SGShrimp - PearlRuby

Sharing useful information on PRL vs Crystal Red shrimp as per the following link. Hope that the information can be useful :)

https://medium.com//crs-prl-whaaaat-afa2ca7d33b8 #:~:text=In%20short%2C%20a%20Pure%20Red,other%20than%20red%20and%20white.&text=The%20Crystal%20Red%20shrimp%20on,throw%20out%20some%20mixed%20colors.

CRS, PRL, Whaaaat! I am sure you have seen or heard the abbreviations used for the Crystal Red shrimp, but there is still one group that has many scratching…

Sharing on how I clean the Thermoelectric Chiller as per the attached Photos.

I am using a pipe cleaner to clean which you can see the difference from one of the photos a used pipe cleaner (in grey color) vs a new pipe cleaner (in pure while color).

My maintenance routine is to clean the Chiller once a month.

What a warm weather for today ! My PRL Shrimp tank is currently running at 28C at night 😞

Hope that the Shrimps are able to pull through the warm weather with the following actions :

1. Clean the Chiller for better cooling efficiency
2. Do a water change

Showing another night photo shot :)

Will be doing the 2nd soil change over the weekend and hope that all will goes well.

My 1st night photo taken. Love to see the contrast of Red and White color :)

These are the few PRL which happen to be nearer to the edge of the tank when the photo was taken.

Preparing new Soil for my 2nd time of changing the Soil.

I normally will cycle the new Soil in a separate empty tank for a duration of 2 months before using to replace the Soil in my PRL Shrimp Tank 🙂

The above process / method is proven as all my PRL Shrimps was doing well after my 1st Soil changed !

I am happy to share good progress of the three plants after I have replaced with a more powerful new LED light from 5W to 10W.

The photo on the left (1st photo) was with a 5W LED light and the photo on the right (2nd photo) is currently under a 10W LED light. We can see a great improvement on the color of the leaves from yellowish to greener after one month of using the new 10 LED light 🙂

Fortunately I have make a switch to a more powerful LED light in time to save the three plants !

A lesson learned 🙂

1st time feeding “pellet” food and getting good response ! I have been feeding powder food since day 1.

Will alternate feeding the pellet and powder food in moving forwards to observe any changes to their growth rate or getting more baby shrimps :)

Latest photo taken which showing that the plants are not doing well as I have just change to a new Light when the old Light stop working.

Apparently the new Light is not strong enough (output Watts) looking at the yellow color of the leafs 😞 Will need to replace with another Light which have a higher Watts output.

Doing semi-auto water change and also preparing new soil to replace the soil in the main tank to be replaced in Oct 2023

I am very pleased to share that the 2nd generation is now in adulthood as I am seeing a total of 4 baby shrimps (3rd generation) as of yesterday morning !

This is considered a good milestone / achievement for my PRL Shrimp Keeping hobby for one over year duration :)

Attached is a photo that showing two baby shrimps (in red circle) as I am not able to include the other two into the same photo.

So happy to see the tank temperature is finally at 25.6C after whole day of rain :)

Fortunately all the Shrimps are doing well despite of the warm / hot temperature for the past weeks !

With the past few weeks of observation of the PRL Caridina Shrimp Tank, I think all the PRL Shrimps are considered 2nd generation.

As some of them are into Adulthood, I really look forward to seeing baby PRL shrimp(s) in the 2nd half of 2023. If I do see baby PRL shrimps (consider 3rd generation), it means that my approach of maintaining the tank in all expects including by just feeding them powder foods works wells in having healthy 2nd generation Adults.

My approach of keeping an easy to maintain PRL Shrimp Tank would be considered a proven approach for me if I am able to seeing 3rd generation of baby PRL Shrimp(s) 🙂

I must mention that I am not into the objective of breeding PRL in quantity, I just want to enjoy the process of PRL Caridina Shrimp Keeping. As such, I do not need to stress myself in looking for various types of foods to feed them.

Had a visitor a few days ago and was fascinated on my small little nano tank - PRL Caridina Shrimp tank.

I shared with him that the key objective is to enjoy the hobby without thinking too much with the helps of technology and automation to minimise the maintenance works in order to have more time to enjoy the hobby :

1. Fully automate the water top up due to evaporation with Auto-Top-Up (ATO) system.

2. With just a small nano tank, all I need is using the a bottle of Life Distilled Water for my weekly water change.

3. Semi-Automate the water change process

4. Using Timer to control the light-on and light-off

5. Weekly 2 - 3 times of feeding

6. Use a reliable Chiller to maintain the desire water temperature

7. I only monitor the TDS of the water. I do not measure any other water parameters at all since day one of the setup.

8. I change the Amazon Soil in every 9 months. Do note that you need to first cycle the new Amazon Soil for around 6 weeks before replacing the existing Soil.

