Shrimp food?

[MaloK]

Yep!! And I sell them as "Rainbow pack" it's all the colors you can imagine. They are small and vigorous my survival rate is very high in that setup.

I have 4 tanks an 2 are complete disasters, but One is exploding 24/7 since at least a year and more and have financially covered all my aquarium non-sense since. And the last one is looking really promising, but I don't have time atm to inaugurate the initial colony.

But yeah once you have it, they multiply and have hundreds in a 5 gallons and they eat everything.

Cholla wood is consumable I need to replace in there and in the disaster tank the original are still there 2 years after.

I took more than a thousand shrimps from there and if I stop they start to die... So it's quite a good motivation to scoop the cream all the time. since I have buyers on call...

 

[Jinx_]

Yep!! And I sell them as "Rainbow pack" it's all the colors you can imagine. They are small and vigorous my survival rate is very high in that setup.

I have 4 tanks an 2 are complete disasters, but One is exploding 24/7 since at least a year and more and have financially covered all my aquarium non-sense since. And the last one is looking really promising, but I don't have time atm to inaugurate the initial colony.

But yeah once you have it, they multiply and have hundreds in a 5 gallons and they eat everything.

Cholla wood is consumable I need to replace in there and in the disaster tank the original are still there 2 years after.

I took more than a thousand shrimps from there and if I stop they start to die... So it's quite a good motivation to scoop the cream all the time. since I have buyers on call...

So basically if I'd feed mine a lot, they'd breed?

I'd love to breed mine as a side hustle for sure, seems like the market for them is going well.

And why would they start dying off if you don't scoop them out?

 

[MaloK]

There's other factors implied, water quality is the most difficult to achieve, a permanent paradise with very low nitrate and nearly no need for water changes or very low, less than 20% per week. Maximum passive recycling of any byproducts. Filtration, plants and algae.

Enough hiding places that you nearly cant see anything inside. A good ratio of decomposing matter... In addition of the food added...

Without spoiling the water...

The problem that occurs is the bigger shrimps are quickly out competed for food by the high numbers of tiny babies living with them that can go everywhere. But you can't put more food or you are going to do a meltdown.

Now that's the point of fission... That's why the Pros have breeding and grow tanks... You wont grow in breeding tanks.

In nature the babies are not with the adults when growing, they are gone when the eggs hatches and normally they never meet their own parents... The adults moving will create more waves of babies somewhere else...

If the whole cycle would do a full turn and keep everything alive you would need to double the amount of food you add to the tank ever 3 months.

They are made to overrun their environment quickly and set back accordingly, but there's limit of what you can keep in a closed body of water.

 

[Jinx_]

I think the key is no water changes, personally at the very least. Helps if you have hard enough water for neocaridinas. So I basically check all boxes for shrimps. I just will need a TDS meter due to the seriyu rocks, but my water is already hard and alkaline so shouldn't be weathering the rocks as much.

I did do couple water changes when was setting everything up, so probably gave me a huge set back in terms of balance. Plus new filter... I did hang the old sponge on intake of my canister tho, so that shouldn't be much of an issue, plus shrimps love grazing on it.

How often and what should I feed them? That's one thing I seem to struggle with a bit. Mostly since my tank's pretty much established, and shrimps seem to keep finding so much food they absolutely don't care for any wafers or pellets lol.

 

[MaloK]

If they don't go for the food, it could be because the haven't tried because they have already enough and sometimes it's not so fast that the develop the taste for new stuff.

Water hardness is one of the most important factor in reproduction, with cover and food.

 

[Jinx_]

If they don't go for the food, it could be because the haven't tried because they have already enough and sometimes it's not so fast that the develop the taste for new stuff.

Water hardness is one of the most important factor in reproduction, with cover and food.

Maybe, maybe they just don't know what I'm giving them. I don't know.

I know. My water's hard, 15 degrees or 255ppm.

