Micro planted tank

I've been thinking to start up a small tank for shrimp and now I've finally bought an all glass 3.4gal.

It came with a clear plastic cover (leaves about 1.5 inch gap at the back) and a small but surprisingly powerful internal filter. I already bought a mini heater a week ago so I had everything ready and set it up today.



Decided against the aponogeton bulb and move it back to the sorority. Some of the plants are still bend over from how they were growing in the other tank before I clipped them off. Should straighten out in a couple hours.


I plan to move Vitya, the slightly handicapped female betta over to this tank. I don't think she will be able to do well in the sorority anymore with her impaired vision. The tank is a bit small for a betta, but this should make it easier to get food to her.

Plants are:
2 types of Ludwigia
Rotala
micro swords
chain swords
dwarf baby tears
and some other stem plant that I have no idea what it's called.


The lighting is from a goose neck lamp with a daylight LED bulb. I think it should provide at least medium lighting. 11watts, 5000K, 1150 lumens. If anyone can interpret LED light for planted tanks, feel free to let me know if this bulb will work or not.

If all goes well and the plants become established, I might toss some cherry shrimp in there and see how it goes. Vitya probably won't be able to catch them as her aim is terrible. For now I'll be keeping a pair of young mystery snails until I decide it's safe to add Vitya.

Note: I did add some established filter floss to the filter.

The temp was even so I added the two little snails. The purple is the survivor of the first two I had, the yellow/brown is from the second time I picked up baby snails.

Very nice.

I added/took out a couple plants here and there. Probably a stupid idea, but I replaced the middle plants with jungle val to help stifle the filter flow. It seems to be doing well, even sending up a couple runners (will probably cut them soon).


The dwarf baby tears seem to like the bright light. They are slowly spreading.

The purple mystery snail died for some reason. All the water levels were in check with some nitrates but zero of ammonia and nitrites. On the other hand, the tawny brown one is getting bigger. There was an incident where it disappeared only to be found under my bed. Didn't seem to be out for very long because as soon as I dropped it back in the tank it started crawling around again.
I may have discovered a new rams horn snail color (for me anyways). It has a pink body and a golden shell. The only other kinds I have with pink bodies are red rams. Might be one step closer to the bright pink variation.


I've taken in another plakat betta, it's just a little thing but we'll see how it turns out. I was at the store when an employee was cleaning the overflow boxes and she apparently found this one trapped there. For the moment I am quarantining it in this tank while I wait for Vitya to heal. Not sure on its gender yet. I'm not seeing much of an egg spot and the pelvic fins look kinda long for its size. Might be a good thing I've got a re-sealed empty 10gal near by.

Nice Betta, She will look cool once her tail grows in.

I might of forgotten about this thread... oops.

The little plakat was added to the sorority ages ago and Vitya went in the 3.4 shortly after. I finally added 8 cherry shrimp (5F 3M) six days ago. 3 of the females are red and 2 are normal. 1 of the normal colored females was/is berried when I got them. Now 4 of the 5 females are berried I have a blue/green algae problem going on but I think the shrimp are helping a bit.

The tank is nearly clear of blue/green algae, turns out the duckweed is doing an amazing job at trapping the little strands. During water changes I've been taking out the algae riddled duckweed and replacing it.

I was just in time with the water change yesterday, when I got home from work last night I noticed several tiny shrimplets crawling around and momma shrimp was still releasing more I wish I hadn't cleaned the filter media, now the flow is very strong and Vitya doesn't seem to appreciated it. I've covered the intake with pantyhose and decreased the flow as much as possible.

There's two little ones right between the glass and the rock, very blurred of course. The other berried females' eggs have eyes now.

Oh man, this is looking great and seems to be a happy home to all of it's inhabitants.
I'd love to hear if the beta is hunting the shrimp now that she's alone with them in a small space.
I understand her eye site isn't good?
Seems like a perfect home for her.

The female plakat isn't in the this tank anymore, she's with the other females in the 29gal.
My lovely Vitya lives here now, after being exiled from the sorority for being a boy.

His eye sight is so-so. It think it is actually getting better as of late now that the pop-eye or whatever it was is gone. I've been updating this tank on another thread because I forgot about this one.

I would add the pictures of his eye when it was puffy and the entire tank, but apparently those files are too large. Not sure why, I was able to upload the same files for the other thread a while back.

So far he hasn't bothered the shrimp. He crashes the party when their feeding to steal their food but that's about it. It's hard to know if he's going after the baby shrimp. I counted 6 this morning hiding in the plants. One of the females molted during the night, I assume it was the one that had her little ones. I half expect to see her berried when I get home from work. Seems most females become berried shortly after molting.

Demeter32 said:

exiled from the sorority for being a boy.

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That’s pretty funny.
And he sure is handsome!
I love that he coexists with the shrimp. Wonder if that will last?



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thrujenseyes said:

That’s pretty funny.
And he sure is handsome!
I love that he coexists with the shrimp. Wonder if that will last?



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I don't mind if he eats a few here and there, so long as they can keep reproducing. He's such a picky eater now I think a few bites of shrimp will do him good.

exiled from the sorority for being a boy.

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Typical females,
,

All the female shrimp had their little ones and they are everywhere. I don't think Vitya is going after them at all. He's a failure of a vicious betta. The filter has become weaker after putting pantyhose over it so I don't think the babies will be harmed in that way. There's definitely different colors, some redish while others look clear or brown. The youngest ones (just hatched yesterday) are still white and tiny.

The shrimp will take over soon

NickAu said:

The shrimp will take over soon

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That sounds very ominous.....

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