12L Micro Tank

[Mamashack]

Managed to get a reasonable picture of the tank now there's something to look at!
Sorry about the reflection, but I'm not very good at photos. This is the best I could get without getting the keystone effect.
 

 

[carmstrong]

Tank looks great Ros!

Thanks for posting your reading during your cycling process, it gives people like me who are cycling too to see what is expected. I'm only in my 5th day now so I'm doing a lot of waiting. Lol

Can't wait to see the new inhabitants!

 

[Mamashack]

Thanks Candace. Fortunately I had a kick start from the mature gravel I added from one of my other tanks so It's quite a bit faster than you should expect. I also had a stall where everything just ground to a halt because I didn't follow the instructions to the letter and had to start again, so that was my own fault.
 
Today, which is day 21 of the restarted cycle, both ammonia and nitrite are 0, but the ammonia was added 4 days ago so I've added dose no.5 this morning and I'll be checking it again tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!
The blue shrimp are due to arrive on Thursday, so am hoping it clears in 24 hrs, but I have the other tanks that I can hold them in if need be.
 
I'm quite pleased with the overall cost of this little project:
Tank £12.99
Filter £7.99
Heater £6.99
Craft plastic mesh for lid £3.24
Thermometer £2.99
Decor all pinched from my other tanks £0
Total £34.20 for the set-up
The shrimp are costing £15.97 plus £7.99 P&P total £23.95 for the livestock
The water testing equipment and Kleenoff I already had so am not including that.

 

[Mamashack]

It's Wednesday and only one more sleep before the blue shrimp arrive by post tomorrow all being well - hopefully alive and not too stressed or feeling 

 
Unfortunately the nitrItes in the micro tank aren't clearing in 24 hrs or even 36 hrs (checked again tonight just in case the cycling fairy had stopped by and waved her magic nitrite wand - but she must have been too busy crossing wands with the wicked ammonia queen in someone else's tank!) so I've moved the 3 amano shrimp from the betta tank to the platy tank to make friends (hopefully) with the 4 amano shrimp already in there. Are amanos territorial? I hope not! 
Actually they are in the process of being acclimatised (or is it acclimated I'm not very good at English/American alternatives  

  )
 
The new ones will go in the betta tank and hopefully not be harassed by Cobalt. Have transferred the shrimp tube pyramid so they've somewhere to hide and feel safe if need be. 
Ooooo it's like Christmas Eve as a kid! lol

 

[daizeUK]

I'm looking forward to seeing your new arrivals!  Can't wait for pics.
 
I phoned my LFS to find out if they have any blue shrimp in stock and they told me they're in the process of cycling a whole new shrimp section and should have lots of new stock in a few weeks, including blue phantoms!  Sounds very exciting!  My tank is ready for shrimp now though so I will need to decide whether to hang on for LFS stock or go ahead and order online.  Seeing your shrimp will be the deciding factor!

 

[Mamashack]

You don't have to wait any longer, daize! They arrived quite promptly this morning - double-bagged and in a polystyrene box with a heat bag. They are alive and well and quite active in their acclimation bucket. Have turned all the lights off and put a lid over the bucket in between water additions. There's only a 0.4 difference in pH so it shouldn't take too long.
The only thing is I ordered 4 and only 3 have arrived. I've checked the green mesh they put in for them to have something to cling to and the inner bag several times, but there are only 3. Have emailed Kesgrave Tropicals and hopefully they will offer a refund for the missing one.
Have only got a couple of pictures of them in their bucket so they aren't particularly good, but here they are:

         

 
 
The micro tank has cleared ammonia and nitrite in 48 hrs so have added dose no. 6 and am hoping it will be clear tomorrow - fingers crossed.
If these shrimp aren't harassed by the betta I might leave them in there as they are quite tiny - less than 1" and don't want to be stressing them again too soon. Could possibly transfer them to the micro tank when they've grown a bit.
It's like a black-out in the kitchen - no room light and no tank lights! I'd better eat some carrots!!
 
EDIT: sorry forgot to resize the first picture!

 

[daizeUK]

The second pic definitely shows a nice shade of blue.  Do they look to be adult size?

 

[Mamashack]

Have never had cherry size shrimp before so I can't really tell, daize and I haven't waterproof ruler small enough to go in the bucket. The amanos are 2-3 times the size of these which is why I moved them cos I reckon they'd have harassed them to death possibly.
They look smaller than the picture on eBay and definitely paler. Not sure if that's due to stress or immaturity to be honest.
We're within 0.2 pH now so I'm hoping they will be ready to transfer soon. The delivery water tests were ammonia 0 and nitrite 0 so am taking my time. The temperature is within 0.5°C so I'm not too worried about that.
Tanks lights will be out for a few hours after transfer so will check by my feeble keyring torchlight to see how they are getting on. Will probably be this evening before I put the tank lights on.

