Soothing Shrimp

I haven't heard that theory, although it is as valid as any we can't measure. The most common theory is barometric pressure.

"Breeders 'n' keepers?" yepper

have a pic of your diy kreisel?

have a pic of it, Mikey?

carids? Do you mean cards? the following are my opinions. Other people will have other opinions. As in anything, take what you find works for you and run with it. 1) Wow. Lots of proven practices work in selective breeding. Basically we are most concerned with inbreeding in shrimp. People seem too think that inbreeding is a bad thing. "Ewwww. How can you breed him with his mom? Defects will pop up. They'll be unhealthy and have psychological issues." When done corrctly, nothing could be further from the truth. By inbreeding you do two things- a) Set the more desirable characteristics and 2) make the undesirable characteristics make itself known faster. While in mammals deformities are shown to occur if too much inbreeding happens, in aquatic inverts this risk is almost null. In fact a study showed that shrimp are able to be bred for 10+ generations and still have plenty of diversity in their DNA. One theory is that they are "made" this way because they may share the same small area for years and years- thereby naturally inbreeding. So, all selective breeding then deals with inbreeding or the occasional outbreeding (adding new blood.) Outbreeding adds new health and vitality, however it can also add weakness, unwanted traits and other challenges. In short, lots and lots of culling with the possibility improving or ruining years of hard work. Thus, if we can minimize outbreeding, we can focus on creating a "pure" breeding strain of one phenotype. 2) Minimum number of tanks for selective breeding? One. Surprised? Think of it as Darwin's evolution theory. In short, the development that offers the best advantage survives. In this case, the shrimp with the desirable trait survives and the others are culled. Say you have a hundred shrimp in your tank and 10 begin to exhibit the trait you would like. Cull the 90% and work with the 10. When that number reaches 100, cull down to the best 10 or 20 again and continue the routine. Eventually the shrimp trait will start appearing in more and more of your line. Everything is based on variations of this. You have some programs that select the best from one tank after culling, and place them with other tanks. Some that use breeding tanks side by side for 6 generations and then crossing with each other, and then breeding for 6 more generations, etc You have the most risky, which is finding the best of each you can find from different sources and continually crossing new finds... (Which in my opinion hardly gets anywhere because you continually scatter the modifiers instead of tightening them up.) ...and In Asia they go even more radically with parallel breeding. Two shrimp of the best traits and opposite gender are selected to be bred in Tank A. The same is done in Tank B. When the fem gives birth in Tank A- the best male from hat litter stays in tank A and the best female from that litter goes to tank B. When the fem gives birth in tank B, the best male from that litter stays in tank B, and the best female goes to tank A Thus the breeding begins again...over and over. All these programs try to create the same goal, but are different avenues of getting there. Some slower, some faster. 3) I breed neos mostly. I find it fascinating that shrimp vars come and go in fads. Often, they can be out of fad and lost forever once gone, because nobody decides to keep up with the breeding. One of my favorite vars of all time was the kanoko shrimp. I would have LOVED to have had that, but the fad didn't catch on and the color died out. I'm afraid that may happen to some of the other shrimp if we don't preserve their history as well. Most noticeably recently is the Classic BV, with it's original sky blue color very much mimicking the blue pearl shrimp. Lately people have wanted the darker blue velvet color. So everybody is dropping their lines of Classics, soon I fear, to fade away to oblivion.

Lots and lots of reading. The shameful part is that almost no one really knows anything about shrimp genetics. Lots of guesses and theories, but no proofs. When I first got into shrimp I had a background in mice/rats/reptiles and those genetics are pretty well mapped out. I figured inverts would be the same way. Boy was I wrong! If you get the B&K mag #2, it has a really good section on shrimp genetics explained in layman language in the back section. The bell curve is as good an explanation as any.

Careful on ferts. Shrimp and ferts often do not mix. Sometimes an experienced person can do so quite effectively, but from what I have seen- it is hard to come to a happy medium.

Don't let the banter fool ya. I have a great interest in genetics and know just enough to get some idea about what goes on, but I'm really not smart. Just creative. Luckily that serves for both my hobbies.

LOL Not my club, but I am a member there.

I must admit I get a little envious of people's planted tanks. My form of shrimping doesn't allow me such pleasentries, and the little I have done gets infested withhair algae on a regular basis.

I think shrimp may be in short supply this year, dude. Due to the winter fluke storms throwing breeding off kilter.

Always good to have the voice of experience with specific items! Thanks ctaylor!

Nice. That tank is really coming along.

Doesn't matter how many shrimp are in there. What matters in the pairing to mate. And from that, the background of the shrimp. At this time Homogenous shrimp are almost impossible to find in TB. Unfortunately if shrimp were more straight forward you could do punnet squares, but since they are not and you are dealing with co-doms, co-recessives, etc. - it really is an impossible question to answer unless you study the throw the shrimp has had with that pairing previously..

Shrimp stuff? I'm in. 1.Doc4PC2 2.FireRedShrimp 3) Soothing_Shrimp

Every once in a while I'll get springtails on top of the water. Usually from plants. Harmless to shrimp, and jump like fleas on the top of the water. I just looked up pics though and they don't have wings- so not sure what you had.

Not for a long time, if ever. Australia is extremely protective of its species.

Cool. Another dwarf for aquarium adventures.

Very nice!

Good choice on trying the crystals first. I'd love to see some pics of your sexies!

yep

Yepper.

It only shows up once you click in the text box.

We do.

O2 and minimize bacterial growth. If you see dropped eggs, they get fungus fast and die.