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Hi, new user here, so bear with me if this is the wrong area to ask 🙂 Been keeping RCS/neos on and off for a few years, but curious about Paratya keeping/breeding because they are cool and I'm slowly constructing an Australian river/creek biotope. I was wondering what other people think of different "types" of water, or anything else you have learned specifically that have been successful. I have read fishmosy's helpful article on Paratya and will refer back to it once the tank I'm planning to use is more settled/ I have a backup for the rasboras in it. My understanding is that for most shrimp: -RO is best (with additions depeding on waht you need) -clean rain is next-best -and then aged outside or treated (e.g. with Prime etc) , is ok too but not ideal due to less predictable gh/kh I have only ever used treated tap water for my RCS, but I want to provide better for them and any future shrimps I have. Being a student/renter, I can't really justify a RO system of my own, so am planning on making a habit of collecting rain water and jarring it for my tanks. I live in Sydney now, so perhaps not the best in terms of quality, but will try anyway. Curious about what others think and how you collect/make/use water.

Not that I could notice with the fish I listed. Those have very small mouths. And the fish were not left in there permanently. Only 6 months at most.

Scuds are the bane of shrimp keepers. They seemingly appear out of no where. I used to have them in a couple of tanks. And finally got rid of them after many months of trying different things. The most effective was to put in a few fish. Just make sure you choose ones that will not harm your shrimp. I used chilli rasboras, galaxy rasbora (celestial pearl danio) and white cloud mountain minnows. Left them in there for 6 months to be sure they got the scuds and any hatching from eggs left in the substrate.

Amarinus lacustris. hi there everyone. I’ve been keeping fish and other creatures for around 10 years now, I also travel around Australia and do really large murals of wildlife and other things I’m passionate about. When I get interviewed by the papers and things like that, I want to start talking more about what individuals can do - to make a difference in conservation efforts. Particularly when the algal bloom is threatening so many species. I would like to get at least 8 females and 1 male for a 150L tank that is prepared properly and matured. If possible, two males and 10 females and split them up in two tanks to double breeding efforts. I understand it is not legal to sell these guys - so I am more than happy to give you a beautiful ink sketch of one of these crabs in return. A4 size. My canvas works sell for around $3000 so you have a worthwhile piece of art. I would attach photos - but unfortunately the file size is so small on the forum it won’t let me. But please google “Sam Brooks Burnside Water tower” to see a recent conservation effort painting. yours kindly Sam Brooks

Welcome to SKFA @Etnorb. I kept an Australian native tank for many years, before letting it go naturally and decommissioned that tank. I kept Darwin Red Nose (DRN), Chameleon Shrimps, and some unknown Paratya glass shrimp. Never kept Macrobrachiums however. I used rainwater predominantly, because it was easiest for me. Rain water without adding additional chemicals to alter TDS, pH, KH. I found RO water to be too fiddly after a while, in order to get it suitable for living organisms. I collect rainwater from one of my gutter downpipes, it's got a Leafeater plumbed in to strain out leaves and twigs. The water is collected in a couple of 100L tanks. I would just pour this into the tanks without further treatment. Gets as close as 0 - 1 KH, 60. to 6.5 pH and very low TDS. That's how our natives like it. If you design/build your tank closely to an Australian biotope, than drift woods and leaf litter will be present in your tank. That will condition the rain water up to a suitable environment for native shrimp. Fishmosy's guide is great. There is also a short article on Aquagreen here, if you have not seen it ... https://www.aquagreen.com.au/files/Freshwater_Shrimps_of_NT.pdf Good luck.

This pic a little blurry but the original shrimp is more stretched out. Will try to take a better picture

That looks like vorticella / epistylis rather than a molt or egg-related issue. The white fuzzy growth on the legs, hiding, and loss of appetite are pretty classic signs. Salt dips can help if it’s caught very early, but once shrimp stop eating and start declining it’s often already advanced. Low KH on its own usually isn’t the cause, but instability and stress make shrimp much more vulnerable to this kind of thing. At this point I’d avoid chasing parameters or doing harsh treatments — just keep things as stable and clean as possible. Sadly, outcomes are often poor once it reaches this stage, but it’s something to watch for and prevent in future colonies.

