Soothing Shrimp's Silly Shrimping

[Soothing Shrimp]

Yeah, those Malawa will breed during just about anything! LOL  Love those guys!

 

Oblong, the Nessies are my own selectively bred strain of green Neos.  I've been working hard on breeding them into a true strain for 3-4 years now:

 

[mosspearl]

Oooh, there's those pretty Nessies again!

 

Sorry, haven't been on much lately. Too much work. I really need some time to catch up.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Thanks Mosspearl.  Not all look that high grade, but nice to remind myself what can be acheived.

[Art by Stef*]

Oooh!

They are pretty! Exotic looking.

Do you have any pics that show the body markings better?

[Soothing Shrimp]

No.  My camera sucks.  I really need one that takes macro pics.  The focal length on my m1033 hd kodak is just too far and has AF.

 

Here's a couple more photos to see the color difference between the lightest and darkest though.

 

As you can see, the shrimp in the back looks almost black.  That's the kind I'm referring to when I say painted.

 

My personal preference is the kind that has green and I can see through.  Either Sakura or Fire.  Both are pretty to me.

 

The males often have only a green hood for some reason.

 

Also, in the 1st pic, I had to take away some green with color correction because for some reason my stupid camera adds green to the substrate when taking pictures of these guys.

 

Right now I'm trying to breed quantity again so I can select again.  But I need enough of these shrimp to ensure a continuing strain!  I only have maybe 50 or so right now after my tragedy earlier this year. ugh!

[GreenBliss]

Those greens look great, Soothing. I can't wait till some are available.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Thanks GreenBliss.

 

Let's hope these breed profusely this spring!

[Merth]

I have often wondered about the whole breeding slowing down in the winter months and wondered how it would affect my shrimp. So I got some time last night to observe my tanks pretty well and noticed I have huge mommas in reds, blues and my sole surviving female chocolates. Hopefully the survival rates will not be affected since obviously the breeding hasnt been. On a sad note it looks like my yellows are dwindling again. I have alot of snails in that tank so I rarely see any dead bodies. i'm hoping tho not too hopeful that they are just hiding well. This will have been the 4th batch of yellows, man they sure are finicky.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Merth, when you are ready, contact me.  I got fed up with the yellows, too!  That's why I bred my own hardy strain...

[Soothing Shrimp]

Been awhile since I posted on my journal.

 

My Sapphires are doing well.  Getting darker each breeding.  Now if only they'd berry faster!  But that's with all my shrimp right now.

 

I'm naming my yellow shrimp strain "Sunshine."  When I was checking over my tank today, I noticed that I am closer to my goal than thought!  My goal is to create painted yellows.  And today I found an adult has colored up to what I consider painted.  A solid yellow, but the swimmerettes still are a translucent.  Not perfect, but heading in the right direction.

 

I actually took some pictures, but the light was reflecting really bad.  Maybe you guys can make it out though.  I was going to upload it, but I have to charge the camera first.  Still maybe a year or two away, but a great direction to head in after about 3-4 years of working with them!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Here's my best painted Sunshine Shrimp thus far.

 

Note that you can't even see the saddle.  The dark spot is the "guts."

[wicca32]

looking good man keep it up

[Doc4PC2]

Wow!  Love it!, Awesome information and thanks for sharing it!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Secrets will make this shrimping community die, dude. heh

 

Thanks.  So far, only one has exhibited what I've been shooting for, so it will obviously take time.

[Liberty1776]

Very Nice ^^

 

Its especially nice to see color in the legs.  I know this is also a goal of breeders, are you aiming for this as well?

 

Looking tops!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Yepper.

[Pika]

Beautiful Sunshines!

You should post pics of your current Sapphires as well. I love the blues, and just have to decide if I want to try OEBTs or stick with blue Neos for my next tank. (Which may be a long way off, but a girl has to dream, right??)

[wicca32]

hey bryce did the other battle cat shrimp die or do you still have one of them? the female is the one that died right

[Soothing Shrimp]

Wicca, I don't know which died first, but I put the other with a plethora of opposite gender shrimp (I think it was BV) and it never bred either.  Then it died off.  Unfortunately, nature sometimes makes some shrimp mutations just attractive fish food.
---
Pika, I'll try to get some pics of the Sapphires, today. For some reason the camera washes out the blue to a lighter color.  I'm guessing wavelength or something?
---

To keep my own brain straight, and to any curious out there that may be mildly interested in my projects, here's what I have going right now:

BBRR- Blue Bodied Red Rili.  I made up that label so as not to confuse the coloration with blue rili- which often does not have any red on it at all.  I've neglected that tank for awhile trying to increase numbers in there.  Perhaps it is due for a sell off to reduce numbers soon...

