Mature Substrate

[1234-fishy-freind]

Can anyone tell me what mature substarte means because i have been reading up on certain shrimp speices and it says that some of them need mature substrate so can anyone tell me what it is ?
thanks

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Basically it means substrate that has been populated with lots of little micro-organisms, bits of algae, etc. Filter feeding shrimp can't really eat larger foods like bits of flake food, so they need "mature substrate" so they can get enough to eat.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

My tank has 6 fish in it and is a 30 litre tank, the fish are fed once a day on flake and are about 1 inch long, about how long will it take before my substrate is mature ? just a rough time amount will do.
cheers.

 

[tamara]

How long has your tank been up and running?

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Since the 1st of july

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

From what I've heard it takes about 6 months for a tank to reach a "mature" status.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

ok thanks guys