Blackwater Bloody Mary Neo Setup

[nabokovfan87]

They must be hanging out behind the heater. 😂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/2/2023 at 2:57 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

They must be hanging out behind the heater. 😂

What’s your temp? Think they’re cold? I keep mine @ 75 .

Edited March 2, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:58 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

What’s your temp? Think they’re cold? I keep mine @ 75 .

72. It's also the one place with no fish. Pandas have been insanely active spawning.

The red tufts on the heater is a bunch of algae that they are grazing on.  There's a ton of it.

[nabokovfan87]

Second batch of shrimp are en route, finally in stock. They should be arriving middle of next week, but we'll see.  Last time shipping was stated to be one thing and arrived 36 hours early.

[Chris]

On 1/10/2023 at 2:04 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I will start by saying that if you haven't seen travelers in netflix, please go ahead and bookmark that!

Secondly, let's take a nice long breath here and exhale slowly.....

For months now I have been interested in something extremely specific and adding that to my fish tank.  I realized that parameters fit, that I had the space, and I realized that it was something that could easily turn into a "breeding for profit" project.  My last one took 2 years to get a fry, and 3 to get enough to actually sell a batch, so let's all hope things work a bit smoother this time!

I am at a crossroads and without divulging too much I do want to poll those here and ask for some help.  I did make a "guidance please!" thread, but I want to, obscurely so, start a bit of a record and dive into what I really need some help deciding.  I'll keep things brief for now, obtuse, but I will eventually reveal what is going on, if that happens and when it makes sense to do so.

Hopefully you enjoy the journey and fingers crossed that everything works out in the end....

First question, Would you choose quantity or quality?  The choice I have right now is to decide to get less species in the tank of the one in question, or do I go with a less reliable, lower quality source, but I have better overall genetics?  Do I order from both and mix the strains? (visually they do look like extremely different quality.  One of them I would call an A++ genetic strain and the other appears to be a D- at best.... not remotely close.

Lastly, would you follow the common guidance from others around you, or would you trust your own skill and technique moreso?  Do I trust that I truly have experience with this species and understand what they need to thrive.... or do I follow the warnings from friends who may have cautioned a very, very different approach?  Should I risk it, or is the risk simply that I don't do what I think is best?  Again, this really ties into the first choice. Losing 1 or 2 when you buy in 5-6 is very different than losing that qty when you purchase 10-20 of a species.

Decisions Decisions.....

As for a clue as to what this is, It involved my Mopani tank. Grace the Shark, and hopefully a secondary breeding project that is far less work to accomplish some results.

Haven't read through the thread yet, but I second the Netflix recommendation! Other than the very end... Felt a little rushed for what was otherwise such a good story. I wanted more detail, but it felt to me like they ran out of money and just had to have it all narrated instead of filmed. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/5/2023 at 6:41 PM, Chris said:

Haven't read through the thread yet, but I second the Netflix recommendation! Other than the very end... Felt a little rushed for what was otherwise such a good story. I wanted more detail, but it felt to me like they ran out of money and just had to have it all narrated instead of filmed. 

Did you see the second show on the same topic!!!????  (The OA)

Very cool little series'

I was watching the mockinjay part 2 and the historian from travelers is a character, really awesome to see him pop up. 

[Chris]

On 3/5/2023 at 11:05 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Did you see the second show on the same topic!!!????  (The OA)

Very cool little series'

I was watching the mockinjay part 2 and the historian from travelers is a character, really awesome to see him pop up. 

I didn't even know it existed! I think I may have seen it while scrolling through Netflix, but I didn't realize what it was. I'll have to check it out!

Travelers was definitely one of my favorite shows that I watched in the past couple years - I was disappointed by the ending, but the meat of the show was pretty great.

I ended up reading through the thread, and so happy to see they're alive! The only Neos I have ATM are some low-grade orange shrimp, and I'm having trouble getting them to put the moves on eachother... I cranked up the heat last week, hoping that room temp was just too low, but no luck so far.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:07 AM, Chris said:

I didn't even know it existed! I think I may have seen it while scrolling through Netflix, but I didn't realize what it was. I'll have to check it out!

