jumpsmasher

I believe they are around 2 1/2 years - I believe the upper limit is around 3 years with RO/DI water, maybe even longer. I think using RO/DI extends the life of ADA greatly as my RO/DI water comes out at around 6.4 and I also dose Sosei prior to adding it to the tank.

I been spot checking my pH every 2-3 months and so far it has been buffering fine. Breeding has slowed somewhat but it might be due to the summer heat. Regardless, it is probably due for replacement soon and that will happen when the new rack is up and running.

I have an Ecco Pro 2236 on one and an Pro 3 2071 on the other - they were my 2 earliest tanks using canister filters. I have since standardized on using Classic 2213 or 2215 for all my other tanks as they are relatively inexpensive - especially on the used market and I prefer to stick to the same diameter tubing as it cuts down on the number of parts I have to buy. Before I took it down, my 33gal breeder had a pair of inline Classic 2215. They are also less bulkier than the Pro or Ecco line as rack space is a premium.

Well hopefully things are looking up for ya and here's to a speedy recovery. I great to have you back on the forums and no rush on the group orders.. i got no more room until i set up a new rack!

Thanks.

Do you have any details on the set ups and the parameters. I believe you've outlined your old set ups before but it would be interesting to see how you've changed them especially with your great results.

I went through a few different setups since my original rimless 23Gal but I came back around to the layered UG + Canister Filter.

For the undergravel filter I layer it as follows:

1. UG filter plates or pipes
2. standard size lava rocks (1-2" washed well)
3. "hex" style biological filter media
4. biological filter media (Ehiem SUBSTRAT / Seachem Matrix)
5. ADA Amazonia or Amazonia / Africana Mixture (min. 2")

For the canister filter i use the following media:

1. Ehiem MECHpro
2. Ehiem FIX or course sponge prefilter
3. Ehiem bioMECH
4. Seachem Matrix or SUBSTRATPro

I no longer use purigen in my setup as it was quite a bit of work to keep swapping them out and recharging them in all my tanks. And if I don't do that on a regular basis I just seem to have issues so in the end it was better off not using it. The first two seems to work great in filtering out any larger sediments or substrate that might get past the UG filter but most of the canister is filled with Matrix (~ 60%)

I have increased the water flow more in all my tanks and I believe that next big change will be to switch from stray bars to diffusers to try to get more oxygen into the water.. stray bars are fine if they are located above the water line but usually that is not the case in my tanks. I have notice that they seem to thrivewith more water flow and more oxygen in the water.

I user RO/DO water + Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp GH+. Bee Shrimp GH+ is great; always give consistent results and super easy to use - just use a spoonful for every 5 gallon or RO water ( ~ 100 tds).I also add some Sosei to buffer the water as well prior to adding it to the tank.

I have been doing weekly water changes.. around 10-25% depending on the temperatures - once things cool down more I will probably scale it back to 2 weeks than maybe once a month. Tanks are automatically topped up with RO water using a float valve.

I also keep a closer eye out for signs of bacteria infections as that nearly wiped out my first PRL tank and remove an infected shrimp and dose hydrogen peroxide as needed. Would be less of an issue for you as you have a cool basement but summers are always a constant battle for me so I have to be very proactive and look for sign of stressed shrimps. I do think i have become better at "reading" my shrimps; i.e. if they are ill or stressed.

Parameter as usually as follows

pH: ~ 5.8 - 6.0

GH: 3-4

KH: 0-1

Temp: 24 C (although during the summer it may get around 26 C)

TDS: ~ 120-140 ppm

The tank setup is pretty simple.. usually some mineral rocks, crimson bee balls / Ebi-ken Shou, mini oxydator, sponger filter, driftwood / rocks with moss or java fern

I have changed the diet quite a bit though.. mostly because of the influx of new products we can now get - I always tend to try new food whenever they come out but i have settled on the following:

