They look very good against the black substrate, it makes them easy to see!

Hopefully they do well, they look healthy.

Simon

1 hour ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

They look very good against the black substrate, it makes them easy to see!

Hopefully they do well, they look healthy.

Simon

Several molts, fully intact. Everyone healthy and eating well.

I’ve been following this thread vaguely for a bit, but had to come in when I saw you got some orange rillis! One of my favourite shrimp, I have plans to purchase some should I get another tank as well :) (argh mts strikes again). Yours look really nice, very good colour and distinct bands. So good to hear one is berried too. Tank looks fantastic by the way, shrimp suit it well (and vice versa), and you’ve set it all up very cleanly. Good luck with this venture!

Crabs

Quick update, a new berried mama shrimp, so that makes(2) carrying. 4 more females are saddled, abs there were (3) molts this AM. So I assume at least 1-2 of them molted and may have mated. I’ll know if they move eggs down soon. Things seem to be going great. There are also a ton of rams horn snail eggs, so this should get interesting.

Fantastic news, you could soon have a tank full of shrimps!

Simon

Good to see this tank is doing well for you. Those are some of the best Orange rillis I have seen. 

On 5/2/2020 at 6:57 PM, jayc said:

Good to see this tank is doing well for you. Those are some of the best Orange rillis I have seen. 

Thanks!

I’m  starting to see eyes on the eggs, for all three berried females. They should be dropping in the near future. 
 

How many babies should I expect from each mama?

Oh never knew you could see the eyes. That's cool! I would say see if you can count the eggs, you'll probably get 2-5 more than you can count. That's my dumb logic, not sure if it would actually work. Dang, now I'm tempted to look for eyes in my TTS eggs. Good luck when they pop!

-Crabby

I would expect around 15-20 to be a normal batch, they can get 30 and sometimes less than 15 but cherry shrimp do usually have more babies than bee shrimp. they may not all survive though and don''t panic if you don't see any for a few days after the eggs disappear as they are soooo tiny and hide when born.

Simon

8 hours ago, Crabby said:

Oh never knew you could see the eyes. That's cool! I would say see if you can count the eggs, you'll probably get 2-5 more than you can count. That's my dumb logic, not sure if it would actually work. Dang, now I'm tempted to look for eyes in my TTS eggs. Good luck when they pop!

-Crabby

It’s hard to do, but you can see tiny black specs on the eggs. I wanted to transfer one to the photo tank, to get a macro shot, but decided against it. I didn’t want to stress a mama out and have her drop eggs so close to them hatching.

One mama has dropped her babies! I was able to hunt 3-4 out on the first night, as I caught her dropping them. However, over the last few days I’ve been unable to ID any babies, hope some are hiding really well! I would assume it’s unlikely that they all died.

 

The second female should be dropping any day now, as well as the third! Very excited.

The rams horn snails have exploded, going to have to rehome a lot of these buggers....

Edited May 20, 20206 yr by Steensj2004

Wow, that's absolutely tiny! And that's great that she popped, and the others are about to soon. Good luck with raising the little guys!

46 minutes ago, Crabby said:

Wow, that's absolutely tiny! And that's great that she popped, and the others are about to soon. Good luck with raising the little guys!

Thanks! I can’t seem to find a one in the tank now after the first day. So, they are either hiding really well or, they died. I suppose we shall have to wait and see!

16 minutes ago, Steensj2004 said:

they are either hiding really well

Most likely hiding. And they can hide rather well being so small. 

Great photo by the way. It's never easy focusing on something that small.

 

Try a mesh breeder box next time. It’s easier to see the babies grow.

As with JayC, assume they are hiding and as the picture shows (great photo) they are sooo tiny and it would be their natural instinct to hide at this point. It could be a week before you start re-seeing them?

Simon

12 hours ago, jayc said:

Most likely hiding. And they can hide rather well being so small. 

Great photo by the way. It's never easy focusing on something that small.

 

 

6 hours ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

As with JayC, assume they are hiding and as the picture shows (great photo) they are sooo tiny and it would be their natural instinct to hide at this point. It could be a week before you start re-seeing them?

Simon

I spoke too soon, upon investigation after lights out with a small light, I was able to locate 5 sneaking around. These, unlike my crystals who have some whiteish-coloring when this size,  are nearly clear. Hard to see.

Curious  how you guys dose BacterAE etc, if you dose it at all. Quantity, frequency, etc.

I'm glad you got to see them, so you know they are alive and well!

I used an old match (shrimp lolly stick etc) to dose Bacter AE, I would dip it into the tank about 5-10mm to wet the match, then dip it into the BacterAE quickly and knock off the excess, then swirl the match around the tank. Mine is a 30L tank and I did this twice a week! I believe any COMMERCIAL product will tell you to use more than is really necessary obviously?

Simon

18 minutes ago, sdlTBfanUK said:

I'm glad you got to see them, so you know they are alive and well!

I used an old match (shrimp lolly stick etc) to dose Bacter AE, I would dip it into the tank about 5-10mm to wet the match, then dip it into the BacterAE quickly and knock off the excess, then swirl the match around the tank. Mine is a 30L tank and I did this twice a week! I believe any COMMERCIAL product will tell you to use more than is really necessary obviously?

Simon

Excellent. I’m dealing with this tank and my CRS tank, which are approximately 37 and 64 liters. I’ll used the match trick. Currently, I’m trying to develop a maintenance / feeding schedule on paper for both tanks to follow. I just want to increase my consistency.

 

How often and in what percentage are you doing water changes on your tanks? 

I do about 8-10% water change once a week. Slightly more with tanks that have fish as well, about 15-20% once per week as they produce more waste etc!

Simon

Yes I recently purchased some bacter AE and it says to add maybe 2-3 grams daily for a 100 litre tank which is just stupid I would be out within a year. I dose 2x a week. I find it doesn’t become more effective if you dose more frequently than that. Otherwise you just have to find the right amount for your tank. In my experience and research if you’re tank goes cloudy enough it actually inhibits you viewing your shrimp then you overdosed. Luckily nothing bad happens if you do. Best of luck and hope you see more fry.

 

-B

So I’m lost again. What exactly is the purpose of using the bacterEA

BacterAE is a product that helps to grow biofilm for shrimp to eat. The BacterAE isn't the food, but the product that helps to grow the food.

Oh so how do we know when we need this to be added? 

 

24 minutes ago, Able said:

Oh so how do we know when we need this to be added? 

I mean it isn't necessary, I don't use it and I'm doing fine (ngl I don't use most extra stuff for my shrimp and they do fine), but it helps. You can't usually tell with the naked eye how much biofilm your tank has (as far as I'm aware) but if you do use it, just once or twice a week seems to be enough for most people. It's pretty expensive, so any more than that and it's going to cost quite a bit to continue dosing. So basically you choose to add if you don't have much algae or food for the shrimp.