Travelers was definitely one of my favorite shows that I watched in the past couple years - I was disappointed by the ending, but the meat of the show was pretty great.

I ended up reading through the thread, and so happy to see they're alive! The only Neos I have ATM are some low-grade orange shrimp, and I'm having trouble getting them to put the moves on eachother... I cranked up the heat last week, hoping that room temp was just too low, but no luck so far.

Mine are breeding at 75. They wouldn’t breed at 78.

[Lennie]

On 3/6/2023 at 4:21 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Mine are breeding at 75. They wouldn’t breed at 78.

Why not? 👀

here is something interesting about their breeding and temperature relationship I've read before. Maybe you like it! @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

https://aquariumbreeder.com/how-temperature-affects-breeding-of-dwarf-shrimp/

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/6/2023 at 8:29 AM, Lennie said:

Why not

Who knows? But they are multiplying now so I don’t question it. LOL

[Lennie]

On 3/6/2023 at 5:17 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Who knows? But they are multiplying now so I don’t question it. LOL

I always keep mine at 25-26C!

It seems like the problem starts at 32C

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/6/2023 at 6:36 AM, Lennie said:

I always keep mine at 25-26C!

It seems like the problem starts at 32C

Fun stuff:

Part 1

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119468

Part 2

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26695823/

Part 3

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29949439/

Edited March 6, 2023 by nabokovfan87
fixed link

[nabokovfan87]

.....and they arrived DoA.  Bag got a leak or something and they got caught in the seams at the top of the bag and crushed.  😞

Dealing with support now. 😞 😞 😞

There is 1-2 alive that didn't get crushed. We'll see what happens after acclimation.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/7/2023 at 3:33 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

.....and they arrived DoA.  Bag got a leak or something and they got caught in the seams at the top of the bag and crushed.  😞

Dealing with support now. 😞 😞 😞

There is 1-2 alive that didn't get crushed. We'll see what happens after acclimation.

I’m so sorry 😢

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/7/2023 at 12:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I’m so sorry 😢

Me too. Waiting since December and I think the policy is silly. I believe..... Hopefully not.... They refund cost of the animal and not shipping. So $20 for the animal and then $35 for shipping. Actual cost is $20 to ship but whatever..... It's frustrating.

We'll see what they do and how they handle it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/7/2023 at 3:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Me too. Waiting since December and I think the policy is silly. I believe..... Hopefully not.... They refund cost of the animal and not shipping. So $20 for the animal and then $35 for shipping. Actual cost is $20 to ship but whatever..... It's frustrating.

We'll see what they do and how they handle it.

I hope they do the right thing. I have yet to mail order anything because I’m scared of a bad experience. But guppysnail sent me the magenta mysteries via “snail mail” one time. Together we made sure everything was as best it could be, logistically. Like would it arrive on a day I’d be home, would the weather here be too hot (because I’m in a tropical climate), has to be one day shipping, etc. It worked out. One dude never came out of his shell and passed in 2 days, but I do know he arrived alive. He was a lot smaller than the other snails so maybe he got knocked around too much  in transit. The other 4 were cruising around in no time. We were fortunate, because at the end of the day the animals are at the mercy of the postal system.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:03 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I hope they do the right thing. I have yet to mail order anything because I’m scared of a bad experience. But guppysnail sent me the magenta mysteries via “snail mail” one time. Together we made sure everything was as best it could be, logistically. Like would it arrive on a day I’d be home, would the weather here be too hot (because I’m in a tropical climate), has to be one day shipping, etc. It worked out. One dude never came out of his shell and passed in 2 days, but I do know he arrived alive. He was a lot smaller than the other snails so maybe he got knocked around too much  in transit. The other 4 were cruising around in no time. We were fortunate, because at the end of the day the animals are at the mercy of the postal system.

Yeah, I packed corydoras this morning, trust me I know it can be difficult to get the little things right and have random issues. 😞 With tiny, tiny shrimp I could only imagine the stuff needed to get them to arrive safely. The biggest thing being breather bags, which this place is known for, but both orders didn't have em.

