What grade are mine?

[rain-]

I got the first batch of my CRS, took 10 days for them to arrive and I was lucky, most of them were still alive, but most of the White Pearls were dead. I don't understand why it took so long (it took over twice the time it should have), but next time I will be paying for much faster shipping. They were packed with care and they are really active. Two females are carrying eggs :)

I haven't managed to take good pictures (I put them straight to my planted tank and they are loving all the bushes) of them all. Most of them look alike, they have good red, some of them have 1/2 transparent areas and 1/2 white, some 1/3 transparent and 2/3 white.

This one is one of the best.
http://sademetsa.net/crs_3.jpg

This is pretty too, but not much white.
http://sademetsa.net/crs_2.jpg

I would put them both in grade B, but am I too optimistic?

This one is weird, grade C, of course, but it has red eyes?
http://sademetsa.net/crs_red.jpg


And btw, I am in love with these beauties. They look so good in planted tank. And another btw, does anyone know a good source from Germany with high grade CRS?

Oh, and this is their tank:
http://sademetsa.net/260605_144.jpg

[Walter]

Very impressive looking planted tank you have! How large is it? It is really beautiful.. :D :shocked:

Anyway I think you are right about the grading, comparing to the forum's library article, it should be grade B and C.. :D

http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=21

Congrats on you purchase and hope they do well and breed! :D

[rain-]

Thanks :)

They all seem to be doing fine, no corpses as far as I can see. They've been eating alot and the two females with eggs are doing good job fanning the eggs. There's also one White Pearl with eggs and the babies look ready to hatch any time now.

The tank is only 144 liters, 38 gallons. I re-did it a couple of weeks ago (06-12-2005) after I moved the apple snails to another tank. I lowered the pH to 6,5-7, started adding CO2, lowered the GH to about 5 and trimmed heavily and replanted all the plants. I do have Neritina natalensis and other snails like that, but they are hardier than apple snails and don't melt away when pH is 6,5-7 :)

It's a work in progress and I will be adding some branches and replacing the easy plant species to more demanding ones after I come back from my vacation.

I was thinking about keeping three species, CRS, White Pearl and maybe Caridina cf. babaulti var. "Stripes" (aka Rainbow). They shouldn't mix with each other. I don't want babaulti greens because they are green, they wouldn't be visible at all ;)

And then Neritina snails, MTS and maybe also clams if they just stay alive.

[rain-]

Babies.
http://sademetsa.net/crsbaby.jpg
http://sademetsa.net/crsbaby2.jpg

[amber2461]

Congrats on the babies rain!

[janazr]

Very nice planted tank :cool: You have Grade B and C CRS.

[shalu]

congrats! can't believe you have babies already, considering the females went through 10 day shipping ordeal.

[rain-]

Thanks :)

The babies are growing fast and the females are with eggs all the time. I am really happy with the situation.

Here's a picture of the lowest grade CRS I have and one of the 1 month old offspring. I think I should separate the low grade ones to the no reproduction tank.
http://sademetsa.net/nextgen.jpg

Here's couple more babies:
http://sademetsa.net/nextgen2.jpg

[rain-]

The babies are now about 1 cm and molting often. The second batch of babies from three females were born this week and it looked so scary when they molted the first time. Empty jackets flying around with the current :D

Btw, at what size have you guys been selling your shrimps?

[silane]

CRS that is less than 1 cm is not stable, so they are not suitable for transfer/shipment.

As far as the grade is concerned, at 1.2cm or larger, the color is more or less stable and they will look like what they will be when turn adult. So this 1.2cm or larger is the size to sell.

[rain-]

Thank you, I think I will let these grow for a couple of weeks and then measure them again :)

One of the biggest babies looks really beautiful, it has much more white than it's parents or siblings. I hope it will stay that way when it grows up. Most of them look like grade C or B at the moment though.

[NanoDave]

You have a very big and nice tank.. im sure your shrimps will have a very good time in there :)

[rain-]

Thanks NanoDave :)

I did a headcount when I moved the babies to a growout tank, 34. It's a good number since I wasn't here taking care of them for the first month of their lives :)

They have now week old siblings from 3 mothers (they are carrying eggs again, poor ladies), I can count about 60 of them searching for food from the bottom and HMF, then there's also others hanging in the plants and inside the bushes. They love Cyclop-Eeze, my self made food, shrimp pellets, New Life Spectrum and blanched vegetables.

Here's some of them in the feeding corner:
http://sademetsa.net/nextgen3.jpg

[NanoDave]

Thanks NanoDave :)

I did a headcount when I moved the babies to a growout tank, 34. It's a good number since I wasn't here taking care of them for the first month of their lives :)

They have now week old siblings from 3 mothers (they are carrying eggs again, poor ladies), I can count about 60 of them searching for food from the bottom and HMF, then there's also others hanging in the plants and inside the bushes. They love Cyclop-Eeze, my self made food, shrimp pellets, New Life Spectrum and blanched vegetables.

