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Hi everyone, It has been a while since i posted here. Just like to share the happy news that i have 2 berried crystals in my main 16litre tank. It has been almost a year into crystal shrimps and this is my first time having some pregnant mummies. Thank you jayc, simon and all who have posted threads on here regarding this hobby, i have learnt a great deal and have come a long way since i first started! Phew! I feel like i have achieved something haha. I am happy to report that no shrimps are dying and we are growing. Regards, Jo Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Hah! LOL, how did I know. If I was going to put a bet on one or the other, it would be the rocks from Phillip Island ... from the beach. How to test? do the vinegar test. Take out a bit of gravel, and a small stone. drop some vinegar on them to see if you get a reaction. Alternate test is to put them in a cup of water. Test the water GH and KH before adding, then test again after a few hours to see if KH and GH have increased.

Those parameters are getting too high for a killi. Killis definitely prefer soft water and slightly acidic, pH under 7.0. Irrespective of what disease it might have, it would be a good idea to start reducing pH, GH and KH slowly now. Where abouts in VIC are you? Melbourne's tap water is generally very good for softwater fish. If we can't ID the disease, start with an all purpose cure, like malachite green.

Hi folks. I've been on Planted Tank, Monster Fish, and several marine and reef forums by the name "Blue Ridge Reef," which was the name of my former LFS. I'm 50 years old and have been in the hobby since I was a kid. Most of my last 20 years were more on the reef side of things, but over time I realized that 2 planted 125 gallon tanks built into my shop's wall were less work and more enjoyment, and slowly have been switching everything over to planted tanks with shrimp. I've kept cherry variants for about 10 years now, have messed with Caridina for only a couple of years but they are proving to be addictive. I currently have 11 shrimp tanks ranging from 125 to 5.5 gallons. I look forward to meeting you folks!

I had terrible luck with breeding Caridina until switching over to buffering soil and RO/DI water. As soon as I did that, they began producing like cherries. Yeah, I'm still working on the blue cherries. These are throwing about a 50% cull rate so far. Wild type, rili, and blacks pop up regularly. One of the reasons I set up the rack was to "reverse cull" and just move the most perfect ones to the breeding tank rather than the other way around. The rack (and there are 5 more) are sitting in the back of my pet supply store. I opened to be a local fish store in 2007, but quickly saw that I only made money on dog and cat supplies and the aquariums were about to make me close. So I got out of fish in 2013 and they have sat empty since. Around March I decided to fill a few up since I had everything I needed just sitting around. The tanks are pretty low maintenance. I only do passive CO2 and medium light, roughly 25% EI dose. It's quite the change from the marine side of things. Lots of waiting around with nothing to really do!

Those are some fantastic tanks, I especially like the 125 long tanks and love the blue bolt shrimp! Like you, I started with cherry shrimps and progressed to bee shrimps. I think with me it was a lot to do with the fact that bee shrimp are a lot more difficult that appealed as I was determined (with a years 'I give up' break) to crack it, which I did. Second time round after wiping out the first lot isn't quite as successful YET, but hope springs eternal? Those blue cherry are also a wonderful blue, is that a small orange rili in front of them I see as well? Where are those racks in your house? You must spend a lot of time on all those tanks? Simon

50 gallon Hagen Osaka: Another: 125: Another: These four 20's are my newest additions, two for Neos, two for bees: Some shrimp photos:

That means you have something else in the tank that is leeching carbonates - like a rock, or gravel or shell grit.

You're welcome Jo. It's great to see you have so much success with your shrimps. Nothing cuter than those baby CRS.

Al the shrimps in the tank( one Neo and two Amano)are doing fantastic. I suppose I’m just going to ride all this out. Hopefully the substrate is going to take a dump on buffering sooner than later.

Yep, the Dragon Stone is causing that. But apart from 250 TDS, which shouldn't be that high that it would kill shrimps off, there might be other factors. Tell us exactly how you added the new shrimp. What was your acclimation process? The next time you buy any new shrimp or fish, always, ALWAYS test the water that they come in to find out how wildly different it might be to the water you are introducing them to. If the difference is big, acclimation needs to be more than just floating the bag in the tank to get temps up to equilibrium - it needs to have water dripped into the bag until parameters match your tank water closely. That can take anywhere from 1hour to 12hours depending on the difference in the water parameters. Dragonstones are great for hard water fish, but not so much for Tetras and shrimps. I know you have probably invested in those stones, so someone telling you not to use them might not sound like the best advise. Just don't throw them away, you might be able to use them in the future (like when your tank matures, and pH starts falling too low). But for now, try taking them out, and we can see what the tank parameters fall back to.

Fluval stratum is active substrate and tries to have pH less than 7 while absorbing KH. It is not compatible with SS GH/KH which tries to have pH mid-upper 7's. Also, your TDS is too high for RO + SS - there must be something else in the water