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Hi all, I was having a conversation with Ineke last night (has been a massive help) about shrimp and she mentioned that she was keeping Cherry Shrimp outdoors in a pond which got me thinking, why not? I currently have a 150l tub dug into a raised garden bed which has been up and running for a little over a year I think? I got some cheap feeder fish which I put into it to control mozzies that are doing quite well, I was looking at them earlier and the water unfiltered, unheated is crystal clear to the point where I can see the bottom of the tub and the fry of the once feeder fish getting around. So, today I went outside, looked at an old raised garden bed full of dead plant life and thought why not?! Pulled all of the dead plant life out, levelled the surface out, went and purchased two 80l tubs from the local cheap shop ($15 each), dug two holes, placed the tubs in, filled around the tubs and then begun the planting process getting cuttings from around the yard and adding to the raised garden bed. Doing this on a 41c day wasn't exactly the smartest thing I've ever done, where I got to the point where my eyes were blood shot and a little light headed, but most of the job got done, I filled the tubs up with rain water, got Amazon Frogtbit, Java Moss, Pennywort and Dwarf Baby Tears all from the 180l tub, this will obviously serve as a natural filter, which I know works seeing the 180l tub is crystal clear water still after all this time. I'm going to let it all settle for a week or two, then look into adding a group of cheap Cherry Shrimp into the tub which is shaded most of the day, the way I see it that because it's in the ground the ground itself will work as insulation during the cooler months, getting sun during the day. Questions, in regards to mozzies and dragon fly, should I add 2 or 3 Endler Guppies? Also, should I add some IAL or Mulberry Leaves? Should I add some driftwood? OK, so here are photos, not great quality as you see but you get the idea. I still need to add some more plants to the garden bed, but other then that and getting some life into the tubs, it's done.

I have had a 20 gallon RCS tank for 3 years now. I have moss balls and some JAVA moss, drift wood, and mineral rocks. Only RCS in the tank and some soft shell snails I have in there I breed for my fresh water puffer fish in another tank,. My issue is that the shrimp live 1-2 years and they breed just fine but I never see babies. I see plenty of eggs but never babies. (Well 1 or 2 a month maybe but they disappear) The adults keep going just fine until they die off of old age or something else. I keep about 100 shrimp in the tank and have to replenish 50 every 6 months about. Water Temp I keep about neutral. PH- 7- 7.2 I use distilled water or sometimes Reverse Osmosis water because our tap water goes through a water softener which puts a LOT of salt in it which makes TDS very high so I try not to use tap water at all. I feed every 2 days with Azoo or other good food and not much. Its all gone by the time I feed again. I do add some powder food for the babies and a shrimp bacteria powder (just started that about 6 months ago but has not helped or hurt) Someone told me due to the distilled water my issue is LOW TDS. So I bought TWO different meters. I tested the distilled water and its about zero which is correct. I then tested my water and its about 700. I do top offs and just did a 20% water change last weekend with distilled water. So is that the issue? Should I pull out the mineral rocks? I am thinking tonight to take about 8 gallons of water and drain the tank down about 40% and then fill with the distilled water. I can repeat the process in a week and once I get the TDS under 150 I can add a little shrimp mineral to get it to the 200 range. The reason I am saying that is the TDS could be bad TDS and not the minerals they needs. I ordered some Salty Shrimp Mineral which I heard was good. Should I just give up? Jeff

Long time reader; learned a lot; thank you all posters. Looking for Riffle Shrimp and figured this was the best place to ask for help in obtaining some, so created an account. D