wyzazz

I currently have a semi automated water change setup that uses drip emmitters to fill my tanks and then I have drilled overflows so they just overflow when full and drain out into my yard.  For a smaller setup I would use a small water pump and tubing to pump the water into the tank.  You can get a remote control for your outlet so you don't have to try and plug and unplug the pump (the remote controls can be purchased online or are often in stores around Christmas for use with Christmas lights).

This is a good read for those interested in breeding out specific lines of shrimp.  

https://singaporeshrimps.wordpress.com/2019/12/23/all-about-breeding-tanks/?fbclid=IwAR04CFZFoHqKBOIkzRr5i9q_S-aO5FxzhqX11wXmA8l_zdmE27oPnUtpJm0

So my assumption is that you're using Tap Water?  You won't want to utilize that with Active Substrate.  Pick up RO or Distilled Water, or better yet an RO unit, then you can remineralize to your desired gH.  
 
Here is what will happen if you use Active Substrate with your water (I'm assuming your kH is pretty high).  
 
1.  You will exhaust the buffering properties of the soil very quickly and end up with inert substrate.  
2.  When you do water changes, your pH will fluctuate.  Say that your pH in the tank is 6.7.  You remove 10% of the water and add tap water.  Your pH will swing up rapidly in to the low 7s' and the substrate will try to pull it back down to that 6.7.  This will happen at every water change until the substrate finally exhausts.  When it does your pH will swing rapidly up to that 8.8pH you mentioned above.  

Most, if not all of the shrimp won't survive that.  

You could look in to Sulawesi Shrimp, they may be a fit for your tap as it is.  They require warmer temps and dine almost exclusively on Algae and Biofilm.  

Water with no kH and no active substrate (or something to keep the pH stable) will have pH fluctuations.  pH readings would change from night to day, especially in a planted tank.  

Reduce feeding and the population of seed shrimp and detritus worms will lessen over time.  For snails, you can drop in a piece of lettuce and give it a couple of hours, then pull it back out.  Lather, rinse, repeat until the population is under control.  

All homebred
Shipping is $10 or free on orders over $100
Orange Sakura $4 each
Yellow Neo $4 each
Snow Ball $3 each
Green Jade $5 eacg
Emeralds $7 each
Wild Neo $1
Tangerine Tigers $4 each
Super Tigers $5 each
Raccoon Tigers $10 each
Hummel Tiger $10 each
Golden Bees $3 each
Ghost Bees $4 each
Zebra Ghost Bees $15 each
Super Crystal Reds mixed patterns $8 each
Shadow Pandas $15 each
Yellow King Kongs $4 each
OE YKK $10 each
Yellow King Kong Rilli $12 each
Tibee $3 each
Tangtai $3 each
Auratai $10 each
Blue Steels $12 each

Thank you!

You're welcome!  I don't have any more links, but I can say that if you don't have room for a lot more tanks then you can always start using HOB Breeder Boxes.  Take the two shrimp you want to breed together and toss them in a box off of the main tank.  Once the female is berried then move her back to the main tank.  Take your babies, selectively move them to new tanks, and keep track of the generations that way.  

If you want to breed a particular shrimp back with it's parent's then you can easily do it that way.  

Thank you, this was very helpful! The whole website gives insight on what is involved in breeding at much higher level. I didn't even know that fancy tigers could be that opaque and with sky blue on them.
Do you have, by any chance, links to the lesser level of selective breeding procedures or ideas for us, common folks, who buy common strains from LFS or shrimp stores and try to figure out what else, beside keeping them, could be done with them, to see something new and interesting?

Well you’ve definitely given me a little more courage!! Thank you!!

I don’t have an active substrate. I started this tank with crs a year or so ago. I live in pdx where our water is soft our facet water runs at 10 tds. For a few months I used facet water but when I wanted to branch out with my shrimp I bought an ro system and use that. 

Welcome Bruce!  I keep my Neo's at gH 8-9, kH 4-5, pH 7-7.4, TDS 200.  I use RODI water and remineralize with Salty Shrimp gH/kH+ (Link below).  

