uuaaayyy

I got blue velvet neos, thinking by mistake about blue jellies from red line, they had reddish eggs in a picture. Now one of mine is berried, eggs are tan or light olive color. Can this give some indication on a black, blue or red line? They could be blue dream culls as well, got them from classifieds. Thanks.

I have it in one of my tanks (with KH-less water), pH is 6.4, stable. Amazon reviews show even more acid experience of another user, but if it works in opposite way for you, why not. Let's hope that everything will be fine. Best of luck!

They belong to different lines and color works in an opposite way, opaque red shell vs transparent shell and colored flesh. There is a change of getting wild color type babies, if dominant genes are there. If babies inherit opaque shell and red flesh, flesh will be not seen under opaque shell. If babies inherit transparent shell and clear body, there will be no red at all. Neocaridina seem to have a lot of polygenic traits, when one trait (red shell, for example, or red flesh color) relies on several genes, even more combinations with unknown consequences are possible.

I am new to shrimp with backstripe, few months, but it is permanent in my shrimp, it could become paler or visible under certain angle of light, but it's always there. Related to molting is light stripe across the body, a beginning of molting. If found on the dead shrimp, it's called white ring of death.

I answered you on ShrimpTank sub, here are not too many people, maybe someone else will come later. I started keeping shrimp with similar to neocaridina requirements (ghost shrimp) with pH lowering "shrimp" substrate, Fluval Stratum and tap water. Small tank, big weekly water changes. Each time shrimp were stressed a lot: became opaque, lethargic for a long time. Asked everywhere I could, no answer. It continued until I realized that pH and kH could be tested, every few hours after water changes. This gave an answer I was looking for. Siphoned out active substrate, left tank bare bottom (I don't keep rooted plants), everything is stable, shrimp recovered and active. Or inert substrate could be added, in tank with shrimp, carefully.

I have seen somewhere bucket, placed on something higher than your highest tank, with small diameter tubing, letting water go in the tank. Speed is set by you, from dripping to small stream. Another possible way: if adding water fast is not a problem, use small water pump (it have to have head rating for this height, see its specifications) with tubing and a plastic tube hook (as of Eheim canister filters, sold as replacement part). Hook could be hung on the tank, pump will do the work, you watch the process and stop it. Or manually, if there is clearance for maintenance above tank, allowing use 2L (half gallon) plastic pitcher, add water manually. If too small clearance and tanks are big, using pint sized (500 ml) containers to refill tanks is not feasible. If they are very small, this is possible.

Short version: for neocaridina shrimp, replace this substrate with inert and dilute your tap water with RO water, or keep there crystal shrimp, but use remineralized with GH+ RO water and cooling in summer, to meet their requirements. Long version, let's try to untangle this: What kind of shrimp you plant to keep? If neocaridina (cherry shrimp and their other color forms), then setup should be different (inert), especially if tap water will be used. See their reqirements, and all parameters should be met, not just one. If acid water caridina (their requirements, including cool temperature, are in the link above). They have to have pH lowering substrate and remineralized with GH+ RO water. No KH and TDS 130 ppm or less, pH not higher than 6.5 for crystals, 6.0 or less for Taiwan bees. Your substrate looks like Aqueon shrimp and plant substrate, it is pH lowering substrate that keeps pH steady at around 6.5 when used with RO water, remineralized with GH+. If so, this setup is not for neocaridina shrimp, inert sand or plant substrate is better. If you will be using a) RO water with inert substrate, use another remineralizer, GH/KH+ (you see shat shrimp is shown on label). b) Or use tap water. c) If tap water is too hard, it could be diluted with RO water to bearable parameters. What current pH lowering substrate was designed to do and what it does: they use different from carbonate buffering (KH) system, likely humic based, that allows to keep pH below 6.8, unlike KH that keeps pH stable pH above 7. It has to be used with KH-less water. KH interferes with their work and have to be removed first before lowering pH, at cost of losing their buffering capacity much faster, and creating fluctuations of pH and KH at each water change, stressing animals to the point that they are barely alive. You can check this by testing pH and pH every hew hours after water change. KH is connected to pH: less KH, lower pH (swing). If you intend to use water with KH and pH above 7, siphoning active substrate out is the simplest solution to the problem, worked well for me. Hard water shrimp were no longer stressed and everything became fine. If you intend to keep this substrate, use RO water with GH+ remineralizer (not GH/KH+). pH will be lower than optimal for tap water shrimp (neocaridina, ghost, fan, amano), they could possibly adapt, but should have hard time to do that. Using another kind of shrimp that can live in these conditions (crystal shrimp) should be more reasonable, only they need cooling in the summer. Planted tank part, unrelated to shrimp keeping: Remove mineral wool from potted plant, it doesn't add health to the tank. Ask any plated tank group if your light fixture is right for your plants. There are two distinct planted tank setups. a) There are low light plants that do not need CO2, light in this tank must be low, photoperiod not more than 8 hrs and nutrients have to be kept low (a lot of vacuuming, removing all what rots there), or you will get nuisance algae. b) High light plants, as I understand, need CO2 dosing, fertilization schedule, maintaining delicate balance between light and nutrients, and a lot of trimming. Choose which road to take. Remove all waste, it will be much more than light vacuuming. Later feed in shrimp feeding dish (or Petri dish, or small clear glass ashtray from dollar store) and remove uneaten food. Time to add shrimp will come after making your choices, changing either tank setup or water, much more cleaning and maybe changing lights on weaker. Make sure that water parameters are stable and within chosen shrimp requirements before ordering them. If you plan to keep Taiwan bees, another substrate will be necessary, that was designed to keep pH around 6.0, something like ADA Amazonia Light.