• Benibachi Red Bee Ambitious
• Lowkeys Ultra Supple
• Lowkeys Hiden-No-Esa (Secret Food)
• Benibachi Kale Tablets
• Barley Pellets
• "Snowflake" food
• various powdered baby food (Benibachi, Ebi-ken, BorneoWild, bee pollen)
• Baby Spinach / Kale
• Hokkaido pumpkin

and the following supplements:

• Ebi-Ken Han
• Ebi-Ken Sosei
• Benibachi Bee3 / BeeMax
• BorneoWild Stout
• Mosura Gravidas
• various color additives (BorneoWIld White / Crimson / Benibachi SP-Max H)
• Mosura Tonic Pro

For the adults I usually feed the staple / color type foods 2-3 times a week, growth type food, barley / snowflake pellets & kale in between and baby spinach once a week.

I prefer the Benibachi / Lowkeys food as they come in pellet form so it is much easier to break up into smaller pieces if need be. Also most of them are fairly soft

and breaks up quickly in the tank which makes it easier for the younger shrimps get at as they don't have to fight their way into the "shrimp ball" that form with most harder foods.

Hope this helps,

When you say "cull" are you meaning separate out the ones you don't want into a separate tank, or kill off. Cull can mean both.

Any low grade ones you don't want, I would be willing to buy/trade/graciously accept the donation. Low grades are fine for me because I am not trying to make the lines you are doing. Just like having these guys in my 2 tanks.

Separate tanks. I have some Tier 3 PRL currently for sale but any "tier 4" culls I have are usually spoken for - I have a friend who buys every Tier 4 culls and mischlings I have on a regular basis - usually cleans out both tanks every time he drops by but if I have any leftover I will let you know

Thanks Ron! PRL? I though you were scaling back your shrimps plans,.. :P BTW, great to have you back buddy, now when is the next group order? :P

I did scale everything back but it was mainly due to health problems, I am hopefully on the road to recovery now so I can start planning a new tank. I am actually discussing a group order with Frank right now but he won't even let me make the order till I have my health under control, he definitely values friends over money.

Well hopefully things are looking up for ya and here's to a speedy recovery. I great to have you back on the forums and no rush on the group orders.. i got no more room until i set up a new rack!

Nice tank and glad to hear Concept still sells nice tanks.

The only gripe I have with the custom tanks is the big heavy bracing all the local suppliers seem to use, I find it really takes away from what could be an even nicer looking tank.

I think it depends on the size of the tank and thickness of glass you want. You could always go with a one piece eurobrace that looks awesome but will increase tank cost by 40%.

Do you know much more a standard (non one-piece but still glass) eurobrace is? I am guessing it cost 40% because they have cut if from a single piece of glass that is the entire footprint of the tank. imagine if would be much cheaper to use 4 pieces of glass to do the eurobrace (although not as nice)

Setting up a new rack with standard 15gal-ish sized tanks and debating if I want rimless w/ eurobrace (non-one piece) to prevent splashing and shrimps going for walks.. lol

Mind-bogglingly jealous. My CRS breeding project didn't pan out, yours is absolutely thriving!

It wasn't an easy road and I had many failures, the most disheartening was losing most of my Nishiki-Ebi JPRL due to high temperatures / bacteria infection last summer. I was lucky enuf that my top two survived long enuf to produce a batch of shrimps (but all not much longer) due to that I was never able to produce a "pure" Nishiki-Ebi line as I originally hoped. Actually that not true.. it was more disheartening that lost about half of my Nishiki-Ebi when they decided to go for a group walk outside the tank one evening : (

If there was 3 things I learned thru my experiences that i could past on to anyway starting out or having issues, it is the following:

1. Use 100% Re-mineralized R/O DI Water
2. Use ADA aquasoil or similar active buffering substrate but ADA is most readily available and let it fully cycle and beyond (6-8 weeks) - most ppl are too impatient to wait for it.
3. Temperature - 24-26C, not hard for most ppl but keeping it stable is key - there are many little things that could affect this; meaning no daily fluctuations from no heat producing light sources, watching temperatures very closely at various times of the day and during the summer and keeping a keen eye out for bacteria infections or signs of a stress.