Here's some of them in the feeding corner:
http://sademetsa.net/nextgen3.jpg

WOW!! :shocked: Sounds like the beginning of a CRS population bloom! :D :drummer:

[simcb]

Woah! Congrats on your CRS population boom. Looks like you are building up your red army very soon.

[rain-]

Thanks :)

I already sold the oldest ones, but there's now about 90 babies growing fast, they are really difficult to count, but now when they are bigger it's already a bit easier. Their mothers seem to be ready to give birth to another batch rather soon, the eggs are already seethrough and the babies rather clear inside (they were fertilised 13.8, so it is rather fast development, I think).

[rain-]

The first female started "giving birth" today. I have already spotted about 10 babies and she is traveling around the tank wiggling her bum. Another female seems to be starting to hold her tail higher in the way like the females do when the shrimplets are starting to hatch.

Btw, I am surprised about the hardiness of these Crystal Reds, everything I've read has mentioned that they are more sensitive than other shrimps and they don't like high nitrate levels or plant fertilisers. Well, I add nitrate to my planted tank where my adult shrimps live, I keep the level at 10 ppm. I also add PMDD, Seachem Flourish, Seachem Flourish Excel and use self made clay+peat balls as a bottom fertiliser along with Tetra Crypto tablets. And I add CO2. And what do my shrimps do? They mate, eat and live happily with bright colours. I just love these creatures :)

[rain-]

Here's a picture of some of the ones born 12.8 and 13.8 enjoying shrimp biscuit :)

http://sademetsa.net/crs_080905.jpg

[NanoDave]

Nice photo and shrimps! :)

[amber2461]

Wow, gorgeous looking shrimps! :p

[Walter]

Here's a picture of some of the ones born 12.8 and 13.8 enjoying shrimp biscuit :)

http://sademetsa.net/crs_080905.jpg

Shrimp biscuit? Sounds interesting. :D What nutrients it contain? And beautiful CRSs there. ;)

[vinnymac]

Great pics.

I have roughly 40 crystal reds in my breeding colony and I'm just starting to see babies in my tank. I counted 11 last night. :D

[rain-]

Thank you all for commenting :)

CRS babies are really cute (well, so are all shrimp babies, but these look like candy). vinnymac, I hope you will be having a population explotion there soon :)

Walter: I make two kinds of biscuits, vegetable ones and shrimp ones. The one in the picture is my newest shrimp recipe. It contains whole shrimps, green beans, sweet pepper, carrot, spinach, apple, orange, tofu, eggs, multigrain flour, parsley, garlic powder, spirulina powder and vitamines. I just ground them to as fine as possible, most of the ingredients are almost liquid/puree when I add them to the dough. That's of course to make it easily digestible for even the tiniest babies. Then I put the dough in dehydrator and let it dry to crisp.

I have sold some to other hobbyists here and they have reported that their fish, shrimps and snails love it. I am really happy with this recipe and the dehydrator.

[jon]

hi , real nice baby CRS you got there , any update for them. :)

[rain-]

Thanks :) I totally forgot to take more pictures. There was 140 larger juveniles a while ago, but I sold some, so now I have only about 100 of them. Their parents are also still here and then there's lots of tiny ones too, but they are hard to count since there's so much plants :)

I'll take some more pictures soon =)

[rain-]

I'm still redecorating, so not yet more pictures of the shrimps, their tank or the mosses (I am rather slow :D). But I spotted this one from my tank today and had to ask what grade it is, I am still a bit unsure about the grades and want to confirm my opinions. Is it A?

http://sademetsa.net/crystal_shrimpy.jpg

[jojoecute]

Very nice, yup ir is considered a A grade.

[rain-]

Thanks for the confirmation. I hope there will be more and more A:s in the next generations. And hopefully there will be an S some day :D

[silane]

Keep As in a A only tank, and you have a chance to get S. Or get a high grade with known pedigree to cross the A to get S. Have fun. :)

What snails are those?

[nemesis1337]

Thank you all for commenting :)

CRS babies are really cute (well, so are all shrimp babies, but these look like candy). vinnymac, I hope you will be having a population explotion there soon :)

Walter: I make two kinds of biscuits, vegetable ones and shrimp ones. The one in the picture is my newest shrimp recipe. It contains whole shrimps, green beans, sweet pepper, carrot, spinach, apple, orange, tofu, eggs, multigrain flour, parsley, garlic powder, spirulina powder and vitamines. I just ground them to as fine as possible, most of the ingredients are almost liquid/puree when I add them to the dough. That's of course to make it easily digestible for even the tiniest babies. Then I put the dough in dehydrator and let it dry to crisp.

I have sold some to other hobbyists here and they have reported that their fish, shrimps and snails love it. I am really happy with this recipe and the dehydrator.

do you mean dough as in flour?
just wondering, will that cloud the water or anything?

