Blue tiger shrimp

[lobsternoob]

So I found an awesome deal on blue tiger shrimp. I am getting them for the price of ghost shrimp because the supplier got them mislabeled, and I've done a good bit of business with them, so as soon as I knew they had them I called dibs :) Should be getting them in the next few days because the supplier is quarantining them, and I'm not gonna rush him. Hey, if they die off in the first couple days I'd prefer not to buy them anyway, but for him that loss would be a regular part of his business. He's pretty cool, that's even the way he put it to me. Anyway, from what I saw they are of pretty high quality, although all I have to compare them too is pics on the net. I've never even seen them for sale before around here, so...

Anyway, on to the point. Any experience with these guys you could share is appreciated. Are they as easy to keep and breed as ghosties and cherries? Also I know from having cherries breed you often get quite a few less than desirable color morphs, is this common with these shrimp too? I'm hoping I can get a breeding population started up, I'd love to share these guys with others, they seem really cool, and oddities always sell well in this hobby. I'm planning on putting the majority of them into either a five or ten gallon tank (ten gallon if I get the number of them I'm hoping for.) on their own with java moss and not much else. Maybe a few guppies just for the heck of it.

I'm pretty stoked about this, I recently have gotten much more interested in shrimp, I have always loved crayfish (go figure, I like lobsters and similar critters? thats a surprise right?) but don't keep them really. This supplier also got in some vampire, or rhino shrimp, and i'm interested in those, but I'll save that for another thread.

[Sarkazmo]

That's an amazing deal if it works out for ya because those are NOT cheap shrimp. From everything I've read they're not nearly as hardy as RCS. So you'll need to keep your water pristine. Good luck!

Sark

[lobsternoob]

yeah, that's why I told him I wanted them for sure, I figure even if I lose a good few I get them cheaper than I would anywhere else. It should be fairly easy to keep the waterr in a dedicated shrimp tank clean, I've done it before. Got a buncha other goodies (FREE!) today when I went to go talk to the guy again, and he hadn't lost any of the shrimp yet, so that's a good sign for me.

[korith]

With the blue tiger shrimp, make sure to acclimate them slowly and keep the water parameters in check. I got some plain old tiger shrimp (white with black stripes) to see if I could keep them alive, then I started up a new tank and got the blue tiger shrimp. Got them from someone who had to get rid of their tanks, was a nice deal. They don't breed as quickly as red cherry shrimp, but should do ok if you keep the tank stable. The blue colour doesn't breed true by the way, so when they start breeding may want to move the normal tigers out into a different tank.

[lobsternoob]

Sounds like what I was expecting Korith, thanks for answering my question. I figured that any offspring would not hold the color, maybe thats part of why they can be pricey. If they do breed succesfully, I'll remove the less desirable color morphs. Any idea if lighting could play a role in that area? I imagine that they have probably been so selectively bred for color they will be really sensitive. So far though my intuition has been proven wrong, not a death among them in two days in a holding tank.

[korith]

Sounds like what I was expecting Korith, thanks for answering my question. I figured that any offspring would not hold the color, maybe thats part of why they can be pricey. If they do breed succesfully, I'll remove the less desirable color morphs. Any idea if lighting could play a role in that area? I imagine that they have probably been so selectively bred for color they will be really sensitive. So far though my intuition has been proven wrong, not a death among them in two days in a holding tank.

The colors seem to be a bit more intense in tanks with darker substrates, noticed that for red cherry shrimp as well. Not sure about lighting. The lighting for my 5g shrimp tanks is just a single shop light. I have been experimenting to see if this Shirakura food I have is any better than the random stuff I normally feed the shrimp. Have a few tanks that of shrimp that are only being fed the shirakura shrimp food. Probably be a few months before I can tell if there is any difference. Nice you've had no deaths yet, the first time I got tiger shrimp, I wiped them out in less than a week. Turns out the city in summer treats the tap water a bit more, I think that was the cause. Been using ro water mostly for the shrimp tanks, no huge tank wipeouts since then.

[troy]

The guppies will eat the baby shrimp.

[lobsternoob]

yeah, I'm aware of that. I typically remove females with eggs because I've had other shrimp eat or kill babies before, was just thinking of putting guppies in there for the heck of it. From what Korith said if tiger shrimp are not hardy I probably won't put any guppies in anyway.

[korith]

yeah, I'm aware of that. I typically remove females with eggs because I've had other shrimp eat or kill babies before, was just thinking of putting guppies in there for the heck of it. From what Korith said if tiger shrimp are not hardy I probably won't put any guppies in anyway.

Well what I meant is they aren't hardy to new water conditions:p They don't react to changes that well. I try to do only small water changes in the shrimp tanks too, that seems to help. I wouldn't put in guppies, tiger shrimp even the plain ones can get $2-3 easy, and the blue tiger shrimp a lot more. Sell for a lot more than red cherry shrimp, so more value in selling the excess tigers. At the moment my shrimp tanks are paying for my aquarium hobby. If nothing goes wrong with any tanks, I think I should break even by december (yep I'm actually keeping track of the costs).

[lobsternoob]

I see, not being hardy to new water conditions probably indicates they don't like fast changes in water chemistry either. Small wc's are a good idea, I do that with shrimp tanks too. Of course small is relative, but I am talking percentage wise. I have found that ghosties thrive and breed amazingly with daily WC's of around 5-20% or less. Also, removing preggo's from the main tank until you notice they are no longer gravid and letting that tank (the tank with the juvies) go unfiltered helps too from what I've seen, no water movement other than during changes seems conducive for shrimp fry surviving their first few days. for some reason when I have bred shrimp they seem to destroy their own eggs or juvies. That's part of the reason the tank will be heavy with moss, planty of hiding space for juvies and it harbors micro organisms they can feed off. I have one shrimp in a 55 that constantly winds up in the filter, it has repetitively found its way in there even after i wrapped a sponge around the intake, no clue how or why except that it might be wanting to feed off the stuff growing in and around the filter.

I've given up the guppy idea, hindsight is 20/20 and that was a dumb idea. I still don't have the shrimp in hand but I will in a few days. I avoid thinking about my costs, but I feel money spent on fishkeeping is much better spent than what I used to spend money on.

[Jacko]

IME, caridina are alot more active than any other shrimp species I've kept so my suggestion would be the biggest tank you can fit... 10 gallon would be fine, 20 gallon would be excellent for a breeding setup for Blue Tigers.

Would love to see pics when they come in... I recently ordered what they called "Sumatran Blue Tigers" hoping they'd be actual OEBT but they turned out to be a northern sulawesi species, which don't breed in freshwater nor does it appear they're easy to keep alive. :sconfused: Either way it's a great price, I paid a bit over a hundred bucks for 2 dozen :ssuprised:

OEBT will have a mix of offspring, color will range from a blonde (regular tiger with orange eyes, still useful for breeding purposes since they have the blue gene), some will be pale blue and up to a deep dark blue color...