# Neocaridina Blue Dream - Feeding schedule help



## Marcia (21 Jul 2021)

Hello everyone. We've added our first ever creatures in our aquarium today! Three very tiny beautiful Neocaridina Blue Dream, they are around 1-1.5cm.

We did the dripping acclimation for a total of 5 hours and now they are actively exploring the 77x45x30cm tank all to themselves.
Tank has been heavily planted from Day 1 and water parameters have been pH7, Ammonia 0, Nitrite O and Nitrate 0 for 5 days now.
As per advised, we're keeping the lights off and also not feeding them today.

Regarding feeding, I'm a bit confused about giving them everything they need. I would appreciate your help, please.

I've read about Bacter AE, Mineral Junkie, Complete food, dry leaves, blanched veggies, etc. 

How can I make a schedule to fit all that please?
How often and how much of each should I feed them in order to give them everything they need?

Sorry if it's a basic question, I'm really trying to read everything I can but I'm getting confused now...

Thank you.
Marcia


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## thatblokeoverthere (21 Jul 2021)

I am probably going to get shot down in flames for this but I don't worry too much about feeding. I have two colonies of red neos and one of PRL Caridina and, when the tanks were quite new (
Sent from my [null] using Tapatalk


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## Aqua360 (21 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Hello everyone. We've added our first ever creatures in our aquarium today! Three very tiny beautiful Neocaridina Blue Dream, they are around 1-1.5cm.
> 
> We did the dripping acclimation for a total of 5 hours and now they are actively exploring the 77x45x30cm tank all to themselves.
> Tank has been heavily planted from Day 1 and water parameters have been pH7, Ammonia 0, Nitrite O and Nitrate 0 for 5 days now.
> ...


Hi Marcia,

For 3 shrimp at the beginning, they'll probably forage plenty for themselves, if anything I'd suggest maybe getting some more, to give yourself some diversity when they breed 

Once you get a sizeable colony on the go, is when it can be really helpful to feed, dried leaves are something you may also consider, as they'll contribute helpful bacteria and give the shrimp something to graze on.


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## ScareCrow (21 Jul 2021)

Same as above really. If you find they're having problems moulting I'd feed more minerals. I have dried leaves in my tank all the time as they'll graze on them in between feeds. I'd only feed what they can eat in a few hours. Any longer and it will start to pollute the water.


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## aec34 (21 Jul 2021)

Likewise, I didn’t feed mine at all to start with - I only started to add nettle tops/crustagran when numbers were rapidly growing and they were obviously starting to use my floating plants as dinner…


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## Aqua360 (21 Jul 2021)

Right now I'm rotating nettle sticks, mulberry, mineral food and a glasgarten shrimp general food, it gets very addictive watching them become a shrimp ball around the food  

If you do decide to go down the dedicated shrimp food route, you aren't going to go wrong with dennerle, glasgarten, Ebi and more. 

The shrimp scene has grown leaps and bounds, it's amazing how quickly and popular they've become even in the last few years


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## Marcia (21 Jul 2021)

Thank you everyone for your great advices!

I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves. 

I forgot to mention before, my water is moderately soft, would I need to add minerals to their diet soon?

And what about Bacter AE, all shops claim that they are indispensable, are they?

My tank is only 1 month old so we’re taking things very slowly. Plants seems to be growing fine despite no CO2, so we took a leap and ordered the three shrimps. We’re over the moon with them! But the main plan is to add 7-10 Tetras and a dwarf pleco/catfish eventually, so how many more shrimps could we get without overstocking? We’ve got an Oase 250 Biomaster filter for our 87L tank. 

Thank you all again.
Márcia


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## Aqua360 (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Thank you everyone for your great advices!
> 
> I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves.
> 
> ...


Shrimp bioload is minimal, hypothetically speaking, without taking into account the fish, you could comfortably have hundreds of shrimp.

At that point you'd then be able to get rid of lower grade colours as the population booms. 

I like to start with at least 6 shrimp, but ideally 10 would be a great number to consider. 

Bacter ae isn't essential, it can be used well but it can quickly foul the water up if overdosed.


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## Swishrelic (22 Jul 2021)

Also not fed my cherry shrimps a bean since going in 2 months ago and they are now breeding, I did put in leaves at the initial setup but it's the wood that grew the most fluff. A hungry shrimp is one that eats algae the best too.


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## Wookii (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Thank you everyone for your great advices!
> 
> I’m definitely going to order some dry leaves.
> 
> ...