Well actually there is a 4th thing and that is KISS - keeping things simple like in the layout of the tank, no plants except for maybe some moss or java fern, no rocks or decoration except for maybe driftwood or lava rocks (having rocks that alter water chemistry is also a common mistake) and of course no fish. If there is one thing i would change about my current tanks is that they are too busy, most of that is because just broke down a rack and needed a place to put the plants and driftwood.

Great job! I think my next tank will be for PRL.

Thanks Ron! PRL? I though you were scaling back your shrimps plans,.. :p BTW, great to have you back buddy, now when is the next group order? :p

Current setup:

My current setup consist of 4 tanks;

• 2 x 23/20gal long which are my "Breeders" tanks for my two lines. Both further are split into two (originally 3) partitions. The smaller partition is where I keep my top breeders (Tier 1) while the large partition acts my my grow out tank / nursery as well as any shrimps that I consider "Tier 2"
• 23 gal cull tank for my No-Entry line which is basically my "Tier 3" shrimps
• 10 gal "catch-all" cull tank for the culls of the Tier 3 No-Entry PRL as well as culls from my Mosura tank (low quality color or any non-mosura patterns - no-entry etc;). some of the no-entry offsprings from my Mosura are very nice - better than my Tier 3 No-Entry even. These shrimps are generally sold off in bulk as normal CRS

23 Gallon Long No-Entry Breeders' Tank

20 Gallon Long Mosura Breeders' Tank

I figure I should actually something in my member's journal instead of spamming the invert section since Tanker been so nice to set me up with one.

This will be a breeding journal of sorts for my own line of Pure Red Line.

I started the line around the beginning of 2013 with two separate lines:

1) Nishiki-Ebi Japanese PRL - Grade "A" No-Entry / Hiro (SS-type patterns)

2) MananaP Red Line PRL - Probably one of the first home grown PRL in Canada - Stephan has been working on this line for a couple years from the Vancouver area

Although the initial plan was to keep the two lines separate (and they were for a first little while), the foundation for my current line started with my top male (and only remaining) Nishibi-Ebi JPRL, My top female (and only remaining) Nishibi-Ebi JPRL and my top two MananaP PRL females

Nishiki-Ebi JPRL - Top female and male, Feb 2013

The mothers of my PRL shrimps - Nishiki-Ebi JPRL female (left) & MananaP PRL females (right), Aug 2013

As the first batches of shrimplets started growing I decided to sell-off all my regular CRS's and focusing solely on my PRL.

No-Entry Line

My main line consists of the above shrimps, with the goal being the "perfect" No-Entry pattern (generally what we call SS+ Grade here). Along having a thick shell / solid colors (a common trait for all JPRL), nice solid red legs and having a well defined No-Entry pattern, for me that is having a full red head that goes all the way down to the legs, and a perfectly round Hinomaru circle divided down middle with a well defined white strip run down the middle of the hinomaru, Of course you also aim for larger sized shrimps but that is priority at his stage.

Mosura Line

I also branched off a pair of Mosura PRL that was part of my initial MananaP shipment. The pair turned out to be a male and female and I kept them in their own section by themselves. I am not 100% sure if they are his PRL or if are hitchhikers from the SSS CRS I gotten at the time - most likely the former i had order 10 shrimps and there were 10 including the 2 Mosura ones (MananaP also had a Mosura line at the time). To be honest i never intended to develop this line - at the time were essentially culls as i didn't want any Mosura patterns in my main lines. Over time they reproduced and I also added any Mosura offsprings from my main line. In the end i decided to develop it for my friends, many of whom were big Mosura fans.

Since I never really focused on them until lately, they still got a long ways.

