Cardinals and Redlines and Harlequins, OH MY! *how to import shrimp update*

[Rob in Puyallup]

Aristo... has some great looking gobies, too!

[Solid]

Wow, very cool! Amazing looking shrimp! Will these shrimp cross-breed?

[dxiong5]

Very nice! This Sulawesi project is going well for you

[mistergreen]

that macro algae is fantastic. I wonder why we don't see it more.

[husonfirst]

Very nice looking shrimp!

[mgamer20o0]

Originally Posted by mistergreen

that macro algae is fantastic. I wonder why we don't see it more.

there is a lot of stuff that we dont see in the state from plants to fish. they send it to countries where they pay more.

[vca2004]

Originally Posted by mgamer20o0

there is a lot of stuff that we dont see in the state from plants to fish. they send it to countries where they pay more.

That's not true . I am German and Sulawesi shrimp cost about as much as they cost here, maybe a little less as a lot of people are already breeding them in their tanks. It's definitely not the price. I think just many more people are interested in freshwater "pet" shrimp over there. Therefore more people are interested in importing them just like Bill did, and new shrimp will spread through the hobby faster.

[lopez_316us]

How is everything going?

[billb]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes - Legomaniac, I am still a member of the "haven't bred Sulawesi's yet" club. Buying does not = breeding, but i am hopeful!..
Vanessa - I got lucky with customs. Things that may have helped - showing up in person, having the indonesian health and inspection documents and all other documents. thsi was the first time I imported and it was meant for personal use. They took me drivers license to check! It could have not gone well and I could have lost my money.

Lopez316us. I got the cheap shrimp and the exporter wanted a minumum order of one box. depending on what you buy assume it will cost you about $800+

Well so far so good! I have only lost one other shrimp since the first night - another yellow cheek. Worried about these guys.
So here is what is going on with the tank:
Lighting - I put in some AH Supply reflectors on the old light fixture and two new 6700k PC bulbs, also from AH supply. Photo period is 12 hours but might increase that. Not having to many algae issue so far and I want a healthy layer of biofilm.
Filtration - way more than needed for my bioload but I think it will help keep things stable - 40 sq ft of 50 micron pleated cartridge, 7 lbs of polybead biofiltration and about 400mls of Purigen mixed with a similar amount of crushed shell chips to maintain the pH level
Water parameters -
Temp 80
pH 7.9 to 8
kH 5
gH 9
water changes - 5 gallons at least three times per week(about 10%of tank volume/change). I use RO water stored for 1 to 2 days with crushed coral sand. A power head keeps water circulating

Food - OK here is where I have been spending sleepless nights. I think that one of the reasons these shrimp are so hard to keep alive is that they have probably evolved to exploit specific niches in these ancient lakes. I could be completely wrong but there are a lot of shrimp species occupying the same habitats. Also, my shrimp do not seem to like Shirakura shrimp food or Hikari Algae wafers. I spoke to another person who has cardinals and he observed the same thing.
They do scavenge for biofilm though. I am taking a two pronged approach,
Natural biofilm - I am hoping to culture the organisms resident on the wild collected Red Cherry Water plants. These came from the same lakes as the shrimp so they might be carrying a good mix of algae/diatoms/rotifers/bacteria from the Malili lake system. I took a number of these plants the night I got the shipment and put them in a tray along with the water from the bags the shrimp came in. I also included some small stones and some of the indian almond leaves that shipped with the shrimp. To this, I added Kent Marine's Pro-Culture Phytoplankton media ( you need type A and type B) along with Sodium meta silicate which is recommended to grow diatoms.

Those are ten pound bottles, enough to make 7,800 gallons. I think that will do for a while. These were purchased at Aquatic Eco-Systems.com
I am trying to keep the trays lit 24 hours a day and take them out into the sun when time and weather permit. Interestingly, I do not have any visible algae in the trays - go figure.
Artificial Biofilm - The tank is pretty big with a 48" by 15" foot print. The rocks, wood, and plants add additional surface area for biofilm to grow but I worry about feeding the 160 or so shrimp in this nutrient poor environment. There are quite a few high quality marine filter feeder foods that have concentrated, intact, phytoplankton and zooplankton. I also noticed that the Aquaculturists use the same species to feed their fish and invertabrates so I suspect these are nutritionally sound. The particle sizes are the same as what the shrimp are designed to feed on. The only problem is the commercial formulas are designed to circulate in the water column so the filter feeders can access them. I needed something that would stick to a surface.
Here is my current solution:
Kent Marines PhytoMax - a viscous liquid with three or 4 cultured phtoplankton species. a good source of highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) such as Omega 3
Two Little Fishes Marine Snow - another viscous liquid with a mix of pyto and zooplankton along with seaweed meal.
Argent Cyclop-Eeze - freeze dried whole cyclops - very small and also touted as being nutritionally dense.

I found that drops of these liquid foods could be put onto flat stones and dried. The resulting plankton spots would remain in place long enough for the shrimp to find them - especially the Cardinals and Harlequins.

Tonight - 2 minutes after adding a small feeding rock

Friends smell something cooking...

I am going to keep playing with this but it looks promising. I will need to treat several small rocks and put them near the shrimp hang outs. They don't seem to wander very far after they have picked out a territory.

Some pics:
There is a Chocolate Poso snail eating this schefflera leaf. It is in the upper middle of the leaf (actually behind it) The blurry white thing is it. They are going to town on that leaf though. I have three Chocolate Posos and two Yellow Rabbits

A cardinal hang out with a red-line groupie. The Red Cherry water plants look like they are getting some new growth.

A red-line hang out with a cardinal groupie

No one is hanging out with the yellow cheek - it's too big

The harlequin is by himself - they rest are night owls

Last picture. The red-lines seem to have shorter, stouter front limbs than the other shrimp. A feeding adaptation? This one was pulling things from the moss, not scraping. I haven't seen that before.

Well I am definitely having fun with these guys. I'll keep posting and answer any questions I can.
Thanks for looking,
Bill

[catfishbi]

wondering if you willing to sell some or help us order some put up a group buy list :P

[billb]

Originally Posted by catfishbi

wondering if you willing to sell some or help us order some put up a group buy list :P

Not sure I am ready to take on a group buy, sorry. If I am successful breeding these I will offer some for sale. There have been several recent posts offering them for sale though, keep an eye on out.

Bill

[dxiong5]

Great update Bill! Your approach to culturing biofilm is some serious work, sounds like everything is working out well for you.

PS. The Red Cherry plants came in today, they look very nice! Hopefully they'll be a good source for biofilm to cultivate on and draw my shrimp out from hiding.

[Tex Gal]

I am so in love with the RCWP. It's one of the coolest plants I've seen. I sure hope they do well. I'm excited about your adventure. Loving this entire thread. I'll live vicariously through you if you don't mind!

[lopez_316us]

Originally Posted by Tex Gal

I am so in love with the RCWP. It's one of the coolest plants I've seen. I sure hope they do well. I'm excited about your adventure. Loving this entire thread. I'll live vicariously through you if you don't mind!

Me too!!

This is great!

Good luck with everything !!!

[lopez_316us]

Keep posting pictures please!!!

What about a full tank pic???

Thanks!