Hoping since it was a full DoA they just reship it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:11 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yeah, I packed corydoras this morning, trust me I know it can be difficult to get the little things right and have random issues. 😞 With tiny, tiny shrimp I could only imagine the stuff needed to get them to arrive safely. The biggest thing being breather bags, which this place is known for, but both orders didn't have em.

Hoping since it was a full DoA they just reship it.

Maybe you could try flip aquatics if this doesn’t pan out?

[Lennie]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:33 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

.....and they arrived DoA.  Bag got a leak or something and they got caught in the seams at the top of the bag and crushed.  😞

Dealing with support now. 😞 😞 😞

There is 1-2 alive that didn't get crushed. We'll see what happens after acclimation.

Mine has arrived their bag with a leak too. Some of them were stuck between the bags and not even in the water, just wet and it was winter, around 5C outside. They were surprisingly all alive. They are very hardy, unless they are crushed. The breeder guy once told me, he has seen the shrimp bag being partially frozen and covered with ice once and all shrimp was still alive.

I'm so sorry to hear that you had sad occasions twice in a row dude

Dont they put them in a straphor box or something? how are they even crushed?

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:50 PM, Lennie said:

Dont they put them in a straphor box or something? how are they even crushed?

The inside bag had a little bit of air seep out. The folds in the bag when they boxed it just crushed them. 😞

Styrofoam lined box, normal stuff, heat pack and all that. The outside bag was fine, inside bag was deflated and it was apparent right away. I opened it up and went, wait, there's black shrimp in here. Some grey.

Somehow the mesh that the shrimp are supposed to grab into was stuck to the side of the bag not free floating, and I'm pretty sure when it went in only the corner of the mesh was reachable.  So they had nothing to hold onto except the folds of the bag and that was filled with their shrimp buddies.

It was a simple accident, but just one of those things. Hopefully things end ok and I'm ok/satisfied with the results. We'll see.

[Chris]

I've found written DOA policies to almost always be harsher than how the companies handle the situation, at least for places I've ordered from. I think most people can usually tell when something is a genuine shipping issue and not "You left them on your front porch for two days after delivery." 

Sorry it happened! It's a bummer. 

[nabokovfan87]

I tried to clean the main stone I found, ended up realizing I had 3.  The big one has a pretty major crack through it, but aesthetically I think these two stones are perfect for this tank. 

Off to go adjust things and redo the tank a bit.  Ya'll ready for this!?  It's gonna be awesome I hope.

Before:

 

After:

I'll snag some better photos tomorrow.  Look at all those little houses for shrimplettes.  I'm excited for them to have that available.

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:31 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Maybe you could try flip aquatics if this doesn’t pan out?

I believe I got some amanos and some suss from them.  Suss I was very unhappy with. everything else was fine.  Definitely an option, but I'm unsure if they have these ones.  I'll check em out.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

After:

They will love that.  Fizz test shows dragon stone as safe, and seiryu* stone as unsafe, although I'm not sure how fast water chemistry would really change. Yours looks like dragon stone.  It will be super satisfying to see the shrimps having little "apartments".

*surprising, for how popular it is

Edited March 8, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/8/2023 at 5:41 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

They will love that.  Fizz test shows dragon stone as safe, and seiryu* stone as unsafe, although I'm not sure how fast water chemistry would really change. Yours looks like dragon stone.  It will be super satisfying to see the shrimps having little "apartments".

I use both. The seiryu I got came in very pale white and had a lot of minerals. Acid washed it and it's been great ever since.

Think of it like crushed coral, same thing, but it's your hard scale. Very nice way to buffer things. It's a beautiful stone as well!

Replacement shrimp should be mailed out likely next week. They did offer me that option.

Update: 😞

Quote

We are very low on the tank bred imports that you ordered, but I will gladly send you some of our bloody mary shrimp that we breed here in house in their place. They will be a little smaller, but they almost always ship much better.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by nabokovfan87