I got mine from a spring locally. I cut the top at a 45 degree angle. It seems to be doing well so far, but I have to plant it deep in my soil which gets my water fairly dirty though 

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by DreamBlueVelvet

It looks great but may be a bit high maintenance long term? Disturbing the soil will release stuff that the shrimp will like to eat and you may find they zoom in to that area! You will need to be careful when taking stuff from waterways that there are no bugs hitching a ride?

Simon

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by sdlTBfanUK

I found a 9th shrimp!? Should I cull him right away or could he look like that right after molt? He’s maybe 1-1.5cm long. 

Great photo! I have hundreds like that in my oldest tank, I have already culled 100 and am still over-run! I assume it is a reverting to wild shrimp? I wouldn't think it is just not coloured after a new molt as it does have some colour, albeit brown! See what happens colour wise in a few days?

I would fish it out and put it in an old ice cream plastic tub (or similar) for a few days with a few bits of weed etc, or a breeding box in the tank if you have one, and see what happens to its colour? I expect it will bee a cull, or it is a native that came in with some of your foraged stuff? 

Simon

Edited February 25, 20206 yr by sdlTBfanUK

Hard to tell what Val that is. It's a Vallisneria of some sort.

Either Jungle val, Vallisneria Spiralis or Vallisneria Australis Gigante.

7 hours ago, DreamBlueVelvet said:

Should I cull him right away or could he look like that right after molt?

The colour of a shrimp is not on it's shell. That is, it doesn't change colours after moulting because the colour is below the shrimp's shell. So the colour of that shrimp you have is it's normal colour.

I went ahead and culled that shrimp and another just to keep things safe.

I finally got some photos with my dslr, what do you guys think? ?

Fantastic photos, very clear!

I like the snail, is that a native hitchhicker?

It was probably a wise precaution to get rid of the other shrimp, as if it had mated it would likely have messed up the quality of the tank in the longer run.

Keep up the good work and hopefully there won't be too much of a wait for shrimplets?

Simon

Yes I have two kinds of snails from the pond, that one is a Ramshorn I think and I think the other one is the one that breeds a lot.

I also moved another light blue shrimp  because I still have at least 3 males.

Are the black dots on the eggs eyes? 

Also what is the furry looking stuff under the shrimps nose? Everything looks fine?

The snail pattern looks more like a bladder snail in my book?

The black dots in the eggs will be the eyes!

I can't see the furry stuff you mention, but they have a lot of hairs on the protruding front part underside that maybe what you are seeing. It looks very healthy too me and great colour blue!

Simon

Okay awesome, I was getting a little worried about that underside but I think it is normal. I believe it is a rams horn snail, my second species is indeed the bladder snail. I think that’s the one that breeds uncontrollably, and has more of a cone shape.

im going to try to get a deeper blue line, we will see :). I’m not sure how long the red cherry was in there for so hopefully that wasn’t the one that mates. It was pretty small but we will see!

Yeah watch the bladder snails, they can take over a tank so quickly! They will only really be a problem if you have a very messy tank, though, if not then they will just be around, cleaning up. They breed out of control when there is lots of food for them. 

Yeah lol I have noticed, I have so many of those babies feeding on my Frogbit roots, I was thinking maybe in the future I can get assassin snails. I’m also most likely going to get overrun by the Amphipods, but as long they don’t mess with my shrimp it should be okay. 

8 hours ago, DreamBlueVelvet said:

Also what is the furry looking stuff under the shrimps nose?

Can you try getting a macro shot of it?

Scutariella and vorticella looks furry, just want to make sure it's not those.

Ok I will try tomorrow

One of my males eating a fish food flake, the furry under the nose is the same color as the flake

And a female

Edited February 27, 20206 yr by DreamBlueVelvet

Wow, you should be a professional photographer???

That all looks good to me and is the hair I mentioned, maybe they sieve stuff through those hairs?

Simon

17 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

Wow, you should be a professional photographer???

That all looks good to me and is the hair I mentioned, maybe they sieve stuff through those hairs?

Simon

Haha thanks, I actually do it as a hobby so I have some pretty expensive equipment.

Yes, that’s what I was thinking, maybe because it’s pink that it’s so noticeable

Update on my shrimps:

I had 5 successful batches of baby shrimp, I now have about 100. The babies are now old enough and getting berried. I now have 2 berried shrimp that came from the shrimps offspring that I have purchased. I think within a month I should have at least 20 berried shrimp. My algae problem went away after covering the back of the tank, it was the sun causing the algae. I also stopped doing water changes to keep the parameters as stable as possible maybe 2 months ago? My TDS is only at 200. I feed them a lot of food every day and my nitrates, ammonia, nitrites stay at 0 because of the heavy plant coverage.

Edited April 26, 20206 yr by DreamBlueVelvet

I'm glad things are working out for you. 

It is clearly working well and the tank looks quite natural, hopefully those babies just keep on coming to boost the numbers even more.

Simon

Thank you everyone, I feed them a lot everyday. I think it helps them want to breed more.