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Have been playing around with some genetics for a new project. I have breed a female hollow eye red ghost bee with a male super red crystal extreme (Santa). I was seeing if I could cross some of the genes over to make a interesting mix. So far I have counted 8 identical f1 still very young to get a good picture. Which look very much like normal CRS. Will have to see how they turn out abs what we can do crossing them back!

I have 3 tanks of about 30L each. The oldest has ember tetra, neon tetra and red cherry shrimps in it. The majority of the cherry shrimps have gone wild colour now as I didn't cull. It is fairly densely planted and just uses dechlorinated tap water! I then have a betta tank with a male betta where I sometimes dump some of the cherry wild shrimp in either as food or company for the betta. That tank has also become densely planted. I use tapwater for this tank but add GH and/or KH to get to near the parameters JayC here recommended and that seems to work perfectly. I tried with just tap water (dechlorinated) a few times before but it never worked but thanks to JayC advice it now runs fine. Now for the last tank. This started out as a Taiwan Bee tank and went unbelievably well using zerowater and shrimp minerals. You can see photos on this link, scroll down to 30 Dec 2018, https://skfaquatics.com/forum/forums/topic/14025-tap-water-taiwan-bee-uk-zerowater/ Following the heater stiicking on in that tank and cooking all the stunning shrimp I couldn't get it work when I re-did the tank, I have had to assume the substrate has something to do with it (???) as it has never grown plants well etc and the tank looks very drab/brown, not the lush green of the other tanks or the same as it was in this tank with the other substrat? I will use the substrate I used before if/when I have another bash at TB shrimps sometime in the future. At the moment I have a killie and 11 mosquito rasbora in that tank! Would love to hear all about your setup(s) and experiences as I am definitely a HUGE Taiwan bee shrimp fan, and still disappointed with what happened to mine................ Simon

Thank you, Simon! I think she's gorgeous. I've been keeping them a bit over 6 months but they're doing well. What do you keep

Thank you. ? There are a lot of useful information in the "Article" tab. https://skfaquatics.com/forum/articles/ There are also a lot of useful posts that have been pinned (sticky) within each topic in the forums. I would suggest starting there.

Yeah I think betta mating, however beautiful, always ends of with some aggression and damaged fins. That's so cute! I'll have to try peas. We have some growing in the garden, so there isn't the worry about it having pesticides or anything. Thankyou! He just arrived today, looking splendid. I'll send some photos when he's settled in. Just double checking right now that I've got similar parameters to the ones jayc recommended to you.

ok, that is the BEST ANSWER I've ever seen! Thank You! is there an article post explaining this? If not, there should be. Thank you so much for your time answering these questions.

Wecome Tracy to the forum. That is a stunning blue steel shrimp, tell us more? Simon

We get that a lot thaat snails are introduced with plants, they may have been eggs on the plant etc. Still, snails aren't a bad thing ad as long as you keep on top of the numbers they are another dimension to an aquarium. The majority of snails need a saltwater/brackish stage for reproduction so depending on what the black one is you may never get babies with that one, this means they never become a problem but you need to restock every now and again! I use assassin snails which are much slower at reproducing than the Malaysian Trumpet snails but occassionally I have to give some away to friends. Overfeeding is such a common problem. Really, shrimp feeding is a top up and treat as the shrimp eat biofilm most of the day, though obviously there needs to be enough biofilm in the tank to sustain the shrimp and with 15 shrimps in a 2g tank they will need some extra food over the biofilm probably! It sounds as though you are doing everything right! Keep it up! When you get boring/wild type shrimps they will make a nice treat for your turtle? Simon

The water parameters for Betta are not specified because they can tolerate a very wide range. Hence people keeping them in jars with nothing but dechlorinated tap water. However if you are looking for ideal parameters, I would keep them in soft water. That is pH: 6.5 - 6.8 Temp: 25degC or 78degF. KH: 3-5 GH: 6-8 TDS: doesn't really matter. These guys can live in crap water (not that you should aim for crap water). But I would aim for under 350 like for all my other softwater fish. Most important thing is to give them a tank that is well cycled and has low flow. They do not prefer a strong filter and flow. Some floating plants will also help them build bubble nests if you have females (note the plural. 1 female is not enough and will get harassed). If you are putting the betta in a 15L, then I would avoid females in the same tank until you see him building a nest. Apart from that, they are considered very easy fish to keep.