A picture I took while they were being acclimated
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Shrimp Arrived Today!
Today I recieved my shipment of 10 SS Hinos at around 4 pm. All of them were very healthy. As of today, I have 14 SS hinos and 5 S+ tiger teeth/V-Band.
A picture I took while they were being acclimated
A picture I took while they were being acclimated
Monday, July 13, 2009
Crystal Red Shrimp
Crystal Red Shrimp
Caridina cf. cantonensis
Crystal Red Shrimp derived from a Japanese Bee shrimp breeder who had a colony of several thousand Bee shrimp and observed a mutation of three Red Bee Shrimp which was later known as Crystal Red Shrimp.
Some may recognize Crystal Red Shrimp as a species that is very hard to as long as you have the right water parameters and keep them stable, they will breed prolifically. The following water parameters are recommended:
Percent of Hydrogen Ions (pH): ~6.4
General Hardness (GH): ~5 (make sure there is Calcium and Magnesium)
Carbonate Hardness (KH): will not directly affect the shrimp but will raise pH
Total Dissolved Substances (TDS): 100-250
Temperature: 70-76
*A wider range of water parameters can be tolerated
I have been breeding low grade CRS (from C-S grades) since December of 2008 in the conditions mentioned above. I was told that CRS would not breed in small tanks due to the fluctuations of water parameters but I was persistent and wanted to show others that keeping these shrimp was not as hard as people described on online forums. So I setup a five gallon CRS tank with Aqua Soil Amazonia 2 and two HOB filters with a sponge slipped over the intake. Four months later, the result was 50 adults and about 150 juvenile CRS.
Since May 2009, after my move into a more spacious house I setup a several more tanks for breeding various dwarf shrimp. Mainly Caridina Sp. I want to share the knowledge I have acquired from keeping various freshwater dwarf shrimp and also help others gain knowledge in how to keep these wonderful aquatic pets.
Caridina cf. cantonensis
Crystal Red Shrimp derived from a Japanese Bee shrimp breeder who had a colony of several thousand Bee shrimp and observed a mutation of three Red Bee Shrimp which was later known as Crystal Red Shrimp.
Some may recognize Crystal Red Shrimp as a species that is very hard to as long as you have the right water parameters and keep them stable, they will breed prolifically. The following water parameters are recommended:
Percent of Hydrogen Ions (pH): ~6.4
General Hardness (GH): ~5 (make sure there is Calcium and Magnesium)
Carbonate Hardness (KH): will not directly affect the shrimp but will raise pH
Total Dissolved Substances (TDS): 100-250
Temperature: 70-76
*A wider range of water parameters can be tolerated
I have been breeding low grade CRS (from C-S grades) since December of 2008 in the conditions mentioned above. I was told that CRS would not breed in small tanks due to the fluctuations of water parameters but I was persistent and wanted to show others that keeping these shrimp was not as hard as people described on online forums. So I setup a five gallon CRS tank with Aqua Soil Amazonia 2 and two HOB filters with a sponge slipped over the intake. Four months later, the result was 50 adults and about 150 juvenile CRS.
Since May 2009, after my move into a more spacious house I setup a several more tanks for breeding various dwarf shrimp. Mainly Caridina Sp. I want to share the knowledge I have acquired from keeping various freshwater dwarf shrimp and also help others gain knowledge in how to keep these wonderful aquatic pets.
Feeding and Food
Besides water quality, food is the most important for aquarium shrimp. Like humans, shrimp don't like to eat the same thing every day so having a variety of shrimp food is important to keep shrimp happy. I would recommend at least 2 or 3 different kinds of food with at least one kind targeting baby shrimp like Mosura Bioplus. I use 8 different kinds of food. I feed flake food, crab cuisine, nisso bee shrimp food, algae wafers, mosura specialty CRS food, mosura bioplus, and spurinula wafers.
I will feed different foods every day, different foods will have different purposes. Foods that are richer in vegetation like spurinula wafers, mosura specialty CRS food, nisso bee shrimp food, and algae wafers will improve coloring of shrimp. I feed these food on a daily basis. Foods that are richer in meat content like regular tropical fish flakes and crab cuisine will speed up the growth of shrimp. I usually feed these more often when there is a large population of jueviniles and I feed Bioplus the first 5 days after new shrimp are born.
The food I use are all stored in the freezer to keep them fresh as the shrimp do not eat much. I will take out a small portion of each kind, put it in small tubes and leave the rest in the freezer and refill the small tubes whenever I run out.
As for the feeding routine, right now I only have 19 pieces of shrimp in my 20 gallon so I rarely feed them. Since new babies were born 4 days ago, I'm still feeding bioplus daily. before the 10 pieces of shrimp arrived today, I fed probably only once every 3-5 days as there were enough biolfilm and algae on the glass for them to feed off of.
When feeding, I place a large piece of food, on a petri dish I have in the tank and then take out the left over food an hour later. I place a large piece of food in the petri dish so that the shrimp wont be able to carry the food out of the dish. I don't want left over food all over the tank for 2 reasons, the left over food will rot in the aquasoil and shorten the life of the soil, and it is extremely hard to spot and take out the left over food after it is taken out of the petri dish. If the uneaten food in the tank is left there for a long period of time, it will ruin the water quality and cause populations of pests such as hydra, water limpets, planaria and other pests to increase, Usually more than half the food goes to waste.
