Category: Neocaridina Shrimp

Florida Talk

My visit to Spring Hill, Florida to give talk for the PASCO aquarium club on July 12, 2025 was a resounding success. Talk was well-received and I sold lots of books. Grant Eder, owner of Garden of Eder, an expert and popular vendor of Neocaridina shrimp, was my gracious host for 2 days. He has a houseful of tanks and a yardful of outdoor tubs (Photo). He took me and his family to visit the Chassahowitzka State Park. There he and his daughter waded through streams to catch fish. (All fish were returned to their homes after photographing.) Lots of fish, including many Mollies (Photo). Meanwhile, I stayed on dry land and kept my shoes dry (Photo). I haven’t been on a plane for over 10 years, so this was a big deal for me!

Grant Eder with a backyard filled with tubs, plants, shrimp, turtles, Koi, etc.

Heavenly, clear water stream in the park filled with all different kinds of small fish, including several schools of Mollies.

Female Molly with crayfish. Male Mollies were few, gorgeous in color–and impossible to catch.

Me visiting the Chassahowitzka State Park in Spring Hill, Florida.

Video on Small Bowl Setup

Small bowls are a simple, inexpensive way of keeping aquarium plants and moving on to bigger things. A YouTube video (‘The Simplest Planted Aquarium With Diana Walstad’) shows the setup of 1-gal and 5-gal planted bowls. Lisa and John Hudson of KGTropicals (keepfishkeeping.com) made this happen. Video is a fantastic learning piece for those of you rightly intimidated by setting up aquascaped tanks, using soil in aquariums, or maintaining high-tech tanks. Photo shows me and Lisa with our bowls. She’s got the bigger one, but I’ve got three little ones. Not surprisingly, all bowls are doing great since setup!

2023 Shrimp Bowls

One of my Red Neocaridina Shrimp (RCS)

I am displaying bowls with Neocaridina shrimp for the Raleigh Aquarium Society’s annual workshop.  I set up two 1-gal bowls with shrimp taken from my guppy breeding tanks.  I used a 7.5 watt reptile heating pad to keep bowl water temp at a nice warm 74F for good plant growth.  (Winter house temp is 65F.)  Shrimp article on my aquarium page here describes setup for bowls. Lighting for red shrimp’s bowl is 13 watt CFL.  For blue shrimp’s bowl, I have a 3 watt LED desk lamp plus window light.

My Blue Dream shrimp crawling on the heating pad

            For first 1-2 weeks I have had to change 80% of water almost every day to remove ammonia and nitrites. (The 2 cups of potting soil was probably too fertile; I probably should have diluted it with sand.)  Most important for shrimp health, I only use aged aquarium water from the guppy tanks for water changes. [The DOC (dissolved organic carbon) in aged aquarium water protects the shrimp.]  I don’t need or use the drip method, but I when I pour water into the bowls, I always use a small cup to block the water’s force.  That way, the incoming water does not disturb the soil layer.

Bowl for Red Neocaridina Shrimp (RCS)

           

Bowl for Blue Neocaridina Shrimp

The RAS workshop [March 24-26, 2023, Raleigh, NC (USA)] will have native fish collecting, talks by fish, plant and shrimp experts, an auction, shrimp judging contest, banquet, etc.  I have been going for decades. Later in the year, I’ll revise my shrimp article based on what I learn at the workshop from a shrimp expert (Robert Lupton) and from setting up these new 2023 bowls!