Blue Chocolate- Just moved these 3 juvies over yesterday to a 1 gallon tank.  They were thrown by my Schoko strain.  Scuttlebutt as it that carbons come from chocolates, which makes sense.  Several years ago I bought Black Rilis from someone as a curiosity mutation that had shown up in their chocolate tank.  Looks an awful lot like carbons, but phenotypes can fool.  Anyway, have no real plans for them other than to just breed them for a short while and see what happens.  Maybe they'll be a hardy strain of BD, or maybe just another strain of carbon look alikes.  Maybe I'll just sell them off later.  Who knows?

Nessie- I've been working with my unique strain forever it seems like.  After the tragedy earlier that almost wiped them all out, they are finally breeding again.  YAY!  I have a 20g and a 10g for redundancy on these in case something happens again.  I see berries, but not very many painteds right now.  The Painteds were pretty much wiped out except for maybe 3-4.  The majority are cherry type greens, but every strain has to start from somewhere.  And as in almost every strain, the fem has the most color, while the males are pretty blah.  I did get an orange thrown that looks like a tangerine tiger, heh  And seperated that one to it's own tank, but it has no tankmates right now.

BV- Yeah yeah, I used to call these DBV.  In fact, I was the first to come out with the name DBV.  And then less than a month later after I offered them to the public for the first time- others not only stole my strain name, but stole my crappy pics to sell them as counterfeits.  Now, I just call them BV.  (The original BV strain with the light sky blue see-through I call Classic BV.)  A little bitterness reality pill I had to learn when I released these, that's for sure.  Selectively breeding is a thankless job.  The most satisfaction you will have is knowing that YOU were the first to do anything, because nobody else will know it or remember it.  Then, people don't care how long it takes or the work involved- they just want a lower price.  Perhaps one day I'll call them DBV again... naaaaaahhhhh

Christmas Rili- First time you've heard of that one, huh? heh  Green tissue coloration with some red pattern.  One of my favorites thus far, but only have a couple thrown from my BBRR project.  I just set up a tank for them last night, and plan to move them over today...VERY nervous as I don't want to lose this mutation due to something stupid on my part...

Inkwell- All black cherry.  I tried breeding an all black a couple years ago, but it went nowhere.  Now, I'm using carbons to try to get to the same objective.  Slowly getting there...

Cellophane- All clear cherry.  Yeah yeah yeah, I know there's snowballs already (Neo palmata), but somehow a clear cherry has been on my bucket list for years though.  It's fascinating to me.  Maybe because I work with cherries already?

Zombie- LOL  This has recently popped up in my Orange lines.  A pale orange with a blue tissue.  Only have one or two, so I'm interested to see if I can propogate it.  Right now they are still small juvies, so coloration may not pan out- and the strain may be busted before ever beginning.  But I'm following closely.

Sunshine- The goal is a PFY with color intensity.  Working with these for so many years, I was interested in comparing to another yellow strain.  So I recently bought some yellows to keep separately.  I was *hoping* that perhaps my yellow would be a bit bolder and brighter, however what I saw blew me away.  Mine was incredibly bolder and brighter than the strain I received in.  Already 2 of the new strain died after dripping, so sensitivity may be an issue, too- or maybe I goofed somehow.  Regardless, I'm thankful I was able to buy the strain from a really nice person(not sure what I'll do with them yet), but I definitely know I'm going in the correct direction with my Sunshines.

Sometimes breeding new colors works, and sometimes it doesn't.  I have a long list of cultivars that didn't pan out for me- but you never ever know until you try. And sometimes...you succeed.

[00camaro16]

I'm rooting for your nessies. I love those so much I might be one of the first buyers when you decide it is the time to offer them to the general public. I'm gonna have to improve the consistency of my water parameters before then.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[Soothing Shrimp]

Thanks! My Nessies are hands down one of my absolute favorites. 

 

Speaking of params, I've really gotten annoyed at some of the shrimp breeders coming out of other parts of the world that have their params so pristine that it actually hinders the shrimp by making them too sensitive.  After all, if a shrimp does not need an immune system with a sterile environment, after years of breeding the shrimp is going to lose hardiness.  Doesn't mean it isn't a beautiful shrimp, or that I wouldn't pay to keep them in whatever conditions they need- but what a pain in the A** to do so!

 

My Nessies and any other shrimp are just raised with a sponge filter.  I use RO because I like to know what's in my water, remin with SS, and that's it.  No fancy canister, no super duper ultaviolet filter, etc.  Just simplicity.  In short camaro, you shouldn't have any problem at all keeping these.

---

 

Note: Sunshines will be called Sunshines

The new project yellows are currently called yellows

 

Which brings me to my next update.  I just got some yellows in from someone, and I want to increase their color and hardiness.  (I'm keeping them separately from my Sunshines obviously- as I want to keep my Sunshine line "pure" in order to continue working on it.)