[gary35111]

After seeing "those" pictures of your CRS *pause*.... you ask me what grade they belong? WHAT GRADE!!? I tell you! It is an F grade! A big F F F F grade! F F F! >(

lol An F for FABULOUSLY FANTASTIC beautiful CRS! :joking:
I am not joking. It is the truth. :D They are all so fabulous... :cry: so nice so beautiful...so fantastic..so...*sniff*...beauty...I wanna breed tons of them and freeze them and marinate them and fried them and eat them....and then... and :x

[rain-]

What snails are those?

They are regular malaysian trumpet snails, I have two or three different colour variations of them. :)

nemesis1337: Dough as in the mixture of all the stuff I ground to a mush. After dehydrating the biscuits are really nice and tough and they wont foul the water. =)

gary35111: :D

Here's some of my A:s today:

http://sademetsa.net/crs0701.jpg
http://sademetsa.net/crs0701_2.jpg

There aren't many of them yet, but I have patience, they are living in the 38 gallon (http://sademetsa.net/141205.jpg) tank. The lower grade CRS are in another tank (http://sademetsa.net/crs0701_3.jpg) .

[Robert]

Hi Satu,
WOW! Your 38gallon tank looks really nice. Your shrimps look nice too but I like escpecially the 38 tank without the cover and all the plants. It looks like a little jungle and it is nice to see such a lot of fresh green in these dark and grey winter months.

best regards
Robert

[silane]

rain-,

Your shrimps grade are getting better each days, that shrimp has a little tiger tooth, very nice. :)

[rain-]

Thanks. My room really is like a part of a rainforest, sometimes it's fun just sit and stare at the tank and listen some rainforest sounds from CD.

So, the tiger tooth is the white parts in the middle red portion, right? I wish I'll be seeing my first S-grade during this year. :)

I think I need new breeding stock soon. Maybe I'll be able to buy some grade S CRS from somewhere when the spring comes. It's a shame all the good CRS live so far away from Finland. :(

[gr81]

How much costs S,SS, A grade? I see some prices in http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=21
Are they in $US? If not, what's bid rate to $US or Euro?

[rain-]

I have no idea about the prices, but I think here in Europe there's not much higher grade CRS.

Here's a third one (at least I think it's different one and not in those previous pictured), I think it's really close to S already, so maybe in next generation...

http://sademetsa.net/crs0801.jpg

[gr81]

I have no idea about the prices, but I think here in Europe there's not much higher grade CRS.

Here's a third one (at least I think it's different one and not in those previous pictured), I think it's really close to S already, so maybe in next generation...

http://sademetsa.net/crs0801.jpg
where did you get that? Here are only D grade :X

[rain-]

This is a descendant of my original CRS which were grade C and B (I ordered them from Germany), there's a couple of pictures of the grandparents in the first message of this thread. I am so proud of these ones. :)

[gr81]

This is a descendant of my original CRS which were grade C and B (I ordered them from Germany), there's a couple of pictures of the grandparents in the first message of this thread. I am so proud of these ones. :)
Congrats :shocked:

[rain-]

This looks so pretty that I have to show you:

http://sademetsa.net/crs_babies.jpg

They are the babies of my A grades and I have high hopes for them. Time will tell to what they will turn to. :)

[Frank]

WOW, i´m not a specialist for grading at all, but they seem to be better than A.
Would like to have such nice CRS too.
Good luck and all the best for your shrimplets!

[Beviking]

Wow rain, I hope to "follow in your footsteps". Those are magnificent shrimp! Your planted tank is beautiful, your "jungle room" sounds beautiful too! Superb job! If you are ever able to ship to the US, let me know would you?

-Be

[NanoDave]

This looks so pretty that I have to show you:

http://sademetsa.net/crs_babies.jpg

They are the babies of my A grades and I have high hopes for them. Time will tell to what they will turn to. :)

Good job rain! I started almost the same time as you with about the same grade of shrimps and I'm pretty much at the same stage as you with mostly A grades. Good luck to both of us going S! :)

[rain-]

NanoDave: Yeah, good luck to both of us!

What do you guys think about this one?
http://sademetsa.net/shrimpyshrimp.jpg

[retardo]

They look like A grade to me.

[Beviking]

:shocked: It doesn't matter to me what grade they are...they are GORGEOUS! :wideeyed:

[Missi3ellie]

i think they look beautiful...great job in having such offsprings ^.^

[rain-]

Thank you. :)

It seems that I have my first low S grade, more about it in this thread (http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/showthread.php?t=965), I am so happy. :)

[Erivaj]

Sorry, I have read the post and I can not understand the expresions A-B-C Grades.

What it means?

:huh:

[southerndesert]

Nice shrimp, thanks for sharing!

Bill

[gr81]

Sorry, I have read the post and I can not understand the expresions A-B-C Grades.

What it means?

:huh:

http://www.shrimpnow.com/modules.php?Crystal%20Red%20Grading&name=Content&file=viewarticle&id=21