This stuff is addicting.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Okay, I've just gotten into keeping heteropoda and this stuff is addicting!

So far I have:

Yellow
Taiwan Red Rili
off color cherries I'm breeding for orange
blue rili
and a secret project or two.

I really love the cherries because I can get into some unusual colors. Perhaps soon I'll be confident enough to move up to Crystals... the unusual colors, of course.

[Soothing Shrimp]

...and a learning experience. I recently added a heater to my yellow cherry tank because one or two shrimp were dying off due to cold water from weather here. I set the temp at 80F (26.6C) and two more died off due to high temp. Also prob due to me not graduating the temp in steps. So now I am setting it to 78F (25.5C)

[mordalphus]

Cherry are fine even in cold temps, down much lower than 70, I would search for a different cause of death

[Soothing Shrimp]

I guess my point was I had the temp too high. As far as cold water, it fell below 68 (before the heater) and affected more than one tank of shrimp.

[mordalphus]

Neocaridina are fine below 60 too. And also fine at 80. I guess maybe your adding a heater could have caused the temperature to go up too fast, but neos are pretty hardy

[Soothing Shrimp]

As far as I read, neos are one of the hardiest around. I've also read that they stop breeding as much in cooler temps, so I just ordered a bunch of heaters to keep them in the upper 70's F. Today I also added a small mystery snail in each tank to help clean up as well.

A cherry had babies which were fine for about a week, then disappeared. So I'm thinking of adding some java tied on something to each tank to help the babies survive. I'm hoping with the higher temps and java I'll have a better breeding/baby survival rate. I can only go up from here.

[EdVanRyzin]

I had to post because I see you live in Illinois. I kept cherries in a tub outside all this past summer, until temperatures were dropping to about 50 or lower, without any problems, and I kept quite a few in an unheated tank in a basement all last winter. I live in Wisconsin, so my temperatures shouldn't be too much different from yours. Just make sure your water is very clean and you should have no problem with babies surviving. I always have a ton of duckweed and moss. Duckweed keeps everything very clean.

[donnie]

For some reason when I hear a tub outside , I think bath tub () . I'm also in Wisconsin. So far I have had pretty good luck with out a heater. My water temp stays around +/- 3 deg air temp.

[EdVanRyzin]

When I say tub I really mean culligan water containers with the top cut off.

[Soothing Shrimp]

Thanks guys. I haven't used plants at all, because I really want to see the shrimp well for selective breeding... however that idea goes out the window pretty fast if I have no babies! I'm going to take the plant idea and and twist it a little. I'm going to tie some java on something and drop it in the tanks. We'll see if that helps survival.

I've also ordered a load of heaters and have thermometers for each tank. We'll see if that helps and (hopefully) increases productivity and baby survival as well. Currently I have water ~76-78 F in my yellow tank and will do the same for 4 more. Unlike many wonderful people here I'm not looking to have a plant scape, only very basic tanks for lots of breeding.

Edvanryzin- what cherries do you breed?

Donnie- what cherries do you breed?

It's nice to find some folks "close" to my state.