Leaderboard

I always enjoy watching your videos, tanks look great and what a selection. As with JayC,, I am so jealous, you make it look so easy! Simon

Let me know if your SAE eats BBA. Mine doesn't, fussy basturd.

Because your mods here are Super mods.

I'm so pleased to hear it is going well and you should soon have some baby shrimps, as long as the fish don't get them! It would be easiest to catch the fish and shrimps and then drain most of the water from the tank to change the substrate, otherwise the water will get so merky you won't be able to see what you are doing, and if you drain the water you can use it to refill the tank as it will be clear and the parameters that the shrimp are used too already. Then you can slowly alter the parameters when you do your normal water changes/maintenance. Simon

a video with my shrimp tanks

Update: I have a berried mama! She’s looking well, carrying 10-15 eggs. Definitely only berried for at most a week. All of them are massive now, very healthy, only 2 losses early on. All sorted now. Lots of algae and biofilm that they’re constantly grazing on. Unfortunately I’ve had more Endlers give birth, and even some fry reproducing... plus a female endler who hasn't lived with a male for over a month looks to be extremely pregnant... ?? I might need to redo the substrate some time soon, as I think there’s too much crushed coral in it and the water is getting pretty hard. Would that be done by removing the shrimp, netting fish (I would seperate these and likely try to organise to sell them all on this day), then removing plants systematically before removing substrate (then reverse the steps)? Or would I have to drain the tank fully too? Anyway super stoked about the berried girl. Cheers, Crabby

A mate (Crabby) has heaps of Christmas moss to give me. The only problem is meeting up for that to happen. And yes the substrate is inert I did some research before. It’s a medium to large grain sand. - B

Good to see this tank is doing well for you. Those are some of the best Orange rillis I have seen.

May 2, 2020 delayed In Transit, Arriving Late I ordered 30 high quality yellow neos from a top breeder in the US ... LRBretz aquatics ... i got other shrimp from in the past ...he has won awards for his shrimp For the 35gal 20x20x20 cube using black diamond med sand, that has been running full of plants for nearly 2 months to cycle and get good biofilm buildup. called local post office they say truck will likely not be here till 5-30 to 6pm ... no one will be there but driver to swap out package buggies .... truck drivers not allowed to handle packages for me to claim at the dock!!!!! They should have been delivered today Over hundred bucks worth of my shrimp will be stuck in post office till monday ... has any one ever had this happen and had shrimp and snails survive 5 days in mail. All i can do is pray ...... several hrs temp acclimation to the room temps before several hrs slow drip acclimate with a few drops of shrimp prep to eliminate any ammonia buildup, as i normally would.

Hello shrimp keepers, I live in the United States. Lately, the United States Postal Service has been struggling under some immense pressure. I have been mailing very well packed juvenile shrimp throughout the winter insulated with 72-hour Unipacks. Only in one or two rare instances were the shrimp dead. Since the pandemic/quarantine began, I’ve had nearly half of my shipments turn up dead. Once 45* F plus weather struck I stopped shipping with unipacks as I feared the shrimp deaths I was having were due to them being ‘cooked’. However, they kept turning up mushy again, perhaps either exposed to heat or frost. I always ship with plants in boxes weighing around 12-16 oz. Of course keeping shrimp alive is not my largest concern in life now, but I am losing lots of money, risking my ebay ratings, and hassling/siphoning funds from USPS with constant insurance claims. I was curious if anyone had any helpful tips. i think I may start by shipping with more water and air in bags to mitigate temperature swings of more chaotic transport a bit better. Perhaps I should package everything in styrofoam, however that will probably be cost prohibitive and environmentally i hate styrofoam. Any other tips for more extreme survival?

When I first set up my first tank I got the BBA on the wood in the tank (is that where yours is) but nowhere else. I removed the wood (that alone is one easy solution of coarse) and left it on a window ledge in full sun(ish as we don't get that often) for some weeks which killed the BBA and dried the wood out, it was many years ago but I'm sure I must have put it in another tank at some stage but the BBA didn't come back! If it is on a piece of wood/ornament it would still be easier to remove it from the tank to pull the BBA off, if that is easily done? Lovely fish by the way! Simon

I've always shipped with Styrofoam boxes and breather bags and it has never been a problem. I seal the lid of the box with tape so it does not leak water. So even if the breather bag breaks, the water remains in the box. Always aim to ship on a Monday, so deliveries are not stuck at depots over a weekend. I never ship in the dead of summer either. All the other seasons in Australia are mild enough for next day delivery options, just summer can be a bit risky.

We can visit each other now, 2 adults meeting each other to hand over some moss should not be a problem.

