Aaron's Aquatics - Shrimp Time!
This is a video journal of my dive into the shrimp keeping/breeding hobby. I've never kept shrimp outside by Ammano shrimp, so I am very new.
I didn't choose this hobby, the hobby (and a very irresponsible coworker) chose me. These videos are my adventures.
![]()
Build
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
10/9/2017
Just shipped out my first shipment of bloody mary shrimp today! I'm hoping the Texas heat is kind to the shrimp, but just in case I made sure to include a cool pack in the box.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
![]()
![]()
I didn't choose this hobby, the hobby (and a very irresponsible coworker) chose me. These videos are my adventures.
Build
- Filter - Double sponge filter
- Lights - Finnex Planted Plus+ 24/7
- Substrate - ADA Amazonia
- RODI Remineralizer - SaltyShrimp GH/KH+
- Wood - Cholla
- Leaves - Indian Almond
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
10/9/2017
Just shipped out my first shipment of bloody mary shrimp today! I'm hoping the Texas heat is kind to the shrimp, but just in case I made sure to include a cool pack in the box.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
3
1 - 20 of 53 Posts
I'm amused by the fact that you set up a Youtube Channel for shrimp keeping!
You have a great voice for doing videos! Really catchy and amusing! Cat is also entertaining!
Disappointed that the shrimp came from Aquatic Arts. They sell imported shrimp, and unfortunately, imported shrimp are known to have ellobiopsidae, which is a parasite that looks like a green fungus growth. I have heard that it can take up to 3-6 months before you even see any signs of this parasite on your shrimp... so hopefully, your shrimp are healthy!
Shrimp tanks turned out great! I do hope those rocks are inert!
Neos really do best on sand with GH and KH though...
Don't know if it's true, but I keep seeing people say that Tetra SafeStart and Marineland Aquarium Bacteria are the two top products to help cycle a tank. I don't know how Seachem Stability compares, but have been curious.
No experience with Bacter AE, heard great reviews about it, but from my understanding, it's not the same as bacteria meant to cycle a tank.
If you feed your shrimp, you shouldn't need to feed them more than once a week... unless you want to provide supplemental feeding for the babies.
The Fluval Shrimp food can potentially enhance the color of the shrimp, or turn them weird colors... so if you feed it, be aware of that. Not recommended if you want good colored shrimp that reproduce with good colors.
Thermometers.... those can be fun! I put 4 different ones into one tank. They all read differently... You can go up to 86° F though during the cycle, then lower it once you are ready to add shrimp. You want to get the temps down to 68-72°, although some people actually do have better success at keeping Neos at 76-78° range. It's good that you lowered the temps!
If the shrimp are imports and not home-bred, then it's quite possible that they went through a lot of stress with changing water parameters and shipping. If Aquatic Arts bred them, then it could be due to a change in water parameters and some shrimp just can't handle it all that well.
Each bucket should have a TDS of 150, if that's that's what the shrimp prefer and it's at the right GH. If you take two buckets of 150 TDS and add them together, they are still going to be 150 TDS. You aren't adding more water, or more minerals to the water to change the parameters. If you have water evaporation and the TDS of the tanks rises, then top off with RO/DI water. If TDS rises and you want to do a water change, you could, in theory, remineralize the new water to lower TDS (as long as parameters are ideal or slightly high), so once you add the lower TDS into the tanks with higher TDS, it equals out to the ideal parameters that you want.
If you really are planning on keeping Neos and Caridinas, then I'd personally recommend a GH of 6 with whatever TDS that comes out to. Would not go below 5 GH. Keeping both species in can sometimes be difficult as one species may "out-compete" the other, depending on the water parameters. That is, one could breed better than the other species, so one species may experience a population boom where-as the other may not do quite as well.
If you can find a USA breeder who keeps both species in similar parameters as to what you've got set up (aka no Aquatic Arts!), then you'll have a higher chance of success of keeping the two species/colors that you desire in your tanks.
Overall, started out great! You've done a bunch of research and have received a lot of helpful suggestions! So short end of things, looks like you've got just about everything covered! I look forward to future updates!
You have a great voice for doing videos! Really catchy and amusing! Cat is also entertaining!
Disappointed that the shrimp came from Aquatic Arts. They sell imported shrimp, and unfortunately, imported shrimp are known to have ellobiopsidae, which is a parasite that looks like a green fungus growth. I have heard that it can take up to 3-6 months before you even see any signs of this parasite on your shrimp... so hopefully, your shrimp are healthy!
Shrimp tanks turned out great! I do hope those rocks are inert!
Neos really do best on sand with GH and KH though...
Don't know if it's true, but I keep seeing people say that Tetra SafeStart and Marineland Aquarium Bacteria are the two top products to help cycle a tank. I don't know how Seachem Stability compares, but have been curious.