I will feed different foods every day, different foods will have different purposes. Foods that are richer in vegetation like spurinula wafers, mosura specialty CRS food, nisso bee shrimp food, and algae wafers will improve coloring of shrimp. I feed these food on a daily basis. Foods that are richer in meat content like regular tropical fish flakes and crab cuisine will speed up the growth of shrimp. I usually feed these more often when there is a large population of jueviniles and I feed Bioplus the first 5 days after new shrimp are born.
The food I use are all stored in the freezer to keep them fresh as the shrimp do not eat much. I will take out a small portion of each kind, put it in small tubes and leave the rest in the freezer and refill the small tubes whenever I run out.
As for the feeding routine, right now I only have 19 pieces of shrimp in my 20 gallon so I rarely feed them. Since new babies were born 4 days ago, I'm still feeding bioplus daily. before the 10 pieces of shrimp arrived today, I fed probably only once every 3-5 days as there were enough biolfilm and algae on the glass for them to feed off of.
When feeding, I place a large piece of food, on a petri dish I have in the tank and then take out the left over food an hour later. I place a large piece of food in the petri dish so that the shrimp wont be able to carry the food out of the dish. I don't want left over food all over the tank for 2 reasons, the left over food will rot in the aquasoil and shorten the life of the soil, and it is extremely hard to spot and take out the left over food after it is taken out of the petri dish. If the uneaten food in the tank is left there for a long period of time, it will ruin the water quality and cause populations of pests such as hydra, water limpets, planaria and other pests to increase, Usually more than half the food goes to waste.
Acclimating New Shrimp
My shipment of 10 SS hinos got here today so I took the opportunity to make a post about how to acclimate new shrimp.
Very good packaging
Step 1:
pour the shrimp into a container(I like to use a larger container so that I dont have to worry about it over flowing as much) and add a drop of prime/dechlorinator to reduce stress after shipment.
tip*- take any moss or plant in the bag before pouring to prevent shrimp from sticking to the inside of the bag.
Step 2:
put one side of the airline tubing into your tank
Step 3:
tie a knot on the other end and fill the tubing up with water(do this by sucking on the end with a knot). Make sure the knot is tight in the beginning to ensure slow dripping, you can loosen it up half an hour later to speed up the dripping.
Step 4:
When your container is full, pour out 90% of the water and let it keep dripping.
Step 5:
After it fills up again, move the shrimp with the water into a smaller container and let it float in your tank. If your container is already small enough, just put that into your tank and let it float for 15-30 minutes or whenever the temperature matches. *do not let the other water get into your tank*
Step 6:
Remove the container from your tank, fish out the shrimp and put it into your tank. throw away the water the shrimp came in as it may contain parasites, and/or harmful substances.
The drip acclimation is to get the shrimp used to the pH, GH, TDS and other water parameters, and floating them in the tank will get them used to the temperature. With fish I only do the drip acclimation, but with shrimp this expensive, its better to be safe than sorry.
Very good packaging
Step 1:
pour the shrimp into a container(I like to use a larger container so that I dont have to worry about it over flowing as much) and add a drop of prime/dechlorinator to reduce stress after shipment.
tip*- take any moss or plant in the bag before pouring to prevent shrimp from sticking to the inside of the bag.
Step 2:
put one side of the airline tubing into your tank
Step 3:
tie a knot on the other end and fill the tubing up with water(do this by sucking on the end with a knot). Make sure the knot is tight in the beginning to ensure slow dripping, you can loosen it up half an hour later to speed up the dripping.
Step 4:
When your container is full, pour out 90% of the water and let it keep dripping.
Step 5:
After it fills up again, move the shrimp with the water into a smaller container and let it float in your tank. If your container is already small enough, just put that into your tank and let it float for 15-30 minutes or whenever the temperature matches. *do not let the other water get into your tank*
Step 6:
Remove the container from your tank, fish out the shrimp and put it into your tank. throw away the water the shrimp came in as it may contain parasites, and/or harmful substances.
The drip acclimation is to get the shrimp used to the pH, GH, TDS and other water parameters, and floating them in the tank will get them used to the temperature. With fish I only do the drip acclimation, but with shrimp this expensive, its better to be safe than sorry.
My tanks
When I moved I setup a 20 gallon truvu, 10 gallon AGA, 2 gallon AGA and a 12 gallon later on as I settled down after the move. In the beginning, all the tanks except the 20 gallon were in my room but later on I decided I wanted to move them into the basement. The tanks were on a bookshelf from IKEA in my room until last monday I moved them into the basement.
this is wwhat it looked like before last monday with a 12 gallon on the bottom shelf
In my basement
the 2 gallon in my room
12 gallon- a bit cloudy as I disturbed the aquasoil when I put the driftwood in yesterday
Right now there are 2 otocinclus, 2 black neon tetras and a little feeder guppy inside. I'm planning to keep tiger shrimp in this tank once I get my ADA mini-L and move all the fish into the mini-L.