9. Last but not the least is to ensure good filtration system during the setup

The above pointers works well for me so far since I started the hobby last year April - May 2022 and just for sharing for your reference :)

During the weekly water change, I have realised that all the PRL Caridina Shrimps are all given birthday from the 1st generation of PRL Shrimps. i.e., all the 1st generation of PRL Shrimps already passed-on due to old age (I think).

I believe that since all the existing PRL Shrimps are the 2nd / 3rd … generations born and grown in the tank, they should be able to adapt to fluctuation of water parameters and environment temperature (I hope so).

Really enjoying this wonderful and effortless hobby (by just keeping a small nano tank) in seeing the born and grown of the 2nd / 3rd … generations of PRL Caridina Shrimps in the tank !

P.S.: I am still and will continue to use the Pure Distilled Drinking Water for my regular water changes routine :)

Lately due to the super hot weather in Singapore, the tank is running at 27C.

Fortunately, the PRL Caridina Shrimps are born and grown up in the tank and they all are accustomed to the temperature of the environment and the change to the current super hot weather.

All are doing well and so far so good. Really hope that the weather will improve and back to a cooler temperature soon !

(Added a video which just taken today 🙂 Also to add that I need good LED light - brightness / intensity in order to keep the 3 plants alive since day 1 that I have added to the tank. The PRL Shrimps really like to room around the plants and I really enjoying watching them rooming around !)

Sharing a latest photos taken on my PRL Caridina Shrimp 🙂

Happy to seeing an estimate of 23 pcs of them to-date ! Not tracking by batches any more.

Still maintaining the weekly (15%-20%) water change routine and 2-3 time of feeding.

Sharing on photos and videos taken of the baby PRL Shrimps. I can see that they are all growing bigger in size since my last post on 12 Feb 2023.

I enjoy seeing the baby PRL Shrimps rooming on the Nana Plants that I have bought from MADSHRIMP for my setup. I must say that the Nana plant is very hardy as the plants are doing well since day 1 that I have placed in the tank 🙂 Another good recommendation by MadShrimp !

Enjoy !

Just to share the following additional info on how I upkeep the PRL Shrimp tank :

1. Maintain the TDS between 130 - 150. Will perform 10% of water change if TDS beyond 150. Otherwise, I am doing weekly 10% water change.

TDS can get higher due to higher feeding frequency / feeding extra amount of food.

The ATO (Auto-Top-Off) system definitely helps a lot in maintaining the TDS range.

2. Feeding between 2 - 3 times a week.

3. Maintain Water Temperature between 24.5C - 26.5C. I do observe that reaching the highest temperature (26.5C) when we are having hot weather. Otherwise, generally the water temperature is maintain between 24.5C - 25.5C.

4. I had purchased 5pcs after the tank was fully cycled. Added additional 10pcs a few weeks after. Unfortunately, 10pcs did not make it within the first 4 months. Fortunately, the remaining 5pcs are able to survive and reproduce to give me some baby PRL Shrimps.

I am not buying any additional PRL Shrimps after the above initial purchased of 15pcs (with 5pcs surviving and reproduction). Key reason is to avoid introducing any external factors to the stable tank.

Hopefully the above information can be useful as a reference :)

Just share some of my thoughts on this new hobby venture which coming to about a year (since I started in April 2022):

1. Done lots of home work and made a decision on just keeping PRL Shrimp.

2. Decided to just keeping a small / nano and easy to maintain PRL Shrimp tank, which will not take up too much time in terms of changing water on a weekly basis, I had decided on the following:
> Only monitor the TDS water parameter
> Only use Pure Distilled water for setup, water change and regular water top up
> Make use of technology to reduce and minimise the effort of maintaining the tank, such as Auto Top-up system, Dropping in and out of water during water change, Timer to auto switch-on and switch-off the LED light.

3. Identified a reputable Hobby Shop (MADSHRIMP) to buy all the items needed for the hobby. This allows me to seek for more information / knowledge sharing which proven to be very useful for my setup.

4. As I have gone through one round of resetting the Amazon Soil and all the PRL Shrimps are doing well. I am happy that I had made a decision using filter box to house the Amazon Soil which making it much easier for resetting the tank (changing of old Amazon Soil with fully cycled new Amazon Soil).

There is no need to move all the PRL Shrimps to another tank when resetting the Amazon Soil.

With all the above, I am really enjoying this hobby with very minimum efforts in maintenance the tank. And most importantly is I am able to enjoy my holiday in oversea without a need to worry about my PRL Shrimps at all.

As of now at 10 months into this hobby, I would consider the PRL tank is stabled :)

As of today, I am seeing more than 10pcs of baby PRL Shrimps for the batch 5 (I think) per the the attached photo in Red Circles.

I really appreciate all the knowledge and information sharing given by MADSHRIMP when I started the hobby in keeping PRL Shrimp in April 2022.

