What shrimp is this?

[thenamespo]

Here are a couple pictures of a shrimp in my tank.

Is this considered galaxy?

[madcrafted]

Any taiwan pinto that has spots on the head could be considered a galaxy. Hard to tell by pics but looks like low to possibly mid grade. Grading is usually based on how well defined the pattern is (fishbone, skunk, boa, cape,etc.), the size and/or density of spots on head and the spider legs. 

[thenamespo]

10 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

Any taiwan pinto that has spots on the head could be considered a galaxy. Hard to tell by pics but looks like low to possibly mid grade. Grading is usually based on how well defined the pattern is (fishbone, skunk, boa, cape,etc.), the size and/or density of spots on head and the spider legs. 

What pattern is that considered?

[madcrafted]

Depends on who you ask, I guess. Not really a fishbone pattern because there is a lack of striping down the back that connects the zebra pattern. It's more like a typical zebra pattern.There is a nice skunk pattern on the head but not a true skunk pattern. Depending on how big the spots are on the head...could be considered more of a pinto cloud than a galaxy. To be honest, I'd just call it a taiwan pinto (especially if selling them) unless you know for a fact that it was bred from German lineage. 

[thenamespo]

2 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

Depends on who you ask, I guess. Not really a fishbone pattern because there is a lack of striping down the back that connects the zebra pattern. It's more like a typical zebra pattern.There is a nice skunk pattern on the head but not a true skunk pattern. Depending on how big the spots are on the head...could be considered more of a pinto cloud than a galaxy. To be honest, I'd just call it a taiwan pinto (especially if selling them) unless you know for a fact that it was bred from German lineage. 

Oh I was just asking, been ignoring my zebra tank lately because of issues with it and noticed a couple of them with that pattern. Was just seeing what it was

[madcrafted]

Nice looking shrimp, regardless. 

[thenamespo]

2 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

Nice looking shrimp, regardless. 

Thanks! What shrimps do you keep?

[madcrafted]

Most pinto types from both German and Taiwan lineage, BKK, RKK, Pandas and just recently got those red safaris juvies from same place you got yours.  

[thenamespo]

Just now, madcrafted said:

Most pinto types from both German and Taiwan lineage, BKK, RKK, Pandas and just recently got those red safaris juvies from same place you got yours.  

You live in the US?

should share some of those pics

[madcrafted]

Yeah, Virginia. You've seen some of my shrimps I posted in other thread. I don't take many pics because my camera sucks and I'm still waiting for my scapes to fill in and for my colonies to grow some more. My one and only red galaxy female just released her clutch yesterday... looks like one of my black galaxy males got to her before I could separate them. It's ok, they're all pretty much mid to high grade. I spotted two little fry earlier, both appear to have either fishbone or zebra patterns and are already black.. not blue jelly colored like my BKKs throw at first (they do go black eventually). I take that as a good sign. 

[madcrafted]

Here's a few:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[thenamespo]

37 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

Yeah, Virginia. You've seen some of my shrimps I posted in other thread. I don't take many pics because my camera sucks and I'm still waiting for my scapes to fill in and for my colonies to grow some more. My one and only red galaxy female just released her clutch yesterday... looks like one of my black galaxy males got to her before I could separate them. It's ok, they're all pretty much mid to high grade. I spotted two little fry earlier, both appear to have either fishbone or zebra patterns and are already black.. not blue jelly colored like my BKKs throw at first (they do go black eventually). I take that as a good sign. 

How long you been keeping shrimps?

Virginias not too far from where I am.

my Zebra tank hasn’t been breeding for me. What’s your water params for them

[madcrafted]

11 hours ago, thenamespo said:

How long you been keeping shrimps?

Virginias not too far from where I am.

my Zebra tank hasn’t been breeding for me. What’s your water params for them

 

I've been keeping shrimp (neocaridinas) for a little over 3 years. Last spring was my first attempt at keeping bee shrimp. Come summer time, I lost a majority of my stock (various TBs) due to not being able to keep temperatures down. A bacterial infection wiped out over 90% of my stock (9 tanks worth). The remaining shrimp wouldn't breed for me. This past winter, I relocated my shrimp rack to the main floor of our house, where we have a nice, large A/C unit to keep things cool during summer months. I sold off my original tanks, filters and air pump to a fellow hobbyist the next town over. I started over with rimless nano tanks and dabbled a bit in aquascaping. I couldn't resist keeping these beautiful little creatures, so I purchased a small handful of TB and pintos to place in these "scaped" tanks. They are finally starting to breed for me and I'm slowly trying to build my colony back up. Hoping to set up another rack during the winter months that will house about 12 tenners. I originally wanted to add all rimless tanks but funds are keeping that from happening for now. Sucks being poor. lol

 

As for parameters, I keep my pintos same as TBs. pH 5.5 to 6, TDS 100-120, GH 4, KH 0 and temps at 70-73°. Nitrates kept below 10 ppm, closer to 5 ppm. I now use HOBs instead of sponges with pre-filters on them. The tank with my galaxies is only 2.6 gallons and yet they are breeding. 

