Soothing Shrimp

Should be a heck of a nice photo of all those shrimp.

I've bought the SS filter guards from H4N for various purposes, some custom made, and have been very happy with them.

Would you do a quick description what each is suposed to do, and if it is for cards or neos? Thanks! And next paycheck, I'm gettings issue number 2 from you!

Turning white/clearish is usually a sign of stress. Sometimes fems will lose some color while while berried and regainit when gaining strength back. The "white" color people refer to when talking about bacterial infections are in the body. The body can actually turn white (paper white) opaque because the bacteria is causing dead tissue in the body. Doesn't look as if any of your have that. I'm also trying to breed for solid pigment, but it will take lots of time. Been working on my yellow strain for years to do the same thing, but still not there yet.

Provided all hatch, you are looking 60+ shrimplets. Not a bad number to start with.

Great report, darkcobra and a nice post to refer to if someone else finds themselves in that predicament! Thanks for taking the time to write all that up!

Merth, when you are ready, contact me. I got fed up with the yellows, too! That's why I bred my own hardy strain...

Thanks GreenBliss. Let's hope these breed profusely this spring!

No. My camera sucks. I really need one that takes macro pics. The focal length on my m1033 hd kodak is just too far and has AF. Here's a couple more photos to see the color difference between the lightest and darkest though. As you can see, the shrimp in the back looks almost black. That's the kind I'm referring to when I say painted. My personal preference is the kind that has green and I can see through. Either Sakura or Fire. Both are pretty to me. The males often have only a green hood for some reason. Also, in the 1st pic, I had to take away some green with color correction because for some reason my stupid camera adds green to the substrate when taking pictures of these guys. Right now I'm trying to breed quantity again so I can select again. But I need enough of these shrimp to ensure a continuing strain! I only have maybe 50 or so right now after my tragedy earlier this year. ugh!

If you and darkcobra want to try to figure out genetics of the neos, by all means do so- and start a thread so I and others can follow along! You would have the added benifit of hobbyists "playing along" and posting their results as well to give you more data.

Thanks Mosspearl. Not all look that high grade, but nice to remind myself what can be acheived.

Soft foods such as zuccini, cucumber, baby spinach, mulberry leaves, etc. get eaten readily (depending on the colony) and won't cost you an arm and a leg. There are some foods you can buy that are semi prepared that you make similer to jello for them. And are ready made foods such as pellets, etc that can also be bought. I prefer the pellets myself. Just one less thing I have to do with my shrimp.

Okay, here's some answers for ya. heh Yepper, pumpkins/orange sakuras are a variety of cherry. So are yellows. Some say oranges came from yellows. Some say from red. "I'm assuming breeders seen yellows and orange cropping up in the regular cherry shrimp populous and then selectively bred them?" Yepper. Of course the original yellows and oranges are not as vivid as we have now. It took selective breeding to bring out the best color so far. "Eventually, doesn't the cherry revert to the wild coloration at some point? Or just cull, cull, cull? Not necessarilly. The very definition of a strain is to breed true...well...as true as shrimp can. The occasional wild may be thrown, but this is where it gets tricky. The wild color ends up taking over the selectively bred color if they breed together. So you want to remove wilds so you don't have a tank of wild coloration. If you don't care about the best grade of coloration you have- no need to cull. Yellows are yellows, oranges are orange, blues are...well you get the idea. To get the best grade of color (most intense, best pigmented, etc), you will need to cull. Coloration has a tendancy to gravitate to the lowest grade when left to mix randomly. "After one breeds and breeds select pumpkins, when you want to add new blood, do you get more oranges to breed?" Thanksfully research has shown that aquatic inverts are not like mammals. New blood does not have to be added often. One study showed thatafter 12 generations of inbreeding, there was still plenty of variance and it had no ill effects. You could literally breed the same stock of shrimp for years without any ill effect. When you do decide to add new blood, you add another of the same color. Or parallel breed or whatever. "Or is it like mixing paint-add a little red or yellow to enhance the color?" I wish it was that simple. It would make out lives as hobbyists soooooo much easier! Unfortunately, if you mix two different colors- it often results in wild coloration. "If you bred a yellow to a red, can orange ones appear?" In a perfect world it would, however you would most likely wind up with wilds. I *have* heard of people crossing yellow and orange to get different hues in the babies. "If your orange appears too yellow or colorless, is it safe to add red?" Experiment and have fun! heh We all learn from experiments. "Is there a color chart somewhere on this? What is the key to locking in color in Neos, is what I'm trying to say" That is the million dollar question. Neo genetics are messy. Punnet squares refuse to play nice with them. IMO they are full of incomplete recessives and co-dominants. While one color may be "made," the same color may be made a different way with different genes on different loci. There's no proof of this, however from my experience thus far it is the only thing that makes sense. I've searched for answers for a couple years now on neo genetics and it seems as if very few if any have come forth with any research on color genetics in cherry shrimp. A person could possibly make a HUGE name for themselves by doing a doctoral on it, or even a life study. At this point we don't even know enough to say if there is only 1 way to combine the genetics to make blue tissue (for example,) or a multitude of ways to do it. Allow me to do a further example from my own breeding experiences. 99.9% of people who try yellow x red = wild coloration Simple right? When my yellows were so sensative hundreds of shrimp died if I looked at them funny, I had about 3 or 4 left. For a year they would not breed. Out of desperation I added some fire reds and they crossed. The babies of this cross wound up either yellow or red. I culled the reds and worked with them until they were stable and eventually made my own very hardy yellow strain. The point of the story is that this (by experience of others who have tried the cross,) should not have happened. Nobody else has had this experience. This led me to the conclusion that not all color yellow (or red) are on the same location. Otherwise I would have had the same results as countless others. Is it proof? Nope. However it shows how complicated shrimp genetics can be.