No experience with Bacter AE, heard great reviews about it, but from my understanding, it's not the same as bacteria meant to cycle a tank.
If you feed your shrimp, you shouldn't need to feed them more than once a week... unless you want to provide supplemental feeding for the babies.
The Fluval Shrimp food can potentially enhance the color of the shrimp, or turn them weird colors... so if you feed it, be aware of that. Not recommended if you want good colored shrimp that reproduce with good colors.
Thermometers.... those can be fun! I put 4 different ones into one tank. They all read differently... You can go up to 86° F though during the cycle, then lower it once you are ready to add shrimp. You want to get the temps down to 68-72°, although some people actually do have better success at keeping Neos at 76-78° range. It's good that you lowered the temps!
If the shrimp are imports and not home-bred, then it's quite possible that they went through a lot of stress with changing water parameters and shipping. If Aquatic Arts bred them, then it could be due to a change in water parameters and some shrimp just can't handle it all that well.
Each bucket should have a TDS of 150, if that's that's what the shrimp prefer and it's at the right GH. If you take two buckets of 150 TDS and add them together, they are still going to be 150 TDS. You aren't adding more water, or more minerals to the water to change the parameters. If you have water evaporation and the TDS of the tanks rises, then top off with RO/DI water. If TDS rises and you want to do a water change, you could, in theory, remineralize the new water to lower TDS (as long as parameters are ideal or slightly high), so once you add the lower TDS into the tanks with higher TDS, it equals out to the ideal parameters that you want.
If you really are planning on keeping Neos and Caridinas, then I'd personally recommend a GH of 6 with whatever TDS that comes out to. Would not go below 5 GH. Keeping both species in can sometimes be difficult as one species may "out-compete" the other, depending on the water parameters. That is, one could breed better than the other species, so one species may experience a population boom where-as the other may not do quite as well.
If you can find a USA breeder who keeps both species in similar parameters as to what you've got set up (aka no Aquatic Arts!), then you'll have a higher chance of success of keeping the two species/colors that you desire in your tanks.
Overall, started out great! You've done a bunch of research and have received a lot of helpful suggestions! So short end of things, looks like you've got just about everything covered! I look forward to future updates!
Damn, thanks for the huge feedback! Let me see if I can answer/address a few pointsI'm amused by the fact that you set up a Youtube Channel for shrimp keeping!
You have a great voice for doing videos! Really catchy and amusing! Cat is also entertaining!
Disappointed that the shrimp came from Aquatic Arts. They sell imported shrimp, and unfortunately, imported shrimp are known to have ellobiopsidae, which is a parasite that looks like a green fungus growth. I have heard that it can take up to 3-6 months before you even see any signs of this parasite on your shrimp... so hopefully, your shrimp are healthy!
Shrimp tanks turned out great! I do hope those rocks are inert!
Neos really do best on sand with GH and KH though...
Don't know if it's true, but I keep seeing people say that Tetra SafeStart and Marineland Aquarium Bacteria are the two top products to help cycle a tank. I don't know how Seachem Stability compares, but have been curious.
No experience with Bacter AE, heard great reviews about it, but from my understanding, it's not the same as bacteria meant to cycle a tank.
If you feed your shrimp, you shouldn't need to feed them more than once a week... unless you want to provide supplemental feeding for the babies.
The Fluval Shrimp food can potentially enhance the color of the shrimp, or turn them weird colors... so if you feed it, be aware of that. Not recommended if you want good colored shrimp that reproduce with good colors.
Thermometers.... those can be fun! I put 4 different ones into one tank. They all read differently... You can go up to 86° F though during the cycle, then lower it once you are ready to add shrimp. You want to get the temps down to 68-72°, although some people actually do have better success at keeping Neos at 76-78° range. It's good that you lowered the temps!
If the shrimp are imports and not home-bred, then it's quite possible that they went through a lot of stress with changing water parameters and shipping. If Aquatic Arts bred them, then it could be due to a change in water parameters and some shrimp just can't handle it all that well.
Each bucket should have a TDS of 150, if that's that's what the shrimp prefer and it's at the right GH. If you take two buckets of 150 TDS and add them together, they are still going to be 150 TDS. You aren't adding more water, or more minerals to the water to change the parameters. If you have water evaporation and the TDS of the tanks rises, then top off with RO/DI water. If TDS rises and you want to do a water change, you could, in theory, remineralize the new water to lower TDS (as long as parameters are ideal or slightly high), so once you add the lower TDS into the tanks with higher TDS, it equals out to the ideal parameters that you want.