I also no longer consider them as "Pure Red Line" due in part the uncertainty of their origin and because they been throwing out the odd snow white offsprings (very nice ones but still snow white - I have taken them and started on as separate project). My No-entry line have not thrown out a single snow white. ever. Granted it could be due fact some of the headgear ones are pretty much all white with only a bit of red on the head and face.

At this moment I am still unsure of which direction to take the line; if I want a traditional Mosura for a full red head / white body or to go for headgear style mosuras (SSS+ - crown, flower etc;) . I might end up going for both if I can get some more tanks set up and further divide the line : )

Lol yes you can say that.. Basically if the female doesn't get berried shortly after molting she probably won't get berried until the next molts - on young shrimps this is usually every 2-3 weeks..

It certainty looks like the male is attempting to do so but female is either not ready or not playing along. The challenge for him is to turn her over and knock her up from underneath. A strong male might be able to hold on to a female like your photo and than turn her over but most often I find they do it by sneaking up from under the female while she is swimming - and like you said it only happens in a split of a second.

When the female is ready to mate she release some sort of pheromones that drives the male crazy. Usually this happens just before she molts and you will see all the males "dancing" around the tank. The female is generally hiding/resting at this point as she just molted - she is also fairly weak at this point. If a male seek her out within the next little while, you would have a berried female in a few hours. Although not always the case, the female can only be berried during this time as once the new shell harden, it is much harder for the male to fertilize the female.

bee shrimps "Dancing"

I had a male pumpkin shrimp hold on to the female for a good 15 minutes while in a mating position.. the female ended up with the largest batch of eggs I ever seen!

interesting, let me know if there is any ill effects on the shrimps!

Yes, Tommy from ShrimpFever is a great guy, as is Randy from ShrimpWiki but I am always hesitant to order livestock from them due to them using CanadaPost for shipping. I never have any issues with FedEx or Puralotor - the reliability, speed and guaranteed delivery times of overnight couriers more than make up the differences in the costs. I have never had any issues getting shrimps by noon the next day whenever I order shrimps from the States and use FedEx International Priority.

Dream Blue come from the Rilli line while Blue Diamond comes from Chocolate shrimps. In the end, either one breed 100% so you will always get a mixture when it comes to their offsprings. (i.e. some rilli's from Dream Blue and chocolate from Blue Diamond). Also since they are all the same species (Neocaridina davidi / heteropoda) as with Red Cherry, Yellow, pumpkin, rilli's, chocoloate etc; they will interbred and you might get some of the "wild" type offspring which essentially look like low grade brownish coloured cherry shrimps.

Blue Dream / Diamond along with Red Ruby are the latest neo colour morph to hit the hobby (at least in this side of the world) so their prices with remain relatively high until something else comes - $8-15 is generally the going market rate for them from reputable online dealers like Shrimpfever or Shrimpwiki. Maybe check with Caine as he been working with Shrimpfever to bring some shrimps in under his new company
http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showforum=171

But most of use shrimpers here get our shrimp mostly from group orders or direct imports. It is unfortunate that Pisces don't do a better job with how their shrimp tanks are setted up as they have shown the willingness to bring in a good variety of shrimps

I hear ya, I always struggle during the summer months to keep the temperature down in all my tanks since I live in a condo. I end up using a bunch of computer fans to keep my tanks cool. Can't wait until I get a house of my own as well with a basement

If the GH test kit is one of those that say one drop = 20mg/L (or ppm) and you can roughly tell what the gH is but how many drops you use as 1 drop = 1 gH. 1 gH = 18.7 ppm if i remember correctly but counting the number of drops is a quite and easy way.

Perhaps try posting a "looking for" ad in the classified section if you haven't already done so.

Yes, neo's should work fine in either setup.

As for cardidina's - your water is hard - 200 mg/L is is equivalent to a gH of approx. 9-10 I believe.

The most common cardina - CRS and Tigers prefer much softer water, around 3-6. Temperature is a bit high as well - I find my CRS's start to stress out and develop bacterial infections once temperatures go about 26 C. with my tigers they are even more sensitive as they prefer it around 22C and lower.. Sulawesi shrimps are the only ones I know that can withstand harder water and high temperatures but they even more sensitive than tigers or CRS.

