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Hi fellow Shrimp lovers!! Thank you for allowing me to join. I kinda got hooked on shrimp accidentally. A little about me...I'm a registered nurse and also have extensive work experience and training in the dental industry. However, I'm on workers compensation, for a spinal injury I had in Feb 2011 at 23yrs old. I had emergency spinal surgery 6hrs after meeting my neurosurgeon as I was about to become paralysed and have no control over my bladder and bowel. Thankfully I had surgery in time to avoid becoming paralysed, but the rest of my body suffered. I have now had 5 major spinal operations on my lumbar spine (2 double level fusions, 3 microdiscectomies, and removal of facet joints and solid synovial cysts) and I have also had countless day procedures on my spine too. Anyway, about 12 months ago along came a MD fish tanks video suggestion on youtube and from then on, I was hooked! I wanted a planted tank with a community of fish. So about 6 weeks ago, I discovered an old 60L tank of mine on my garage. I cleaned it up and bought everything I needed (yep...my credit card hates me! Lol!) and I started cycling my tank. Next thing though I was getting algae everywhere. Brown algae...yuck! Now away from this tank, I fall in love with a 235L tank. I buy it but we need to put extra floor joists in and reinforce the floor. We also need to remove a door and plaster it up. Hopefully it'll be done in a couple months and I can start it up too! So I had been researching for ages. What should I put in my 60L to clean up this algae? I pop into my local LFS and I fall in love with a baby BN pleco. (Yes...im aware my 60L tank is too small but he'll be upgraded to the 235L before he is say another centimetre longer.) My little pleco was named Godfrey Macleay da Hoover. Those who are Aussie will know we have a store called Godfrey's who sell vacuums. Well lil Godfrey hoovered the vast majority of it up! However there was still a lot left, so I go on the hunt for something to eat it. I come across a "algae eaters" pack from an online LFS. So along came 3 nerite snails (Patrick, Bob and Gary) and 20 odd darwin algae eaters and red nose shrimp. I fell in love with them, so purchased another 20 of them plus 2 more nerites (Sluggo and Mrs Sandy P Cheeks). The shrimp, are to me, just called, "The shrimplets". So now, it's time a few nano fish. I have ordered 3 green neon tetras but now I'm leaning towards putting in some Aussie nano fish that may be found in the same, or close by, region. Im going to do some searching, but does anyone have any suggestions please? Quite a number of my ladies are berried at the moment. I read that they don't breed too well in freshwater set ups. Im hoping they do, as I would love to see them grow into a bigger colony. Anyway, I was never planning on getting shrimp, but here we are! I'm thinking of adding a few more red nose shrimp as I don't see them too often, and 2 jumped overboard when I was cleaning the tank 😞 (how do you pick them up quick enough to get them back in the tank?? They ended up passing away sadly.) I now have plans to buy 4x 30L cube tanks and getting some other fascinating species. I may even end up surpassing that 4 tanks, as im just in love with them and they fascinate me! I could watch them all day. This tank was to distract me from my pain, my operations, my very likely situation where I will never work again. But maybe these guys can help me, keep me occupied, and maybe even give me a bit of extra income, once I am off workers comp (not allowed to work or volunteer whilst on it. Not even really allowed to go study a course at TAFE, uni or college either!). Anyway, thank you for having me, I look forward to meeting you all and chatting about all things shrimp! 😊

What a great intro. And amazing story. Welcome to the forum. I see you have caught the shrimp bug and absolutely infected with the Multi Tank Syndrome (MTS). HAHA, I snorted. 🤣 Awesome choice to build a native tank. Pacific Blue Eyes (Pseudomugil Signifer) is highly recommended for such a tank. And they should be a little bit easier to find. Everything else might be a bit too big for a tanks with shrimp. I hope one of those species is CRS. My passion for the hobby really kicked off after I got CRS. Don't forget to leave enough money for other things like Substrate, TDS meter, other test kits, food, and plants. What postcode do you live in? I am about to throw out a large handful of Subwassertang (aka Fresh water seaweed) if you don't mind picking up.