 

Currently I have the yellows in their own tenner, and am adding sunshine culls and my screwed up color yellows from my astaxanthin experiment last year.  Nope.  Still not regained their yellow color.  Kind of reminds me of silver in humans, where once an overdose is inside the body- it never comes out- making the skin grayish blue.  The astax yellows should only be screwed up in the p1, but not f1- so should be safe to use.  Adding both the sunshine culls (prob stripes and not colored enough) and astax yellows to the yellow tank should be a good mix to really create nice robust and hardy juvies.  Then it would be an ongoing culling for intensity of yellow.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Almost finished this post and the computer rebooted on me.  Have had a lot of trouble with that recently.

 

Anyway, here's an update on my projects:

 

BBRR- Need to cull RR, fires, and BR and just leave BBRR.  This project has been one of the slowest I've ever had.

Blue Chocolate- Moved these into a 1.5g container, but no breeding.  Probably because they feel confined.

Nessie- Still breeding well.  I'm hoping to get an additional 20L to separate the cherry quality from the painteds.

BV- I now have some of the darkest BV that I have ever had before.  A nice dark rich blue.  I really need to cull my BV tanks, so I can concentrate on the darker blue color.  One of my tanks, I got rid of most of the moss because it had hair algae (par for the course with me.)  That tank has stopped breeding.  Luckilly the other tanks still continue.

Christmas Rili- Dead end.  Either the green middle has turned back to blue, or they died or something and I missed it.  I was keeping these with the BBRR.

Inkwell- I saw a couple fems berried.  Which is great, but the water level has severely evaporated which is not so great.  It raises TDS, and I'm a bit nervous to add too much RO in fear of the fems dropping eggs.  The tank needs around 5g of water to fill to teh top.  I may add 1g and see what happens.  Hopefully the offspring will bring me closer to the goal.

Cellophane- The fems have turned bluish.  Like Classic BV lookalikes.  The male is still clear.  I'm hoping the male turns out to be a good stud and out of 100 babies 1 may be clear as well.  No berries yet, but as time ticks- so does maturity...

Zombie- I've not seen the zombies as of recent.  Perhaps their coloring was just bad from teh start, and as they grew it just became more apparent.

Sunshine- Decided to split these into two tanks.  One for lower grades, one for high grades.  Haven't done it yet, but the redundancy will also be a safety back up.

 

I mentioned to someone on another forum that not all my projects turn out.  In fact, I probably have more that failed under my belt, than ones that succeeded.  BUT I love trying them and seeing where they lead.

[ctaylor3737]

Almost finished this post and the computer rebooted on me. Have had a lot of trouble with that recently.

Anyway, here's an update on my projects:

BBRR- Need to cull RR, fires, and BR and just leave BBRR. This project has been one of the slowest I've ever had.

Blue Chocolate- Moved these into a 1.5g container, but no breeding. Probably because they feel confined.

Nessie- Still breeding well. I'm hoping to get an additional 20L to separate the cherry quality from the painteds.

BV- I now have some of the darkest BV that I have ever had before. A nice dark rich blue. I really need to cull my BV tanks, so I can concentrate on the darker blue color. One of my tanks, I got rid of most of the moss because it had hair algae (par for the course with me.) That tank has stopped breeding. Luckilly the other tanks still continue.

Christmas Rili- Dead end. Either the green middle has turned back to blue, or they died or something and I missed it. I was keeping these with the BBRR.

Inkwell- I saw a couple fems berried. Which is great, but the water level has severely evaporated which is not so great. It raises TDS, and I'm a bit nervous to add too much RO in fear of the fems dropping eggs. The tank needs around 5g of water to fill to teh top. I may add 1g and see what happens. Hopefully the offspring will bring me closer to the goal.

Cellophane- The fems have turned bluish. Like Classic BV lookalikes. The male is still clear. I'm hoping the male turns out to be a good stud and out of 100 babies 1 may be clear as well. No berries yet, but as time ticks- so does maturity...

Zombie- I've not seen the zombies as of recent. Perhaps their coloring was just bad from teh start, and as they grew it just became more apparent.

Sunshine- Decided to split these into two tanks. One for lower grades, one for high grades. Haven't done it yet, but the redundancy will also be a safety back up.

I mentioned to someone on another forum that not all my projects turn out. In fact, I probably have more that failed under my belt, than ones that succeeded. BUT I love trying them and seeing where they lead.

Keep up the work, I'll be there with you shortly, once my other tanks are set up. Going for a few different kind of shrimp to select. Breed

-Chris

[Soothing Shrimp]

If you can get them breeding well, there's a few people working on vars of cardinals.

 

Here's one that looks black with white dots:

 

And here's a strain of white legged, and irregular spotted: http://atyidae.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/white-legged-cardinal-shrimp-strain/

[ctaylor3737]

Oh wow didn't know people were doing this. Mine are all the same solid colors. The males are a bit brighter though. Females tend to darken when berried.

-Chris