If they swimming in snake-lake movements, they should be detritus worms, feeding of extra food. Siphon them away, feed in the dish and remove uneaten food.

The safest way would be setting new tank, with some hardscaping, plants and maybe filter media from main tank. This was advised to me when I asked. If use ADA Amazonia Light, it should be ready for immediate use. This is how I expand, when new housing for Taiwan bees is needed. Only acclimate if pH is different. Old tank could be stored as a spare container for emergencies, quarantine or a new kind of shrimp. With Volcanit, find reviews (on Amazon, for example) if it leaches ammonia or could be used immediately. An alternative is to add some new substrate in a mesh, bag or plastic container, as you would be adding activated carbon or purigen, in the tank somewhere behind plants. It will change water parameters for a better, how soon this happens you could test. Later you can start siphoning out old substrate, not all at once, at the time of regular water changes. If layer was thick, watch for ammonia spike each time and have Seachem Prime at hand for temporarily binding it in the safe form. Aqueon shrimp and plants substrate (for pH ~6.5 with RO water) should keep shape the longest, they are hard round granules, but it will be difficult to keep rooted plants in it, and not experience with keeping shrimp there, using it for betta. ADA Amazonia Light is harder (but lighter) than regular dark Amazonia, also keeps shape longer, for pH ~6.0 with RO water. If you are using it substrate with tap water that has KH more than 1 dKH, consider using RO water with Salty Shrimp Bee Mineral GH+, substrate lasts much longer.

See what caridina shrimp requirements match your water. TDS is only a part of equation, low stable pH could be achieved only in specialized setup. For inert neocaridina setup, tigers are better match. Many keep neos in crystal shrimp tanks (pH 6.5), but not the opposite, crystals in neos tank (pH >7). Taiwan bees, in my few years experience, prefer even lower pH, around 6.0. Groups of soft water caridina are described here.

Neos could be a bunch of problems, comparing to soft water caridinas, even in remineralized RO, optimal water parameters and a good husbandry. If you are using RO water for cardinals and keep room cool in the summer, consider keeping Taiwan bees, they are easier and have more gratifying colors of babies, no wild type coloration as for neos. They are easy, just as Taiwan bees, only after you get colony going. But to make this happen... Depends on source of breeding stock, I guess. Link to their range of water requirements. To convert ppm to dH, divide ppm by 17.86, or use online converter. IME, TDS could be 130-250 ppm, but it has to be more or less the same, permanent number, GH 6-9 dGH, KH 2-5 dKH (in inert setup without pH lowering active substrate), 70-78F. Liquid test kits were said to be more accurate than test strips (API GH and KH test kit for me).

The same size of tanks, this never happened to me, and added alder cones as group of 5.

Advise, please: what average hobbyist could do with them, when orange (or other) rilis babies are not like their parents, just color dots and stripes instead of patches?

Guessing: both are different recessive traits, with likely polygenetic inheritance, more than one gene involved, should be odd combinations, depending on genetics of parent shrimps.

Using piece of medium-fine sponge, snugly fit inside back compartment, is most common way for AIO tanks. Like 30-45 ppi Poret foam.