[thenamespo]

1 hour ago, madcrafted said:

 

I've been keeping shrimp (neocaridinas) for a little over 3 years. Last spring was my first attempt at keeping bee shrimp. Come summer time, I lost a majority of my stock (various TBs) due to not being able to keep temperatures down. A bacterial infection wiped out over 90% of my stock (9 tanks worth). The remaining shrimp wouldn't breed for me. This past winter, I relocated my shrimp rack to the main floor of our house, where we have a nice, large A/C unit to keep things cool during summer months. I sold off my original tanks, filters and air pump to a fellow hobbyist the next town over. I started over with rimless nano tanks and dabbled a bit in aquascaping. I couldn't resist keeping these beautiful little creatures, so I purchased a small handful of TB and pintos to place in these "scaped" tanks. They are finally starting to breed for me and I'm slowly trying to build my colony back up. Hoping to set up another rack during the winter months that will house about 12 tenners. I originally wanted to add all rimless tanks but funds are keeping that from happening for now. Sucks being poor. lol

 

As for parameters, I keep my pintos same as TBs. pH 5.5 to 6, TDS 100-120, GH 4, KH 0 and temps at 70-73°. Nitrates kept below 10 ppm, closer to 5 ppm. I now use HOBs instead of sponges with pre-filters on them. The tank with my galaxies is only 2.6 gallons and yet they are breeding. 

That’s crazy, I would be devastated if that happened.

I have 8 tanks rn and looking to get more but I also don’t want any low quality shrimp. 3/8 of my tanks are CRS/CBS/PRL. Even tho they look nice in large numbers, I rather keep higher end shrimps like fancy tigers/fishbones/boa. Why did you decide to switch to HOB filters btw? And that’s crazy how a 2.6g is allowing them to breed. You hear everyone say oh water params in small tanks will have huge swings being detrimental to shrimps. But that’s good man, you seem to be doing everything right this time around

[madcrafted]

Yeah, it was pretty heart breaking watching hundreds of shrimp drop off over the course of a few weeks. It never occurred to me that the water temperature would climb that high. I never had issue with any of my neos in that location. I figured they could handle 77-78° F during peak hot season. Wrong! It didn't help that I was using Fuval Stratum substrate that was losing it's ability to keep pH below 6.5. It didn't take long for the powdered foods to spoil water in those conditions. 

 

The reason for HOBs was simply because I wanted a decent flow pattern and the ability to scrub water with floss pads and purigen and still have plenty of redundant bio media. HOBs are very interchangeable and a good choice for planted tanks. I wouldn't say they are better for shrimp compared to sponges/HMFs but they've been doing ok for me so far. I will return to sponges once my breeding rack project is complete. I'm getting the actual rack frame soon and as many tanks as I can afford. I'm hoping petco or petsmart will stock up on 10 gallon tanks soon. I'm not looking to scape any of these tanks, just the usual leaf litter, cholla wood, alder cones,etc. and maybe a few dragon rocks per tank... nothing fancy. I'll probably go with SL-Aqua substrate this time. Controsoil has been working good but I'd like to give SL-Aqua a shot. Everyone here seems to swear by it.

 

Keeping bee shrimp variants in a 2.6 gallon tank is tricky... breeding is even trickier, especially if you can't keep temperature consistent. It took some trial and error for sure. My secret is pretty simple for nano tanks, 8-10% water changes every 3 days with closely matched remineralized r/o water of the same temp dripped in at a drop per second. I use a small cup to scoop the water out for these WCs. This keeps surface film from affecting gas exchange and lowering O2 levels. Every 2 weeks, I'll do a 20-25% WC to keep nitrates in check as well as other pollutants. Food is target fed by using straws. Anything leftover after 2-3 hours gets turkey basted out of there. Bacter AE is mixed in a solution and targeted to mosses and leaves via a long transfer pipette for baby shrimp 2-3 times a week. That's about it.

[thenamespo]

1 hour ago, madcrafted said:

Yeah, it was pretty heart breaking watching hundreds of shrimp drop off over the course of a few weeks. It never occurred to me that the water temperature would climb that high. I never had issue with any of my neos in that location. I figured they could handle 77-78° F during peak hot season. Wrong! It didn't help that I was using Fuval Stratum substrate that was losing it's ability to keep pH below 6.5. It didn't take long for the powdered foods to spoil water in those conditions. 

 

The reason for HOBs was simply because I wanted a decent flow pattern and the ability to scrub water with floss pads and purigen and still have plenty of redundant bio media. HOBs are very interchangeable and a good choice for planted tanks. I wouldn't say they are better for shrimp compared to sponges/HMFs but they've been doing ok for me so far. I will return to sponges once my breeding rack project is complete. I'm getting the actual rack frame soon and as many tanks as I can afford. I'm hoping petco or petsmart will stock up on 10 gallon tanks soon. I'm not looking to scape any of these tanks, just the usual leaf litter, cholla wood, alder cones,etc. and maybe a few dragon rocks per tank... nothing fancy. I'll probably go with SL-Aqua substrate this time. Controsoil has been working good but I'd like to give SL-Aqua a shot. Everyone here seems to swear by it.

