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Hi All, it’s been a while since I have posted. I closed down my shrimp room a few years ago but I seem to have increasing numbers of tanks showing up again! Currently I am still concentrating on my beloved hybrid collection - galaxy fishbone, pinto, zebra mixes in both red and black. As I lack space I’m just letting them breed indiscriminately in 2 x 210 litre tanks . I cull out any that don’t have good marking or depth of colour. The culls go into 2 tanks of 50 litre size and as I also get blue steels in the black tank I have a 60 litre tank for all blues. I also have a 30 litre tank with a beautiful male Betta with Red and Yellow Neos. As I am not so interested in my Neos I have 3 bathtubs outside for them . I have Reds , Blue/ Black and Yellows in the tubs and they breed very well out there. I have a solar fountain in each one , plants and moss but no filter or heaters and have had them out there since 2013. I top up with RO water and once a year empty about 1/2 the water out and refill. Luckily I sell a quite a few to a local Aquarium shop so the numbers don’t build up too much. Interestingly I have also put a lot of my hybrid culls outside too and they breed out there too. I don’t know what the water parameters are but they are thriving . Considering the extreme temperatures here in Adelaide it is quite amazing really. I will add a few pictures of my tank waiting to be culled.

Hi again, thank you I really love my reds and worked a long time getting the line going. I only introduced a few outside genes along the way from BlueBolts aka Marcus Lim who was also a founding member of this forum.. my biggest problem -and a good one to have I guess - is deciding which ones to keep !!! as to the bathtubs they are outside under a pergola and next to a fence to protect from wind. They are in shade but in the late afternoon they have about a 10cm wide full length area of sun pass over the baths through a gap between the fence and the tin roof. This allows a nice growth of algae to grow on the sides. I must have the right amount of plants and moss as my water remains crystal clear. A small amount of rainwater does get into the baths but rarely enough that i need to take excess water out. The bathtubs i feed occasionally with a small amount of Snow -soybean husks- , some black worm pellets for protein and mulberry leaves . All my shrimp love their mulberry leaves. I have tried my shrimp both in the tanks and outside with just about every leaf and vegetable mentioned on the forum with limited success but mulberry leaves get eaten down to the veins every time . i will catch out some blue shrimp and take some pictures tomorrow- they are what we call Blue Diamond as they come from black shrimp so the blue is much darker. I will also show my betta. A lovely mauve and white dumbo boy who I have had for 18 months . He thrives on worms and mosquito larvae . he doesn’t seem to eat the shrimp as I am having to thin out the population regularly.