These shrimps are peaceful. They don't attack another shrimp, but if they die, then they will eat the carcass. Malayan shrimps are like Yamato/Amano shrimps. They are very tough, unlike BV. Actually I only bought ten Amanos - almost 3 years later, I still have 8. I can't say that for Cherry shrimps, and have highest fatalities in CRS. BV I think is the same category as Cherries.

Sounds like your tank s not cycled. Haven't had a dead fish in months, except for jumpers. If the water and filter is good, the fishes would be too.

On the contrary, Cardinals are quite resistant to NTDs.

A few factors. For me, overcrowding is a contributing factor. When I had only one dozen tetras, there were no jumpers. But after I added an additional 80 tetras (into a 3 footer), I had occasional jumpers over the next 2-3 months. But after that, it settled down - my guess is they had acclimatized and have settled down in their new home. What's nice is their colors also change - they become more colorful

Another reason is stress - my SAE jumped out because it was constantly chased around by the Panda Garra. One day I found the SAE outside the tank. I have since removed the Panda Garra.

Bigboyz, your CRS died but was able to give a batch before it died. Very puzzling that it died, it means water conditions are poor. And shrimps don't berry if conditions are bad. So your case is very puzzling for me, although I have heard of some cases where a berried mother died while carrying her eggs. Just confusing.

And though I'm not certain and theorizing. Caridina Cantonensis (ie the CRS shrimps) have many grades, from A/B/C, S/SS/SSS, Mosura. The higher the grade, the more sensitive they are to water fluctuations and the more difficult to breed.

So let's say I mix some Mosuras, and some Grade A CRS. And if my tank water conditions/quality/maintenance is not good enough for Mosura to breed, but it may be good enough for the low grade CRS to breed.

Because I think this is what's happening to me. Tiger shrimps are Caridina Cantonensis - they will cross breed with CRS/CBS. And while I've seen my Tiger population explode from 5 shrimps to almost a hundred, but my CRS have never berried even once. This is the only explanation I have that my CRS are probably S grade and the Tiger I have is probably C grade.

Lower grade Caridina Cantonensis = easier to breed.

I'm not sure how else to improve my tank conditions except to even further reduce the WC portion (currently at 30%).

Is it with another BV?

Actually its not a Tiger Grade C. I don't think Tigers are graded that way. But I think the ordinary Tigers (which I have) have not gone through selective inbreeding which leads to the higher grades. Tigers have higher grades too - such as Blue Tiger and Orange Eyed Blue Tiger which I know are very high grades. but they are still from the same Caridina Cantonensis.

Here's pic of the Tiger.
http://www.planetinverts.com/Tiger%20Shrimp.html

No I don't at the moment, because I'm still building up my population and many are still juveniles (only 1 cm). But eventually I will have and will PM you. If you want it now, you can get it from aquacult on lelong. Actually I bought my Tigers from him and he has a wider variety. He breeds them, and he have many varieties, even the high grade ones which I dare not buy.

And actually I spoke too soon. I just went down and saw my CBS is indeed berried

The berried females are always hiding during the day, so I guess that's why I never see any berried CBS/CRS. I need to look harder at nights with the lights off.



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Thanks. And yes, that's MC in the foreground.

Btw, we can swap too. Let's take this to IM.



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Yes, I am injecting CO2 and ferts. This isn't a good thing for shrimp breeding because everyday my PH swings from 6.7 to 7.2/7.3. You know once CO2 starts, the PH goes down.
This PH swing is disliked by sensitive shrimps - maybe one of the reasons why my CRS takes so long to finally berry. But I can't help it as breeding is not my main objective. I need the plants to be healthy.

I think better to use low tech tank. What's your setup? Especially what's your water temp?

Yes, I'm always happy to share. Hope others can benefit too, but my setup may not necessarily suit everyone. Mine's an aquascape tank, so the setup is different from shrimp tanks. I follow the ADA method. Visited their showroom and they helped me with planning, setup, maintenance, equipment, plants, everything. ADA are experts in Aquascape tank but they are not shrimp specialists. Some equipment however are not ADA due to the price.