I can't really add to the advice given so far - I think @Aqua360's advice in post #3 is spot on. Three shrimp will be fine without target feeding (though as mentioned above I'd up that to at least 10 to ensure you get some genetic diversity in the breeding). Once you get well over 100, I think occasional target feeding is beneficial to both the quality and quantity of offspring.

Dried leaves are great, and if your water is soft, mulberry leaves and nettles leaves both have higher levels of calcium than most other leaves. You might still want to check your water report to confirm that the dGH levels are sufficient for Neo's (ideally 5-6 dKH or above) to prevent any moulting issues - if it's substantially lower, then adding a remin product to water changes might be beneficial.


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> I can't really add to the advice given so far - I think @Aqua360's advice in post #3 is spot on. Three shrimp will be fine without target feeding (though as mentioned above I'd up that to at least 10 to ensure you get some genetic diversity in the breeding). Once you get well over 100, I think occasional target feeding is beneficial to both the quality and quantity of offspring.


Hi Wooki thank you for your advice.  100 shrimps!  how long would it take to reach this number with initial 10 shrimps? Maybe I was too naive to think that the population would stay low for a while? But I can see the appeal, this morning I can only see 1 shrimp at time... 😒 we feel like adding more. I'm just so scared of killing them (first tank ever) so I've bought 3 to see if I can keep them alive first.



Wookii said:


> Dried leaves are great, and if your water is soft, mulberry leaves and nettles leaves both have higher levels of calcium than most other leaves. You might still want to check your water report to confirm that the dGH levels are sufficient for Neo's (ideally 5-6 dKH or above) to prevent any moulting issues - if it's substantially lower, then adding a remin product to water changes might be beneficial.


OK, mulberry leaves in the basket 👍 any mineral supplement would you recommend? My dKH is 4.

Thanks.


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Aqua360 said:


> Shrimp bioload is minimal, hypothetically speaking, without taking into account the fish, you could comfortably have hundreds of shrimp.
> 
> At that point you'd then be able to get rid of lower grade colours as the population booms.
> 
> ...



Hi Aqua360, thanks again for your advices. Just one more question: Now that we've got the Blue Dream, we should only get more Blue shrimps? Or would it be OK to add reds? 

And erm... how do you "get rid of the lower grade"...?


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## Aqua360 (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Hi Aqua360, thanks again for your advices. Just one more question: Now that we've got the Blue Dream, we should only get more Blue shrimps? Or would it be OK to add reds?
> 
> And erm... how do you "get rid of the lower grade"...?


You can add other colours if you wish, but if they're the same type of shrimp (neocaridina) they'll breed and revert to colourless or drab brown in most cases, so it's advisable to avoid mixing if you want to keep colours strong.

To get rid of lower grades, it's simply a case of netting out shrimplets with inferior colour and patterns, and swapping them to the LFS or friends. Actual culling isn't required, which is nice. 

There are many shrimp guides on colour grading, what you'll tend to find is that lower grades have more transparent shells etc, whereas higher grades have more of the body covered including shell and legs.


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## Wookii (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Hi Wooki thank you for your advice.  100 shrimps!  how long would it take to reach this number with initial 10 shrimps? Maybe I was too naive to think that the population would stay low for a while? But I can see the appeal, this morning I can only see 1 shrimp at time... 😒 we feel like adding more. I'm just so scared of killing them (first tank ever) so I've bought 3 to see if I can keep them alive first.



They're pretty hardy, and your tank is fairly mature, so I'm sure they'll be fine. It's hard to say how long it'll take to get to 100. If there are no fish to predate on the baby shrimp, you can get to that number fairly quickly, depending on how many you start with. If you want the numbers to increase more quickly initially, then try and hold off adding any fish until the shrimp get established.

Shrimp are great, I love them. 100+ sounds a lot, but it's not really, a lot of them are hidden amongst the plants most of the time.



Marcia said:


> OK, mulberry leaves in the basket 👍 any mineral supplement would you recommend? My dKH is 4.
> 
> Thanks.



The dKH is less important, its the _dGH _you want - your water company should publish this for your local area on their website.


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> Shrimp are great, I love them. 100+ sounds a lot, but it's not really, a lot of them are hidden amongst the plants most of the time.


You've got us all excited to buy some more now! 


Wookii said:


> The dKH is less important, its the _dGH _you want - your water company should publish this for your local area on their website.


