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Welcome @Riffly, your project there sounds very interesting. Where are you from? It will be interesting to know how you cultivate zooplankton, as a number of shrimp species depend on that during their larvae phase (ie right after coming out of the egg). Would you mind sharing your experiences with obtaining enough plankton to raise shrimplets that depend on it? Amano shrimp and a couple of Australian natives (Darwin Algae shrimp) that could be bred in captivity if people have a reliable source of food for those early weeks in the shrimp's life. I have tried using chlorella : spirulina 50:50 mix to create a diy green water, but that has mixed results. Plankton + the green water would be more successful.

Hi everyone, I am a biologist who is breeding glass shrimps, riffle shrimps (one of my favourites), red claw, micro algae, zooplankton and a local endangered fish species (honey blue eye rainbows). I am doing private research into using algae/zooplankton as a sustainable food source for aquaculture and a food source for developing countries. My main focus right now is to breed riffle shrimps in large numbers as they are filter feeders and work well with my plankton systems. I look forward to contributing and learning from you all. cheers

Simon has highlighted something that is not right with your water parameters. You should not be getting detectable nitrites. The more important parameter to address as a priority is to reduce nitrite, the tank just needs to be cycled properly. You can try supplementing with beneficial bacteria. How big is the tank and the filter? A small tank and filter with lots of shrimp/fish can mean that there is not enough surface area for beneficial bacteria to grow and thus show signs of nitrite build up. The KH of your water is too high, likely due to the water being well water, which is usually filtered through sand, stone and material that release carbonates. As for reducing KH, you will have to change water sources, to something like rainwater or Reverse Osmosis. Don't use KH down chemicals, which will just introduce a whole different problem.

The adults were in a cycled tank 3 to 5 weeks depending on when they were bought.