Generally, Neo's will adapt to a very wide range of conditions.  Depending on your tap water, you may be able to keep them in that with no issues.  However, remineralized RO or Distilled water is usually the best option that way you know your water contains EVERYHTHING needed to ensure healthy shrimp.  

https://www.jungleaquashrimp.com/saltyshrimp-shrimp-mineral-gh-kh-minerals-and-trace-elements/

gH is General Hardness - Usually Calcium and Magnesium - gH is the actual mineral content of your water.
 
kH is Carbonate Hardness - This is the buffering capacity of the aquarium, usually Carbonates and Bicarbonates.  kH keeps your pH stable.  Generally the higher the kH the higher the pH.  
 
In most Caridina tanks we use gH only remineralizer with RO water and an Active/Buffering substrate to keep the pH low.  Because there is no kH present, the pH can be pushed/pulled up or down by different factors.  The substrate pulls it down and keeps it there and stable.  If there were kH in the water the substrate and the kH would fight each other.  
 
Hopefully that makes sense.
 

Yep, it seems to work well for me!
 

Crashes?  Why would it crash?  You need to keep feeding the tank (give it an ammonia source) once it's cycled.  I like to put snails in my shrimp tanks to keep the bioload up, shrimp quite honestly have little to no bioload so having something in there with them helps to keep things stable.

I've found that one of the best ways to create biofilm quickly is with a bacteria/enzyme bag while you're cycling the tank.  Within a week you've got a healthy amount of biofilm in the tank, but this can't be done if there are inhabitants in the tank.  (And if you're cycling, you shouldn't have any inhabitants in the tank anyway.)

Aside from that, any bacterial supplement (Dead Shrimp Powder, Aqualex Enzyme, etc...) or powdered food will help to build biofilm.  
 
And finally, time...   ...given time your tank will age and biofilm will naturally be created.  

@T0adman - Elaborate how?  BacterAE isn't worth the risk IMHO, it's too easy to overdose.  Having a bacteria in the mix that loves to scavenge O2 isn't a great move IMHO, so I no longer use the stuff.  As I mentioned above, it's full of all kinds of great stuff, but the good doesn't outweigh the bad for me.  

As for feeding powders, I feed powdered foods 2-3X per week and run HMF's.  I have to pull the HMF's and squeeze them out every 3-6moz depending on the tank. 
 

What are the good things in the bacter ae. - There are multiple Lactobacillus and other bacterial strains in Bacter AE, these help to contribute to biofilm growth in a tank.  Bacillus Subtilis is the main culprit in the O2 scavenging.  Lacto does the same to an extent, but not as much as Subtilis. The fact that it's a powder makes it available to the entire tank, this is a huge benefit IMHO and why I developed a "complete" powdered food to feed to my tanks.
 
What other foods provide them? - Other Biofilm Building foods that are commercially available are Pure Nordic Nutridust, SL Aqua Magic Powder/Aqualex Enzyme, Dead Shrimp Powder (if you want this I can pass along Po's information), Lowkeys Double Speed and Bacteria Bacter.  Most of these can be found via a quick google search.
 
Do the other bacteria foods you mentioned lack O2 loving bacteria?  - They do, which makes them safer overall.
 
Do they have other bacteria, or no live bacteria?  - Bacteria isn't really live, it's just inactive or in stasis.  It becomes active under the right conditions and begins replicating.  Most of these foods contain some sort of inactive bacteria or enzymes that promote biofilm growth in your tanks.  
 
Do they promote biofilm, or is that what the bacteria does? - Yes and Yes.  Anything in powder form will be consumable by the bacteria in your tank, so it promotes biofilm in that way even if it doesn't contain bacteria.
 
Is it necessary or do established tanks have enough biofilm anyway? - It's not necessary, but can certainly help if a tank has a large population of shrimp or your want to boost baby survival.  Every tank is a separate ecosystem and will act differently, so one established tank may be completely different than the one next to it.
 
What should I be looking for in other powdered foods? - I like to look at reviews and see what experienced breeders utilize.  I did this a lot when I first started and even more so when I started making my own food.  I wanted a "complete" food, so I have everything from Calcium sources, to betaglucans, enzymes, bacteria strains & yeast to animal and plant based proteins.  It really depends on what you think you're lacking in a tank.  If your shrimp are having trouble molting and your parameters are good, then you may want to consider something with lower protein (especially animal/insect) and higher concentrations of calcium.  
 
Do these replace the need for bio film enchancers? - It really depends.  When I cycle a tank I use a Barley and Enzyme Bag that promotes a ton of biofilm growth.  It ages a tank very quickly and negates need for tons of additional time and other enhancers.  Again, none of this stuff is necessary...   ...it just allows you to create a suitable environment more quickly.  
 
