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About myself: I started fish tanks about 50 years ago, back when we just let water sit overnight then put fish in. I started with tropical fish, raising fancy tail guppies for fun and profit to allow me my prize & joy; My Red Belly Piranha. I had him for about 6 years until he died then shut down all my tanks. Fast forward 40 years, I'm retired, just remodeled my home and decided it needed a fish tank. 7 months ago I picked up a 205 L corner tank and stocked it as a nice community tank. A lot of learning about new (to me) practices and procedures. After changing gravel to sand & putting in plants, everything is going too smooth so I looked into shrimp. I started my shrimp tank 4 months ago with a divided 37 L. I have Sakura Red and Blue Dreams. Made a few mistakes along the way, but the Reds have doubled in numbers and the Blue have tripled so I decided to go in with both feet. I just purchased 2 - 75 L tanks and a heavy duty rack to hold them plus a couple of 37 L for culls and quarantine. I'm starting to get all the necessary equipment (filters, pumps, lights, substrate, plants, etc) ordered. I'm hoping to have the new tanks inhabited by October.

I only got the blue bolts yesterday, cost me GBP10 for 4.

4 blue bolts, you kept that quiet!!!!!!! Those will be what I start with as can get those easily and at a reasonable price here, though I expect (judging on the others you have) they probably won't be as high grade. Hope you see them all today! Simon

The mother red CRS, all the babies, and the 2 wine red are in the old tank, just added 4 bluebolts yesterday, whiles the new 20 CRS and blue shadows are in the new tank.

I can't remember, are the red wines on their own? If they are with others then maybe they are berried, that usually makes them hide, especially near hatching time? Or moulting? I will definitely keep my fingers and toes crossed they are both alright as they are stunning! Simon

Great idea. I do have plenty of hiding places in there and I was thinking of eventually adding shrimp into there. This way I could see if my current fish will accept them or see them as food. There are plenty of people in my area that would gladly buy culls, naturally at a reduced price.

Those two shadow pandas are do well, but i'm not sure about the wine red, they like to hid a few days and come out, then hide again, this morning I did see the red head wine red, but the other one, it was a few days ago when I did see it.

That is interesting, but I guess people picking their own will pick the better ones so it does make sense for the shop to charge extra for allowing people to do that. It is difficult to tell from a photo the true colour and some of the CRS in your photo did look more red than orange (normal crystal colour) so they could be hybrids I guess, but they were all beautiful and a bargain, they would have still been worth the normal USD3.50, thats about the equivalent of prices here but those of yours and the shop photo you sent are way better coloured generally! Hope the 2 shadow pandas are doing well? The plants arrived and are in the tank, woohoo! Simon

The problem with most shops in Hong Kong, a average CRS is sold for USD 3.50, but is you want to choose your own shrimp, you might have to pay an extra USD 7 on top, choosing your own shrimps, this include guppy, plates, tetra and other small fish will impose extra cost. Those shrimp I got for USD 13 for 20 shrimps, is way below the average cost of shrimps sold in Hong Kong, it seems like they are mied wine red and CRS, you can see the red is much darker.

I like the idea of catching your own shrimp at the shop, though the photos from the shop you attached, I would want them all................ More babies, your next problem may be 'too many' shrimps??? I ordered a few plants yesterday so they should arrive today so they can go into the shrimp tank. I have also ordered some nitrateminus with it so may see if just using a small amount (1ml) may get the nitrates down a bit, not 100^% decided on that yet, but will have it here in readiness in case I decide to experiment! Simon

update, I'm starting see free swimming CRS, so far I have spotted about 5 red CRS. whether its 3rd or 4th batch, it doesn't matter I happy I have babies.