Priority is healthy plants, fishes, little algae and finally some nice shrimps. Breeding shrimps are actually the lowest priority, but since I've met all the earlier objectives then I have nothing else to do but to breed them too. As you know shrimps are a challenge because they don't like CO2, fishes or high nitrates - all essential ingredients in an aquascaped tank. I'm still tweaking to find the sweet spot to balance all of these, but will not make drastic changes because of shrimps.

ADA 90p Tank. (3 feet, 170 liters.)
ADA Lights Grand Solar 1
Filter Eheim Classic 2217
Filter media - course/fine filter, NA carbon, ADA bamboo charcoal, ADA Bio Rio
Chiller regulated 25C - sometimes I set to 24C but too much condensation.
Substrate system - Penac, Bacter, Clear Super, Tourmaline, Power Sand for base. Aquasoil for planting and I use some Shirui sand for decor (white sand).

Setup date 1st May 2015 (11 months)
Critters : ~ 110 tetras (various), 10 rasboras, 6 ottos, 8 yamatos, few hundred RCS, few dozen Tigers, ~ 15 CRS/CBS mix, 8 Blue Diamond, 10 Tigers (variant). Some say its overloaded, but I don't fully agree. It depends on good filtration.
Plants: Eleocharis carpet, MC, Rotala, Moss, Buceps, Mini Fissidens

Photo period 10 hours
CO2 : 3 bps, follows photo period
Night aeration - when lights out, air pump goes on
WC : weekly, 30%.
Filter cleaning once a month.
PH swings from 6.7 to 7.3 every day because of CO2 injection.
TDS 160, GH ~5, KH 3, Ammonia/Nitrite 0, Nitrate 30-40.

Ferts is a daily schedule (see image).



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Here are 2 pics. My IAPLC contest submission photo. I was ranked 1020 for 2015. It was only 1 month after setup. Just added the tetras and 12 cherries. I wasn't using the ADA Lights at that time.

And the second pic is what it is now.

How did you get your water temp to 24-25C? Do you use chiller? Would you share your setup? Because I've been interested to setup shrimp only tanks

This post has been edited by davido: Mar 30 2016, 11:13 AM


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Nice!! You have a magic touch..

Below RM20k. Its quite normal if compared to marine tanks which are more expensive.

So fed up. One CRS jumped out yesterday. And today lost a few dozen cherries, and another Tiger. This is a tragedy struck my tank. Just did an emergency WC (30%). Tomorrow morning will do another 30% WC.

There are more Cherries looking half dead in the tank. Something must have poisoned the water because such deaths don't just happen.

Which brings me to think yesterday I used superglue in my tank. I superglued some mini Fissidens on the rock. Only a small patch, 2cm by 2cm. That superglue must have leeched out toxins. Fishes are fine, but shrimps are very sensitive.

There are many threads who say its safe to use superglue in tanks, even in shrimp tanks.
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/best-wa...ood-tree.29259/

I used Loctite Gel superglue which was even mentioned in one of the videos. But turned out a tragedy for me. I'm not so worried about the Cherries because they will recover.

But this morning I saw my berried CBS is no longer berried. Not sure if she dropped her eggs or hatched them - either way its no good. Because the hatchlings will just die in such toxic conditions. Tragedy for me. I guess everybody goes through that at some point as part of the process.

This post has been edited by davido: Apr 15 2016, 08:23 PM

Yes, thanks all. Did WC in the morning. By afternoon, I bought another filter and put in only carbon media. Setup a hospital tank with 50% tank water and 50% filtered water. Moved some of the shrimps there. Most survived but a few still died.
Lost many cherries, a few CRS, a few Tigers. No Yamato deaths, but they are very still and not eating any more. Very annoying episode.
Will continue with WC tomorrow. Expect some more deaths, but lesser in comparison to day one.
Not sure whether it is the super glue or some pesticide on the plants. Even at Pets Mart 88, the guy there said can use super glue to attach fissidens. Later I will setup a test tank to find out for sure whether super glue is harmful to a shrimp tank.