Geez that’s a brilliant idea with the keeping water... wow. Wonder why I didn’t think of that before... I mean even if I get it a little murky I could probably drain through some filter wool if I wanted to save some time clearing it up. Thanks Simon! Also just realised I didn’t post a pic of the berried girl, so here it is:

Nicpapa, your tanks always make me jealous. They are so nice.

Wow okay good luck. I’ve only got brown algae so easy to clean.

Good idea... from my experience it doesn’t work well though. The Blackbeard floats around until it can attach to something else, and it just increases the spread. The Blackbeard is also super well attached to everything, and very very tough. I tried scraping it off and sucking it up with my gravel vac once, but I only got the hair algae, no BBA. Just gonna drop lights, dose excel, maybe try the scraping thing again and let the SAE get the rest.

Have you tried just pulling the algae off with your hands in the tank to help slow the spread? It may decrease the algae enough for the SAE to get the rest of it. Good luck. - B

So I’m finally trying to combat the algae - I’m dosing flourish excel again daily, adding a timer, and I purchased a pair of true Siamese algae eaters (I like triple checked on id once I had them in my tank) to help handle the problem. To be honest, the SAE are cute enough on their own, even if they didn’t do anything for the algae. But I’m going to try to push them to eat it. Once they start, it’s like a massive buffet for them to gorge themselves on! I’ll be cutting down light to eventually 4 hours a day, slowly bringing it down and back up to sit at 8 over the course of a few months. Below are some pictures of my new SAE, Watson and Holmes! (They’re here to solve the problem ? )

That’s good to hear! I’ve had shrimp missing in the mail for two weeks and then turn up alive and well. However, I’ve had a bad string of shrimp dying in the mail lately, approximately half of all my shipments. I’ll make a separate post, but I’d love some pointers on shipping technique that avoid shrimp deaths.

Yeah my moss is defs bushy... pretty much all my plants are since I never trim or remove anything. And now that I see your hardscape, maybe some smaller crypts would work well, right under the base of the wood (or something similar). And of course one of your Marimo moss balls would look great as well. I know my shrimp adore mine. If I were you, I would get the light going from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, to build up algae and biofilm. Just for a week or so. Should help the re-cycling (partially helping the cycle, not recycling, I mean) process. I did it and it worked for me, at least. Crabby

just got a text from the shipper, says he has had them delayed for up to 7 days and all were fine in breather bags and insulated boxes even in higher heat ... even had one for 7 days arrived looking like it was half crushed and kicked to the door step.. they packaged good and all the shrimp survived not a loss

so you think the ammonia remover is NOT the best solution ok .. will do it your way for unknown reasons they were in the processing center on thursday sent to my local 930am thurs, normally packages delivered between 3-4pm next day .... this time i got a delay notice arrive by sat ... still showing that ... right now at 8:40pm thinking crono deliveries slammed the post system or they got lost and not refound them yet sent a notice to the shipper to see what he suggests i do when i receive them,,he been doing this many years likely had this happen, no word back from him yet. really scary to have happen luckly temps have been around 10-20 lows and highs around 23 so got a chance some will pull thru

Get some moss on the wood. Something big and bushy to hide the air filter would be cool.

Great idea. Would like to know the results. Keep us updated.

I haven't had my shrimp deliveries get delayed personally but as the Mod here for many years, I have read every post here. So I've read many stories of late deliveries. And yes, there has been many times where shrimp have been delayed in the post. You'd understand if you lived in Australia, cause Austpost. 7 days or longer is possible for shrimps, BUT! The BUT is dependent on temperature. If temps are high, like in above 28degC, shrimps are less likely to survive being trapped in the shipping bag for a week. Also, I quoted your comment above because, that is not the best way to handle shrimp (or fish) that have been in shipment for a long time. The "slowly, slowly" method of drip acclimation to match your tank water needs to be avoided this one time. The water these new shrimp will arrive in will be full of ammonia. Every minute counts. We need to get them out fast! Do this instead. test the water they came in for pH, GH, KH, TDS and temps. Match the new water exactly to these parameters. Net the shrimp into the new water (matched to the water the came in) directly as soon as possible. The point here is to get them out of ammonia rich water as quickly as possible. Then, you can start looking at acclimation to your main tank parameters.

Fantastic news, you could soon have a tank full of shrimps! Simon

Quick update, a new berried mama shrimp, so that makes(2) carrying. 4 more females are saddled, abs there were (3) molts this AM. So I assume at least 1-2 of them molted and may have mated. I’ll know if they move eggs down soon. Things seem to be going great. There are also a ton of rams horn snail eggs, so this should get interesting.