My CRS Colony

[GotCrabs]

That looks so cool, so many CRS running around.

[ineke]

That's what happens when you become a shrimp hoarder and don't sell them !!!!!

[newbreed]

Loving these images Ineke!!

[Disciple]

Ineke pictures like these of tanks full of shrimp are very bad for my wallet. Keeps making me want and buy more shrimp.

I could sit in front of a tank like this for ages.

[revolutionhope]

awesome pix and colony ineke! i think i wanna get me some snow now to go with the crack, i do remember u saying it was wonderful for holidays.

 

ps wonder when boss will start manufacturing ice?

[ineke]

Disciple unfortunately I spend most of my day everyday in front of my tanks. The shrimp are such time wasters and when you have a lot of shrimp tanks what else would you do?

Lol Revolutionhope don't give him any ideas! The snow is a great product though And the shrimp love it as you can see. I didn't like the fact that it made the tanks look a bit untidy but I'm getting over that now! I leave it in for a couple of weeks and then if there is any left I siphon it out and put fresh in although you can just leave it in. I only put 2 pieces in my smaller tanks but this big tank has so many shrimp I put quite a bit in.

[fishmosy]

I'm with Ineke. I initially didn't like how snow makes the tank seem a little messy, but I'm getting over it since the shrimp like it so much.

[GotCrabs]

Yeah I agree, it makes it a mess but the Shrimp love it, as do my Bristlenose actually.

[ineke]

My peppered Corys seem to graze on it too.

[ineke]

Time to update this thread and try to find the missing pictures that didn't come over with the last update! This CRS colony was doing really well with a huge number of babies surviving however I had been breeding for quantity not quality and found the white on the adults and some new babies was quite poor. I decided with heavy heart to pull the tank down , cull the low grades , buy some decent males and reset the tank. 

I started by picking out all the low grade males but as my sexing ability is low I cheated and waited until the boys were " dancing" and caught them out. Sad to say probably 2/3 of the shrimp were male - I did make a few mistakes because somehow the some " males " got berried in the cull tank - way to go me! I offered these culls to the local market at $2 each and had a huge interest with 1 couple buying the lot - I stopped counting after 60 and gave them the rest! I tried my best to make sure they didn't breed with them and telling them many times they were culls but I can't stop them if they did decide to use them. I had run out of room in my other tanks and needed them gone and just couldn't feed them to the fish!

next I picked out any berried and saddled females, picked the best of them for my breeding program and sold a majority of the remainder. Within a short time I noticed an improvement in the colony but still wasn't happy so more culling and now I'm down to 2 smaller 65 litre tanks with about 40 CRS between them. I also managed to get 3 very nice males from Gbangs PRL albeit culls they are still much better than any of my boys. So about 15 females are in with them and the first babies were hatched about 2 weeks ago . They look good but are still too small to know for sure. The other tank will probably be sold off as I have way too many projects going and 1 CRS tank should be enough. My plans now will just be heavy culling until I get the grades and colours to the intensity I want. 

So what happened to the big tank??? Well my Taitibee population exploded but I ended up with a lot of CRS/CBS and TB patterns as the Taitibees are now 10 th generation and seem to be reverting to pure bred patterns. As nice a they are they don't look like Taitibees and are not what people want so I have taken all the patterns I don't want to work with and put them into the 980, I've added some KK, Panda, RR,WR and Bluebolts plus some Tiger looking Taitibees and will just leave them to breed together and see what interesting types might show up. In the mean time I was lucky enough to be able to buy some of Disciple's Pure Tigers to use in my Taitibee program to try and get some patterns backU

[ineke]

Just needed to add this is not my project tank it's just somewhere to put my unwanted Taitibees until they can find a new home . I still have issues with culling to fish tanks so I need somewhere for them to live!

[jayc]

31 minutes ago, ineke said:

I offered these culls to the local market at $2 each

Whoever bought that was extremely lucky.

Let me know if you ever sell at that price again, I need some :)

[Disciple]

Thanks for the Update @ineke

Its a little sad to hear that this colony have been broken up but its good that you are happily improving the quality.

I have to say this and Jamie's CRS's tanks really inspired me early to mid last year as I tried to get my CRS to breed. I started to do heaps research on SKF, and got some tips off the other keepers. Finally got there but had to sell the colony off. Luckily my PRLs are doing well.

Cant wait to see how your new colony is going and looking.

[ineke]

I think it was time I went for quality over quantity! Now I'm going to have lots of Taitibees instead LOL still quantity over quality   Time to buy a big fish! ?

[Disciple]

21 minutes ago, ineke said:

I think it was time I went for quality over quantity! Now I'm going to have lots of Taitibees instead LOL still quantity over quality   Time to buy a big fish! ?

With Tibees and Taitibees I believe one persons trash is another persons treasure. With all the variety of shrimp that come out from mixing these shrimp I found out there is always a shrimp what some would like for their projects. I have managed to swap quite a few that I was going to put into my brothers fish with other keepers in return for something I wanted lol.

Also they are a very tough shrimp which I think is a great shrimp for beginners looking to take a step up from Cherries. Thing is we have understand the genetics and be able explain if they sell some in the future.

[ineke]

I have been selling a lot of the Taitibees quite cheaply over here plus some other interstate breeders have taken several hundred between them to do project work with. They are a really great shrimp for people who want a mixed tank rather than just 1 type. I love the not knowing what you will get when you breed them.  It looks quite impressive when you have a large number of mixed colour and pattern shrimp in 1 tank. There is also the chance that you can get something exciting too! Some of my CRS/ CBS Taitibees are very high grade - beautiful deep black or red and very white white! I have to make sure people realise they are hybrids as their quality is so good

[ineke]

Some Taitibees waiting to go to new home - I 

[Disciple]

37 minutes ago, ineke said:

Some Taitibees waiting to go to new home - I 

Might have to start a Hybrid swap thread where members can put up what they want to swap and then people can pick and choose traits they like that may help with their projects.

[Foxpuppet]

how are your CRS colony coming along now @ineke