edgeofthefreak

Undershrimp beat me to it! Was gonna try to post the link without embedding, but the one above should be golden! Wait... that gives a 404 error. Try this one: http://www.shrimpspot.com/index.php?/topic/8427-shrimp-and-plant-sale/

Sweet! You'll get a PM from me shortly then!

Any chance you can ship this to Canada? I have a 10g tank with Ellobiopsis, and pull any infected shrimp that I find. They live in a jar beside the tank, and would certainly be willing to test Predator against those little thieves.... I have no other organisms that I want to kill, so I would be running this as a test with my infected stock. The 10g tank has snails that I adore, so would need to pull a good number of them for seeding back later, should I decide to try it on the whole tank.

Sorry to hijack.... Has anyone with this specific parasite, had it clear up and go away? I have a 10gal tank filled with blue Neos, and they thrive. About every 3-4 months, I will find one shrimp that is so infected, it actually glows. I pull it, then furiously inspect the tank. Occasionally will find a second infected shrimp within 24 hours, but if I don't, it will be around 3-4 months before another is found. I currently have two infected and quarantined shrimp. They were near solidly infected, bright "Mountain Dew" coloured, and pulled them both two weeks ago. Just changed out their quarantine water, and they look as healthy as the rest of my stock. One is near clear, so it's fairly easy to see the lack of parasites. Was going to be selling the offspring back to the LFS I got them from (sweet deal!), but dropped that campaign as soon as I found parasites. Told myself I'd try selling again if I could go 6-8 months without a 'site, but that has not happened. No outbreaks though either. Thoughts? I would easily trade future sales for healthy shrimp any day!

My TDS showed to be around 120. Didn't lose any new shrimp since last post, but since all parameters are looking okay, it must be leaching of some sort. Great update to share however! My 8gal nano cycled nicely, and now houses the survivors of this Cherry Lagoon. I'm battling some algal blooms at the moment, but all have molted several times, and are eagerly eating up said algae! This Lagoon has some solid building materials, but something is wrong with it. It's just a plant viv now, and my orchids are happy with that. I'll post a write up on the Fluval EBI tank soon, including parameters, then post a link to it here. I need to do the same for my incredibly thriving 10gal blue shrimp tank... so many chores! Thank you for your continued interest and advice! Been meaning to update for a few weeks now...

Done! 26 gallons, spread over 5 tanks, is what this taught me today.

I love Otos, and quite enjoyed your terrific article on them. I have 4 Otos in a 10 gallon tank right now, and they have more than enough algae to go around. Several kinds as well. They share this tank with an Amano and about 100 blueish Neocaridina. I keep the algae high by having a Finnex Planted+ 24/7 just 5" from the water surface. For filtration, I have an Aquaclear 20 with a sponge fitted over the intake, and this has become a solid wall of algae that has spread to the aquarium walls. It has little flow, so the algae doesn't get stirred up much either. The opposite side has stargrass and baby tears, and my Otos spend most of their time in the grass. They hunt for shrimp pellets when they've been dropped, but otherwise they dip into the algae forest for meals. One of my cats is fairly large and named Super Cat. He is flanked by much smaller Twins, who are the same size and often together. The fourth is the Littlest Kitty, and rarely seen. Saw him/her just yesterday, and still only about and inch if even that. These are my pets, and I'm glad to see/read concern for their care!

Just ordered an inexpensive, highly rated TDS pen, and will post results this coming week. I'll get check out my LFS for the chems you've mentioned, and I think I'm golden. Excellent expert advice, and I again thank you. Not a death since my water change, better feeding. Still have some debris along the bottom, likely from old foods. Doing a better WC that will include light vacuuming before my TDS pen arrives. Might be able to keep this tank around after all! The orchids in the upper section thank you as well!

I'll need to do more research on remin. I essentially just float between dechol'd tap and distilled, and my water isn't very hard, from what I can tell. I live in the center of a city with 350K people in it, and we banned most pesticides many years ago. I'll look into a TDS pen, and see about a proper remin. Very appreciative of your continued assistance!

