CRS setup. Is there anything I have forgotten?

[Jason Burk]

Drop checkers are just measuring ph are they not so if you have low ph your drop checker would be green all the time. To accurately measure your co2 impact you need to measure ph to see what drop you get when co2 comes on. The ph in my big tank is around 6 so it takes the addition of very little co2 for my drop checker to be a lovely lime green Yet co2 levels are still quite low and I have some algae.

Its green/yellowish most of the time
I dont know, ill have to figure out whats going on

 

[Easystreet]

Hey Jason,

No I don't mind the extra chat. Is interesting to find out what everyone does. Seems there is a lot of variability in methods. But basics are the same - use remineralised RO with stable parameters and you should be OK. I'm going to focus on the shrimp at the moment. If I get some good breeding then I may look into whether I can fertilise the tank in the future, but waiting for the first berried shrimp at the moment. Will do a 20% water change at the weekend. I suspect this might trigger something.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Jason Burk]

Yeah course, id reccomend just focusing on the shrimp anyway to be honest

What temp do you have the water at?

 

[Piotr Markiewicz]

temp is not so important - i have few testing tanks that shrimps live and bred in natural temperature - 10 degrees, my shrimps(to keep them longer) are bred below 20 - with 22-23 wich is recomended they live up to 2 years and thats how business for sellers works. Im honest - you can visit and check

 

[Jason Burk]

temp is not so important - i have few testing tanks that shrimps live and bred in natural temperature - 10 degrees, my shrimps(to keep them longer) are bred below 20 - with 22-23 wich is recomended they live up to 2 years and thats how business for sellers works. Im honest - you can visit and check

I know that, I was just curious lol

- anyway, 10 degrees? The waters of Taiwan are usually around 20-25 if im not mistaken
- I have mine at 20 by the way

 

[Piotr Markiewicz]

I dont know what for we travel To Taiwan...
Crystal Red is selected in Japan Caridina sp. in 1997 from wild Caridina Cantonensis from China - at Guanhzhou district (origin) temperatures over winter goes to 9-10

 

[kirk]

I use co2 and ferts, from my experience so far is they get used to it (CRS)but are not 100percent happy, they breed much better without Co2. Ferts I use very sparingly as I was warned to go easy on the ferts to start off. I have built up the co2 over mths, I get the odd burried shrimp but no shrimplets so I'd say the co2 is not there friend I think low tech is the way if you want very happy crs cbs.

 

[Easystreet]

So I've had 2 more moults which is good. But I suspect all the moults so far have been males. I'm not great at sexing them but I think I have more males than females. Possible only 2-3 large females. If I'm right they breed after moulting? So just have to wait for one of the females to moult. And cross my fingers.

 

[Piotr Markiewicz]

Its normal that you have more males than females - thats why most sellesrs offer young ones and sugest buy at least 10- when ive started my tanks i had lot of 30 with 4 females only - so at you case is not so bad

 

[Jason Burk]

I dont know what for we travel To Taiwan...
Crystal Red is selected in Japan Caridina sp. in 1997 from wild Caridina Cantonensis from China - at Guanhzhou district (origin) temperatures over winter goes to 9-10

Oh right, thanks! ill have to look into that

 

[Jason Burk]

I use co2 and ferts, from my experience so far is they get used to it (CRS)but are not 100percent happy, they breed much better without Co2. Ferts I use very sparingly as I was warned to go easy on the ferts to start off. I have built up the co2 over mths, I get the odd burried shrimp but no shrimplets so I'd say the co2 is not there friend I think low tech is the way if you want very happy crs cbs.

Hi Kirk, just to let you know that the co2 and ferts shouldn't really have make a difference for the rate of breeding or breeding success as long as you don't overdose on anything.. It might be that your pregnant shrimp dropped their eggs for other reasons..
Or as you say it might well be down to your shrimp not liking the co2 and ferts

personally I dont have problems with breeding and co2/ferts - I use EI and co2 injection, and after adding females not long ago Ive had two successful breedings (and the babies are really growing fast!) and currently have my other 2 females with eggs

All the best


- But as you mentioned.. They likely will be happier without all the ferts/co2 fuss

 

[Easystreet]

Everything is going ok. Had a couple more moults but no berried shrimp yet!! Am I being impatient? Anyway it's time to play a game of do I actually have any females.