Edit: It may be not the super glue. Too many folks are saying it is safe even in shrimp tanks.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/88-shrim...gel-shrimp.html

It may be the plants I got from the shop was laden with pesticide. I will find out for sure when I test it later.

This post has been edited by davido: Apr 16 2016, 08:22 PM

Yes, I added mini fissidens.
Deaths still continued to this morning. But no more deaths in the hospital tank. So I removed everything that I added last Thursday and put them into a quarantine tank. So whatever it is that is leeching toxins is now out of the tank. Will let the carbon and plants do its job to purify the tank water. By tomorrow will move the shrimps in the hospital back to the main tank if I don't see any more deaths.

Stopped CO2 and ferts during this time, but I know the next thing that's gonna hit me will be algae. Big hole in the tank, but at least it gives me the chance to re-scape. No fishes lost and Yamatos are affected, but none died. That's the nice thing about fishes and planted tank - they are easy. But for the shrimps, this is like the Fukushima leak - dead bodies everywhere. But that CBS is fantastic. I don't think I'll see her babies, but she survived the ordeal and is in the hospital tank. I have a few CRS and Tigers left, but there are still at least a few berried Cherries in hospital. I feel so responsible for being such a lousy carer. Good thing is I get to re-start the process.

I agree to buy plants from reputable sellers - but only know of one seller whom I trust (aquacult from Penang). But totally agree on the quarantine. I learnt my lesson because the trouble is not worth it. Anyway, enjoy the rest of the Sunday


blizzardcarl92, AquaCult also sells the Bonsai tree.

Carl, I have a big hole left since I removed the rock, but your bonsai gives me an idea I might put an oak tree there instead. Hehe...



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This tragedy cost me to lose a few hundred shrimps. All my CRS died, except 1. The berried CBS also died this morning. All my Tigers are dead. My estimate around 300-500 shrimps died, although I'm counting shrimplets and hatchlings.

The first pic shows the status of my tank on Day 3, before I removed all the plants I had put into the tank.

So I setup a test to determine what was leeching the poison. I setup three jars - one contained the suspected plant, one with aquarium water, and one with fresh super glue. The superglue brand can also be seen. I let it set for 4 hours.

Then I placed 2 shrimps into each jar. I wanted to wait for 24 hours to see the result.

But within 5 minutes, one shrimp in the plant jar was lying on its side. So I removed it and quickly put it into the Pyrex jar. It contains aquarium water. Twenty minutes later, the other shrimp in the plant jar was also lying on its side. So I took it out and also placed it into the Pyrex jar.

Its only been 40 minutes now, the first shrimp in the Pyrex seemed to have recovered, while the second one looks like its almost dead.

The shrimps in the remaining jars, including the superglue jar are looking okay. I'll continue to observe the superglue jar for 24 hours to see if they are distressed.

So now I confirm the source of the poison is the plant that I bought from the unreputable shop. The plant is Ludwigia villosa bought from lelong store, seller Aquashop. Its the third photo.

I'll probably send a note of reprimand so that he knows he's selling poison plants.

Would it make any difference if I quarantined this plant? Unless I place some shrimps into the quarantine tank (and usually people don't put shrimps in quarantine tanks), there's no way to know its leeching poison. Even at day five, it still leeches poison.

This post has been edited by davido: Apr 19 2016, 03:48 PM


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Thanks all. And arrow, you got a good point. Will certainly test with a shrimp next time.

Just to update. No problems with the shrimps in the superglue jar. I have now moved them to the main tank.

So I feel safe that my superglue containing cyanoacrylate is safe to use in shrimp tanks.

Cheers.

Hailea ACO-6604 - try to google that. Got mine from Fish Depot.