Oh, I've checked on Yorkshire Water, 38.1 mg/l calcium so 2.1 dGH. Bit too low isn't it? Should I get some supplement or can I add crushed corals (got some at home but not in use), maybe? Thanks


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## Wookii (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> You've got us all excited to buy some more now!
> 
> Oh, I've checked on Yorkshire Water, 38.1 mg/l calcium so 2.1 dGH. Bit too low isn't it? Should I get some supplement or can I add crushed corals (got some at home but not in use), maybe? Thanks



Given that value, you may want to consider adding a little more dGH using something like Salty Shrimp - or buying the raw salts (Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulphate [aka Epsom Salts]) if you feel up to mixing your own. You can use the crushed coral if you like, it just makes it a little more difficult to control if that's something you want to be able to do.

Given your other query on whether you could add a different colour of shrimp. Whilst its best not to add another type of Neocaridina as @Aqua360 explained, given your tap water parameters, you could consider adding a Caridina species further down the line when you have more experience of keeping shrimp, as the two won't interbreed.

I'm running (via RO) water parameters of 2dKH and 6dGH purposely (in part) so I can keep both types of shrimp - in my case Bloody  Mary's and Black Panda Taiwan Bee's.


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> Given that value, you may want to consider adding a little more dGH using something like Salty Shrimp


I'm reading the instructions and reviews for the Salty Shrimp, I'm not sure if I can dose it correctly... 
Do I need a TDS meter?
At the moment I'm doing water changes twice a week. Do I dose it according to the water I'm adding back into the tank every time?

Is Shrimp King Bee Salt GH+ the same thing? Is ok for Neocaridinas?

Thank you.


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## Wookii (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> I'm reading the instructions and reviews for the Salty Shrimp, I'm not sure if I can dose it correctly...
> Do I need a TDS meter?
> At the moment I'm doing water changes twice a week. Do I dose it according to the water I'm adding back into the tank every time?
> 
> ...



Yeah, the Bee Shrimp stuff will be fine, you just want to Gh only stuff, not the Gh/KH version. Yes, you are just adding it for the water you are changing. 

According to their website, you add 3g (roughly half a teaspoon) per 20 litres to achieve 6dGH. Since you already have 2dGH out of the tap, I would halve the standard dose. How much water do you change each time?


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> Yeah, the Bee Shrimp stuff will be fine, you just want to Gh only stuff, not the Gh/KH version. Yes, you are just adding it for the water you are changing.
> 
> According to their website, you add 3g (roughly half a teaspoon) per 20 litres to achieve 6dGH. Since you already have 2dGH out of the tap, I would halve the standard dose. How much water do you change each time?



I change 50% of my 87L tank.


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## Wookii (22 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> I change 50% of my 87L tank.



A very slightly heaped 1/2 teaspoon (of the proper measuring spoon variety) every water change should do it then. Nice and easy 👍🏻


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## Marcia (22 Jul 2021)

Wookii said:


> A very slightly heaped 1/2 teaspoon (of the proper measuring spoon variety) every water change should do it then. Nice and easy 👍🏻


Thank you so very much, Wookii! I appreciate your help immensely. Thank you for taking time to reply my basic questions.
I'll order the Bee Shrimp GH+ as the Salty Shrimp is out of stock at Pro Shrimp. I'll buy some shrimp lollipops too


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## Marcia (24 Jul 2021)

Hello, well we’re now proud parents of a total of 7 Blue Dream Shrimplets 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

We’ve ordered 3 but Shrimpland kindly sent us 4! Like my husband said, things are escalating quickly 🤭

Thanks everyone for the suggestion of dry leaves. I’ve added Mulberry leaf and they love to congregate on it! It’s wonderful that we now can see them all the time!

Expecting the Bee Salt to be delivered to add to the tank soon.

Today was the first big weekly cleaning with livestock inside! So stressful, I thought they would run and hide but some shrimps lacking common sense were actually following the syphon and one got sucked up into the tube 🤦🏻‍♀️ i use a very thin nano syphon though and quickly lifted it and the shrimp came out unhurt but offended. 🤷‍♀️

Found around 5 detritus worms, vacuumed all of them but I’m sure there’s more hidden. Are they harmless? Is there any nano fish who eats them?

Thank you!


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## Driftless (24 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> Hello, well we’re now proud parents of a total of 7 Blue Dream Shrimplets 😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
> 
> We’ve ordered 3 but Shrimpland kindly sent us 4! Like my husband said, things are escalating quickly 🤭
> 
> ...


Make sure that they are detritus worms and not Planaria.  Planaria use can be very harmful to a shrimp-only tank, I currently have a Planaria trap in my shrimp tank.


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## Driftless (24 Jul 2021)

Post-Script:  I would be sure that you have a bunch of snails or other fauna to keep the tank cycled.