Playing with the girlfriends new camera. So any experts identify any females in this lot?
1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

10:

11:

12:

13:

14: ()


And a couple of tank shots:





Its nice having a decent camera for once!

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Jason Burk]

Everything is going ok. Had a couple more moults but no berried shrimp yet!! Am I being impatient? Anyway it's time to play a game of do I actually have any females.

Playing with the girlfriends new camera. So any experts identify any females in this lot?
1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

10:

11:

12:

13:

14: ()


And a couple of tank shots:





Its nice having a decent camera for once!

Cheers,

Jim

Hey dude, lovely little set up and shrimp you've got there!

Number 2 is nice clear shot of a nice female
and with the others its a little difficult but looking at the second pair of antennae I would say that 5 and 6 look like females to me.

7,8,10 and the closest one in number 13 are all male

 

[X3NiTH]

If a female is close to moulting you will know about it as the males will be actively hunting her pheromone trail. The cleverest male will be the one that finds her and shadows her until she breaks free from her skin, then he'll be on her like a rocket! Any shrimp attempting to mate before moulting has commenced will be very aggressively rebuffed by the female. If you catch this event in the process it can be quite concerning to see a frenzy of males trying to swarm one female, it's a dangerous time for a female shrimp.

 

[Easystreet]

Jason: Thanks.

I was swinging towards 2 being female and all others male. But would be good if there were a couple more females.

My favourite is 11.

So the second pair of antennae are longer on females?

X3NiTH: Haven't observed this yet. All very placid at the moment! Need to get the Barry White on to spur things into action.

 

[Jason Burk]

Jason: Thanks.

I was swinging towards 2 being female and all others male. But would be good if there were a couple more females.

My favourite is 11.

So the second pair of antennae are longer on females?

X3NiTH: Haven't observed this yet. All very placid at the moment! Need to get the Barry White on to spur things into action.

Yeah 11 is a nice one, Hinomaru no-entry SS

Nope with the females the second pair are shorter, probably easiest to see this with number 7 male
With CRS its usually difficult or impossible to spot a saddle on them as you can with cherries for example, so I also looked at other things such as the tail and the body shape

 

[X3NiTH]

The adventure is just beginning. This is what CRS do when looking for a female.



This lot were useless, never managed to get them breeding, they had already killed 4 females that were part of the original group of 14, they are an aggressive bunch, the only one out of there that successfully bred left that tank and migrated to my Anubia walled tank on his own (he's a clever one) where I introduced two carefully selected CBS, one of which turned out to be female, only in the last two months have I been getting any Shrimplets. It's taken about 9 months to get this far with the crystals and in that time I've tipped about 400 RCS into the main tank from the above tank.

Best of luck!

 

[Jason Burk]

The adventure is just beginning. This is what CRS do when looking for a female.



This lot were useless, never managed to get them breeding, they had already killed 4 females that were part of the original group of 14, they are an aggressive bunch, the only one out of there that successfully bred left that tank and migrated to my Anubia walled tank on his own (he's a clever one) where I introduced two carefully selected CBS, one of which turned out to be female, only in the last two months have I been getting any Shrimplets. It's taken about 9 months to get this far with the crystals and in that time I've tipped about 400 RCS into the main tank from the above tank.

Best of luck!

Hey my friend, you seem to get some pretty awful luck ive never seen my CRS behave aggressively towards a female or kill her, and certainly never before she's released pheromones.. Mine just earlier today were shooting around the tank looking for the female, she was just sitting right out in the open haha

Im not really sure what to suggest about aggressive males, the only thing I can think of is for some reason they might possibly feel vulnerable and so have this desire to mate as fast as possible and pass on their genes.. Its a weird one, good luck bud

 

[Jason Burk]

How is your luck with those Sunset shrimp? Youve got alot with saddles there!

 

[X3NiTH]

How is your luck with those Sunset shrimp? Youve got alot with saddles there!

My RCS appear to breed faster than vermin!