It's Done - NeoShrimp Farm 2024 Finished

[@deacondavid63]

I'm surprised at how tolerant the little buggers are. I had a 50 gallon stock tub in the backyard over the summer. I finally drained it on Monday and still got 50 cherry shrimp out of it. They seem to get bigger with better colors. Only truble is I found some unwelcome guests as far as insects go. Temperatures here in northern IL has got down in the low 30s at night. You work really hard Mark and should be very proud of yourself.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@deacondavid63 thanks man. We had some mornings in upper 20s before I took it down, with water temps dipping into mid 40s a few times. Cool thing about neos is they aren't tropical, but temperate. They'll live unless they freeze, just stop breeding below mid 60s. Thanks again man, appreciate your support.

[@markfranklin8831]

Amazing summer shrimp tubbing. Beautiful color shrimp. Thanks for sharing

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@markfranklin8831 thank you man, appreciate it

[@aramisx6523]

Fascinating! Beautiful! Mark, your efficient system is a site to behold! Thanks for sharing with your fans!

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Thank you for watching 👍

[@larrydsAquatics]

Definitely a successful season for you.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Yeah, it did pretty good. Hope things are going good for you man

[@larrydsAquatics]

@MarkShellyAquatics not bad he starts chemo and radiation therapy Monday morning.

[@RWAquariumPages]

such a great experiment and great harvest! love that video in the beginning and end of releasing the shrimp, so beautiful! can't wait for your expanded project next spring!

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Thanks bud. Hopefully a couple more years of this and expanding it I'll be able to build the shrimp breeding facility I am aiming for eventually. These orange rilis I have are nuts, put 2k of them in a 40g breeder and they're still breeding out lol, never seen a line breed like those do.

[@paradoxicalocus3761]

I have a Blue Jelly line from you. I bought like 10 a couple months after getting into the Aquarium hobby, and I’ve had ups and downs as I learned how to dial in, but now the colony is well established. I mixed a BJ male with a Snowball female I got from a LFS, and they produced a number of really nice red rilis! So I’ve been selecting for those rilis and am now on gen 2-3. It’s amazing to see how genetics work out!

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Very cool,.sounds like a fun experiment. Mixing them and then making your own is a long process but can be very rewarding.

[@ShrimpMania]

Great video, glad you made it just in time. Wish you sell all of them fast before the next season

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Thanks bud 👍

[@loliwon2]

use cinderblocks and wood to raise the tubs up a little your back will thank you :)

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Lol yeah, but then there's the expense and work of multiple truck loads of blocks lol. This wasn't the final form of the shrimp farm, but a successful 1st year experiment. Hopefully will make it easier on .myself in the future lol.

[@northwestfamilyadventuresn697]

Got some pilo moss from you top notch quality and a generous amount 👌

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@northwestfamilyadventuresn697 thank you for the support 👍

[@aquariumdelirium]

Fantastic Mark The camera falling over lol typical I once messed up with a hiking walk by shot by it falling over lol and I was too tired to do it again

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Lol, yeah this was enough work the way was to begin with lol, after getting blown over twice, I yelled, ding a dong it, lol, and gave up on that shot lol.

[@pelhamsaquatics]

First🎉😊still watching wow that was windy! We got high winds here in Michigan too😮dang those grubs were enormous! I notice your like me white buckets are the way to go! Omg thats alot of shrimp!!!😮 see i told you it would be successful!😂

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Thanks Jeff. Yeah it did pretty good, a few didn't thrive, but 8/10 is still pretty good lol.

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

Just sent you an order for some skittles and some moss, looking forward to starting my 1st dedicated shrimp tank, I am the guy from Texas :)

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@UnkyjoesPlayhouse awesome. Thank you for the support 👍 You can really enjoy them when they're not worried about fish eating them lol.

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

@@MarkShellyAquatics Got a cycled 10 gallon tank waiting for them, high ph 7.8+ and high tds "water comes from limestone aquifer" so they should enjoy the water.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@UnkyjoesPlayhouse sounds about the same as my water 👍

[@markvonwisco7369]

I believe those grubs are June bug grubs.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

These things were freaking giant, might even be Staghorn beetle, I seen one over there by the tubs the other day. Looks like the grubs had big pinchers forming.

[@Jason-mp6yj]

next up, the fishing video with those big beetle larva

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@@Jason-mp6yj lol, those things are monsters

[@MoldyBones27]

“Taste the rainbow”

[@Judeles_Shorts]

How can I buy some of these shrimp? I want to start breeding some and am looking for some cheap starters

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

My website is markshellyaquatics.com

[@MoldyBones27]

If you keep skittle tanks your gunna end up with a mud color.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

Not always true. You don't mix colors if you want the best shrimp obviously, but lots of people don't care and just want a group of pretty shrimp in their tank. You get lots of cool shrimp that while not the best grades are still cool and interesting. If you care about how your shrimp look you gotta take out the bad ones, even with skittles. I have a buddy that got a skittles pack years ago and has a tank full of beautiful vibrant shrimp. Different ways of keeping shrimp and I like both ways, and so do my customers.

[@NewJerseyTom]

You should talk to the local boy scouts club and see if some of the kids want to earn their good samaritan badge by helping you with that work.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

It was good for me to do it, lol. Used to be something like that was an easy half day for me. Now it's busting ass all day that I feel for a week, lol. Going from removing trees for utilities to breeding shrimp full time is a change of pace. I needed the exercise, lol. Just takes a minute to get vertical this week haha

[@NewJerseyTom]

@MarkShellyAquatics I know the feeling gravity sucks. It's always like you're hunched over. My therapy. Is eating 1 or 2 bowls of cereal On my stomach on the floor while watching TV. Keep up the great videos.

[@kbone2958]

And I can’t even keep mine alive

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

With neos, all it really takes is a cycled aquarium. It's probably something in your water if you are using tap water, could be pollution or water is lacking something shrimp need to molt. Neos are pretty forgiving, you may not be doing anything wrong and just have bad water.

[@kbone2958]

@ I can keep them for a while like close to a year but they all die out eventually . I’ll see molts and baby’s but they don’t seem to survive. I’m keeping a few other tanks Cory’s & cardinal tetras , axolotl , and South American cichlids . All are great just the shrimp tank

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

@kbone2958 yeah shrimp are different than fish in that they need stuff in the water to molt. Do you do water changes? Do you top off with tap water? If they do good for a while and then after a year die off, I am guessing you top off with tap water for evaporation. The water evaporates, but the minerals in your water stay behind. So then you add more tap water full of minerals, and over time the amount of minerals in your water gets too high for your shrimp to molt. If you are not doing actual water changes regularly and just top off, you need to do that with distilled water or water made with an rodi unit. That way you are only replacing the water that evaporates and not adding more abd more minerals along with water. This is really common for new shrimp keepers.

[@MarkShellyAquatics]

I'll also add this to help clarify. Use tap water to fill your tank, if you take water out, use tap water to put water back in. If you are topping off to replace water lost due to evaporation, then used distilled or rodi water.

[@kbone2958]

@@MarkShellyAquatics ya I do small water changes every 2 weeks or so . I usually top off with tap water. So I guess that could be it .