This is the red shrimp in my tank. It looks NOTHING like my darwin algae eaters and red nose. Any ideas of what this one may be please? I just took the photo 15mins ago

Hi sdlTBfanUK!! Thank you for your kind and welcoming message! I'm so sorry to hear you too had to retire due to medical issues. It's so depressing when it happens but hopefully your tank and your lil shrimp bring you joy! Ahh cool! Well Amano shrimp will be going in my big tank! I need shrimp in every tank as I'm so in love with them, but I just didn't want them to be eaten by the carnivorous fish! I like the idea of easy to control numbers wise, too! Haha! So I believe that the red nose shrimp and darwin algae eaters are carindina shrimp too....oh boy! What have I got myself in to!! Lol! I'm on rainwater as where I live we don't have plumbed tap water. We just have 3 massive rainwater tanks. I have heard that it is 2nd best for caridina, if no RO water. Do you know if that's true? I would honestly prefer to not have to buy a RO unit or buy it, but if I must, I must. I read that my 2 species won't cross breed, thankfully, in fact I read it's hard to breed them in freshwater. I just saw 6 berried females and they look like they have a large number of larvae. Fingers crossed I may get some shrimplets! Haha yeah I get it confused too! I always think it's cherry red shrimp, not red cherry shrimp. Oh well, I'm still learning! I'm going to have to look up old threads I'm this forum and find info on care of caridina shrimp. My TDS was 168, ph has risen slightly to 7.6 (I think I need to get it down), Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrites 0ppm, Nitrates 0ppm (plants are sucking it up!), gh- 4, kh-3. I have gh+ here at home, which I'm going to need to read up on how to use. It doesn't affect pH, but I want to make sure I use it correctly. I also want to read up on minerals and feeding. I'm trying to do my best. I kinda jumped in and got them on a whim which I really shouldn't have done but my tank was overrun with algae and they were marketed as the best algae eaters. I wish they said they are a more advanced shrimp to keep and I wish I did more research first. So far though, they are all happy and healthy. Yes im definitely going to keep that in mind and I'll always ensure the tanks are no taller than say 35cm. My tank is about 30-32cm tall and they seem totally fine with that height. I definitely won't go for the tall skinny tanks though. I'm thinking of purchasing a few 30³ tanks and I really want another 60x30x30 tank too. I'm so sorry to hear about your medical struggles too. I really hope you can get more tanks set up over time. How many tanks did you have pre move? I didn't realise a better could live with red cherry shrimp! How do they get along? You should def try caridina shrimps again one day, although you now have me nervous that my guys may all die easily. They certainly love to walk on my arms/hands when I'm cleaning the tank. Then I dont realise, I lift my hands out and then they fling themselves onto something outside of the tank! I need to find a way to prevent it. Is there any way to quickly pick them up safely, and then put them back in the tank? I got one back in the other day but he unfortunately didn't meet it. The others enjoyed a meaty feed though! I also read it's best to leave their moults in the tank too. Is this correct? Oh I love Apistogrammas! They'll look fabulous in a tank if you do eventually get them! Please show us them if you do get some. 🙏 Thanks! I'm hoping to interact as much as I can! I really look forward to learning as much as I can from everyone!

Oh duh Rochelle! (Real name is Rochelle just fyi in case you are wondering who that is! Lol!) Yes Crystal Red Shrimp. They are gorgeous and def a species I wish to get!! Yeah these 2 little ones (possibly 3 little ones) are only .8cm-1cm, one has bright red stripes that go across the body, exactly like a calico. Completely different shape to my darwin algae eaters. If I can work out how to resize the photo I took today of it, I'll upload it for you. The other one has blackish/brown stripes that go across the body. Same size and exactly the same body shape as the red one. I do suspect it's 2 rough calico, which the lfs also sell. They look completely different to my darwin algae eaters and red nose. Ahh right. Yes I remember reading that. My tank is 60x30x33. It's longer and not too tall. I'm thinking of getting those opticlear 30³ tanks as I love the look of them. Just clean and simple. I am also wanting another tank with similar dimensions as my current one. I have a bit of an idea of the set up I want in my small lounge room. I'm definitely coming up next Wednesday. Coming to the eastern suburbs, but I am happy to travel anywhere to collect. My dad drives me usually to Sydney as my meds can make me sleepy at the wheel, so I'll check with him too. But I'll chat to you in private messages to try and work out something. Thank you again, so very much for the offer of the plants. Just so generous of you. Thank you 💛