If you really are planning on keeping Neos and Caridinas, then I'd personally recommend a GH of 6 with whatever TDS that comes out to. Would not go below 5 GH. Keeping both species in can sometimes be difficult as one species may "out-compete" the other, depending on the water parameters. That is, one could breed better than the other species, so one species may experience a population boom where-as the other may not do quite as well.
If you can find a USA breeder who keeps both species in similar parameters as to what you've got set up (aka no Aquatic Arts!), then you'll have a higher chance of success of keeping the two species/colors that you desire in your tanks.
Overall, started out great! You've done a bunch of research and have received a lot of helpful suggestions! So short end of things, looks like you've got just about everything covered! I look forward to future updates!
- I had no idea Aquatic Arts were an import business. If you have suggestions on where to choose shrimp, please let me know! Keep in mind, I did not purchase these shrimp -- they were purchased by my old coworker.
- Sechem Stability has always been my go-to. Bacter AE wasn't my source for really cycling the tank, just as something to add the existing bacteria of the tank.
- Thanks for the TDS suggestion. You and a lot of others have said the same thing, and that's what I'm going with
Bump: 4/2/2017 - Remineralizing RODI Water
https://youtu.be/E2J7USR8ha4
I had no idea Aquatic Arts were an import business. If you have suggestions on where to choose shrimp, please let me know! Keep in mind, I did not purchase these shrimp -- they were purchased by my old coworker.
Aquatic Arts do have some nice shrimp! Just, a lot of people have had to deal with a parasite. Some get lucky and never deal with it, where-as others, well, they struggle! So be on the lookout! And if you choose to buy from them again, it might not be a bad idea to treat all incoming NEO shrimp in a bare bottom tank. Caradina don't get this parasite!
There is now this page, thanks to Chaz at Elevated Shrimp! Goes over treatment of the parasite.
https://www.discobee.com/blogs/news...eocaridina-shrimp-parasite-and-how-to-cure-it
You can easily buy shrimp from this forum, Han Aquatics, LRBAquatics, TheGardenofEder, BuyPetShrimp, or any other number of places that sell home grown shrimp.
Sechem Stability has always been my go-to. Bacter AE wasn't my source for really cycling the tank, just as something to add the existing bacteria of the tank.
Sounds like it has worked well for you!
Thanks for the TDS suggestion. You and a lot of others have said the same thing, and that's what I'm going with
I figured you probably had a bunch of things already covered! Although you're going in head first, you are also researching and learning quickly! Doing great!
I'll have to watch the video later!
Aquatic Arts do have some nice shrimp! Just, a lot of people have had to deal with a parasite. Some get lucky and never deal with it, where-as others, well, they struggle! So be on the lookout! And if you choose to buy from them again, it might not be a bad idea to treat all incoming NEO shrimp in a bare bottom tank. Caradina don't get this parasite!
There is now this page, thanks to Chaz at Elevated Shrimp! Goes over treatment of the parasite.
https://www.discobee.com/blogs/news...eocaridina-shrimp-parasite-and-how-to-cure-it
You can easily buy shrimp from this forum, Han Aquatics, LRBAquatics, TheGardenofEder, BuyPetShrimp, or any other number of places that sell home grown shrimp.
Sechem Stability has always been my go-to. Bacter AE wasn't my source for really cycling the tank, just as something to add the existing bacteria of the tank.
Sounds like it has worked well for you!
Thanks for the TDS suggestion. You and a lot of others have said the same thing, and that's what I'm going with
I figured you probably had a bunch of things already covered! Although you're going in head first, you are also researching and learning quickly! Doing great!
I'll have to watch the video later!
Don't use KH with buffering substrate. You will cause pH swings as the soil absorbs the KH, lowering the pH. You do a water change, add in more KH, you cause the pH to rise, then the soil absorbs the KH and the pH lowers. This also causes your soil to exhaust faster.
So.... put the Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ remineralizer aside, or return it. It will not be good for your situation unless you choose to set up a tank with sand, and from the sounds of it, you might be okay using straight tap water in that tank unless you wanted to go the remineralized RO water in that tank.
As far as algae, I'm not sure if you are having algae issues in one due to the proximity of a window??? I remember you mentioning having to block a window, but not sure if you managed to block out all the light or not.
Regardless, when you go to clean it up, don't clean *all* of it, leave some for the shrimp!
Bloody Mary and Cherries are not the same. Cherry, Fire Red, Sakura and Painted Fire Red are all the same color of shrimp, just different grades of coloration. Bloody Mary are a different color.
Cherry, Sakura, Fire Red, Painted Fire Red is like the grades in Crystal Shrimp... C, B, A, S, S+, SS and SSS. The difference is the amount of coloration.
Bloody Mary is to Cherry as Crystal Red is to Crystal Black. Same shrimp, different colors.
