also to note that is not a dead shrimp in the last picture, that is a shed xD JUST BEFORE ANYONE FREAKS OUT

also that pumpkin shrimp is smaller than my pinky nail I HAVE SO MANY LITTLE BABIES IN THERE

the colony is doing great

I think the blue velvets are finally swinging back from when I had to break down the old tank and move them in the 40 gallon. I wonder if I have any females in there though cause they are not breeding...

also excuse the dirty glass. was still refilling when I took that picture >>

the one pictured looks female to me, but shrimp are so sensitive. it can definitely take a while to get breeding again after a big disturbance

I thought so too, but yeah the blue velvets were PROLIFIC like I probably had a colony of 200 and I have about 25 now if that.

I was bummed that I had to move them, but I had a tank seal failure last year, so it was an emergency move

The pumpkins are very happy where they are though, I started with 20 and probably have around 100 in there after about six months.

I lost my entire orange rili + OEBT colony when we moved into this house. Copper pipes leaching.

It sucks.

Nooooo thats so sad 8C

It's my own fault. With all the house moving stuff I got lazy and started just temp matching the tank out of the tap, instead of running cold water for a bit, filling a bucket, then using an extra heater to raise the bucket to tank temp.

But I haven't gotten a new shrimp colony started since. Maybe once I get an RODI unit.

oh man, is the water that bad that you have to?

thankfully I've never had an issue. though I have a thermostat attachment to my water change hose that hooks right up to the sink? so I can temp match to the degree.

it's made for baby baths so you can make sure the temp isn't too hot so it's pretty accurate

Well, copper pipes make me paranoid

Running hot water through copper makes them leach more

But the only way I know to gaurantee no copper gets into the invert tanks is a filtration system

makes sense. I considered getting a system myself but I haven't had any issues with my tap thankfully. I might if I ever do though.

We actually have super soft water and Norway doesn't really chlorinate so everything else is good (we still use conditioner though just in case)

I just dose for the tank size with prime just in case but my water is pretty middle of the line perfect so if I ever did need to do some fancy changes it should be pretty easy. though I think I've gotten to the point where I know what I like and don't really want a challenge, it's just nice to enjoy and look at?

with the fancy goldfish I've had so many sad losses due to genetics or just bad luck that I just want something easy and fun.

Totally feel you.

I do have to amend the water for my livebearers, but I've figured out what works for that tank and just do the same dosage every water change, so it's not so bad.

that does make it easier.

in my 75g planted tank I have an auto doser for my two fertz and I love it. that tank is pretty auto pilot. Just have to top up the water every two weeks. it needs a trim though, it's super overgrown.

Haha, yeah, the downside of planted tanks.

and I got a spec of duck weed in there once so obviously it's overflowing with duck weed.

the shrimp love it though.

Oh yeah. I had red root floaters in my old tank and if I didn't stay on top of them they'd form like a two-inch-thick layer

Had more of the stuff than I knew what to do with.

I feed the duck weed to my goldies to prevent bouyancy issues but now that I've got it in both planted tanks it over produces. they can't est it fast enough.

It's truly the herpes of the aquarium hobby