RyeGuy411

Its amazing what happens in the animal world. I came home last night to see my gorgeous male Extreme KK freshly molted. I couple minutes later I saw the other shrimp swarming something, literally fighting over it like a pack of pirhana. Poor male KK he didnt stand a chance they ate every bit of hime within 45 minutes. There are only 7 adult shrimp in this tank, I didnt think that was possible.

This is nuts!
 
I've noticed before what I thought was ramshorns trying to hitch rides on my blue diminutus.  Failed miserably of course because the ramshorns were larger than my blue crays.  I've seen this several times in the past couple weeks, which I thought was odd. They get on, and the dims are at their mercy not being able to get them off.
 
This past month there are fewer diminutus, but no bodies.  Params fine.
 
Then today I noticed another ramshorn trying to ride a dim, and upon closer examination I saw it trying to pull it into it's shell bending the poor thing almost in half and struggling frantically.
 
That's when it hit me that these guys are so small and so defenseless, the ramshorns must be making a meal of them!  Why these crays and not shrimp?  I don't know.  Maybe because the shrimp can fly away, or spook easily, when the crays don't?
 
If someone else posted this I'd say it was ludicrous, and perhaps they were misreading the situation.  However I'm pretty sure I'm not.
 
Whatever the reason, the snails are being moved out today.  At least the larger ones...

High kH = high pH not good for TB and Crstal shrimp. Low kh means the water pH is easily adjusted. The KH acts as an alkaline buffer and resists lowering to the acidic level that you need for TB and Crystal shrimp. Having 0 kh in an established tank with other elements like driftwood, alder cones, IAL and buffering substrate the pH is very stable. 

First post here, just found the site. Just started cycling ten 10 gallon tanks with HMF filters yesterday. Added my ace hardware ammonia, and cant wait to add stuff. Have a few reef tanks and a small 10 gallon planted. So im new to freshwater invert tanks.
 
                                                                                                    Cid

To be honest I had cherry shrimp for about 5 months before getting into Bees and TB shrimp. I dont think they are that much more difficult than cherry shrimp they just need more specific requirements for setup and water parameters which is easy to do with substrate, RO water and remineralizer. 

I dont use UGF, not for any reason other than I have a system that seems to work. Controsoil does leech very small amounts of ammonia if your bacteria is colonized sufficiently it shouldnt be problem. Controsoil cycling I have found is very fast, keep the temp up to 86 and pH at 7-7.2 and lots of bacteria starters and frequent additon of baceria and a tank can be cycled in 2-3 weeks. That is under ideal conditions and cycling with hard tap water. Once my ammonia and nitrite drop to 0 then I change out all the water with RO and remineralizer let the pH stabilize and drop the temp and its ready for shrimp.

im sure they are being eaten>

Chili or exclamation point Rasboras, they will eat baby shrimp but not bother the adults and young. If your tank is heavily planted your shrimp might still breed but will be much more shy and you might not see them much.

I highly recommend the "Fine" Controsoil substrate.

When I was a kid I had a couple fish tanks with the clown puke gravel and plastic plants. Looking back on it, that was awful. I thouroughly enjoy sitting and looking in my shrimp tanks and watching them scavenge the plants, driftwood and substrate. I imagine if I was a shrimp I would enjoy living in there.

When I was a kid I had a couple fish tanks with the clown puke gravel and plastic plants. Looking back on it, that was awful. I thouroughly enjoy sitting and looking in my shrimp tanks and watching them scavenge the plants, driftwood and substrate. I imagine if I was a shrimp I would enjoy living in there.

If I notice a pale or clear shrimp with a saddle I know it will not develop the red color im looking for so I would cull. I like to let my colony get about 30-40 adults then cull out the light colored ones leaving only the darkest red but make sure to leave a few males.

When I was a kid I had a couple fish tanks with the clown puke gravel and plastic plants. Looking back on it, that was awful. I thouroughly enjoy sitting and looking in my shrimp tanks and watching them scavenge the plants, driftwood and substrate. I imagine if I was a shrimp I would enjoy living in there.

So I'm sitting here this am staring at my newly setup Mischling tank (my 1st shrimp tank ever), and I'm just enjoying how "natural" the setup, care, and feeding is.
I just placed an Indian Almond Leaf into the tank. A dead, dried up leaf! It will not only provide sustenance to the shrimp, but also assist with water quality...a dead dried leaf!
The other foods I have for them are made from spinach, garlic, soybean shells, all natural stuff.
Substrate made from volcanic ash, petrified wood, driftwood, and plants...
For some reason I'm just feeling the Zen of the tank this am.
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This RAOK is for one bucephalandra "pink lady", an absolutely gorgeous buce. I will even cover shipping! Good luck!
 
 Start a numbered list and the winner be drawn Sunday night sometime.
 
ex.
 
1.RyeGuy411
2. Joe321
3. Steve77

I just got mine today, thanks Ryan!

I purchased the 4 stage unit. When I fill a larger container I actually sipon it out into gallon jugs for top offs and small water changes.

Ryan is the man! Aside from the Pink Lady, he had sent me 2 additional buces  
 
Thanks you again for your generosity!  

Seems plenty bright for any moss, buce and anubias. I guess it would depend on what plants you are keeping.

Use the gel type super glue it is easier to work with. 

this tank has been running since february. no habitants for 4 months.. had problems with my crystals in their old tank so i moved them into this fluval ebi. it was intended only for my TB's but i didn't have any other choice.
 
crappy full tank shot.

 
 

 

 

 
 
 
also purchased some RKK & BKK stripes. they just arrived today 7/16


 
 
had my first berry since november last night. hope this means my luck is turning around!

Welcome, if I lived that close to Joes I would be in trouble.

I have one TB tank with inert substrate, after time it naturally settled at pH of 6.8 with RO water and remineralizer. To get the pH down to a better level I added about 2-3 tbsp of aquarium peat granules made by Fluval. This works great and I have not changed them in a couple months. The pH in this tank is the lowest of any of my tanks and sits at 5, shrimp are thriving and I have a number of TB babies growing fast. This is not the ideal pH I would want but I learned long ago if the shrimp are doing fine its better to leave it than to try and change it.

Andy and I were having a conversation about aeration yesterday and after that I decided to build a closed loop air supply. I bought a new larger air pump and some manifolds and fittings last night. Should have this set up on wednesday night. It is ideal for my new rack. And I gave myself room to expand with 2-3 more tanks, I will be doing HMF's on all my new tanks.

Sell of shrimp when they hit like 15 months