Boof’s little crystal shrimp tank

[BluewaterBoof]

Morning shot before lights ramps up all the way. I need to trim the s. repens again and wanted to get a photo before it was all murdered again haha

I’m a bit bummed about the white paint job on the back glass. Two days after it was painted that weird drip line appeared. It wasn’t wet when I painted the tank and it is underneath the paint so trying to put more paint over the back made no difference. I’m guessing that it was residue from an old drip down the back of the tank that didn’t get cleaned all the way before I painted and it somehow interacted with the acrylic paint to make these weird tiny air bubbles under the paint. *Sigh* The only way I can fix it is by scraping off the paint and doing it over again, which is kind of more effort than I’m willing to do at this point...

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Oh, and I finally have a berried crystal shrimp! Took my little group a couple of months to hit breeding age but now the colony should start building up fairly quickly I have five females so the other four should start carrying pretty soon as they are all the same age.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

The tank looks absolutely fantastic. Feel like I've said it before, probably in that exact wording. Love that chunky little oto in your most recent pic.

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Love that chunky little oto in your most recent pic.

Haha yeah! They been grazing on just natural noms in the tank. I need to grab some zucchini or squash for them but I've been procrastinating.

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Momma always hard at work keeping those eggs happy! I always get a kick out of watching shrimp fluff their eggs

 

[Wills]

Totally missed this journal tank looks amazing! Love the repens carpet I have some in mine love how wild it looks.

 

[Mick85]

Love your flame moss! And the repens look so good as a carpet!

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Thanks!

Had to do some trimming in the tank this past weekend. It’s crazy just how thick and dense the repens became. It really is a testament to how well CO2 and lots of ferts work on a planted tank when you go back and see the pathetic plants that were first planted VS what the tank looks like now. Trimming isn’t always my favorite part but at least with repens I have a couple weeks between each trimming.

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Second momma now confirmed!

If both manage to carry for the entire term I should have quite a few crystals. High grade crystals are a bit pricey so I only started off with ten. I was lucky this time around and got a nice mix of males and females so now that they’re all finally reaching maturity I should have a nice little explosion of shrimp. I had another crystal shrimp tank in the past that only had two females and it was painfully slow to populate.

 

[Tacocat]

Second momma now confirmed!

If both manage to carry for the entire term I should have quite a few crystals. High grade crystals are a bit pricey so I only started off with ten. I was lucky this time around and got a nice mix of males and females so now that they’re all finally reaching maturity I should have a nice little explosion of shrimp. I had another crystal shrimp tank in the past that only had two females and it was painfully slow to populate.
View attachment 138843

My 5 gal has 6 cherries in it, 2 of which are male. The first 4 were all female, and when we got those we spent weeks figuring out whether they are male or female. By the time I picked out the males, the females all reached maturity and the males were still juvenile.

 

[BluewaterBoof]

Odin’s colors were nice and bright after last night’s water change!

How low do YOU go??

Edit: Yes, I scraped off the white paint on the back glass. I could not figure out why it was separating from the glass and leaving these dark air bubble lines everywhere. I am considering repainting it black but for now I’m just going to leave it alone.