The difference between BM and Cherry Grades is that Cherries have an opaque shell (although lower grades are clear in some areas) where-as BM are translucent. You can see it best when you have one of each type of shrimp in a container and a bright light behind them. High grade BM can also have red flesh (aka red legs and pleopods) where-as all grades of cherries will have clear flesh (legs might be red, but pleopods and flesh are clear).
I haven't kept either colors/types yet, but I do want some BM Shrimp!
I do recommend trying to find someone who keeps their BM in Caridina parameters, so you'll have the best luck acclimating them to your tank without issues.
So.... put the Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ remineralizer aside, or return it. It will not be good for your situation unless you choose to set up a tank with sand, and from the sounds of it, you might be okay using straight tap water in that tank unless you wanted to go the remineralized RO water in that tank.
As far as algae, I'm not sure if you are having algae issues in one due to the proximity of a window??? I remember you mentioning having to block a window, but not sure if you managed to block out all the light or not.
Regardless, when you go to clean it up, don't clean *all* of it, leave some for the shrimp!
Bloody Mary and Cherries are not the same. Cherry, Fire Red, Sakura and Painted Fire Red are all the same color of shrimp, just different grades of coloration. Bloody Mary are a different color.
Cherry, Sakura, Fire Red, Painted Fire Red is like the grades in Crystal Shrimp... C, B, A, S, S+, SS and SSS. The difference is the amount of coloration.
Bloody Mary is to Cherry as Crystal Red is to Crystal Black. Same shrimp, different colors.
The difference between BM and Cherry Grades is that Cherries have an opaque shell (although lower grades are clear in some areas) where-as BM are translucent. You can see it best when you have one of each type of shrimp in a container and a bright light behind them. High grade BM can also have red flesh (aka red legs and pleopods) where-as all grades of cherries will have clear flesh (legs might be red, but pleopods and flesh are clear).
I haven't kept either colors/types yet, but I do want some BM Shrimp!
I do recommend trying to find someone who keeps their BM in Caridina parameters, so you'll have the best luck acclimating them to your tank without issues.
@Zoidburg
Thanks for the information!
I have both gh/kh+ and just regular gh+, so I have some room to choose. That's interesting though -- do you think the substrate absorbing the KH would occur quickly enough to cause pH swings sudden enough for a negative effect?
These two tanks are actually in a small room with no windows, so no sunlight! In fact, the room in general gets very little light throughout the day outside the aquarium lights (on a 24 hour schedule (finnex planted)). Not to mention, both tanks are in the same exact situation, and only 1 is exhibiting algae issues. Also, I plan on leaving most of it there (for now!) -- I'll only clean the front glass panel because ... well.. I want to see my shrimp
Thanks for the information!
I have both gh/kh+ and just regular gh+, so I have some room to choose. That's interesting though -- do you think the substrate absorbing the KH would occur quickly enough to cause pH swings sudden enough for a negative effect?
These two tanks are actually in a small room with no windows, so no sunlight! In fact, the room in general gets very little light throughout the day outside the aquarium lights (on a 24 hour schedule (finnex planted)). Not to mention, both tanks are in the same exact situation, and only 1 is exhibiting algae issues. Also, I plan on leaving most of it there (for now!) -- I'll only clean the front glass panel because ... well.. I want to see my shrimp
It's funny how you can set up 2 aquariums the exact same way and only have issues with one!
I'm not sure if the swing would be that great of a difference, but I do know that if you want to keep the parameters good for long term without switching out the substrate, then you don't want to add any KH to the tank. These buffering substrates are only supposed to be good for approximately a year, less with KH. I've heard of some people who have their tanks going strong with the same substrate for about 2 years!
If/when doing water changes, it doesn't hurt to drip acclimate the new water back in so there isn't any sudden change in parameters.
Seen a few people who only clean the front of the aquarium of algae and leave the rest for the shrimp!
I'm not sure if the swing would be that great of a difference, but I do know that if you want to keep the parameters good for long term without switching out the substrate, then you don't want to add any KH to the tank. These buffering substrates are only supposed to be good for approximately a year, less with KH. I've heard of some people who have their tanks going strong with the same substrate for about 2 years!
If/when doing water changes, it doesn't hurt to drip acclimate the new water back in so there isn't any sudden change in parameters.
Seen a few people who only clean the front of the aquarium of algae and leave the rest for the shrimp!
wink winkSeen a few people who only clean the front of the aquarium of algae and leave the rest for the shrimp!
4/10/2017 - Dream Blue Velvet Update
https://youtu.be/eU77RHTSxNk
- Shrimp have been ordered!
- Leaves added to aquarium
- Advice wanted: Little scud looking things in the blue velvet tank. Looking for advice
https://youtu.be/eU77RHTSxNk
1 - 20 of 53 Posts