 

[MaloK]

You can lower the hardness a little, 15dgh is kinda high... But not excessive.

If you see that they are doing well but not breeding, lower the hardness of the water slowly over a couple weeks to around 10-12 dgh and maintain it there.

If they don't go for the food you add, leave it there a while, but don't add more if it's left untouched. If they find biofilm in the tank you can be assured that they will prefer that before anything else. And it's even better that way for their health.

If they are grazing easy peasy, there's enough food and all is good. If they start to frantically search all over the tank jumping from a place to another, It's a sign they are looking for food and don't find enough. This intensifies constantly until fed.

Most of the time it takes 2-3 days for the phenomena to start and it means they are hungry. So I give them a good meal. And the next day you feel like there's no shrimps in the tank it looks empty.

Everybody is taking it easy and sleep all day. If I wait too long, they start munching on the plants and I can see chopped plant matter starting to swirl in the water. It's the signal, if I don't feed them soon they are going to start to vandalize the decor. If there is not enough decomposing matter. They create some. Loll.

 

[Jinx_]

You can lower the hardness a little, 15dgh is kinda high... But not excessive.

If you see that they are doing well but not breeding, lower the hardness of the water slowly over a couple weeks to around 10-12 dgh and maintain it there.

If they don't go for the food you add, leave it there a while, but don't add more if it's left untouched. If they find biofilm in the tank you can be assured that they will prefer that before anything else. And it's even better that way for their health.

If they are grazing easy peasy, there's enough food and all is good. If they start to frantically search all over the tank jumping from a place to another, It's a sign they are looking for food and don't find enough. This intensifies constantly until fed.

Most of the time it takes 2-3 days for the phenomena to start and it means they are hungry. So I give them a good meal. And the next day you feel like there's no shrimps in the tank it looks empty.

Everybody is taking it easy and sleep all day. If I wait too long, they start munching on the plants and I can see chopped plant matter starting to swirl in the water. It's the signal, if I don't feed them soon they are going to start to vandalize the decor. If there is not enough decomposing matter. They create some. Loll.

I'm not sure when it comes to the water hardness, I've heard so many different things. I even had a friend at one point, her tap's 25dGH and she's never done a water change on that tank and they were doing so well and breeding well. Over time hardness might go down as the shrimps, plants etc use up the minerals. My seriyu rocks will replenish that slowly over time too.

But if hardness affects shrimps, what are the signs of that? I mean, as far as the water is stable (even if changes slowly over time), shrimps are fine with that. Or they should be fine at least.

My water was always alkaline 255ppm (15 degrees). This hasn't changed in the last 7 years. Before I quit for a while, I had cherries and they bred well. Not sure why they wouldn't breed at the second try. Maybe I was too impatient and they needed a month or two to get used to everything? Shrimps do like stabilisation in the end.

Okay so far as mine graze all the time and don't go for food I give them, they're fine to not be fed? In the past I've overfed them, and they always went for food I gave them and bred crazily. Feels now like a parallel universe

Vandalise the decor lol!

 

[MaloK]

To be politically correct, I should have said "peaceful protests".

If you where successful in the past with your water... And are restarting, It's just a matter of time... Once the first generation appears and they get used to the water. You have good chances....

Still, continue to offer some supplements from time to time, a slice of cucumber ect... Just to see if you can tempt them.

 

[Jinx_]

If you where successful in the past with your water... And are restarting, It's just a matter of time... Once the first generation appears and they get used to the water. You have good chances....

I really really hope so! On second try they were breeding a little, but didn't seem successful. Not sure whether the loaches are stressing the shrimp or preventing them from breeding.. But before I kept with fish, so I'm not sure.

Third time's the charm I guess?

Still, continue to offer some supplements from time to time, a slice of cucumber ect... Just to see if you can tempt them.

Definitely will.
Waiting on those algae wafers to disappear then wait a couple days, and blanch a romaine lettuce leaf and see how they react to it.