My CRS Colony

[ineke]

Not to be out done by Newbreed I thought I would share my CRS colony. I think Jamie wins because he has sold some and I haven't removed many.  Both of us had months of no breeding and then within days of each other we had berried mamas and they have just kept breeding. The quality of mine is not great although there are a few nice SS in there. I have some juvies from another breeding program that are much better quality and I will add some of them when the numbers increase. The tank is an Aqua one 980 with 4 sponge filters and a canister with ultra violet light in it. This is the tank kept cool by 4 computer fans and generally sits at 22 rising to 24 on really hot 40 degree days but usually only sits that high for an hour or two.

[Disciple]

Great pics Ineke.

 

Love all those shrimplets!

[GotCrabs]

Very nice, I ordered 4 females and 2 males last night for my little 35ltr tank, hoping get a little clan going in there in time.

[ineke]

Yes nothing beats seeing all those little shrimp grazing on the algae except maybe berried mamas!

 

Mine wouldn't breed for ages -I initially blamed the Adelaide water so went to RO but it still didn't make any difference. I had a similar problem with the CBS tanks but they have taken of now too with heaps of shrimplets and berried girls. Only problem there is half are Mischlings but the quality is so good on most of them it's hard to tell which are pure CBS and which aren't! As I don't intend selling them it probably doesn't matter but I have started taking out the strongest colours and highest grades so should be able to weed out the mischlings and keep them separate.

[jayc]

Mine wouldn't breed for ages -I initially blamed the Adelaide water so went to RO but it still didn't make any difference. I had a similar problem with the CBS tanks but they have taken of now too with heaps of shrimplets and berried girls.

Nice seeing so many shrimplets.

What do you think was the trigger for the turn around?

[OzShrimp]

romance ;)

[ineke]

Probably stability JayC . I lost a bit of interest in them because they weren't breeding and as they weren't in the shrimp room I didn't interfere with them so much- Jay would be proud of me on that alone!. Weekly water change and a variety of good food including frozen worms and their all time favourite squished snails and mulberry leaves. My routine of weekly Beta-G and mineral powder plus the addition of a heap of leafy plants- swords, crypts and Java fern instead of only moss which gave the females hiding places. Nothing else changed their substrate is Benibaci , I use RO and salty shrimp and have a temperature controller to run fans to keep the water under 24 c. The survival rate of the shrimplets seems pretty high - they get my own mixed powder food which includes spirulina, bee pollen and various crushed pellets plus the Boss Aquaria Baby Powder . I leave both sides and back covered in algae and biofilm- it may not look attractive but by the number of shrimp grazing on them the shrimp appreciate it.

[OzShrimp]

Thats the true sign between a true breeder any hobbyist, leaving the algae on the tank lol 

[Squiggle]

Very proud, Shrimp Mamma, very proud, well done!

[Jenbenwren]

Naawww, so cute! Love the pics, especially of all your shrimplets. The A grade Candy Cane type CRS are my favorite

[ineke]

I like the A grade too just need to get the White better as they mature- although I think these babies are much better colour than the last lot were.

[newbreed]

They have such consistent deep colours Ineke. My patterns are a bit mixed now after adding SS to the mix, personally I love the look of them all being uniform patterns across a few generations.

And your tank layout is sooooo neat compared to my crs jungle.

In my tank I believe ambient temperature was a main issue in low birth rates initially, over the winter stretch, but I am trying something this year to see if it makes a difference, if successful it will be shared.

[ineke]

I'm struggling with the idea of adding anything into my tank even if they are my own stock . Now that they are breeding so well and as I don't mind the A grades I might leave them alone a bit longer. The SS and S grades I have in my other tanks are from mixed breeding- they could be from my CBS which are a really good grade or they might be from Mischlings so don't want to add that to the mix and I really don't want to add other stock from other people because that always seems to cause issues. I might just take a few out and put them with the better grades rather than put the better grades in the tank.

 

Jamie my tanks are neat because I was a fiddler but now all I do is trim the stem plants. Your heating issue sounds intriguing!

 

The temp fluctuations in my tank can be as much as 2 degrees in a day as I don't have a chiller but in the winter they are pretty stable as the heaters in there do a good job plus being in a corner of our lounge room the walls seem to insulate it against the cold. We don't set our house heating much above 19-20 or on a really cold day it may be 22-23 but alan doesn't like being too hot in winter and those temps suit us. The house heating is usually only on in the morning and a few hours at night unless it's a cold miserable day then it might be on all day but it doesn't seem to affect the tank.

 

As the shrimp room is a converted bedroom that too is well insulated and stays nice and warm - I spend a lot of time in there so I don't need the ducted heating on much during the day but the shrimp room does get some heat from the house ducted heating .

[jayc]

but I am trying something this year to see if it makes a difference, if successful it will be shared.

 

C'mon!!

Booo 

share now! pleasseee. 

Edited March 3, 2015 by jayc

[inverted]

Most likely under gravel heater!

[newbreed]

Ok ok, sorry to hijack Ineke!

My crs tank lives in the garage and in winter overnight temps generally range from -3 to 1. Gotta love the country life!!

As my system is now on one hi output air pump and irrigation pipe, as per Squiggles DIY thread, I was thinking if I run a coil of about five meters of irrigation pipe through my 100l water drum, keeping the water heated to 24-26 degrees, that having the warmer air going into the tanks may fool the shrimp into thinking it's a warmer season. Rather than pumping cooler air in.

Just trying to avoid seasonal downturn. All my tanks in the garage will benefit too. If it works then I may do the reverse over summer and ice the 100l drum?

Bit of a simple concept but I think it's worth a shot.

Thoughts??

[ineke]

No worries about the new direction of the thread!

 

 

Sounds like a plan for winter but icing the the tank in summer will give too much variable rate as you won't be there to monitor the melt rate of the ice especially on overly hot days. Have you thought of blowing a fan over the top of your storage tank if you can open it ofcourse. I just know that the ice will melt then the water will warm up then you add more ice etc so the stability will be lost. My 200 litre tank stays within a couple of degrees of my set rate by using fans but it is inside.

[newbreed]

The birth rate over summer has been good, and the tanks have chillers, so probably won't need the ice option. More a warming option for winter. May make no difference but will see if it helps.

[jayc]

I can't quite picture what you have done.

 

Why heat the whole 100L drum when you can heat the tank directly?

 

Any heat in the air is very, very easily lost before any of that heat is transferred to the water.

Have you measured the water temps before and after?

[Matuva]

 

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, what are they eating?

Edited March 4, 2015 by Matuva

[inverted]

Shrimp snow from boss aquaria..........

[Matuva]

Thanks ;)

[ineke]

Yes it is snow I leave it in all the time and just supplement with small amounts of good quality food and fresh leaves .

[newbreed]

I can't quite picture what you have done.

 

Why heat the whole 100L drum when you can heat the tank directly?

 

Any heat in the air is very, very easily lost before any of that heat is transferred to the water.

Have you measured the water temps before and after?

My concept was to run the irrigation pipe through the heated water in an effort to take the chill off the air, prior to it then entering into the CRS and other tanks? Maybe a silly concept! Lol

[ineke]

Tank update- they haven't had snow for a couple of weeks and as soon as it hit the tank they were out.