[SHRIMP TANK] Summer Scorcher

 The summer heat has been pretty extreme this year. A lot of my yellow cherries and snow whites perished of the past few weeks. I have decided to restart the yellow cherry tank and offload the survivors to a chilled tank. Below you can see I have filled it with ADA amazonia II. Using three large stones I have done a very simple scape. I will be using this tank to move some fresh trimmings from my Eheim opal. I will also be restarting a fresh scape with the Opal tank.

To the left are the orange cherries. They are growing steadily but are not all able to be sexed yet.

Due to Xmas and New Year activities I will be slowing down with the updates until I get more time. Keep tuned

[SHRIMP TANK] Black Cherries

 Another few weeks have passed and the weather is scorching hot. So hot that I am very worried that some of my shrimp may pass away from the heat. So what do i do?
I make the wise decision in buying a pair of black cherries!
Thanks to Dean for supplying this magnificient pair. I have also noticed a blue hue on the snow whites. This puzzles me.
Red Rillis have produced their first batch. I will post up some pics when the shrimplets are big enough to view on camera.

 You may be wondering why the hell I posted up this last picture. Take a better look and if you see the reason feel free to send me a reply.

[SHRIMP TANK] Breeding Box

AQUA MANTA BREEDING BOX REVIEW

So far upon opening the package, I am quite happy with its quality.
Comes with all the components and it is easy to install. All in all this setup took me less than 5 minutes to assemble.

Was quite impressed with this little gadget. There is enough room here to use it as a breeding box. The dividers are very useful in separating your male and female shrimp and
the box even comes with a lid to prevent evaporation or shrimp from jumping out. I was quite impressed with the thought that went into designing this box.
You may ask why?
One thing that I was very concerned about was splash as the bubbles pop on the surface of the water.
I guess that is why I NEVER have purchased breeding boxes that require a pump to operate. This breeding box solves the problem with its very clever design.
Not only does it have a lid that fits snugly above the outlet pipe but this pipe is also pointed downwards resulting in no splash and no evaporation.
What are the disadvantages? Well to me the main disadvantage is the air pump requirement for this thing to run.
If you do not like to run an air pump to your aquarium, you may want to look into the internal breeding boxes that require no air pump.
The box is designed for fish so the dividers may not divide juvenile shrimp. I have measured the gaps in the dividers at 2mm.
The 2mm gap will not allow adult shrimp to pass through but it will allow newborn juvenile shrimp to pass through. I do not really see this an issue anyway as this breeding box
is set up to house shrimp temporarily not permanently.

Advantages:
- The dividers enable your to configure your chambers in 3 different ways. Small/Small/Small  ;  Small;Medium ; LARGE SINGLE CHAMBER.
- Fits nicely against the side of a 2 foot tank so should fit a 1 foot cube as well.
- Comes with a lid with side fasteners
- Looks nice and has a very clever design.
- Adds another 1-2L to your cube (If you have a small tank) which increases the volume of your tank.
- Air pump aerates your water and contributes to oxygenation.
- Seems of good quality and is of [b]GREAT VALUE [/b]

Disadvantages:
- Main disadvantage is you need an Airpump for it to work. But this should be common sense!
- The dividers do not go all the way to the bottom (there is a 2-4mm gap) but this is easily fixed by adding some aquasoil into the container.
- Some of the fittings fall off upon assembly (once assembled and if not tightened) but they are not essential and can be easily super glued on.

CONCLUSION: There are many advantages to this breeding box. Its smart design makes it very useful in breeding setups.
There are some disadvantages but they are small and overall this box is great value in my opinion.

[SHRIMP TANK] Rilli Rilli Orange

 Wow weather has been very hot the past week. It was so hot and humid I had difficulty sleeping. However I feel somewhat relaxed knowing i got a chiller set up to the main tank. The oxidators are running a little too strong for my liking (see picture of oxidator below). I assume this is because of the water temperature.

To the left are two snapshots of my Rilli's. I think they look fantastic when berried. Those yellow eggs really fascinate me.
 Also pictured left are my sunkist shrimp. These sunkist are off very good stock. A trustworthy and experienced breeder. ( Yes you KiwiBigD :) ). There are far too many poor looking cherries passed off as "Sunkist" Shrimp. I would rather pay the extra to get decent quality ones that "wow" the viewer.

Below left is my Red Crystal Selective breeding tank.  I will be moving those white shrimp separately into a separate tank soon as it cycles properly.

Also the Mr Aqua starfire tank has been filled and is almost ready to house more shrimp. In this tank I am planning to put in my "Super Black" Cherries. Will post some pictures of them when they arrive.


I just hate this editor. Cant get the pictures aligned

[SHRIMP TANK] Oxidators

 A few things this week. I have setup another tank to concentrate on cherry breeding. I will be getting a few chocolates in next couple of weeks. So far I have a couple of breeding Rilli, Yellows, Sunkist Orange and Fire reds.
(Have not got round to taking pics yet but will soon)

Another update is the introduction of three Sochting Oxidators into my setups. These seem to be beneficial in that they diffuse oxygen into the water by breaking up the extra oxygen molecule from Hydrogen Peroxide. I will post some reviews on them later on down the track once I am able to judge how useful they are.