Welcome to the forum and I hope you enjoy it. Amano shrimp are a staple of the aquarium hobby and bigger than dwarf shrimp so are ideal in community tanks. They aren't very colourful so that helps them stay 'out of sight' which helps and as they don't have shrimplets in freshwater, it is easy to control numbers. The dwarf shrimp will be better in their own smaller tanks. I think CRS stands for 'Crystal Red Shrimp'???? It is confusing having 2 types of shrimp with the same 3 initials just the first 2 swapped round, and I could be wrong, have it the wrong way around! With cherry shrimp you will want to try and keep one type per tank as they will otherwise interbreed and quickly revert back to 'wild' which are clear or brown blotchy usually. Cherry shrimp (green jade is one of these, neocaridina) are much easierr to keep and can usually be kept in dechlorinated tap water, but Caridina types (crystal red are one of these) require different water (RO + remineralser usually with special substrate) and a lot more care/attention and delicate. The reward for the extra work with the Caridina though is that they are much prettier, IMO anyway! As JayC points out, the depth of the tank isn't necessary with shrimp so it is better to have a shallower tank with a larger base area than a 'normal' type aquarium. It is usually recommended to start with neocaridina as they are easier, and more robust. Like you, I got into the hobby when I had to stop working due to health problems, albeit I am a fair bit older than you! I only have 1 tank running since a recent move and that has a betta and red cherry shrimps in it, 25 litre. Would like to try Caridina shrimp again (and may at some point) but my last attempt failed and not sure I am up for the challenge (and heartache when/if it fails, again) at this point? I may be getting some Apistograama soon if a friends babies survive, but I can't keep shrimp with them of coarse, but I haven't even set up that tank just yet. Anyway, keep well and I look forward to reading (and hopefully seeing) how it all goes.

No. Crystal Red Shrimp. Darwin algae eaters can have those colours. So it might not be Cherry shrimps. Not necessarily. The depth of the water (ie the height of the tank) does not really matter for shrimp. A tank that is bigger length x width but lower height is better than a tank that is taller for them. But then these sort of tanks are going into custom made sizes. So just pick one that you can fit in your space easily. That is usually a 30cm x 30cm tank, or 30x60cm. Hmm, that's quite a distance away. But you say you are coming up this weekend? I haven't trimmed the subwassertang yet. It's still in my tank, so it's not like it will die. I can leave it in a ziplock bag in my letterbox for you to pick up. Let's continue this conversation over a Private message. Don't want to share my address publicly. And you can tell me an approximate date and time where you will be in Sydney metro. Your plans might not take you anywhere near my house - so you still have to decide if you want to go out of the way to pick up free aquatic plants.

Hi JayC! Thank you for your kind response! 😊 Oh my gosh! That's so kind of you! I'm glad you love his name!! We were originally going to call all of them after rivers in Aus, so thats how he gets his middle name! Lol! The snails of course are from Spongebob square pants. Ooh love that idea for fish! Ill go and see where i can source some and I'll cancel the order for green neon tetras. Cherry Red Shrimp?? I somehow have 2 or 3 little hitchhikers. I'll see if I can attach a photo of them. One is a red calico shrimp and the other a black calico shrimp. I thought I saw another but I didn't get a good enough look at him to see exactly what he was. I would love to see them up with a colony in individual tanks. Is it better to go for say 40L? I'm absolutely in love with all of these shrimp! They are just so fascinating. I am also verrrry much in love with jade green shrimp. 😍 At $40AUD each, that's very expensive, but I dont think im going to be able to resist! Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I'm down south in the Southern Highlands, but I'll be coming up hopefully on the weekend and next Wednesday. If you need to get rid of it straight away, I'm happy to pay for shipping if you wouldn't mind posting it. If not, it's all good 👍 thank you so much for your kind offer. The 235L tank is going to cost me a lot but I have now got all aquascaping tools, chemicals, TDS meter, test kits, etc, of course though I'll be buying more as I use them up. But I'm really excited to get another shrimp tank going. I don't think I'll be putting shrimp in the 235L as I would love Rams, red tail shark etc, things that would probably love to munch on a few shrimp. I have seem people adding amano shrimp to community tanks, but I do wonder if they are picked off and eaten?