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Week one has passed and I have seen 5 of the 15 shrimps today, so I am very happy about that, they could have all survived but I will never know that as the tank is so dense with plants/wood etc (lesson for next time - less is more) and there are likely some hiding, but at least whatever the early problem was seems to have vanished/cleared as the shrimp previously put into the tank vanished by the next day of being added, and that was before I got the fish. I probably won't replace the fish though when they die if the shrimps carry on working as I am sure they would pick off any newborns if they see them. Whether I have the will power to hold off buying another load (the person I got them from have all the others I would like to get) remains to be seen? I should give it a bit longer, and it has turned quite wintery here all of a sudden! There is a quite small//bright red cherry (very pretty with the stripe) in that tank that has been there a while, so red taiwan bee may be safe with the fish as well??? Simon

Very cool, i Breed Amarinus Lacustris a small freshwater crab

I disagree on one point - I believe it is better to rely on TDS instead of GH for two reasons: (1) We don't know what the actual GH of the water is in wild zeb habitats. Whenever I've measured GH in wild zeb habitats, it has always been less than one drop = less than 10 ppm. There is no test kit that I'm aware of that has any higher resolution. In a chemical test kit, such as API, you might be able to use more water in the test tube (e.g. 20 mL) but when I've tried it the colour change was too difficult to see. Hence trying to monitor GH in an aquarium setting is not viable using chemical test kits. (2) You can get a reliable measure of TDS using a TDS meter to very low values. TDS is consistently low in wild zeb habitats (typically less than 20ppm, and often in single digits), hence GH is going to be very low regardless. I've found that keeping an eye on TDS is a good way to monitor water parameters in the tank, along with water changes using very small amounts of shrimp salts to have some minerals available for the shrimp.

There are still vast areas of Arnhem Land and the Kimberley yet to be explored for aquarium suitable shrimps. The Scientists from ERISS get one new species of shrimp in each creek that drops off the Arnhem land escarpment, when they tried to go back the Aboriginal Traditional owners would not let them because white men disturb the spirits. The new species from Gunlom looks OK but I cant get any yet. There is vast areas of east Arnhem Land where it is not possible to get into, there is reports of colourful shrimps in Leichardtt Springs but Yvonne Margarula wont let anyone in there, she is the traditional owner of the area. There is a new species of Caridina in the Moyle River but it is not too colourful. The new Icthyologist at the NT Museum found two new species of fish at Maningrida last year. A goby and a feshwater sole. He is not looking for shrimps. Attached is a picture of Gunlom and the shrimp. The people at Gunlom are the Traditional Owner and Gilbert Maebe one of Northboy's mates. The Gunlom Shrimp may be OK for a line breeding experiment, they have nice pattern. I will work on getting permission to fiash there again. It was about ten years ago that I got the rainbowfish from there and put it into the hobby, that is when I photographed the shrimps. Cheers Dave

For any one going down the Zeb path you have to keep them on there own, I keep them on there own and this is when I have the best success, keeping them on there own you don't infect them with viruses from other shrimp, my losses have been from the rare heat wave or when I move and I only worked this out recently, when i move they go into a different tank and are cross infected from the shrimp that were in there before. I have not long ago finished a thermal tolerance project on the Zebs and will put it up soon. So the other thing that knocks them is the cross infection from other shrimp. As for line breeding the chameleon, if it were going to happen they have them in Asia so they would have done it! also have a look at the wild Cherry, it is not to different to some of our species? All that is needed to succeed is the commitment and drive to do it, OH and for me the dam fish room done LOL All I am trying to do is change every ones view to our Natives and point them in the right direction to get the job done. NATIVES RULE Bob