Which specifically are best, and where can I buy them? - See the list above.  If you would like to try out anything I have, feel free to shoot me a message.  If you are looking specifically for a bacterial supplement, Dead Shrimp Powder is one of the best I've used and is readily available.  SL Aqua/Aqualex has been going through some radical changes and has been really hard to come by, while I really loved their products I'll no longer support their brand due to some of the business decisions they made.  

With bacteria type foods I've always heard and tried to follow the rule of picking one and sticking with it. They dont tell you exactly what strains are in there and mixing can cause issues. That said I can't prove and issues caused by it. I'm having my best baby survival so far using magic powder. Hopefully it's still available. I used a powder food from wyazzaz too but ended up adding agar agar and making it into a frozen food they like. The magic powder is more of a food with some bacteria than say bacter AE that's more of a bacteria only product. That said the reason so.many of us use sponge filters and HMF is they provide great grazing as well as filtering. When I feed powdered foods the shrimp first pick it off the ground then an hour later most are on the sponge cleaning that.
 
Bacter ae is the only food I'm aware of.that causes the low O2 problem so easily.
 
Look for foods people are using that are having success and you see pop up. When I went to a local breeders house I saw a stack of 15+ magic powder bottles and shrimp.mineral uptake, and the shrimp nature line. I alternate between the mineral uptake and magic powder now. Works great that said other things could have worked too.
Any powdered food will help build biofilm. It's just bacteria and microorganisms when they get food they grow.
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wyzazz is one of the OG members on this forum so I hold his advice in high regards. Honestly though, there's so many different types of shrimp food in the market that it can be easy to get overwhelmed and spend a bunch of money on different foods (I know because I did this when I first got into the hobby lol), when in reality shrimp don't necessarily need crazy expensive food or a 5 course meal everyday to successfully thrive and breed. I believe Lucas from LRB aquatics feeds all of his fish and shrimp Tetra Colored Granules and he's won numerous shrimp awards for his neocaridina. When you get into the caridina species however, especially the more expensive and rarer ones, it might be recommended to get more shrimp-specific foods since they're a little genetically weaker from the inbreeding to get the beautiful colors, but I think that's a topic for another thread. I like to choose my foods based on brands/companies that either I've had success with, or heard of people having success with, which is why the majority of my processed foods are from 2 companies (Shrimp King and Glassgarten).
 
On a side note, I also feed snowflake food and my shrimp love them. As wyzazz stated, they don't foul the water so they make a perfect vacation food and they flake apart in the water so each shrimp can take a piece and swim away, which can help to reduce food aggression and let the little shrimps get some of the food. 

I use a dish to help keep the mess down.  I feed Snowflake Pellets, Barley Pellets (that I buy in bulk), a powdered food (Shrimp Dust Complete) that I developed myself, freshly boiled or dehydrated leaves (Maple, Mulberry, Spinach, Kale, Dandelion), a variety of freshly boiled veggies & even some insect/animal based protein pellets once in a while.  

If you'd like to try out the Snowflake or Barley, let me know.  They are great because they are a leave-in/grazing food that won't foul your tank water.  Powdered food is great for babies because it spreads all throughout the tank.  And as with most pets, having a good variety of food is one of they keys to good health!  

I use a dish to help keep the mess down.  I feed Snowflake Pellets, Barley Pellets (that I buy in bulk), a powdered food (Shrimp Dust Complete) that I developed myself, freshly boiled or dehydrated leaves (Maple, Mulberry, Spinach, Kale, Dandelion), a variety of freshly boiled veggies & even some insect/animal based protein pellets once in a while.  

If you'd like to try out the Snowflake or Barley, let me know.  They are great because they are a leave-in/grazing food that won't foul your tank water.  Powdered food is great for babies because it spreads all throughout the tank.  And as with most pets, having a good variety of food is one of they keys to good health!  

Sorry to hear this! Your must be using buffering substrate if your ph is so low (6.7), when you do a water change with tap with higher ph (8+) your shrimp experience a sudden swing.. For Neos or ghost shrimp just use inert substrate so you don't have to deal with swings that cause this type of stress and subsequent loss.

Grant is a good guy and should be able to hook you up with just about anything you need as far as shrimp go!  

I got neo culls $1 each