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Guys can I help dispel some myths about differences in the guppy female and the Endler's female . I see a lot of people claiming that their female Endler' s have a coloured tail and dorsal fin, This is not true, The true Endler female has no colour in these regions. A so called Endler female with colour has had some sort of hybridation occurred in it's linage, A lot of people buy Endlers from some breeders when the fish are young, after a month or so the female starts showing colour on its tail and dorsal fins, naturally the person thinks the fish is a real Endler because the guy who sold it to them said so. when in fact it's classification is a Hybrid "K" Class. However there are some subtle differences between the two, I must admit it is difficult when the fish are young (Please refer to the pictures below) Guys I am not down on hybrids, however i feel sorry for people who think they have one thing but have another, There are many Endler Types out there and few true Endlers do your checks before you buy

Keeping fish is a breeze compared to shrimp. Fish can survive in relatively bad water parameters compared to shrimp.

Was sourced as tiger shrimp - Caridina sp. I got a red variety and also slight brownish and greenish ones. They appear nothing like the tiger shrimp from forum posts and hence wanted to get an ID of this shrimp. They are in a soft water tank 1-2 dKH, 4-5 dH, 140 TDS and doing ok. Breeding as well Can you help me determine what type of dwarf shrimp they are?

Yeah, would be good to see a photo of the whole tank, so we can see what sort of setup you have going.

Yep i second the notion that it is indeed red cherry shrimp.

As Crabby has stated, the first thing you need really is the test kits he mentioned, and I would get the TDS as well as they are cheap and probably the one you will use most, and the easiest to use. Some caridina shrimp are a bit easier than others to keep, ie Tiger but still it is very unlikely to work unless you have RO water that you remineralise, though VERY occassionally it can work if your source water is good enough, but this is so rare it probably shouldn't even be considered! The Caridina usually do best with soil type substrates to help buffer the water parameters as well so it will mean either a new tank or completely re setting your existig tank so there can also be a lot of time and cost involved with the Caridina shrimp, it would be best to stick with neocaridina for a year or so, until you have mastered everything and then feel confident enough to make the change? When introducig new shrimp you should drip acclimate them to the wew water, if you did not do that with the shrimp you got I would say you were lucky you only lost 3/8 and you may possibly lose more yet, if they survive 3-4 weeks they should be ok! You can't really go any further though until you know the water parameters so that should be your next step/purchase! When we know the parameters we will have a much better idea? An idea f the tank and contents as well is always useful as certain items can alter the parameters as Crabby has said also! When you get the tests you should test your source water AND the tank water and we can go from there? Simon

I live in Melbourne, and we have pretty soft water here, with about 7 pH still. So, I actually don't use an active substrate. I use AquaIron by Oliver Knott and Pisces in my main tank, bare bottom in 3 of my 5 gallons (inert substrate in a tub in one), and an inert substrate in my last 5 gallon (Sorry if I switch between metric and imperial - I naturally use metric, but I've learnt to use imperial since most of the fish keeping community online uses it). My pH in the main tank, with all that in mind, is about 5-5.5... Now, that is 100% from the driftwood. It's a random piece of driftwood I collected at the beach, looks fantastic, and is kinda massive. My pH in the other tanks tends to be around 6.5-7, since I use crushed coral to raise it up a little (I keep and breed blue dreams - neocaridinas - and tangerine tiger shrimp, which can do well in a slightly lower range than neos. Uhm, I have caridinas and don't use RO, so I wouldn't say that investment is necessary. If you want to try Taiwan Bees, @sdlTBfanUK can help you more than I can. I would give it a year or so before transitioning into them though. You could probably do crystals and tigers with an active substrate and some wood, without RO. I cannot recommend this enough. TDS isn't necessary with neos, but it would be great for the survival and well-being of your shrimp if you could test the water, say with the API kits - Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH & KH. Sorry to hear that! If it was 3/8, there might be something going on with your water. I find my shrimp become way more active (constant grazing, flying around the tank) when the water is just right. Could I ask what you're doing in terms of food?

You are right i am currently keeping neocaridina shrimps. I should invest in a water test kit to have all the required information on them. Out of a batch of 8, 3 shrimps died on me and the remaining ones are mostly inactive (they do graze around here and then), they have taken up color though so i'm hoping they are ok. BTW if I' planning on moving to Caridina shrimps, can I still use API stress coat and tap water or I should definitely have an RO system. Thats sound great, I should get a main tank too where i can get really clean water out of it for shrimps. Whats the water ph of the main tank with fish, im assuming you are using an active substrate in your fish tanks? I have neocaridina and inactive substrate, im guessing my ph is around 7 which should be fine for them.

My shrimps has been inactive lately, so i was wondering if adding some minerals would help them. I should really go buy a test kit as I have really limited information right now. Thats quite a leap from fish keeping to shrimp keeping ?.