Leaderboard

Many of the shrimps are available in Hong Kong, you just have to look, and if you are willing to pay for some special ones like pinto . the neo, are readlly available, king kong, blue panda, wine red, is available year round, blue bolt are only available in a few stores. Some store have over priced shrimps, like crystal red PBL selling for USD260, but these are those professional breeders. I still have one blue bolts. These two photo taken for you, from a shop wine red and blue bolts, blue panda, king kong. These sell for around USD 5-6 each This is my new tank, I only set it up today, I didn't get the substrate I want, the ada Arizona and black earth premium has been out of stock a good few months, shops that still have them have doubled in price, my tank has the black earth premium fine version, it's the normal version I wanted. But couldn't wait, as I had to set my tank up early, going to Taiwan in October, and will be buying some more shrimps from YU crystal shrimps in Taipei.

I see my first 4 free swimming babies from my second batch.

Thanks, you also notice it, I also notice that the blue bolt are rather shy, they always hide. and I never buy the expensive one, you never know what will happen. The way I buy the shrimps, if they are bee, I always go for the panda patten, and with solid colors, even the wine red, they do have a light or dark variation, I will go for the dark ones, unless the light variation look really good. Yes I'm getting ready for the shrimps from Taiwan, unlike Hong Kong, I won't be able to choose, and I will get them to send them back to Hong Kong, it save me the trouble of carrying them back, who know what the customs will do. If I send them, I either get them or I don't. and shipping them over the Hong Kong is about GBP 38.

Those shrimps for sale are stunning, thanks for the pictures! I wouldn't be able to chose which to get of those, so would probably get them all, d'oh! Your blue bolt is a bit shy, hopefully you may get some interesting shrimplets when it breeds. Are you getting the new tank ready for buying shrimps when you are in Taiwan? Do you have a wish list of ones you want? I'm sure you should be fine with that substrate you got! I expect I will start with some blue bolt/steel when I introduce shrimps to my setup as they are fairly cheap here and I will get them from a supplier I used last time. If they do well I will 'invest' in some dearer ones, but that is a way away yet! The red variants seem to be in short supply here. Simon

Fantastic news! Have you had any luck with the substrate for the new tank yet? I have been looking around over here for red wines but there don't seem to be any. Still, way too early for me to be thinking about shrimps so it is probably good there aren't any, and the first ones I do get are likely to be blue bolts/steels I expect. Love your red wines though, I am jealous. I don't think I have seen your blue bolt, do you still have it? Simon

The colour chart tests suck. I don’t know of any alternatives though and I rarely check pH etc. so it doesn’t really bother me. There are definitely risks associated with inconsistent tap water parameters. If I have dramas in the future I’ll invest in an RO filter system. So far so good though. As you said Simon, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.. I noticed more fresh babies this morning ? I would say there are 15+ babies in the tank at the moment. The photos are crap but I think this is my best shrimp. The white is much brighter than the others and the colour is very solid. I hope to have a tank full of shrimp likes this eventually.

There are more than one way of cycling a tank obviously, but not all of them are as efficient. Not too little nor too much effort. Let's call it the Goldilocks tank cycling method. Everyone can complete a tank cycle eventually, however some after 2 weeks, some after 1 month, and even after 3 months or more. Any one of those 4 things missing in my list can cause the bacteria to go dormant. Feel free to do it your way, I'm not a dictator and insist on you doing it my way. But do come back and check on the list if your tank takes too long to cycle. It should take 2-4 weeks if you are using bacteria from the gunk from your other filter. If you use ADA substrate + bacteria gunk, it can take 4-5 weeks. ADA has a huge amount of ammonia release. If you don't use bacteria gunk from an old tank it could take 6+ weeks. Even if you use bottled bacteria, since not all bottled bacteria are of the same quality or even have the right BB.

JayC is WAY more experienced than I so I bow to his greater knowledge/experience. I had considered doing what he has said about tap water to cycle the tank initially but as he says you will then need to do a 99% water change further down the line, that isn't possible for me unfortunately, so I have taken an easier (though it may take longer to cycle) route, that won't have any large water changes. The way I am doing it the PH won't get to 7, but it worked out ok before so fingers crossed it will be ok again this time as well, but I am aiming for bee shrimp not Cherry. With the cherry shrimps I think it does make more sense to use tap water as JayC states, as it is only a temporary kick start for the setup, and I guess you don't need to worry about shortening the life of the substrate as cherry shrimp are fine at Ph7+ anyway, in fact that could be beneficial. It would make sense for you to use this JayC Tap Water method definitely! As for the substrate depth, a lot will obviously depend on the size the substrate comes in. The ones I have seen usually come in 3L or 4L and that should be enough on top of your 3L you already have! I think I might take JayC advice on trying a pinch of fish food at this early stage and keep the prawn in the freezer for possible use later.................... Simon