Also having an high tech planted tank and fish also increases the level of difficulty.

Your best bet would to find some that have been raise / breed in tap water. Blue Ram was the only member that I know of that was able establish a stable, breeding colony using tap water but I haven't seen her post any new shrimps for sale for a very, very long time.

I know Riverfront keep their CRS using same water as all their other tanks so it might be worth a shot if you can't find some from members here. I might have some Golden Bee / Snow White up for sale in a bit, but all my shrimps are raised using remineralized RO water so might not be ideal for your situation.

What is the parameters on the 65 gal (temp, gH, kH, etc;) and what kind of substrate are you using? Are they any fish in that tank?

There are a few ppl here in Calgary they either breeds them or organizes import / group orders.

I been breeding mostly caridina's for the past few years but my main focus has been for line breeding so I rarely put them up for sale unless I decide to do a big cull or need to reduce my population - I tend to be quite the shrimp hoarder

Currently breeding Pure Red Line CRS, Pure Black Line CBS, Taiwan Bee's (BKK, Panda, Blue Bolt, Red Ruby. etc;), Golden Bee / Snow White, Orange Eye Blue Tigers (OEBT), Orange Eye Black Tigers (BTOE). I also have some neo's too but not really focused on them (Pumpkin, PFR, Blue Dream).

I got rid of my regular CRS's last year but I think there might be some ppl here that picked them up and got them to breed for them.

Other than myself, here are the usual suspects :P

Ron usually organizes a group order 2-3 time a year with Ebi-Ken from Vancouver. You can check with him when his next order will be.

Caine has been bringing some shrimps in as well and selling them - check with him on what his current stock level is like.

And there is usually someone selling some neo's either on here or on Kijiji

What kind of set up do you currently have?

From the sound of it they might be Blue Velvet Shrimps

http://www.shrimpfever.com/shop/livestock-shrimp/blue-velvet-shrimp/

I can't say if there are things in your well water that would kill them as I am no expert when it comes to water quality but i always say my shrimps gets better quality water than I do.. lol

It also important to point out that when we say Red Cherry Shrimps are very hardy shrimps it is all relative and most people are using tap water from the city which I imagine would have undergone more treatment and filtration than your well water. In general shrimps are still quite sensitive to certain contaminants in the water, more so than fish.

Test the pH, gH, kH and TDS of the water you get. If those number are close to zero (particularly gH) you might need to re-mineralize the water unless you are mixing it with your well water.

If you had some baby platties and small goldfish with the shrimps in tank no.1 that there is also a good chance they might have eaten them. Size doesn't really matter with it comes to shrimps and fish - even if they can'f fit them in their mouths, they would torment them until the shrimp eventually get weak and then they would start to pick them apart.

When you get the next batch of shrimps it might be advisable to do a drip acclimatization with them. put the shrimps and the water they came in a container and use a airline hose to slowly drip the tank water into the container over the course of a couple hours. You can control the flow of the water by either tying the airline in a knot or using a control valve.

http://www.shrimptank.ca/acclimatization/

One last note, if you are already bringing water in for drinking and cooking, you probably want to look at getting RO DI unit. Of course I am not sure if how that would work with well water; you would probably have to get a booster pump and well as additional add-ons and what not

The PH, right out of the tap is normally +9 and the water is incredibly soft.

hmm if the gH and kH is off the chart, than that would indicate that it is your water in your tank is very hard - gH & kH should be very low if you have soft water. have you tried testing the gH and kH of the well water? So you know that the TDS is like for both the well and tank water?

If the Phosphate levels are high in the well water that could also cause the algae you see in your toilet as well. I am not too familiar with phosphate as it not something i test from since i use RO water but a quick search seems to indicate the ideal range should be around 1/10 of your Nitrates so if the numbers you previously quoted are ppm - 40ppm nitrates & 2500ppm phosphate, than your phosphate levels are very high.Of course, they might not have any affect on the health of the shrimps but seems fairly high.