 

Keeping bee shrimp variants in a 2.6 gallon tank is tricky... breeding is even trickier, especially if you can't keep temperature consistent. It took some trial and error for sure. My secret is pretty simple for nano tanks, 8-10% water changes every 3 days with closely matched remineralized r/o water of the same temp dripped in at a drop per second. I use a small cup to scoop the water out for these WCs. This keeps surface film from affecting gas exchange and lowering O2 levels. Every 2 weeks, I'll do a 20-25% WC to keep nitrates in check as well as other pollutants. Food is target fed by using straws. Anything leftover after 2-3 hours gets turkey basted out of there. Bacter AE is mixed in a solution and targeted to mosses and leaves via a long transfer pipette for baby shrimp 2-3 times a week. That's about it.

I’m using ADA rn and was planning to switch to controsoil until I saw everyone here using SL. Where do you plan on buying it?

 

What rack are you looking at buying or are you building your own like most here? 

[madcrafted]

2 hours ago, thenamespo said:

I’m using ADA rn and was planning to switch to controsoil until I saw everyone here using SL. Where do you plan on buying it?

 

What rack are you looking at buying or are you building your own like most here? 

 

Not sure yet, as discobee just lists vendors and doesn't sell direct the last I checked. Buceplant's shipping chaps my azz, so... still looking. lol

 

I was thinking something like this for the rack: https://www.lowes.com/pd/edsal-72-in-H-x-48-in-W-x-24-in-D-5-Shelf-Steel-Freestanding-Shelving-Unit/1000527

[thenamespo]

Just now, madcrafted said:

 

Not sure yet, as discobee just lists vendors and doesn't sell direct the last I checked. Buceplant's shipping chaps my azz, so... still looking. lol

 

I was thinking something like this for the rack: https://www.lowes.com/pd/edsal-72-in-H-x-48-in-W-x-24-in-D-5-Shelf-Steel-Freestanding-Shelving-Unit/1000527

I’m looking to get a similar rack, rn I have a rack I built but I built it to put my tanks the long way instead of how everyone else has their tanks on the rack. So I could only fit 8 10g. And let me know when you do find a vendor. I’ll try SL this time around as well. 

[madcrafted]

5 minutes ago, thenamespo said:

I’m looking to get a similar rack, rn I have a rack I built but I built it to put my tanks the long way instead of how everyone else has their tanks on the rack. So I could only fit 8 10g. And let me know when you do find a vendor. I’ll try SL this time around as well. 

 

For displaying the tanks, your way looks better. That's how I have my rimless tanks set up now. For the breeding rack, I too, plan on having the sides facing the front, so I can cram as many as possible in there. Still not sure on whether to go double sponge or use those neat HMF filter frames that reefing solutions make. They are pretty pricey but look very professional. I guess it depends on how many of my racing drones I can sell before then. haha

[thenamespo]

5 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

 

For displaying the tanks, your way looks better. That's how I have my rimless tanks set up now. For the breeding rack, I too, plan on having the sides facing the front, so I can cram as many as possible in there. Still not sure on whether to go double sponge or use those neat HMF filter frames that reefing solutions make. They are pretty pricey but look very professional. I guess it depends on how many of my racing drones I can sell before then. haha

Yeah, I don’t really have much to display. I don’t scape my tanks. Just have moss and shrimps. That’s why I should’ve put it the other way. You planning to do all 10g?

[madcrafted]

1 minute ago, thenamespo said:

Yeah, I don’t really have much to display. I don’t scape my tanks. Just have moss and shrimps. That’s why I should’ve put it the other way. You planning to do all 10g?

 Mostly ten gallons for this project, yeah. How about you?

 

I wouldn't mind adding a rimless 22 gallon long to the bottom of my other "display" rack and scape it like a natural biotope with a leaf covered floor and overlapping rocks in the background but I doubt I could keep my dog's hair out of there with it being low like that and in our hallway. It would be a tight fit without re-spacing my shelves. 

 

[thenamespo]

3 minutes ago, madcrafted said:

 Mostly ten gallons for this project, yeah. How about you?

 

I wouldn't mind adding a rimless 22 gallon long to the bottom of my other "display" rack and scape it like a natural biotope with a leaf covered floor and overlapping rocks in the background but I doubt I could keep my dog's hair out of there with it being low like that and in our hallway. It would be a tight fit without re-spacing my shelves. 

 

All my tanks are 10g on the rack and I have a 20 high that I’m cycling for some Sulawesi shrimps

[madcrafted]

Cool. Always liked the looks of cardinal/sulawesi shrimp. Looking forward to pics when you add them.