LesterBee

I've been away for a while. A few weeks back I set up a 2 gallon plastic hex for Neos and last weekend picked up 3 of what the employee at the LFS was calling 'Roach Neos', most in the tank were a mix of pale yellowish or very faintly blue/clearish. So I assume these are culls. Which I'm fine with. What I'm just wondering, since this breeder has been raising many of these in water that's not much over 4 GH and 2 KH with a TDS of less about 90 and said that his colony has been very productive, that I continue these water parameters? It's been the third day since they were brought back, I don't see them very often but they're fairly active, foraging and their colors haven't changed any. I have a 20 gallon planted tank with a few small tetras that will be their forever home once they get to adulthood and have a few youngsters. I know the usual warnings about keeping small shrimp with small carnivores, there's a ton of hiding places, large clumps of Java Fern, Crypt meadows, and Rotala thickets in this tank, so they will have shelter.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Unique-Bargains10-Pcs-Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Foam-Cartridge-Replacement-Filters-Sponge/635225478 $8.82 for 10, that's like 88 cents each. You can't beat that price.

I've had a few Glowlight Danio fry in my first shrimp tank It was all OK while the fry were still larval and up until they got their orange body stripe at about 4 weeks of age, I rapidly moved them out when noticing that they were quite handy at snacking down Cyclops and Ostracods, I figured the baby shrimp would be next.

Seed shrimp and Daphnia Moinia in both of my shrimp tanks, their numbers aren't being depleted much if the crystal shrimp are having a crunchy snack.

Yeah if anything the rust isn't that soluble in water anyways as it's already oxidized and pretty inert. Now if there was possibly some soap or hairspray residue, it remotely, *might* cause a small problem. I'd be more concerned about shocking your shrimp with a big water change that also changes the water chemistry. Some people use iron based plant fertiiizers with their shrimp so I don't see an inert amount of iron oxide causing a problem

Well that would be guessing, wouldn't it? I've had a couple PM's with Oblong and not knowing what this forum's policy is about sharing PM's,...? The Post Office has no record of anything shipped, and they also want to charge extra for checking on whether there was anything shipped in the first place. In the grand scheme it's a small purchase, but it's delay and Oblong's recent slow responses to my questions are leaving a bad taste.

Oblong, this needs to be resolved. Where is my snowflake dust I paid for? It's been over a month and it's still not here?

A fishless cycle gives your shrimp a good base when starting a shrimp tank. But adding decent lighting will grow algae the shrimp will consume, and the volume of food grown, compared to bacteria, will be greater because algae takes inorganic nutrients and makes living cells out of it with the help of light.

Because they're 'joined' by an Aquaclear 20, they're really about 3.1 gallons total. The water circulates through both tanks, there's a huge snarl of Java Moss and Fern and a large floating water sprite in the tub section. My focus has always been on the plants more than the livestock, I'm almost embarrassed to post pictures of my 20H planted tank as you can barely see the fish.

I know everyone else is using bigger tanks than I'm using. My 'main tank' right now, which is the one that's really going strong for shrimp baby survival is a pair of little gallon and a half's with a HOB pumping half of it's flow into upper the 'tub' half, which overflows into the main tank. It's kinda nuts as there are over 40 young and 5 adults in the bigger main tank, with 6 adults and new batch of teensy, just hatched ones in the tub half. I keep thinking if I'd been doing this in a 10 gallon I'd still have lots of shrimp, but would I have more? I mean they're CBS in A~S grade and not really desirable, but I also keep native Bees and no-one seems to want native Bees.

I should probably think about isolating my CRS from the CBS, but for now all the CRS are youngsters. Two of my previous berried females are berried again. It's surprising as one is quite a ways along and you can see the color difference in her eggs, so it shouldn't be over a week before more young start appearing.

I've heard that it was. Maybe that source is wrong, but the best test would be to keep it in a bucket of soft or RO water and test for KH after a week or two. Yeah the thing about painting it is, it will possibly release volatile aerosols for weeks, if not months afterwards, Not the case with powder coat. Not good for shrimp. Yeah powdercoating expensive, I live in Rust Central and the steel items I've had powder coated have all weathered well despite the marine air and humidity.

If you don't mind losing a few baby shrimp. I was temporarily keeping some 3 week old Celestichtys Chopra fry with my shrimp and the shrimp were visibly bothered with having these fish in their tank, Like was also mentioned: the fish will out compete the shrimp for food, so unless it's Otocinclus I really cannot recommend keeping any fish with a breeding colony of shrimp.

Just some notes: Unless that's stainless steel, and it looks like mild steel plate, if you splash anything on that it will rust guaranteed. You should see if you can get it powder coated, Black or a dark Zolotone would be a great, and it would last forever. Dragonstone and Bee and (or) Tiger shrimp would be a bad mix as the Dragonstone generally is a form of Limestone and will slowly and inevitably bump up your carbonate hardness. Best to use a Caridinia shrimp safe rock with little or no carbonates.