Crystal Reds from Last Group Order

[jcali10]

I'm happy to report observing 3 berried females. I started with 10, currently have 8, killed 1 in a syphoning accident and 1 mysterious death. Keeping them in a 10G, "shrimp only" tank, no heater, water temp about 72 F, and doing a 50% water change weekly. Plants are looking like crap since I stopped dosing ferts, and excel, but shrimp seem just fine.

[ddavila06]

kool, i have my cherries in the 2.5 and i know these are more hardie that crystal reds but i add water from my 125 to the 2.5, that way is declhorinated and has some dosing in it. not sure if making a huge diference but i thought i would mention it

[ingg]

In a moment of irony, my crystals seem to be doing fine, but I had a mass Cherry die off in the 180g. Can't for the life of me figure out what it was.

See a few cherries still wandering, but also see bunches of the crystals. Found 2 Crystals' bodies, but see a bunch alive.

[jcali10]

I'm not sure which, Cherries or Crystal Reds are more hardy, but when I put Cherries in my 2.5G and was dosing Flourish Excel, Comprehensive, and Iron daily, my shrimp started dying. Then I did large water change, and started dosing once a week instead of daily and they have been thriving and multiplying. But like in the Crystal Red tank, the plants have suffered, and there is BBA on the anubias, substrate and pre-filter.

[jcali10]

In a moment of irony, my crystals seem to be doing fine, but I had a mass Cherry die off in the 180g. Can't for the life of me figure out what it was.

See a few cherries still wandering, but also see bunches of the crystals. Found 2 Crystals' bodies, but see a bunch alive.

At least the Crystals are okay. As far as planted tanks go, I think a mineralized soil tank is the best possible environment to raise shrimp in, second to a "shrimp only" mineralized soil tank. Due to water purity, ie lack of ferts in the water column.

[jcali10]

Good news, I finally saw some baby CRS this weekend, and I have some unknown variety of fish fry in my CRS tank, from eggs that may have resided in the Taiwan moss I moved there from my 50G. I'm thinking the fish fry are either Praecox Rainbows , Lemon Tetras , or Zebra Danios
I don't know if they will survive, I'm not feeding them anything at this time. They swim around in the upper stratum of the aquarium, and they are not bothering the CRS yet.

[Judi]

Cool!

[seiji64]

Here are a couple pics of my CRS from the group order. These are awesome looking shrimp! I have them in a bare bottom 10 gallon. I saw at least 3 berried females within a couple weeks of getting them. But I can't say the baby shrimp survival rate has been great. I've got maybe 15 to 20 growing shrimp-lets. Adult population seems to be stable now - I think I've still got 15 of the original 20.

Shortly after Jen saw babies in her tank, I found some in mine and took this pic. For size reference, it's on the mesh from the PVAS engineering challenge.


And eating some blanched spinach this evening:


How are other folks doing with their shrimp?
Doug

[krisw]

Great picture of the tiny one Doug! I'm not sure if I have many babies, as I probably have too many fish in with them, but the adults are still doing great for me. If I have any babies, they're hiding in masses on Blyxa.