Water, all TDS does is tells you roughly the amount of minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water. This can be organic or inorganic. That's why if doing remin with RO, you can do it to the desired GH once, measure the TDS, and then just remin next time to roughly teh same TDS again. Some people use the TDS as a "marker." So, after knowing their tank TDS, when TDS creeps over a given TDS, they just do a wc. Other people prefer to do a wc religiously anyway. TDS will also vary based on the type of shrimp. A TDS too low and it will suck the minerals out of the shrimp's body. Too high and it tries to infiltrate too much into the body. Neos don't really need high brand food, but if it feels good to you then you are welcome to do it. Blanched organic baby spinach would be fine as well.

Yeah, those Malawa will breed during just about anything! LOL Love those guys! Oblong, the Nessies are my own selectively bred strain of green Neos. I've been working hard on breeding them into a true strain for 3-4 years now:

Wow. Kind of dead here recently. Just an update. My Nessies are doing fine now. Have some in a 20g, and some in the tenner. Did water changes on most of my tanks to bring the gh down to 6ish. Still almost no breeding in the shrimp tanks due to winter.

Just another reason for more hobbyists to breed.

Sort, concise and spot on. Nice job.

The liquids are more accurate than strips.

heh yepper. Still have about 10 tanks left to drop gh in. Found those as I was dropping others. *shrugs* That's what keeps shrimpin' exciting' I guess.

Kinda wacky when you think about it, isn't it? Don't most people like to have their shrimp easy to care for and berried? ALmost a no brainer. Unfortunately, I think many people who get into shrimp have the attitude, if the shrimp are not high priced, then they are not worth having as pets. Kind of a status symbol I think. It's a shame really.

I tried TDS up once. Decided I didn't like it and sold off the rest of the package. It would be fine for a normal nano I think, because so many people have said it works well for them. However keep in mind I do lots of 10 gallon tanks, and the cost is just too prohibitive.

-40* F with windchill today. Always fun. NOT! Ugh Moved a portion of my Nessies over the to 20g. Looking pretty good in both tanks now. Going to do an experiment on all my tanks. I've been running my TDS around 300 or so, and the shrimp seem to like that. However I have been sorely neglecting gh in lieu of TDS. So, while thinking about it recently, I've decided to flip my mentality this year and see if breeding increases or decreases by "ignoring" TDS and concentrating on keeping gh between 6-9. Done some radical wc on a number of tanks so far. Still need to do around 10 more tanks to see if it makes a difference. IN other news, my 30g with Malawas is 19GH right now. It has been doing well, so I've just left it alone. I had no idea it was so high. Now the logical me says if it ain't broke,don't touch it. But the creative me says bring it down to 6-9 as well... The creative me has locked the logical me in the closet. LOL

Nice pics of the Malawas. Right now, besides wild cherries, they are the most diverse naturally colored shrimp I know. I'm so surprised that people haven't tried selecting for color, I even add it to my description. I really think these shrimp would be great for breeding out traits. They are incredibly adaptable to almost any water conditions, and breed even more readily than my cherries. Hmmm...maybe I will try again someday...

Your BBRR really stands out nice.