Leaderboard

If the reds from the shop photo are anything to go by I don't think you would have got any better ones in Taiwan, and you will be saving yourself a lot of hassle as well! Simon

I will pickup some more wine red once the chiller comes through, and I have decided not to get shrimps in Taiwan, there is no reason to do so, the shrimps are so much cheaper this new shop, all the shrimps are available apart from green neo's.

It was a real shame about the tank overheating, but the plus side is that at least you hadn't spent a lot of money and spent a long time on it at that stage, so it was possibly a blessing in the long term as you will be prepared when you get the chiller etc. The reason I like the taiwan bees I had was I never knew what the babies would be and always exciting the first time you get a type you haven't had before. It sounds like you have started with that already, when the black ones grow they may be blue shadow! Fingers crossed you still have both red wine ones. Keep up the good work and I hope you get the chiller soon so you can get that tank going again! Simon

Just an update. My 4 Blue Bolts are doing well, not sure if I have 1 or 2 wine red, present 3 crs are ok, and the mother, first time ever not seen it berried, about 20 black CRS or King Kong, so far I still can't tell the differences because they are anything from 3mm to10cm. 2 mixed CRS wine red out of the 20 from my new tank seems to be ok. It is kind of weird about the babies 1st batch CRS 3 babies 2nd batch black CRS or King Kong 20 babies 3rd batch mixed of both red and black CRS over 7 babies. I have placed a order for another water cooler for my new tank, after the temp went over 31 degree Celsius, and killed most of my new shrimps including 2 blue shadow.

may be the food you are feed have a problem, could be over feeding you shrimps, try snow flakes, they are usually eaten with in a day, so it will not polute the water.

Until recently I haven't really been feeding the shrimp much except algae wafers and sprinkle baby shrimp dust. That's was the first time I saw mold from food. In the past my ammonia, nitrates, nitrites have been zero but I'll measure again tomorrow. I also left a cooling fan while I'm away ABC's when I left the temp was 74. Thanks everyone for your responses, in no way did any of it come across as hostile, just helpful, thanks again

You might have water pollution from the leftover food.

Some good reminders there James. @supermansteve32, 83degF was when you measured it, it could have been higher at some point in time while you were away. CRS will fall to higher temps faster than high GH or KH or Nitrates. So get temps under control as a priority. Then think about keeping Nitrates under control. That is where your regular water changes are crucial. While small water changes are recommended, don't be afraid to perform large water changes in order to correct parameters that have gone wildly off course. Sometimes a large water change every 12 months is a good idea to reset the mineral build up in the tank and replenish calcium & magnesium that have been lost - where TDS seem to be too high despite regular water changes. As long as you take caution in matching parameters to the shrimp's needs and slowly dripping the new water back in, large water changes don't have to be feared. We just don't want to be changing parameters by too much, too often, so small water changes are usually recommended.

excuse me for interjecting, i apreciate you people most certainly have more experiance than me with shrimp keeping but i've just regailed myself with this whole thread and thought id through in my 2 cents. Crystal red shrimp prefer a TDS range of between 100 & 150. I've Obviously had problems that ive now pretty much solved where i was trying to lower TDS But now that i have got things stabilising i am playing around with raising TDS and here is how i see it... only ever do between 10 & 20% water changes at a time but this can be done twice a day. with you large tank a dripper may not be appropriate but you should also make sure you are temperature adjusting your water before you add it and only ever try to adjust TDS by 10% higher than it was at a time (i know i had a to do it this way before i got my dripper). FYI Crystal reds prefer a range of temperature between 21 & 26C (61 & 79F). I also my experience so far is that GH & KH aren't that important but your dGH of 6 is on the high end of acceptable for Crystal Red's. there is also 2 piece's of information you seem to be failing to provide and that is Nitrite (N02) & Nitrate (N03) which are apart of the ammonia (NH4) cycle but all tough i have read quite high numbers for these i have never read any ammonia readings. Shrimp are VERY sensitive to N02 & N03 and from my research for Crystal Red shrimp Nitrate should not be above 5PPM and Nitrite should be at 0 but if my tolerance range for my Red Cherry Shrimp is anything to go by and that is a maximum of 20PPM Nitrate you should not have any reading above 0.05PPM. i think high readings of these Chemicals are what could be killing your shrimp and your not aware of it because your only reading Ammonia GH and TDS. Sorry if that comes across as over bearing but thats my opinion and im trying to help :) Kind regards James

ok so its been about a week and on Thursday I added Tyrone the 'sacrificial' fish and almost 2 shrimp that got cought in the net with him but fortunately they didn't fall in the tank. I did also i think squash a shrimp when i was moving the main plant in the old Small tank in order to retrieve him... accidents happen and i hope it wasn't pregnant... Other than looking a little lonely he has been doing fine if not relishing the extra space. The New large tank has got quite a biofilm build up now on the back and 1 side that is similar in establishment to the 2 sides i don't clean on the small tank. readings as follows:- Small (old) tank TDS - 236 Temp - 26C PH - 6.5 NH4 - Unreadable N03 - 1PPM N02 - 0.1PPM P04 - 1PPM dKH - 2 dGH - 6 Large (New) Tank TDS - 224 Temp - 26C PH - 6.5 NH4 - Unreadable N03 - 1PPM N02 - Unreadable P04 - 1PPM dKH - 1 dGH - 5 The temperature is a bit high but thats just because its quite warm in the UK at the moment. Other than that the small tank is obviously struggling and im going to do a 50TDS water change and add BB to both tanks. I'm thinking the large tank is now cycled and established and at least this weekend i can finish off transferring decor and add shrimp? it has been 3 weeks now at the weekend it will have been 4 since i established the tank.

Update Not much to report really. I have added some new plants today. I still have no ammonia or nitrite but 25 nitrate. I will probably see if that continues until thursday (that tanks usual maintenance day) and if it does I have bought some Tetra nitrateminus so may try a bit of that but not totally committed to that idea yet??? All the parameters are in the ideal range otherwise. IF (note the capitals and bold) I can get 8L of new water ready for then I will do that (one third) water change - it is supposed to be hot here this week so I may not be up to that though? As I said, not much to report otherwise, it is that really annoying period maintaining and looking at an empty tank, but I am not rushing in this time - still grieving from the last lot of stunners I killed accidentally so having a problem getting enthused! Simon