Getting Taiwan Bees

[PuddlesAqua]

My wife caught me looking at photos of some BKK today and said "those are amazing you should get some!" Haha, my pleasure! So I'm now beginning to get ready to buy some TBs in the future. Can someone point me towards a kind of primer on keeping them?

I plan on keeping them in a 15 gallon. I have a 55 gallon cycled tank as well, but since I'll be starting with only 5 or 10 shrimp I figure they'll never find each other to breed in that large a tank. Thoughts?

I'll be using Salty Shrimp GH+ with RO water. I normally use an inert substrate, but I'll need one to buffer the pH with TBs. Should I use Amazonia? Africana? Other?

I've read I'll need mineral stones. One for 10 gallons sound right? And then I'll need ideas on food. I currently use blanched veggies, algae wafers, and powdered spirulina. What special shrimp food will I need for adults as well as shrimplets?

And in terms of breeding, I'm not going to know what I'll get when they breed, right? It's completely based on the genetic line, but there will be few actual TB offspring and most will be mischlings?

Of course, please feel free to ignore my questions and point me towards any sort of primer or guide.

[mordalphus]

If you breed taiwan bees together it always makes more taiwan bees, you won't get any mischlings.

Other than that, treat them like crystals shrimp.

Try getting a decent food though, algae wafers are for plecos high in protein. Despite the name there's very little algae in them.

[PuddlesAqua]

Yeah, I know. They're Omega One brand, first two ingredients are kelp and spirulina, so I figured they were alright. I only feed that once a week though. Any suggestions on better food? Lots of brands out there.

[Betta Maniac]

Assuming you'll be getting them from Nick/Speedie (since he's basically local for you), his advice to match is tanks is Amazonia, RO water, Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner to 200 TDS, and lots of filtration (including a good size sponge filter or two).

For foods, you can look at Mosura or Borneo Wild stuff or Jake/Somewhatshocked’s stuff that he sells in SnS. Honest truth is mine almost never touch the food I put in the tank. Though the do like the barley pellets.

[sbarbee54]

Yes come as close as you can to the original tank, or do a extended drip acclimation. I have gotten almost all my 40 TB from Nick plus i have 40 F1 Female mischlings. I started near his water condition, but then slowly acclimated them to a 5.6 PH GH5 KH0-1. TDS 150-160

Never lost a one have probably 75 baby TB now, and several 100 Mischlings

[PuddlesAqua]

Is there any way to figure out how Nutrafin Cichlid conditioner differs from the Salty shrimp gh+?

[sbarbee54]

Salty shrimp is just as good I used that before and it did just as good. I just like the liquid because it gets into the water faster.

What type of water are you using? RO and if so what are the readings? PH TDS GH KH

Mine comes out PH5.7 GH0 KH0 TDS 0, I remineralize to 110-120 every water change, and that keeps my tank (TDS 160) back at 160TDS GH5 KH0-1 after each 5 gal bucket water change out of a 20L

If that helps

[PuddlesAqua]

Originally Posted by sbarbee54

Salty shrimp is just as good I used that before and it did just as good. I just like the liquid because it gets into the water faster.

What type of water are you using? RO and if so what are the readings? PH TDS GH KH

Mine comes out PH5.7 GH0 KH0 TDS 0, I remineralize to 110-120 every water change, and that keeps my tank (TDS 160) back at 160TDS GH5 KH0-1 after each 5 gal bucket water change out of a 20L

If that helps

My RO comes out at 6.4 pH, 0 TDS, 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. I use Salty Shrimp and bring it to gH 5, Kh0, TDS 120 or so (might have to re check TDS at home, I have it written down somewhere).

I let the freshly made RO/SS gh+ mix sit for about an hour with a bubbler and heater in it, then do the WC.

[sbarbee54]

See that should work fine for you one what changes then. You do not have to run a TDS of 200 for these guys 140-200 over all tds in tank is fine

[PuddlesAqua]

Cool. So I think I've figured out substrate and remineralization. Need to look up some of these foods. I made a home made food of blended spirulina, spinach, kale, carrots, and zucchini, then dried it into wafer shapes, but they don't really like it.

Edit: So depending on substrate (I'm now looking at UP Aqua Sand since it doesn't release ammonia) would it be a good idea to put some sort of mineral clay/powder down first and then put the substrate on top?

[Loachutus]

Up Aqua Shrimp Sand has montmorillonite clay in it, so I don't think there's a real need for mineral clay.

The only difference between Salty Shrimp GH+ and Nutrafin C.C., is the Salty Shrimp is a little cleaner GH booster than the Nutrafin. GeToChKn posted some readings in a recent thread. Maybe he'll chime in with the location or post them again.

[PuddlesAqua]

Is there a buffering substrate besides Up Aqua Sand that does not leech ammonia?

[mordalphus]

My opinion is to do it correctly and use Ada Amazonia, doesn't take that long to cycle it anymore, and you'd be waiting for foe a non-ammonia tank to cycle anyways.

Cutting corners is a good way to waste time and money

[PuddlesAqua]

I'm not trying to cut corners, I have 2 established filters working on a large tank which will be transferred to this new tank, and thought it would save time not having to wait for the large amounts of ammonia to leech out.

[Bananariot]

Originally Posted by PuddlesAqua

Is there a buffering substrate besides Up Aqua Sand that does not leech ammonia?

Azoo plant grower bed is a possiblity though I haven't kept TB's with them.