Blyxa Island

[Newman]

The other high grade chocolate female is now berried. lets see how long it takes for her to drop the eggs lol >_<
funny that the previously berried females that dropped their eggs each have one egg stuck to their underside right now. they are carrying one egg each - very odd.

I have been trying to sex the 3 crystal shrimp i have in here. one is a definite female - very white shell, large and has thick abdominal scales. one is probably a male - also large but has thinner scales that do not cover the pleopods well, he swims around a lot, and has a more clear white coloration. The third one is hard to tell because it so much smaller than the other two; I thought he was a male but he doesnt swim around, has a thick white shell, and a prominent bump on the dorsal of the abdomen. odd shrimp.

[Newman]

More crystal shrimp arrived today! They're really awesome looking, though they are lower grades. 5 of them are crystal blacks and 3 are crystal reds. what's so special about them is that they might be mischling shrimp. I'll be keeping an eye out for any interesting babies that come up when these guys breed.

I have 11 crystals in the tank now.

[Newman]

Shrimp pictures.

New CBS:


New CRS:


Higher grade chocolate:


What is this, a PFR??:

Probably not supposed to be in this tank, even if it has chocolate genes right?(it was sold along with the high grades as choco shrimp).

[GreenBliss]

The chocolate is nice! Very dark.

[Newman]

Yes, I really like the high grade ones. I just wish they would actually hold their eggs like the low grades do...

New FTS:

[Newman]

Lost a CBS!

The only thing i did differently was feed a fish food with garlic in it...maybe its not shrimp safe? from what i've observed, shrimp either bolt from the pellets when they get a taste, or they carry it around and eat it...maybe garlic killed my shrimp?

Another bet is that the CBS died from shipping stress, but these are low grades, they should be hardier? not even my SSS died from shipping stress and they were in the mail longer!

Not cool.

[Newman]

Remember the shrimp i moved to my 40gal community? they are in the breeder net with some pleco fry. well one of those females is now berried! there is a male in there with them. 3 females.

[Newman]

one of the high grade chocos is berried again. guess what she's going to do to the eggs in a few days? =D
lol i just wish they'd keep them like the low grades do. the lower grades still drop a few, but carry the majority of them.

Havent seen any female release their shrimplets yet. i have been feeding my shirakura powder once a week in preparation for babies. hopefully soon.

[aznrice247]

Wait you can keep crystals even though your nitrates are at 5-10?

[Newman]

...nitrates can be close to 20ppm and crystals will still survive fine. its optimal to have them low for the highest grades of crystals and other fragile shrimp like TBs because you might not get good breeding if the nitrates are higher.

Where did you hear that crystals will die from nitrates? 10ppm is pretty low. and since my tank is planted, they can likely go lower over time.

[Newman]

my blyxa is starting to grow algae on its old leaves, and the amano isnt helping much. while its good to have lots of algae because it takes nitrates to 0ppm, I would rather not have my plants get smothered, so i reduced the photoperiod to 5 hours a day.

[Newman]

Algae still there.

Saw one tiny new born shrimp today. looks like the birthing has begun. hopefully more made it.
What do chocolate shrimp babies look like in terms of color? do they start out dark-tan or are the clearish-blue/white with dots?

[Newman]

only up to 3 shrimplets. looks like alot didnt hatch or are hiding. acidic water isn't doing any favors to the chocolates for sure. maybe orange shrimp like acidic water better? shoulda went with those.

All shrimp are growing, molting, no losses recently. the mischlings might be getting ready to breed soon as are the SSS CRS. hopefully within the next month they'll grow to maturity.

[Newman]

Originally Posted by Newman

Remember the shrimp i moved to my 40gal community? they are in the breeder net with some pleco fry. well one of those females is now berried! there is a male in there with them. 3 females.

Follow up on this:

The berried female held on to all of her eggs and gave birth recently. plenty of babies in the breeder net now. I just hope they don't get trampled by the pleco horde and that my angelfish doesn't get them through the mesh.
However i have lost one random female in the breeder net. i think the pleco fry hurt her or something. happens rarely i bet.
I also moved out all of my low grade chocolates into this breeder net to see if they have better luck here. There are about 9-10 adult chocolate shrimp in there right now. few berried, some saddled and a few males too. I still have that red PFR in here.



In the 20L tank there are signs of babies, but the other day i saw one having issues with molting. i hope he makes it. none of the crystals are at breeding age yet.

[FisheriesOmen]

Pics. . .