I thought i added a picture lol. First time posting

Legit almost 12 months later! Time flies. I saw a Facebook advert for a used AquaOne Duo Condo for $40 with the pump and heater. Bargain (assuming they both work!). When I picked it up it had a solid 4-5cm of gravel too. So that is now sitting in my office ready for a clean. Of course after being savvy and only spending $40, I then went and dropped $150 on new media, sponges, a light, driftwood etc. Gravel is clean, driftwood is soaking... now to tackle removing this divider!

Have just got the final batch of shrimp from Shrimpcorner.co.uk. These were the 'wine red Hinomaru' and 'Blue shadow M:osura' and theyare now being drip acclimated until tomorrow! The majority, if not all (?), of the previous batch from Shrimpcorner and a few other assorted are doing very well and are now well settled. I cannot expect to see all the shrimps at one time though as there is a (now) large dense plant in the tank, but I counted 23 this morning before the latest delivery! I have pretty much some of every one of the original/older taiwan bee shrimp now (except red ruby). The only unknown now is whether they will freely breed. I still have the 3 that were born in the tank several months ago, mentioned previously, but not seen any new ones since those? The parameters are still good and as all is going well I shall invest in a new zerowater jug and use a new filter asap! In the past I have bought a lot of my shrimps/snails/fish through ebay(.co.uk) but there aren't any listed now (for a few weeks) so I assume ebay doesn't allow them anymore in the UK???

There is no "right" answer when it comes to amount of food to feed your shrimp. If you are seeing your shrimp cannibalise other shrimp, it's time to feed them some meat. And I don't mean beef, or chicken or pork. Feed them more frozen bloodworms, or raw fish pieces, or pieces of raw prawns. The shrimp can eat biofilm, but when you have 80+ in a 5gallon, the biofilm is long gone after a week. The idea behind "don't over feed your shrimp" is not for the shrimp's benefit, it is to avoid fouling the water and killing the shrimp in it. This very much applies to processed foods only. But if you feed a variety of foods, you can have many types of food in the tank at the same time. Let me give you an example of what is in my tank. I have some Snow flakes (soy bean husks) floating around the bottom. I also have a nasturtium flower in the tank at the moment. I feed the shrimp every 2-3 days with processed foods from Shrimp King or Algae Wafers or my own homemade foods. And there is a couple of Indian Almond Catappa leaves on the substrate as well. My shrimp will eat the old Catappa leaves, the graze on the Snow Flakes, and devour the nasturtium flower. These are in the tank all the time so they are never hungry. I supplement with processed foods, and once every week they get frozen bloodworms or a small piece of raw prawn or fish, if that so happens to be on the humans menu that week. The trick is vary their diet and have foods that can be left in the tank for long periods without it fouling the water.

Today I saw a small / medium size shrimp getting rapidly eaten up, so that guy definitely went before his time. Yes, the shrimp rush the food, so maybe I do need to feed more. I've read that you should feed enough so that the shrimp finish the food after a certain amount of time. The problem is that I've also seen advice ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hrs. Just looked at my Shrimp King Complete bottle and it said "5mm stick per 20 shrimp". And I think there's around 80 in this little 5 gallon tank. It's overpopulated. On the other hand, I keep reading about how you shouldn't overfeed shrimp and that they can "live off the biofilm".

Hi everyone. I have an established 87 liter shrimp tank (Blood Mary's) I've been running it for 6 months now and have been careful about what I add, but not careful enough it seems because this week I've seen a few scuds. I've put a lot of work into this tank and hope that I don't have to start all over again, it will mean disposing of everything but the shrimp. I've seen so many divided opinions about scuds, so I hope to hear some experiences from other shrimp keepers and how they solved the problem. Is a complete tear down the only option?

Thanks for the reply. I'm still fishing them out on site and using a home made trap. At this stage they're still not a huge problem, but I am preparing a spare 38 liter tank if it gets too much. It's interesting to hear that scuds overall aren't harmful to shrimp, it's very different from what I usually hear that they'll destroy everything. I hope that I can get a lid on them so I don't have to teardown.

I had some once but spotted them fairly early I think. They got into the tank from stuff I took from an outside pond and put into the tank. I took everything out except the substrate, then fished out the scuds, checking frequently for a few days. After a couple of days I started returning the very carefully checked over contents and shrimp. It worked out well but did mean a lot of work! The tank had been running for a few years and so was due to be redone anyway so it wasn't too big of a deal for me, but there was still the possibility I didn't get them all and they would then return, though I must have got them all as that didn't happen, thankfully. I re-used everything from the tank, just used a bucket to check each item over very carefully before returning it to the tank. The scuds aren't harmful, and even indicate the water is good if they are doing well. Any treatment you could try is almost certainly going to also kill shrimp! You can just keep fishing them out when you see them, but that will likely become a never ending chore, but can keep the numbers low if you don't mind seeing them occasionally, some people actually quite like the extrra diversity.