Hopefully all the baby PRL Shrimps will survive and grow :)

I am very happy and excited to share that I am having a new batch (batch 5) of baby PRL Shrimp per the the attached photo.

The baby PRL Shrimp in Blue circle is from batch 4 and the two baby PRL Shrimps in Red circle is from the latest batch 5. Actually, I am seeing at least 5 pcs of the baby PRL Shrimp from the latest batch 5 !

As such, following is an update on the surviving PRL baby Shrimps batches bred in my tank !
> batch 1 (Sept 2022) : 2 pcs
> batch 2 (Nov 2022) : 1 pc
> batch 3 (Jan 2023) : 1 pc (fortunately manage to have 1 surviving for this batch and growing well)
> batch 4 (Feb 2023) : 1 pc (growing bigger in size and hope that will continue to grow and survive)
> batch 5 (Feb 2023) : more than 5 pcs. Yet to confirm on the # of surviving after next week.

Good news for the Lunar New Year with another baby PRL Shrimp. This is consider batch 4.

Attached is a photo of the surviving batch 3 and batch 4 (latest batch) 🙂

As such, following is an update on the surviving PRL baby Shrimps batches bred in my tank !
> batch 1 (Sept 2022) : 2 pcs
> batch 2 (Nov 2022) : 1 pc
> batch 3 (Jan 2023) : 1 pc (fortunately manage to have 1 surviving for this batch and growing well)
> batch 4 (Feb 2023) : 1 pc (the most recent batch)

I am pleased to update that I have completed my Amazon Soil reset and all PRL Shrimps are doing well.

I have noticed that the PRL Shrimps are more active after the reset.

Following is my earlier post which I shared about how I planned to do the Amazon Soil reset:
………………………………………………………………………………………………
https://www.facebook.com/100082872937523/posts/151614580944306/

A good start for the New Year 2023 🙂 Sharing a photo & video of one of PRL Female is holding eggs !

Looking forward to see more baby PRL baby Shrimps in 2023 !

Update on 5 Jan 2023 on # of PRL baby Shrimps for batch 3 :

Records of the surviving PRL baby Shrimps :
> batch 1 : 2 pcs
> batch 2 : 1 pc
> batch 3 : 4 pcs (the most recent batch), I have just discovered additional of 3pcs today, which makes it a total of 4pcs in total for batch 3 !
………………………………………………………………………………………….
Just notice a newly born PRL baby Shrimp ! This is the 3rd batch of PRL baby Shrimp since I starting Keeping the PRL Shrimp hobby in May 2022 🙂

Records of the surviving PRL baby Shrimps :
> batch 1 : 2 pcs
> batch 2 : 1 pc
> batch 3 : 1 pc (the most recent batch)

Although I do not have many surviving PRL baby Shrimp for each batch, I am still happy to seeing PRL baby Shrimp every now and then (about two months interval between each batch) so far.

Hope to get more surviving PRL baby Shrimp in future future batches.

I am now having a total of 9pcs of PRL Shrimp (including the latest PRL baby Shrimp) !

Just sharing a latest photo just taken. As of now, a total of 8 PRL (3 of them were bred in the tank) are doing well.

The plan is just keeping these 8 PRL awaiting for their reproduction to see what will be the population by End of 2023 🙂

Really enjoying keeping a small PRL Shrimp tank (about 8 gallons / 30 litres) which make this hobby very enjoyable. Key factor is to ensure stable water parameters with very good filtration system.

Following is my regular routine in maintaining the tank :
1. Lighting from 8am - 6pm via a timer
2. On-going distilled water top-up when necessary via auto water top-up system
3. Weekly water change of 1.5L on Sunday via drip-off and drip-in semi-automated process.
4. Dose Nitrifying Bacteria and Minerals weekly and Enzyme Powder monthly
5. Feeding twice a week on Monday and Thursday
6. Water temperature maintains at 24.5C
7. TDS maintains at 125 - 130

Planning to change the Amazon Soil in Jan - Feb as the existing Soil setup was in May. New Amazon Soil is currently in the cycling processing with a temporary separate tank.

Objective is to have an easy keeping and enjoyable hobby 🙂

Just to share a photo of 1st batch (bigger in size) and 2nd batch (smaller in size) for comparison on their growth rate 🙂

I only have 1 baby shrimp survive from the 2nd batch and is growing well so far.

All the PRL Shrimps (a total of 8 pcs PRL) are doing well after my 8 days holiday trips:
> without any feeding
> with auto distilled water top-up
> with timer control on lighting (auto switch-off and switch-on)

This is the easiest hobby (Shrimp Keeping) as compare to my other Aquarium Keepings in the past years 🙂

I am still learning on:
> how to successful in having more baby shrimps ?

So far (since May 2022) that I have started my 1st PRL Shrimp keeping, I am having 2 baby shrimps from 1st batch (in Sept) and 1 baby shrimp from 2nd batch (in Nov) which all should grow to adult.