Summer is fast approaching and i have a feeling it will be a hot one. Unfortunately weather is totally out of my control and despite TLC I lost 2 snow white shrimp yesterday. The chiller is now and and my fingers are crossed.

final note: I am sad to say I pulled down my marine tank over the weekend. Cannot keep up with all the water changes. I can deal with freshwater but marine is just too much work!

[SHRIMP TANK] Crystal Black Shrimp Update

 Just an update on the crystal Shrimp.
Shrimp are breeding well and I am preparing for the summer. Firstly getting my chiller running again and secondly, I have purchased an oxidator for the main shrimp tank. Will post pictures up later on when I get it running properly.
Not much of an update this week but I hope the pictures satisfy :)

 Here are some berried female SS CBS. Selecting for color and shell thickness at the moment. Will select for higher grades once I get good consistency in color.

MARINE TANK - Fish and Powerheads

 Fish and Power heads

First of all I have a recent new addition to my marine nano. It is a beautiful little coral goby! What fascinates me about this fish is its curious little eyes and its ability to hang / stick vertically onto objects.

It has found its favourite hidey place in the aquarium as you can see in the picture. I have no idea why fish seem to love resting inside power heads. Currently I have both my power heads off but I did at one stage think of having them on a timer.

Below left is a picture of a another newcomer. A Scolly coral. Fascinating coral indeed. I would love to see this guy open up and eat. As soon as it does I will post up the pictures here.

[SHRIMP TANK] Black Faced CBS and Painted Fire Reds

Snow Whites

I apologise for the layout. This is the best I could come up with and still experimenting with the new design of the editor. Snow whites are growing well, and to count I have close to fifty in total (I think). They are a lot hardier than people seem to think they are. Some come out very solid but some lack some consistency in their shell. The babies are just gorgeous.
I have seen golden shrimp before and I must say, the difference in snow white and golden shrimp are just marginal. However I do find golden shrimp have a yellow tinge and translucent shell. From what I hear Snow Whites are from Black Crystals and Goldens are from Reds.

Black Faced Crystal Black

Below this paragraph you will see a Black Crystal Shrimp with a black face. It looked so nice I decided to take pics.
There are not may in my colony with black faces. I have separated the few out to selectively breed them. It is coincidental that they also have black legs as well.
The pictures below are of the female. She is currently holding eggs so it will be interesting to see what the next generation looks like.

Painted Fire Reds

Here are some pictures of the painted fire reds as promised. I do not have any males so I have added some ordinary red cherry males to the population. Hopefully the juveniles will retain the strong colour.

I find the red shrimp look a lot better than the yellow ones. I might put them together one day and see what the F1 produces.

[EHEIM OPAL] Quick Update

Oh no they changed the blogger editor to a different format so forgive me if the blog format changes.

TDS Woes
My main tank is not in the best condition at the moment (due to neglect) and I will be doing further water changes and a trim this weekend. The TDS has risen to above 300 from constant dosing without water changes.I am embarrassed to post a full tank shot up at the moment but will do so at a later stage.
I did a quick 50% water change last week as I almost had a heart attack when i checked the TDS.
 Also my lights are over a year old and may need changing some time soon. I may have to pop down to the LFS to change the bulbs. Plants however still seem to be growing quite well.


In more positive news:

I am to say I won 5 fire red shrimp in a forum competition. I will post pictures of these shrimp at a later date!
Lastly, I have purchased a 2217 for the main tank as the EHEIM Professional (although a great filter) does not seem to create enough flow in the tank. Will be selling this filter soon.

[SHRIMP TANK] Feeding frenzy

Last week, I put in a very tasty wafer into my tank for a photo shoot. Within 30 minutes, the shrimp were all over the wafer. All pictures were taken using an iphone without any enhancement of any sort.
Here are some of the pictures. In on shot you can see the pregnant underbelly of a S grade female.

Enjoy the pictures!

[SHRIMP TANK] - SS grade red and black

I think it is time for an update of my crystal tank. Up till now I have been heavily selecting my shrimp for color and solidness of the shell and the results are beginning to show.

I have posted up another two pictures of my favourite chocolate crystals. This shrimp looks amazing in person. People tend to discriminate against this colour but It can look very nice when in solid form. Sometimes I do prefer chocolate crystals to black or red ones. They just look so sweet.

Also here are some pictures of my other shrimp. A Red solid SS grade and some shrimp from my black SS grade tank.
Above left is my SS red tank with Peacock moss planted like a tree on driftwood and above right is a pregnant snowball shrimp.

TIP: When acclimatising shrimp, it helps a great deal to do it slowly using a drip line. The best way to do this is to use air tubing to drip water from the main tank into the container holding your shrimp.