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Hi All, I'm looking to start a TB colony , i've finally manage to nail down my CRS tank and have babies that are doing well and surviving now. I was looking into getting KK,BB and some shadow pandas. What should i expect from breeding them? I'm not looking to go into selective breeding i just love the colours and its more of a peaceful hobby to me. I won't be starting this project for another month or so. Thanks.

I started with 6 blue bolts, some red ruby, red wine and 3 blue steel and this is what I got, you don't know what you may end up with (and that adds to the excitement), it all depends on the genes the shrimp carry and there is little way of knowing that when you buy them. Good luck with it and I look forward to hopefully hearing how it goes. Simon

I finally succumbed to aquabid, ordered 11 black galaxy nanancys, a blood vomit plant and some syngonathus. The tiny plants are fascinating me. I'm thinking an aquascape that makes the shrimp look giant would be fun. Also thinking a shrimp zen garden could be entertaining.

I purchased my colony second hand within the last month. I don't really know it's history but there were for sure black and red zebras to start. They are throwing decent galaxy patters and lots of fishbones. There are a handful of red and blue bolts, not sure if they were in there to begin with or not but there are some interesting colors emerging. Check my 1 post (lol) for a couple pics.

What did you started with for your mixed colony ? As I say this is a hobby and I love beautiful bright colours . It's the reason why I'm looking into Taiwan bees.

Ultimately your offspring are patterned/colored like it's parents, so you probably won't have incredible deviations from the panda type, although color/hue could swing a little more imo with that combo. The black lines do have potential to throw most of the other morphs as I understand it, so you might get a random down the line. Extreme blue bolt might be worthwhile for more color. A mixed colony is terrific fun and you never really know what the melting pot will produce. I've got a mixed colony and at least 2 unique morphs out of it this far.

Well, here's the fish in question. Sorry about the picture quality, I have a tremor and it's very hard for me to hold a camera steady. It certainly looks like a Corydora to me. It's out in the open a bit now. It's still only about an inch long but looks as though it's thriving among the shrimp. I'm assuming it'll be a safe tank mate for them. Just got to grow it on a bit now.

Hey Spidey. That's correct. RO water made for human drinking consumption, adds alkalinity back into the water after the filtration. I use an RO filtration system, which includes this alkaline part, but has a switch to turn it off when I make RO water for the aquarium. Check if you can turn off the post RO deionising filter. That's something I don't know for sure, as I have never tested it.

Woodstock is a suburb in Northwest Atlanta. This morning, with the lights on for 3 hours and temp @ 73.2 I had one tank at a pH of 7.7, another at 7.8 and the 50 gallon at 7.9. TDS is slowly climbing, but run from 226 to 268. I try to test at the same time daily so that time, lights, and temperature remain fairly constant to the other parameters. I don't know how much fluctuation actually occurs during a 24 hour period but I thinks it's probably best to work on consistency.

I test pH, GH, and TDS regularly...so yes test pH with GH factored in. I am keeping Neos. My approach is GH is important so I try to maintain that around 6. I use TDS to determine water change timing and shoot to keep it under 300. pH I just try to keep in the 6.8 to 7.4 range...if any changes are needed it is usually needing to be raised due to the wood and leaves...which I accomplish with Aragonite...which of course also affects TDS. Always a balancing game. PS. as a New England native myself...curious if Woodstock is ..as in VT? What is your tank pH?

Yes, it dissolves when added to the tank. But it's cloudy when in the concentrated form before I mix it into the change water. Sounds like you got a dud batch.

Alright, this morning I tested the Shrimp Mineral GH/KH+ on an unopened gallon of distilled water to see what kind of results I got. First, I shook the Salty Shrimp Minerals to insure the powder was well mixed. Then I tested the distilled water still in the jug. It had a pH of 5.4 and a TDS of 0. (I calibrated both pens prior to starting the test.) I added the Salty Shrimp Minerals to a TDS of 216. Then tested pH (7.92), API GH test was 9, and API KH test was 3. My conclusion is that the Salty Shrimp Minerals is a bad batch. I have more arriving tomorrow so I can test it then. The reason I hesitate to not use it is my shrimp were purchased from "USA's Largest Online Retailer of Freshwater Shrimp", according to him anyway and he says that this is the only thing he uses and recommends. Maybe I need to take the advice of Ayn Rand from her novel "Atlas Shrugged" ... when all else fails, check your premise. Any suggestions or ideas anyone has are welcome.