 

[TallTree01]

They look bloody brilliant.

Do you know how breeders achieved the blue color?
Surely it can't be natural... I'm no expert though

 

[daizeUK]

That's probably fine.  I noticed some Ebay sellers clarified that you would receive 1cm long specimens in the description but these look bigger than that.  It will be fun to see how they colour up!
 
I think Amano's and cherries are okay together but they would probably eat baby shrimplets.
 
Shame about the fourth shrimp, it's a pain when sellers make silly mistakes.  Really they should send you the extra shrimp at no extra charge but you might need photo proof that there were only three in the unopened bag.

 

[Mamashack]

TT I have no idea how they breed them to that colour other than maybe selective breeding. Asked about their diet in case it's something special to keep their colour, but was told by the vendor that any shrimp food or algae wafers will do. They are currently munching of bits of detritus in the betta tank. Have put some salvinia in there hopefully to distract the betta into wondering what the green things are rather than the blue things!
 
daize, yes it was disappointing, but I was so relieved these 3 are ok that I'd be happy with a refund. I've measured them from the outside using my calculator ruler whilst one was busy munching and to the base of the tail it was 1cm so allowing for some distortion thro the glass they are pretty close to what you said. The reason I was cautious about keeping the amanos in there is I once put some fire reds in with the amanos in the platy tank and they gradually disappeared over a week or 2.
 
I'll try to take some better pictures when the lights are on.

 

[fm1978]

'Usually' cherries of most colour morphs will get to 2-2.5 cms (2cm for males, 2.5cm for females).
 
And yeah to TT, I've no idea how it's done exactly, but the blues are selectively bred. Some people will sell them as Blue Cherries, Blue Jelly, Blue Phantoms (as mentioned by Daize) and I think it's just down to the variations in colour intensity. The Phantom ones 'should' be much more blue. 
 
I've got amanos in with Black and Red Bees, Taiwan Hybrid F1s and Pure Red Lines and I don't think I've seen any of them eat any shrimplets - they don't even usually go for any that don't make it. It's normally my snails that will eat any very slow moving or dead 'material'. 

 

[Mamashack]

I'm a bit concerned as Cobalt is patrolling the bottom of the tank. I think the tiny shrimp are hiding in between the logs on the pyramid (they are that small!)
Haven't seen them since shortly after I put them in there so I hope they aren't feeling too stressed tho I suspect they might be.
Could only send KT the picture of them in the acclimation bucket as I couldn't know for certain that there were only 3 until I'd emptied it out. Anyway I've heard from them and they are going to refund for the missing shrimp.
Am going to do water tests on the micro tank 12 hrs after I added this morning's 6th dose, scrunch up my eyes, make a wish and cross my fingers that they are down and if they are transfer the shrimp this evening as I'm sure they aren't welcome in the betta tank. He was fine with the amanos but they are 3 times the size and they were there first so he's maybe feeling his territory has been invaded by these young blue whippersnappers!

 

[Mamashack]

Oh my goodness - talk about all change!!
I was getting really antsy that I couldn't find any of the little shrimp and that they had possibly been harmed by Cobalt so I made the perhaps questionable decision to move him to the platy tank until the micro tank is ready (hopefully soon!) I'm thinking that upper platy temp is 26° and that's the lower betta temp too. 30L tank usually runs at around 26.2° ish and the 60L tank sometimes runs at 25.7° when it's warmer weather so fingers crossed things will be ok for a day or 2. In fact Cobalt seems to be much calmer in there, maybe because it's not his usual territory and I'm wondering if the slightly lower temperature is contributing. He's not inactive - he's having a good look around everywhere in the 60L tank and seems to be leaving the current occupants (even the teeny tiny ones) alone. I'm wondering if he's liking the company.
I've seen 2 of the shrimp since I moved Cobalt out - I'd broken an algae wafer to see if they'd come out to feed. Only 2 of them did so I'm hoping that the 3rd one is really good at hiding and hasn't been killed or scared to death.

 

[Mamashack]

Some evening photos as promised, one better than the other. If I could have got the clarity on the one where it's smack in the middle of the moss ball I'd have been chuffed! However it decided to move on and the better picture is the one where it's half way between the mossball and the anubias.

It looks like it's got a saddle, but is that possible for a juvenile?