Unfortunately no contact with anyone and none of the phones answer 🙂

How did you go? Do they still have any for sale?

Oh that’s excellent mate. I am happy to pay money - it’s just I was unsure of legalities around purchasing these guys. Thanks so much. Also if anyone has contact with the pioneer in breeding these - Lyndon - I would like to support him if possible. I’ll contact the Vic store tomorrow. Once again, thankyou.

@Crab_man see if Exotic Aquatic in Carnegie, VIC still stock these little guys. If they do, you can sort out an agreement with payment. I don't know if they will accept art works however, being a business. Good luck.

I got this shrimp a while back from my local fish store but im not sure what coloration this is

Oh I was assuming it was a male. But if a female, so far i haven't seen any eggs yet

Thanks @jayc! Already shooting for a very leafy/sticky vibe so that's good to know

That's a slightly better angle. I can see it's a female now. @sdlTBfanUK was right there. Still think it's a Neo, but with an unusual colouration.

I’ve never personally used gentian violet in a tank that already contained shrimp, and honestly I wouldn’t risk it. While it’s in the same dye family as malachite green, gentian violet is much less commonly used in aquariums, which is why you’re struggling to find info on it. That alone is a bit of a warning sign for shrimp. Malachite green at very low, controlled doses has at least been used by shrimp keepers for years; gentian violet just doesn’t have that track record. Bladder snails being fine doesn’t really tell us much unfortunately — they’re incredibly hardy compared to Neocaridina. Shrimp tend to be far more sensitive to dyes and medications, especially ones that affect cellular processes like these do. If you’re treating now with no shrimp present, I’d just make sure to do several large water changes afterward and run fresh carbon before adding any. Once shrimp are in the tank, I’d strongly recommend treating fish in a separate hospital tank if ich ever shows up again.

You can the circular middle shell? I was looking for that. But my eyes are old now 😋 If you see it, then you are right. It's a female. I'm looking at the rostrum. The original picture looks like a shrimp with Neocaridina rostrum. Similar to the other Neos in Carrie's tank. It just has an unusual colour.

The original shrimp i believe is a male. The fish store sold them separately but I'd wanted a mix of color so I told them to grab a few from each tank. They only sell neocaridinas so i dont think they have caridinas. I actually dont mind wild types because its actually kinda interesting how these different colors mix. I have a female nerite that lays eggs all over the tank. But the ones in the picture are actually limpets

Thats quite a nice collection of varying colours, did you buy them as a 'skittle' mix. I have always especially liked the yellow with the stripe along the back. A friends daughter popped round on saturday as she wants to get a 'skittle' mix for her tank. The supplier I use only sends females, I guess to avoid them cross breeding and producing brown 'wild' types but I expect she already has some of my 'wilds' so there will likely be some males already in her tank, so they will likeily breed? Even with the one colour (reds) that I have in one tank, they still produce brown 'wilds' which I just give away when I catch them, to a friend who dumps them in his big tank. I expect I will restock some more reds when I order the skittles mix for my friends daughter, after their holiday, so not just yet. I bow to JayC greater experience and knowledge, but suspect the original shrimp this thread was about is a female as you can see the circular middle shell that females have to protect the eggs etc. It is difficult to tell from the photo, especially when the shrimp isn' stretched out fully straight! I still suspect it to be a 'red bolt' every time I look, the legs are patterned, I don't think I have ever seen that with a cherry shrimp? Hopefully it will do well but won't breed with cherry shrimp if it is a caridina. Do you have snails as there looks likr clear jelly type spots on the glass that may be snail eggs?

Hello 🙂 Have been keeping fish and shrimp (only neos) for a few years now. Signed up to learn from more experienced shrimp-people, and especially to learn more about - brackish biotopes for a future project - keeping & breeding Australian shrimp (e.g. Paratya spp) - growing live food (copepods, daphnia, etc) - etc etc etc Also love looking at saltwater tanks, and particularly biotopes replicating zones on the "boundary" of ecosystems (e.g. mangroves, estuaries, intertidal, etc), but that is not an undertaking for my experience level/ $$ just yet.

