "shrimp" category describing a TB (Taiwan Bee - King Kong, Blue Bolt & Wine Red) x with a CRS/CBS/GB (Golden Bee)/SW (Snow White). Breeders will often cross their TB with a CRS/CBS/GB/SW to introduce the TB gene's into their stock, just in case disaster hits, plus it multiplies their probability of TB shrimplets etc.....Minchlings are then used to x back to a TB, which will result in a % of TB off it's shrimplets. Mischling x Mischling won't neccesarily produce any TB....my personal experience extends to F3 generation, and to date, this has not resulted in any TB's. I've been told that a F5/F6 mischling still does not produce any TB's. Hobbyist keen to take the next step to TB's should really purchase a TB 1st, x with their existing stock to create mischling's, then once they are confident, can either purchase more TB's to x back to their mischlings, or if budget and tank permits, purchase more then 1 x TB, and get their TB colony happening sooner. Purchasing mischling's should always be done with a reputable breeder, or one that can show and proof that the mischling did come from a TB cross. Pics of some CBS/CRS minchlings ....they tend to look like lower grade or washed out CRS/CBS, although I have some minchlings that actually look quite good, so it's difficult to ascertain whether you're actually buying a low grade CRS/CBS or a minchling .... unfortunately, there will be people out there that will take advantage of this.... Any other experiences, thoughts, queries appreciated, as it seems to be frequently queried ....

So I'm going to do a series of reviews on this tank to see if my opinions will change over time. I'm setting it up with CBS in mind which can be found in this thread: http://www.shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/showthread.php/5996-Serious-CBS-tank The tank: The specs: Price: Roughly $180 to $210 full retail. Review 1: After Set-up (one week running) General Overview: I like this tank. I love the design, the size and the fact that there seems to be a bit of thought put into the design of the tank, filter system and lights. Its not perfect by any means, but for the price I think you get a good, practical shrimp tank. If I was planning on doing an aquascape however, I would go with a better quality tank for the aesthetics. Overall I give this tank four out of five stars. Whats good: I really like the design of the tank. Its likely a blatant copy of the Fluval edge concept, but without the awkward enclosed top, I think its a more practical take on this concept. At 40L capacity the tank is ideal for shrimp. Not too small as to have trouble with rapid temp fluctuations, but small enough to fit on a benchtop, which is where I placed mine. The lid is easily removed from the tank via two large semicircular holes at the front. No gaudy handles! However, this does leave an opening for your shrimp or snails to climb out, (there are also large 5-10mm gaps between the lid and the sides of the tank), but this doesn't phase me, and I may remove the lid permanently anyway depending on whether some evaporation is needed to cool the tank slightly. The black strip over the filter is a nice touch, but as its only paint, it may chip easily, especially on a lid which is going to be moved on and off the tank constantly. I've already noticed one chip in the paint which stands out as a white patch in the black when the LED lights are on. Hopefully I can repair the chip with some paint or nail polish. The tank comes with two LED lights to a total (stated on box) 9watts and are 12V, so nice and safe around water. These have their own switch and the plug is separate from the electrical plug of the pump for the filter system. They seem bright enough to grow low and medium light plants which is what I plan to have, but time will tell. LEDs on with camera flash off. I really like that this tank has black silicon. It blends nicely into the background of the tank and is not at all gaudy like some silicon can be (except where excess silicon was used, see below). The filtration system for the tank is in-built, so you do lose some space. However as a shrimp tank, this does not phase me. If I was going to create an aquascape in this tank, I would remove the filter. The filter works through a series of sections similar to a sump. The first is a mechanical filter pad combined with carbon pellets (which I removed for the shrimp). There is also another pad containing beads which i assume are for biological filtration. I like the way this pad sits too. It sits flush against the overflow holes of the tank meaning there should be little chance of shrimp disappearing into the filter. The only drawback with this is that the pad is quite fine so can block up easily. Whilst setting up I disturbed the soil a little bit and the filter was blocked the next day, with the water level in the filter section noticeably lower than in the rest of the tank. Luckily a quick squirt with the hose cleans it up quickly. I will keep an eye on how long before it blocks up under normal conditions. The next section is a section for a heater (I think this is a nice touch, room to hide the heater in the filter). Then there is a coarse sponge, guessing biological filtration primarily. Finally the pump section. (Pump not in place). There is a lot of extra room in the filter sections to add extra media, which I will do. I would have liked to have seen some more media sold with the tank but the amount supplied is probably adequate in the vast majority of cases, and I do like to over-filter. The setup of tank is fairly easy. I found it fairly intuitive and didn't refer to the instructions except to double check at what height the pump needed to be set. The instructions were in proper english (not poorly translated 'chinglish'). As this tank system is aimed towards the new hobbyist, a maintenance schedule is also included in the instructions, which is IMO a nice touch. Whats Bad: There are a few little things that bug me about this tank. Firstly the light spill from the LEDs. Looking directly at the tank means looking directly into the side of the LEDS (see above pic). Probably an easy fix with a bit of black tape or plastic stripping glued in place, but that would probably reduce the spread of the light from the LEDs and look wrong. Secondly the construction of the tank is poor. Whilst I can only speak from this one tank, the tank I got has misaligned glass panes and lots of excess silicon. Yes this is a cheapish tank at approx $180 retail, and so the minimalist silicon such as in ADA tanks cannot be expected, but you should expect at least nice clean joints. Excess silicon Note the curved edges on the silicon Yes this glob is on the bottom of the tank where the soil will go, but for anyone wanting a bare bottomed tank, this would really frustrate. The pic below actually makes its look far better than it does in person. Misaligned panes Yes some of these problems can be fixed in a few minutes with a sharp razor blade, but realigning the panes would require cutting the tank apart and voided warranty. In my opinion, at this size, the misalignment of the glass panes is not serious enough to cause failure, and the tank has not dripped a drop since being set up, and can't be seen by the casual observer, but it just annoys me because I know it is there. The positioning of some of the stickers annoyed me. There is a min. water level sticker on the front top right which I immediately moved to the side of the tank because it stood out too much. Worse was the big silver sticker on the front of the filter section, like sparkling jewellery in a jewellers window. Less is more and this sticker distracts from the shrimp. Why this wasn't put on the back, I dont know, but thats where I moved it. Also notice, the stickers don't appear in the pic of the tank on the side of the box (the very first pic of this thread), so even the marketing department at aquamanta realises how gaudy these stickers are. Before: After: The pump. I'm not sure it does 200LPH as claimed, however I might be biased as I'm more used to >1500LPH flow in my larger tanks. Perhaps its due in part to the way the pump is set up, with two 90* bends. If I was going to have this tank for plants or fish, I would replace the pump to something with a bit more flow, but for the shrimp I think it will provide adequate circulation. My only concern is whether the pump will heat the water, in which case I'll modify the tank to use an air uplift to move water through the filter. At 3.5W heat output from the pump should be minimal, but fingers crossed. I may swap to air driven uplift anyway as I like to tinker.