Missed this awesome comment yesterday, so thank you muchly! Was a labour of love, and the rebuild will correct dozens of mistakes. I'll try and compile a nice list of those mistakes, to ensure future builders don't fall into the same traps!

Thanks again Mr. F. I'd agree, but yet still never a berried shrimp. I started out with a dozen RCS, but they could hide too well in the moss. Added another dozen, and that seemed to be a good number. Looking in there today, I'd be surprised if I have 8 or 9 left, though no new deaths in the past two days. I'm getting a proper holding tank for the LFS today, and transfer out the remaining. This tank might be able to keep shrimp alive, but they don't seem to be able to reproduce in it. My 10 gallon in the other room has easily 100 shrimp, most are babies produced in the last few weeks, as I only started with 30 in that tank too. Bet if I had a TDS pen, I'd be getting some high results there too, not mention the amount of things we cannot test for. I'll post from my 10 gallon soon - it's had a pretty awesome adventure itself!

Did a 20% water change last night, using distilled water. Then a water test of just gH/kH today. Getting 7-8 for gH and 4 for kH now. Will do another 20% WC using de-chor'd tap water tomorrow. Going to test my gH/kH much more frequently. Pellets from yesterday are gone, and will feed same amount tomorrow. Still yet to pull the surface algae.

Thanks for the speedy response! I'll see about lowering my kH right away. Just feed half as many pellets now, and placed them around the ledge where I know they lurk. I can check these areas with a flashlight later tonight. And I'll pull out some out the surface algae, in case it has something sinister growing beneath.

Update time, but it's not a happy one. In the many months this tank has been active, I've never found a berried mom. That's been in the back of my mind from day one, knowing how prolific these creatures are. Over the last two weeks, this has escalated to losing shrimp. Around 8 in those two weeks. Water parameters are 7.4 pH, 0/0/0 for cycle, gH is 5, kH is 10, and there's a leaf in the back giving nice tea colouring to the water. It's only 4ish gallons, but 18"x18" open water so it gets a lot of evaporation. This is always topped up with distilled water. Side note: I haven't had time to post about it, but I also have a 10 gallon with blue Neos, and they are beyond thriving. Started with 24 shrimp, two of which were alerady berried at the time, and I've since had about 8-10 new berried moms. This tank is only 2 or so months old, and is filthy with algae. The Cherry Lagoon is almost spotless. My three top theories for sudden deaths: 1. Is that kH too high? I can do WC with a good amount of distilled if needed, and I use a slow drip method to add any water to any tank. 2. Any food given seems to only get half eaten, and eventually molds on the bottom. I feed sporadically, but might feed too little. I do try to feed mostly up front, but put some near the leaf at the back. I worry about mold where i can't see it. I use Omega One Shrimp & Lobster. They go crazy for it within about 10 minutes, but they apparently only get through half of it. I feed 8 or pellets every other day, but have cut that back to every three days. 3. This whole tank has about a baseball sized amount of non-sanded additive free grout, spread all over the walls, directly in the path of the waterfall/dripwall. This might be spiking my pH, but any of my tests (just now) have been stable. I keep a "peat bomb" in my canister to combat the alkalinity of the upper portion. 3b. This dripwall is covered in a mat of thick rubbery algae, that one might call cyanobacteria. It's not blueish, but very dark green, and has been growing since day one. It's about a quarter inch thick in some places, and I can likely remove it. Just looking at it now... it's really gotten out of hand. I'm putting the remaining shrimp into a holding tank, and trying to see if I can cure this one. If not, stay tuned for the rebuild! *cry* Any ideas? This community has been awesome, and I still lurk daily.

It's really tiny, was attached to the orchid, and has spread to another viv. Weed indeed, but so far the big piece hasn't taken over very much. I'll post pics of it again if it flowers or changes much. Thanks for the ideas on it!