Looks like a male Neocaridina with odd colouration to me. Got a pic of your other shrimp?

It's just that one

I also wonder if hes just a really old neocaridina shrimp? Cause I found a reddit post about a 2yr old shrimp and the coloration is similar?

Yup they should all be neocaridinas unless the fish store didnt know but I doubt it and I got them for cheap. I think like 4 for $10? I'm not sure what my water parameters are but I do use ro water. I also have otos and pygmy corys and other neocaridinas in the tank

Nope they didn't say anything about it. They sold it in a tank along with a mix of plain orange and red rili neos .

Do you have a picture of the shrimp?

Shrimp Keepers Forum welcomes helensupthegarden. Please feel free to browse around and get to know others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. View Member regards, skfadmin

Either way, the scape I have set up is still being tinkered with but I think i'm happy with where it's going.

@DemonCat, you have enough posts. It might be your membership or subscription level. Need to do some investigation with @Cesar.

@Cesar, would you mind updating this post to give potential subscribers a view of what Guest, Member and Platinum includes?

What browser are you using on your phone? I use Safari, and there is an option to "Add Files" and an option for "Other Media".

Unfortunately not. Must be a phone thing.

I don't have (can't see) choose files. I have "other media" which allows me to insert existing attachment or upload from a URL. I just want to attach from my phone. I would post a screenshot, but...

That usually happens and each time the tank gets a bit bigger! It should be fairly straight forward to add photos, as long as they aren't large files. Just click on the 'choose files' at the bottom when composing a post, find the file on your device and upload it, then click on 'insert' next to it. I'm not too sure what the file size llimit is but around 5mb or below should be fine I think. Be careful not to use too powerful heater as if it malfunctions/sticks on it will cook the shrimps, this happend to me, I used a 50w in my 35L tank and it wiped them all out when it malfunctioned (stayed on, temp shot up to 33), now I use 25w only.......

Wish I'd gone for a bigger tank.

Playing around with driftwood and took some pics but can't figure out how to attah without having to upload first and using the URL. I will go for much less driftwood I think - just using all the bits I have to see if it works. Divider has been removed. Need to just clean up the leftovers.

Oh, is this a build log I hear coming along? 😄 It would be good to see your progress with this build.

It is very difficult to know how much food to feed as it will depend on various variable facters. The smaller the tank the less biofilm there will be. I think you are already using Bacter AE, that should help with biofilm, and leaves are good as food and for biofilm to grow on the surface. The more shrimp there are the less biofilm there will be as it doesn't get as long to grow before a shrimp gets to it. I use the shrimp king foods but smash the pellets up so they are smaller pieces and spread out more in the tank. I don't remove food after a set time, you would need a feeding dish to do that. I use a variety of different foods, I smash them all in a mortar and pestle and mix them together in a tin ready to use. It can be a fatal problem to overfeed as the food rots etc (can cause an Ammonia spike) so if you are going to increase feeding do it by small increments until the shrimp are more relaxed at feeding time as they arent hungry and rushing for the added food. Start from the dosage recommended by the manufacturer.

It's always fun getting a new or different shrimp, but it probably means it hasn't come from pure genes so it may through out more different types, which is fine unless you want a single type tank! She has eggs in photo 2 so it will be interesting to see what others you get? It actually looks nearer a varient of lower quality blue steel than blue bolt and these are not an original pure taiwan bee, but taitibee, so crossbred, not pure gene. When you buy shrimp you won't know how old they are and once full size they will probably only live a year at best. Do the shrimp rush to the food when you add it, if so maybe you need to feed a little more. If they don't rush to the food thn they must be finding enough in the tank, I assume? As the population grows they will need more feeding but they only eat dead shrimp or molts, they don't kill others. Shrimp that have been born and only lived in the tank should do better than newly added shrimps from somewhere else! As you managed to trace the clear headed one to a normal lifespan, that is a good sign and should offer some reassurance, together with getting good numbers of babies.

Soo... You know how I mentioned the local fish club as a source? I asked one of the ones in mine... and he's offered to drop off some microworms in an hour. How's that for instant gratification? And general super nice people who not only won't look at you like you're nuts when you say you're trying to grow worms, but offer to deliver said worms to you!