Do you know what the shrimps you got we called? If they lasted less than a day in your tank, I am guessing either

1) They are were sensitive and were already were not in great shape from the trip

2) they did not acclimatized well to your tank or the parameters between the water they were in and the your tank vary greatly - i.e who were they introduced to the tank

3) something in the tank killed them

I would do a partial water change and quit using any additives to bring down the ph or alter any of the parameters. Try using a standard dechlorinator like the hagen / Nutrafin one (i,e not Prime or related products) and continue dosing with Cycle. Maybe put some carbon in your filter to help remove any pollinates. Let it run for a couple more weeks until your tank is cycled and try adding some Red cherry shrimps and see how they do.

Hi Labman,

I will just post here instead of replying to your PM as I am sure others can also help you out. I will try to cut it down to the basics and try not to overload you with information

If you want to get started with freshwater dwarf shrimps there are a couple of things you should know:

1. Know your shrimps
Just as with fish there are many different species of freshwater dwarf but the main two genus as far as the hobby is concern are as follows:

• Neocaridina
  • Neocaridina davidi (formerly Neocaridina heteropoda) - include the common Red Cherry Shrimp and its various grades / color morphs (Sakura, Fire Red, Painted Fire Red, Yellow, Orange, Pumpkin, ​Blue Velvet, Chocolate, Carbon, Black Sakura, Rilli-types, Blue Diamond, Dream Blue, Bloody Mary etc;)
  • Neocaridina Zhangjiajiensis - The less common Snowball and Blue Pearl shrimps
  • Various wild types
• Caridina
  • ​Caridina Cantonensis - aka Bee shrimps, includes the Crystal Red Shrimps (Red Bee Shrimp), Crystal Black Shrimps, the various type of Tiger Shrimps, Taiwan Bee Shrimps (Black King Kong, Panda, Red Wine)
  • Caridina Babaulti - commonly sold as Green shrimps or Green Babaulti shrimps
  • Sulawesi Shrimps - many different and very colourful shrimps from Indonesia - includes species such as the Cardinal, Harlequin and Malaya Shrimps
  • Various wild types - include the ninja, blue bee, bumblebee, etc;

There are also other shrimps you can get at your LFS like the Amano (aka Aglae eating) and bamboo shrimps but they are not really what i would call dwarf shrimps

Plant Inverts has a nice section with the various shrimp species in the hobby:

http://www.planetinverts.com/shrimp_species.html

But if you are starting out the main ones you want to focus on are the Neocardina (or just "Neo's" for short), specifically the Red Cherry Shrimps. They would be the easiest and most readily available as well as the least expensive. As for parameters most people keep Red cherry shrimps just fine using regular tap water.

They should be able to tolerate a wide range of parameters as long as they are acclimatized properly like fish and there isn't any big fluctuations in your parameters.

But If want some numbers I would say the following

Temp: 18-28

pH: 6.8 - 8
won't worry too much about gH / kH or TDS as long as they are not super high

You should be able to pick up some cherries from the LFS or from fellow AA members here for aorund $2-3 or less per shrimp. I would start with them before trying anything else. from this point forward I will assume you are going to start with them (and you really shouldn't really try anything else until you get your feet wet with them)

2. Know your water

Before I go further I have to mention that I am a big believer in RO/DI and only use RO/DI for all my shrimps but that being said Red cherry shrimps should be fine with tap water. You just have to watch out for the odd ammonia spike and of course dechlorinate the water.

BUT since you are using well water, you will have know what is in your water. My experience with well water is quite limited but seen both end of the spectrum - I would get your well water from the tap tested (i.e before it goes into the tank) and not just the standard aquarium tests as shrimps for very susceptible to things like heavy metals and copper and well as certain chemicals such as those used in insecticides / pesticides that might be leeching into your water. At a glance, if those numbers you quote above are similar to the ones from the tap I would say your PH is relatively high, nitrite / nitrate should be zero from the tap and Phosphate seems high if those are ppm numbers. If your numbers from the tap is very different from the above than I would be a bit concern what is causing those numbers inside the tank.