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## Marcia (25 Jul 2021)

Driftless said:


> Post-Script:  I would be sure that you have a bunch of snails or other fauna to keep the tank cycled.


hi Driftless, thank you. we’re planing to add fishes in two weeks when we return from holidays. i hope the cycle will still be going ok until then.

I’m keeping my eyes wide open for planaria. so far i’ve only found hair-thin wiggly worms on soil and sometimes in the water column. I’ll have a look at traps.


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## Driftless (25 Jul 2021)

Enjoy your vacation.  Fish should deal with detritus worms.


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## jamila169 (25 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> And what about Bacter AE, all shops claim that they are indispensable, are they?


I put a tiny pinch of Bacter AE in every third day , they get a dinner pad and a mineral bite once a week and a tiny pinch of crumb food(literally one crumb each for the adults) every other day , I'm on my 2nd round of eggs and I've had them a month. I lost a couple to failed moults, hence the mineral bites and I'm now going to be alternating the bacter with shrimp baby to make sure the tinies have plenty of biofilm to munch on . I don't have masses of food tubs, i got a sample pack off a guy on ebay that got me all the basic glasgarten foods plus snow pops, pollen and a granulated food in little packets, and they're lasting ages because the shrimp need so little


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## Marcia (26 Jul 2021)

That's a great schedule, thank you Jamila. I'd like to do the same sort of schedule when/if my first 7 turn into a bigger group. It's a good idea to get the sample-sized food and supplements, specially at the beginning. I've just got a tube of shrimp salt and it seen like it will last forever as I need such a tiny amount of it each time... 

Got the shrimp lollipops too, it's been a hit! 😁😁


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## jamila169 (26 Jul 2021)

i've got some shrimp lollies, but they are going to be a rare treat until i have more juveniles and adults, I'm wary of overfeeding them


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## Marcia (27 Jul 2021)

One of my shrimps moulted! It was kind of it to do it on top of the log so I could find its shell this morning!
I know it must be common occurrence for most of you but it's the first time for this newbie here. So perfect intact shell, so amazing.

I've removed the lolly now, it's hard not to spoil them...


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## jamila169 (28 Jul 2021)

Marcia said:


> One of my shrimps moulted! It was kind of it to do it on top of the log so I could find its shell this morning!
> I know it must be common occurrence for most of you but it's the first time for this newbie here. So perfect intact shell, so amazing.


I'm always happy to see a moult, it means I'm still doing something right , Best thing today has been seeing 3 tinies in the community tank that I've been waiting for since the littles emerged in my cube, I knew they'd only be a couple of days behind but them actually coming out to eat was a phew moment


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## Marcia (29 Jul 2021)

jamila169 said:


> I'm always happy to see a moult, it means I'm still doing something right , Best thing today has been seeing 3 tinies in the community tank that I've been waiting for since the littles emerged in my cube, I knew they'd only be a couple of days behind but them actually coming out to eat was a phew moment


It must be such special moment when you see the first baby shrimps! A relief too, I'm sure.

At least another 4 out of my 7 shrimps moulted now.
I was very worried about this one. She's the biggest and the darkest of all 7. She was showing signs of White Ring but this morning there was a huge exoesqueleto on the soil and I've found her under the Anubia! So pleased and relieved for her. If anyone ever comes across this post worried about the dreaded white ring of death, there is still hope and it's not a definite death sentence.


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## jamila169 (31 Jul 2021)

The littles didn't take long to work out what a lolly was for (in this view there are 15 tinies lurking altogether)


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## Wookii (31 Jul 2021)

jamila169 said:


> The littles didn't take long to work out what a lolly was for (in this view there are 15 tinies lurking altogether)
> 
> View attachment 172572



Looks like that lower female is about to burst also, so even more babies soon 👍🏻


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## jamila169 (1 Aug 2021)

Wookii said:


> Looks like that lower female is about to burst also, so even more babies soon 👍🏻


I'm losing track now, there's some juveniles that came into the tank as little dots and at least 2 different ages of babies, maybe 3 so your guess is as good as mine


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## Marcia (2 Aug 2021)

jamila169 said:


> The littles didn't take long to work out what a lolly was for (in this view there are 15 tinies lurking altogether)
> 
> View attachment 172572


Lollies are great fun 🍭 to watch and count them 😁 love your shrimps colours contrasting with the green plants 👍


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## Marcia (7 Aug 2021)

hello! I've just been away on short holidays and came back home to this: 





Really hoping that the babies will make it.


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