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A bit of an update with bonus photos!! I'd love to retry some blyxa or s.repens for the foreground - last time I tried, I had a pretty shitty light. I'd also look to buy some large ferns to fill in the gaps in the midground too! Thanks to all that have helped me with advice on scaping, stocking, equipment etc and to those who provided plants or tank-mates. Equipment, Plants etc as of September, 2016 Tank: 3 foot. 36 x 14 x 18 inch, 90 x 35 x 45 cm (length x width x height). Roughly 150 litres, 40 gallon. Filter: Eheim 2215 Canister Light: 3ft makemyled LED tube/panel combo-thing. Substrate: 16l of Kaito Plants: Needle Leaf and normal Java Ferns, Java Moss, Bolbitis heudelotii, Hemianthus Micranthemoides, Vals, Chain Sword, Amazon Sword Stock: 60+ Red Cherry Shrimp, 8 White Clouds, 17 Neons CO2: No injection. Aim to keep low tech. Day 1 - 5th Aug, 2015 Jan, 2016: March, 2016: May, 2016: September, 2016:

Thanks for all the great advice guys. I just wanted to come by and give a update. You guys were correct and she is a female. Since my original post, she has actually had 3 batches of babies so far totaling 30-40 shrimps that survived and is currently berried. She's my best female breeder currently and has made me proud!

This is a bit of a serendipitous project. I've been breeding Darwin Algae Shrimp (DAS) Caridina sp. NTnilotica for a while now using salt water algae cultures to raise the larvae. I'm up to the F3 generation (since I got them from Aquagreen) and have raised a few hundred shrimp. The normal colour is the horde in the photo below (swarming on an algae wafer)...but recently I've noticed just a few berried females that are white with metallic eyes. I thought at first it might be that they have just moulted - but the saddle suggests otherwise, and tonight I isolated one that has released swimming larvae (I caught a few to try and rear) - so she has stayed white for long enough for the larvae to mature. All up I only have 3 white females and 2 males ... but hey thats enough! The males are just clear, but have the same eyes which really shine when viewed at night with a headlamp so easy to identify them among the herd. Of course I don't know if the colour (or lack of colour!) will "stick" long term in an individual shrimp or whether it can be passed on... but only one way to find out...

This is the second generation of bubs from tank bred parents. these guys have the most personality of any shrimp I keep really cool and smart.

If you have many plants, then you need co2. But you dont have many plants, so its not necessary yet. The plants will do better with co2, but not at the expense of the shrimp. Moss don't need co2 to do well. Flame Moss can go nuts without co2. Co2 just makes it go nuts faster. The solenoid isn't going to work on diy setups.

Hi @Dimos welcome to SKF. What kind of CO2 system do you have? Do you have a tank/cylinder with a regulator? What you need is to get an Electronic Solenoid Valve (For Automatic ON/OFF function). Hook this up to a timer and your CO2 will turn on during the day, and turn off at night. But looking at the plants in your tank, there is no need for CO2 with the amount of plants you have. Yes, they will grow faster, but you need to be supplementing fertilisers as well. The faster they grow the more cutting you need to do.

I was thinking Blyxa on the left behind the rocks, Blyxa on the right, move the swords on the right forward and java fern behind the driftwood...would kind of look like a volcano?

So from a full tank every thing looks peachy but up close, fml, small issues every where! *pulls tank down and moves forum* nah just the expected teething issues of a first big high tech tank. Im sure im lacking some nutriants as im only dosing dino pee and some lovely old trace stuff i had laying around. As you might be able to make out from the blurry potato camera pics ive got old growth dieing off, and some of the new stuff on the belem is yellowing too.

How's this? Basically a mobile corner unit. It's tiny - only 200L/h, but it's intended as a support filter in my 2ft divided tank (to help make sure there's good circulation and to provide water flow to breeding boxes). It's basically a triangular pyramid with solid plastic on all by 1 side (mesh) and a hole in the top piece for the filter's head. Virtually all of the incoming water would have to flow through a 1" layer of wool felt (still waiting on foam).

Very awesome!

Bit of an update here. I found the male in the community tank and after days of trying managed to get him to the quarantine tank also. While the tank is not needed i thought a breeding program could be ongoing. Sad news but as i found the female dead the other day. Must have been the stress of being moved and dropping eggs within such a short period of time. The good news is the shrimpets are all growing well and the male does not seem to be to stressed. Once they all get big enough not to be eaten by the tetras i will move them back to the community tank and not try to do this again. I hate losing my pets due to my own mistakes.

There's definitely one thing that pisses me off! Moss ID! Not as important as the above mentioned ones but thought I'd put it out there.

Tanks looking good @DemonCat!

@Mattfish1508, you should write a review on SKF of the product/s for our international members. I know I prefer word of mouth recommendations over generic reviews from ebay feedback.

Welcome to the forums @Cleeon, Once you've got shrimp in your blood you'll never get out :)

I'd say want ! But then I would need a chiller for my bloodstream, its too damn hot here !

So i couldn't help buy bid on an auction for 100 stems and i won. So i loaded the animals in to the ark and so began the flood! new additions to plants are Eriocaulon lividum, Syngonanthus sp 'Belem', Tonina fluviatilis and 2 others i still need to double check but i think Rotala sp "Green" and Mayaca fluviatilis. Im cranking that CO2 to try and get them kicked off, the hair grass is taking its sweet time to carpet and the clover is making heaps ground so i guess it will be my carpet? Shoulda just got 2 pots of it and left the hair grass out haha ?? lol ill keep posting even if they all melt and it goes to poo so stay tuned! In a month or so ill add some live stock when im 100% sure the tanks eco system has established.

Hey now... you can't have it both ways!!!

Of Course the sand will be smoothed out and ill add a little more aquasoil in spots but this is basicly the hard scape

Cycling with tap water. Will test wp soon after a rest. HAHA Removing these air bubbles from the substrate really is a long task.. still havent gotten majority of it out yet.. im finding that the fine grains trap more bubbles than your average grains.. hmm Anyways, here is my planted shrimp tank. Not aiming for any award winning aquascape hahaha

Is it a juvenile? If it is, then it could be a female. Another trick to ID them is to check their antenna length. Female = antenna is about the same length as it's body, a little longer perhaps. Male = Antenna is 1.5 times it's body length.