I would also avoid messing around with the PH by using commercial additives. The only thing I would add the the well water is a dechlorinator - not so much for the chlorine but to neutralize any heavy metals - and I would avoid using Seachem Prime - great for fish but I heard some horror stories with shrimps.

As for the tank setup, I generally avoid anything that would buffer the PH (i.e gravel, rcoks) but with Cherries it shouldn't really matter much. A basic setup would be something like a 10 gallon tank with inert gravel or sand and either a sponge filter or a HOB filter with a foam over the intake. While they can withstand a wide range of temperatures, avoid fluctuation throughout the day. i.e take temperature readings during various times of the day, with and without the lights on.

Feeding - shrimps don't need a lot of food as they are natural scavengers. For around 10 shrimps or so i usually feed a piece of food no larger than 2-3mm square, once a day. If they don;t eat all the food I remove any leftover food after a few hours.

I am also assuming the tank has been properly cycled or been have been set up for a while. If that is the case my advice I would try some Red Cherry shrimps and see how they do with the well water without you adjusting the pH and such. From the price you said you paid for your shrimps in your pm, it didn't sound like they were regular cherry shrimps.

If they are still dying off and all signs point to the well water being the issue you can try experimenting with RO water from the supermarket first (if you have a small tank) or eventually looking at investing in a RO/DI filter for your well water (~$150)

Hope this helps,

Some new photos to share - I move them back to my place and separate my main breeders (no.1 / no. 2) and culls (no.3) into separate tanks

Some more photos of the PRL in the cull tank

And one last one from my "no.2" group - the very best from this group will eventually go into my "no.1" breeding group

they should be fine in the bag for two days - cherry shrimps are quite resilient. Just give them some moss or something to hang on to. Don't add prime or do any water changes during the trip.

Many of us have order shrimps that spent 2 days or longer in transit without much issue.

I would be more concern about the readiness of the tank they are going into when they arrived. If you can seed the new tank with old filter media that should helps greatly.

Great colors What food are you using ?{Tips ,Secrets]

I think It is mostly due to genetics and selective breeding but I use about a dozen or more different foods and supplements that I rotate daily;

For this particular group it currently includes the following (in no particular order) :

Benibachi Red Bee Ambitious

Lowkeys Ultra Supple

Lowkeys Hiden-No-Esa (Secret Food)

Benibachi Kale Tablets

Barley Pellets

various powdered baby food (Benibachi, Ebi-ken, BorneoWild, bee pollen)

Baby Spinach

Hokkaido pumpkin

Ebi-Ken Han

Benibachi Bee3 / BeeMax

BorneoWild Stout

Mosura Gravidas

various color additives (BorneoWIld White / Crimson / Benibachi SP-Max H)

Mosura Tonic Pro

For the adults I usually feed the staple / color type foods 2-3 times a week, growth type food, barley pellets & kale in between and baby spinach once a week.

I prefer the Benibachi / Lowkeys food as they come in pellet form so it is much easier to break up into smaller pieces if need be. Also most of them are fairly soft

and breaks up quickly in the tank which makes it easier for the younger shrimps get at as they don't have to fight their way into the "shrimp ball" that form with most harder foods.

And you call them your culls. Looks great!

Thanks!

Well it is all relative... : )

I have an idea of what my target is and any one that doesn't meet those targets get put into the "culls" section.

Manage to take some quick pics of the "breeders" earlier today.

the lighting on the tank caused the some blown highlights / overexposured white but I think should give an idea of the differences between the culls and breeders

There is a couple of top notch males and females in this group so the plan is separate them even further and to pair them up on their own. That is once I can free up some more tanks space...