Dear Readers and Unanswered E-mails

A letter to my readers and folks who sent me e-mails.

I am sorry that I never got back to you!  I actually completely forgot about that e-mail and I JUST reviewed them today and they're many months too late to respond, at this point.  Please forgive me.

I'm currently semi-out of the hobby as my priorities have switched.  Although I do still have shrimp and plants, I am not keeping detailed records anymore.  My fascination with nature has grown and as of today, most of my time is spent with my orchids (primarily Neofinetia falcata) and my finches.  I might start a blog to keep a personal record of my experiences, however, nothing is written in stone yet.

Last but not least, thank you all for reading my blog!  Happy Shrimp Keeping Y'all!

Not Dead

Hello Bloggers!

I am not dead yet.  I have just been pretty occupied with life and I got caught up with things.  A photo update on my CRS tank!

A quick update:  

1.  I no longer have any Taiwan bees.  They all died 2 months ago.  Death was unexplainable, so I won't be getting them any time soon for now.  I think I will need to dedicate a tank specifically for Taiwan bees, as my CRS seem to be more aggressive than the taiwan bees.  While being of the same species, I did notice a difference in behavior.  

2.  I DID lose a few of my original 17 CRS, aka. my starter shrimp.  However, I chalked those up to natural deaths of age wearing their immune system down and passed away from a recent heat wave/nutrient dosing.  Losing two or three shrimp isn't exactly a big deal anymore, since my tank is infested with shrimp now as seen above.

3.  My shrimp colony is running great.  They're still breeding and babies are growing still. 

4.  Interesting thing I should note that my first batch that were born (I believe in February) are still NOT sexually mature.  Growth seems rather slow, even though I feed almost, if not already, a small piece of Mosura Speciality food once a day.  I may pick up Mosura Excel and see if their claims of faster growth will help improve this.  I do know that a richer protein diet will speed up growth for other animals, as I tested this with Dwarf Crays a few years ago.  Results should be similar with shrimp, as they are closely related.  

5.  That is all I can think of for now.  I hope y'all are having a great summer!  

Mischling Failure

Well, if some of you guys have read, I had recorded a berried Panda on April 14, 2012.  It was impregnated by a male CRS in my CRS tank and I had intended to separate the mother into a breeder box (the net type) as she got closer to giving birth.  I estimated a minimum of 4 weeks.  Well, that was a poor estimation.  I checked her today in order to separate her and found that she was no longer carrying eggs.  She gave birth early!  I suspect that the rolling heat waves we've been getting in Northern California sped up the incubation process as my tank temperatures were hitting 76-78, as opposed to the usual 72-73 degrees Fahrenheit.

In conclusion, I now have mischlings amongst my CRS.  I intended to keep this a pure strain CRS tank but I guess that's not really possible now, unless I somehow get rid of all the newborns.  But I don't really want to do that, so I guess this gives me a reason to start a new tank with new pure line CRS.

Either way, I feel like a failure for not catching this sooner.  My life has been quite busy and I totally overlooked the heat wave's effects to the incubation of the eggs.

Ah well, lesson learned!

Sorry folks, no pictures today.

SSS Cull photos

These are examples of my SSS culls.  Half hinos, some might call them.  However, I call them SSS culls because they are an in between from SS and SSS.  Furthermore, they carry the SSS gene and their offspring are likely to produce SSS patterns, though this small red dot pattern can come up too.

Lucky One

Lately, I've been finding baby shrimp, dead and/or alive, in places they shouldn't have been in.  Yesterday, I picked up my shrimp net, only to find a dead baby shrimp inside.  It must have gotten caught when I was scooping out shrimp for buyers the day before.  A baby must've snuck inside and I didn't notice it when I pulled the net out of the water.
Last week, I cleaned the sponge I use to block my breeder box.  The sponge's purpose is to keep baby shrimp inside the breeder box and out of the main tank.  Unfortunately, the holes are large enough for small shrimp to climb into.  It's like a jungle gym inside!  While cleaning the sponge off from dead plants/algae, a baby shrimp was inside, hiding.  I ended up putting the sponge in the wrong position, not knowing there was a shrimp inside.  The shrimp dried up and died.  I only discovered this the day after the incident.

Last night, I received a batch of Rili Shrimp from my dear friend.  I came home, looking for a container to put them for the time being.  I decided to put them in one of my plastic holding containers (the ones you find in pet stores).  Well, the container I decided to use already had dirty tank water in it.  The container held water from a month ago, when I took a mini pellia square out of my tank to propagate and retie onto stainless steel mesh.  Funny thing is, I try to be really cautious when taking moss squares out of my aquarium because I know baby shrimp just LOVE hiding in there.  I try to shake it a couple times before taking the entire piece out.  Well, I must have missed one because look what I found inside the container.  *See pictures below*  It must have been living in there for at least a month with no filtration, whatsoever.  It lived in stagnant water.  I have placed it into my tank after snapping these photos.

Lucky little fellow, aye?  We give shrimp too little credit sometimes.  It really bothers me when people try to baby their shrimp by buying a million different products out in the market, thinking it will bolster survivability or whatnot.  The fact of the matter is, all you really need is the right water and enough natural occurring food and shrimp will be just fine.  This CRS lived in a small container with tank water and muck from my mini pellia.  No filter, no extra feedings, just water and mulm.
Now, do I think we should just let our shrimp live in filthy water and expect them to thrive?  Of course not.  I just want to make a point that our shrimp are hardier than we give them credit for.

Mosses and Liverworts

    There is no doubt that plants are often highly recommended to add into a shrimp tank.  Heck, into any freshwater aquarium nowadays, it seems.  However, the most recommended plant to add into shrimp tanks are probably Mosses and Liverworts.  

     I am a very big fan of the moss-type plants.  And I say moss-type because from here on out, when I say moss, I also include the liverworts.  Aesthetically, they're quite pleasing.  You can attach it onto anything with the use of clear fishing line.  I personally use stainless steel mesh but you can attach moss onto wood and/or rocks as well.  Aside from being pleasing to the eye, the real beauty of moss lies in its purpose of providing a safe haven for shrimplets (in case there are predatory fish in the tank) and generates more surface area in the tank for micro-organisms to grow on.  There was a misconception in the past that shrimp ATE the moss because one will often see shrimp picking away at mosses.  However, this is untrue.  In fact, they are picking at the moss because there is food growing on the moss's surface for them to pick at.  Think of it as the shrimp cleaning the moss and in exchange, it gets fed.  It's a win-win situation.  So, thinking about starting a shrimp tank?  Then definitely try to get your hands on some moss!  Enjoy the beneficial properties it provides to your enclosed ecosystem and best of all, its aesthetic beauty.

Below are some photos of the mosses I use and also some of my personal favorites.  

Note* Liverworts are the plants that look like freshwater seaweed.  These would include mini pellia, round pellia (subwassertang) and regular pellia.  There are more variants, but these are the main three types we see more often in the hobby.  

Mini Pellia

 Mini X-mas

Fissidens Fontanus

Another "Just a Picture"

What was once a small colony of 17 CRS, that number has since multiplied!