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Hello folks, The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched. Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days. During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever. Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell. Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell. These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch. I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein). Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days. Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry? or just decrease the amount of food?

Yeah, cancer risk was a thing I'd seen mentioned a lot when looking into gentian violet briefly. I kinda just figured it might only be as bad as the cancer risk of malachite green as well, but maybe I should look into it more. I've been doing a pretty good job of not getting it on my skin and also avoiding dunking my unprotected hands into the tank water while treating my fish at least, though. Maybe I'll just not use it once I'm done this course of medication anyways, because I know a store I can sometimes get to that's pretty distant carries both malachite green and methylene blue, and in pretty large quantities.

Can't help you with Gentian Violet, sorry. It is banned in Australia violet for potential toxicity, and even possible cancer risks. I thought it was banned in Canada as well. At least, you now know why there isn't much info on gentian violet medication and it's use. But keep an eye on the snails after a week. If it affects the snails, it might not kill them immediately. So keep checking for up to a week. Much safer options out there. No point risking your own life over unsafe products.

Hello! I have a tank that currently does not contain shrimp, but does contain neon tetras which I am currently treating for Ich, as well as some bladder snails. Shrimp will be a later addition, likely cherry shrimp but I'm still doing research just to be sure. Initially I'd intended to buy some sort of Ich-fighting product that contains malachite green after doing a decent bit of research on it, most of which indicated that it should be shrimp-safe so I'd be good if I ever needed to use it again once shrimp were actually introduced (though I should note I'm aware shrimp can't get Ich, I'm more wondering in case the tetras could get Ich again, or something else that responds to similar medication). I ended up not being able to find any MG-containing products without either having to travel quite far or wait multiple days for delivery (which I was worried could lead the Ich to be fatal), and ended up picking up 'Top Fin Ick Remedy', a product that contains gentian violet which is a triarylmethane dye like malachite green. The bottle has two slightly differently worded warnings about its use with invertebrates ("not recommended for" and "not safe for" respectively), but when I'd been researching malachite green, I'd also heard of products that contain MG but not any other ingredients that would be harmful to inverts still being branded with warnings that they could be harmful, just as a "just-in-case" since the manufacturer didn't test it on any inverts, and I'm wondering if maybe it could be a similar situation here. I'm having a very very hard time finding information about gentian violet's use in fishkeeping at all though, it seems currently extremely uncommon. What I will say though is that I'm on day 2 of treating my tetras with it, and the bladder snails seem just fine -- in fact today I noticed what looked to be a bladder snail that appeared to be newly hatched (because of its size) that I hadn't seen before that was zipping around the tank without issue. But obviously, shrimp are not snails, and bladder snails are also notoriously hardy little guys, so what I'm seeing right now could easily be totally inapplicable to cherry shrimp. It might even be inapplicable to other species of snails, for all I know. Has anyone else here ever used anything that contains gentian violet in a tank that actually does contain shrimp? Were they okay, or should I make sure to not use it once shrimp are added?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58BrDSEY8KE

One interesting thing he mentioned was "Bacteria pressure", which I guess just means number of bacteria around. Yet I see all these other videos from shrimpkeepers bragging about how much bacteria their filtering system holds. Also interesting is no mention of using anti-biotics to treat bacterial infection. I think that has fallen out of favor recently.

It has been a few weeks now and I have done a couple of large water changes. I tested the water parameters this morning, GH6 and KH2, TDS 140 and PH 7.5. Obviously the PH is off but there isn't anything in the tank that should cause the PH to rise to this figure so I will just run the tank for another month with 10% weekly water changes (probably just with RO water) and see where we are at that point. The RO water tests at PH6, and the KH and GH in the tank could come down as they are at the upper limits for Caridina shrimps! There are only about 10 very small snails in there at this point, but they seem to be doing well enough.

I believe these to be very rare in Australia so you may even consider making it a longer term plan and produce your own by starting with the best CRS you can get as that is where the pure lines started! Depends how patient and interested in the project you are, but would save money as well? If I recall correctly it takes from 8 generations of selective breeding? They sell them at micro aquatic shop but do not ship to Western Australia, but that means they are available in Australia. https://microaquaticshop.com.au/products/pure-red-line-grade-ss-shrimp Good luck and just maybe smeone on here may point you in the right direction or be able to supply you with some.

Hi Guys, Does anyone know where to buy PRL shrimps in WA, not the CRS please. Thanks Regards

Yes it’s super accurate to position where I want now and stay there- I am satisfied. All the fish and shrimpers are doing excellent! Coming up on 4 years running!

You must be pleased with that, it looks better and is much more robust and less likely to damage or leaks! The tank looks very natural now it has been running for a time. I see the ember tetras, how are the blue shrimp doing, I see a few? The cat and dog look very content and unimpressed, lol.

https://youtu.be/IzMSYm14CCU done!

Yeh that is the plan!

I would do it to get the Lily pipe sitting straight, instead of flopping over to one side.

Do you think you would risk using it? Otherwise I will just use the short bit of stainless I found

It would be interesting to see what you come up with using that pipe + Lily pipe ends.

Cheers!

Stainless steel is definitely safe as moss mats are made with that and I have had those in the past with no problems in shrimp tanks, but I would imagine plastic would be the easiest to work with though not atractive if viewable!

Interesting- thanks for the input- I also found a small bit of stainless steel tube- would you trust either more/less over pvc/plastic clear piping or glass? thanks heaps and have a great day sub

I'm not aware of any problems with using aluminium piping, copper is the only metal which I believe is a real problem. I would assume that the pipe in the photo is aluminium.

Can I cut a bit of this and use it to create a neat in and out pipes? With neat small join to glass lily pipe ends? I guess it’s an aluminium alloy - it’s not magnetic thanks all;) have a great day

Good luck in your new tank. My only suggestion is to NEVER use tap water and always use RO + remineralizer. Many long-running tanks can suddenly get nuked due to something in the pipes. (In particular, I'm thinking of that youtube guy Foo the Flowerhorn)

One was a hospital tank that I could not be bothered maintaining any longer. The other was a fry grow out tank, which had Longfin White Cloud Mountain Minnow - Tanichthys Albonubes, that have now grown up enough to be moved into my main fish tank. I have not settled on any specific ideas yet. Maybe an Australian native tank with one variety of Blue Eye Rainbow fish. Maybe a Killifish tank.

I'm not gettng too excited at this point! The water is way off but I plan to do a 50% water change at the weekend with pure RO water which 'should' bring the parameters nearer to those required. I do quite like the simpler tank setup, the plants came from the betta tank where they had grown too big, so that tank also looks better and the fish has more swimming space. Definitely slow and steady this time, one step at a time. The tank is opposite where I usually sit so it will be good if shrimps work as I will see them much more often than before and in a dparser tank will be able to see more, so keeping my fingers crossed. The substrate was meant to be neutral and ready to use immediately and not buffer the PH, but it must be releasing minerals etc, not a problem at this point but I'm not 100% convinced it will work with the shrimp longterm, but it is still very early on? What did you have in the now empty tanks? Any ideas for the tanks IF you do decide to keep them going, anything tempting you?