10 gallon- I used to have some low grade CRS in here but I recently traded them for the driftwood in my 12 gallon. Currently there are 5 juevenile Orange Bee Shrimp in here and I'm planning to put some blue pearl shrimp in here sometime this week or next week.
orange bee shrimp
Last but not least, my 20 gallon- Its currently holding 5 SS grade CRS and 4 S grade CRS and there are 10 more pieces of SS grades coming tomorrow!
one of the 3 pieces of CRS I got yesterday form someone on craigslist
this is wwhat it looked like before last monday with a 12 gallon on the bottom shelf
In my basement
the 2 gallon in my room
12 gallon- a bit cloudy as I disturbed the aquasoil when I put the driftwood in yesterday
Right now there are 2 otocinclus, 2 black neon tetras and a little feeder guppy inside. I'm planning to keep tiger shrimp in this tank once I get my ADA mini-L and move all the fish into the mini-L.
10 gallon- I used to have some low grade CRS in here but I recently traded them for the driftwood in my 12 gallon. Currently there are 5 juevenile Orange Bee Shrimp in here and I'm planning to put some blue pearl shrimp in here sometime this week or next week.
orange bee shrimp
Last but not least, my 20 gallon- Its currently holding 5 SS grade CRS and 4 S grade CRS and there are 10 more pieces of SS grades coming tomorrow!
one of the 3 pieces of CRS I got yesterday form someone on craigslist
Pictures of new born fry
Heres a picture of the shell the mother shedded with 2 eggs attached:
this is one of the 2 babies I saw today. Its about 3 days old and it looks like it doubled its size in 3 days
The mother with eggs again!
this is one of the 2 babies I saw today. Its about 3 days old and it looks like it doubled its size in 3 days
The mother with eggs again!
CRS babies hatched!
About 2-3 days ago the baby CRS hatched! I've been trying to get pictures of them but they are way too small to spot. I saw 3 babies on the day it hatched but I havent seen them since. I'm getting kind of worried but hopefully they'll be ok. It took over 24 hours for all the eggs the mother held to hatch. Actually, not even all the eggs hatched, I saw 2 eggs hanging on the mother's shell that she had shed I doubt those will hatch though because I'm usually able to see the eyes of the eggs that are about to hatch but I cant see the eyes at all. The mother that had the babies 2 days ago got berried again!
today I also got 3 pieces of S+ grades from a guy on craigslist and there will be 10 more pieces of Hinos coming in the mail on tuesday.
I also moved my 12 gallon and 10 gallon into the basement as the aquasoil was giving off a really wierd smell. Since the tanks were in my room and I didnt like that smell, I moved them into the basement.
I will try to post pictures of the CRS I bought and what the tanks look like in the basement by tuesday.
today I also got 3 pieces of S+ grades from a guy on craigslist and there will be 10 more pieces of Hinos coming in the mail on tuesday.
I also moved my 12 gallon and 10 gallon into the basement as the aquasoil was giving off a really wierd smell. Since the tanks were in my room and I didnt like that smell, I moved them into the basement.
I will try to post pictures of the CRS I bought and what the tanks look like in the basement by tuesday.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Purpose of this Blog
My purpose for this blog is to share what I’ve learned with everyone and to spread this wonderful hobby. When I first started this hobby, I did a lot of online research and I acquired a lot of information that I later found to be false. Through this blog I want to share information that is reliable and anything but false.
My goal is to help expand this hobby throughout the US and to give everyone and anyone the knowledge, and ability to raise and enjoy these beautiful shrimp. By posting up all the information I know about these guys is the best way of doing so.
My goal is to help expand this hobby throughout the US and to give everyone and anyone the knowledge, and ability to raise and enjoy these beautiful shrimp. By posting up all the information I know about these guys is the best way of doing so.
First Post
First post! Heres some background info about me….
I started this hobby on June, 2008 when a got a several guppies from a local fish store. Later I got into aquascaping and created one myself. Here is a picture:
10/09
While looking up algae eaters for this tank, I ran into the cherry shrimp and became very interested in freshwater dwarf shrimp. Out of all the dwarf shrimp I saw online, I found Crystal Red Shrimp to be the most attractive so I re-did my whole tank and turned it into a CRS tank. Here’s what it looked like right before I tore it down:
4/09
About 2 months ago I moved into a bigger house in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Now that I have more room, I setup a several more tanks. Currently I have a 20 gallon in the basement, a 10gallon, a 12gallon and a 2 gallon in my room.
I started this hobby on June, 2008 when a got a several guppies from a local fish store. Later I got into aquascaping and created one myself. Here is a picture:
10/09
While looking up algae eaters for this tank, I ran into the cherry shrimp and became very interested in freshwater dwarf shrimp. Out of all the dwarf shrimp I saw online, I found Crystal Red Shrimp to be the most attractive so I re-did my whole tank and turned it into a CRS tank. Here’s what it looked like right before I tore it down:
4/09
About 2 months ago I moved into a bigger house in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Now that I have more room, I setup a several more tanks. Currently I have a 20 gallon in the basement, a 10gallon, a 12gallon and a 2 gallon in my room.
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