Soothing Shrimp

Cards or Neos will be fine. If going brackish, you may want to try Hawaiian Red Shrimp.

Great to have you come out of the woodwork! A big welcome to ya!

I can do that.

"soothing, how do you start selectively breeding your shrimp...? do you actually have to cull at each succeeding generation?" Oh man. LOL A complicated and trick question without it meaning to be. Lots of methods can be done ranging from one tank to multiples, however the easiest is the one tank method. To start a tank use 2 or more shrimp showing traits close to what you would like to breed. Then with each generation bred, cull the ones that don't exhibit the trait. That's it in a nutshell. In fact, that's the basic idea behind any breeding program. With luck you have true breeding in the f1 (first generation.) *sigh* However rarely is it that simple. Sometimes you have to wait until the 2nd or third generation to see any results, and it you cull every offspring, you have none to work with. Also, sometimes colors take times to fill in, so you have to figure out when enough color has come that you can cull effectively. Also, you want to be sure not to go cull crazy and cull out all your males, because they will probably show poor coloration for a long time to come until you can set the strain and breed those to best looks as well. And all the while you should be concerned about hardiness. Good strong immune systems, shrimp that can adapt well to parameters. If you suspect any bacterial infection, remove them immediately. Better to lose a couple than infect a whole colony. Oh yeah...remember Punnet Squares? You can pretty much throw those out the window with shrimp when developing varieties. You will be more concerned with the bell curve. BUT having said that, rili is a pretty established phenotype that pops up from time to time, so hopefully you can get that set in the first several generations- sooner if you get more in f1!

I love that! Take pride in what you do, and it filters through the culture.

I have Brazilian Pennywort taking over my 10g tank, and I'd much rather give it away than throw it out. I need to move it in order to try other plants. I'll put ALL the pennywort into a 7 x 7x 6 box so I don't crush it, and have been advised I can send without a heat pack. $6 shipping is all I ask. Anything above than that, I'll pay myself. Sound fair? Just start a name list, and I'll pick by random generator on Monday before noon. 1. 2. 3.

Great to have you here!

Beautiful. Keep in mind some colors of neos (like red) get redder as they age and each time they berry. You are doing a great job!

In my opinion it sounds like something in the params were off and the chocos were possibly more hardy than your fire reds. Try as we may, we cannot test for everything.

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I have no experience with paraguard.

Great news on the bp and chocos! Some people do keep quarantine tanks for shrimp. Unlike fish, however, collectively we kind of have the mindset not to add chemicals to shrimp tanks as a preventative. As you mentioned though, we do use tannins, etc that are natural. Most quarantine is done by eye to make sure that, in layman terms, no spikey worms, parasites or fungus are seen on the bodies before adding to the main tank.

There are some excellent quality goldfish that go for a hgh price. You may want to look that up before saying no to that, aquariumlover.

I agree 100% That's why I say phenotype is not necessarily genotype.

I'm wondering if the patch could be part of a bad molt.

Sibling matings are different in the shrimp than in mammals. Inbreedings show no problems even up to the 12th generation. Theory has it evolution has been kind to the shrimp since some are in small pools of water their entire lives and can't travel very far. Mammals have more problems inbreeding because they are made to wander vast ranges.

As in snakes, it all depends where the color is located in the genes. You remember the cross between Rainwater albino leos and Tremper albino Leos will give normals?

LOL I think you found 2 answers to your statement. 1) Why do suppliers tell you not to mix shrimp? They won't breed true anymore. Short and simple. Most people want true breeding varieties- unless someone wants to play with selective breeding and the space, time and money involved.. and 2) The poster of Michael Nadal's shrimp is a liar.

The only info I have found is that white + blue = powder blue.

Hopefully you'll have berries soon!

Mamashack, I had to laugh when I read this. Not at the possibility of you having a bacterial problem, but because as a selective breeder it drove me NUTS trying to figure this same question out while I was breeding them the first time around. Were they healthy, were they becoming a better white? Didn't see any broken antennae or anything, but the foggy tissue and transparent white shells. AAAuuuggghhh!!!! Finally it drove me insane enough I just sold them all off. I finally got peace of mind enough now a couple years later to breed them again. LOL

good point you made there... thanks for that... so what do you suggest we do to make sure we are able to get our shrimp to adjust to the new bacteria when introducing new shrimp.... i know its a risk we all take but what practice can we do to minimize the risk...? I guess in theory if one were to dose anti-bacterial medications, or raise the tannin level when introducing a new shrimp colony- it may aid in reducing the deaths from introductions. Honestly though, it has happened to me, but not so often that I worry about it anymore. If I start to have massive die offs after introduction, and can't pinpoint the source, I do a "water reset" and usually that works. its just a mystery as to why neos can be so finicky considering most say they are so low maintenance.... This is a rumor that has been around the internet for years. Are shrimp easy to keep? Depends on your area, water, etc. There are certainly more params to watch for than in fish. The reason why people often say start with neos are they are more likely to takes Ooopsies better since they are less sensitive than other shrimp, and since most are not as expensive- one won't go broke while learning how to keep them. I'm actually more inclined to say Malawa are even more hardy than cherries depending on your source. Some people even enjoy keeping ghost shrimp. Also, getting shrimp from another country is often a crapshoot. The stress they have in traveling, any ammonia poisoning while in the bag, and adjustment to new params is sometimes just too much for them. Having said that, I've enjoyed being on the forefront of working with new color morphs freshly imported. It is a gamble though. For example, when BD were first imported here, I lost 2/3 of my stock within the first week. The rest of the 1/3 I was working with to make them hardier. After I reached close to my desired goal I sold them off so others could continue working with them for ease of keeping. I just recently bought a colony from someone, and I've had no problems with these now. We all have to work together for success in shrimping. my TDS is really high around 300 which i might consider buying an RODI system to lower it down... but then some experts mention that TDS is just a number and that Gh is more important.... TDS is not really that important with neos provided they have acclimated to a TDS, what the TDS contains, and you are not worried about breeding. Heck, I've been sent neos in TDS from 1000+ before! We don't really have common tests to find out what the TDS is in any given water. So, we kind of generalize it. Now, if you have a goal such as selectively breeding, you may find (like me) you are always looking for that sweet spot. For me and my water it turns out to be around 200-300. Others have great success in closer to 100 or so. I will add this- I don't worry too much about upping TDS in my tanks, but I try to never reduce it on neos less than 100 TDS in a day. Less than 50 TDS for more sensitive shrimp. It may be overly cautious this way, however when reducing TDS you are sucking minerals out of the shrimp body. It takes time for them to recover.

"I think I've discovered what has been affecting my TOD - internal bacterial infection. Have had to order some Paraguard and beta-g so have my fingers crossed it gets here in time as I'm down to 4 in that tank - 2 affected adults and 2 seemingly unaffected juvies." Wouldn't it be great if the juvies had teh best immune systems?

LOL I just post clips I like from the internet. I think we'll aim to have a Christmas in July Secret Santa. It'll be nice to do that in themiddle of th year, and as said- it'll give people a chance to prepare and have some good excitement during that time.

When I had a DIY, I was warned not to use a control valve for fear of explosions.