Shrimp tank in the home office

[Beastije]

So, preparing this tank for the new fish which should be available in a week, Indostomus paradoxus aka Armoured stickleback.
This tank has weird dimensions, 56 cm x 25 cm x 36 cm and since april, was turned into a shrimp only tank.
The shrimp are doing sort of ok, I see berried females, I see some juveniles, but not as many as I expected at this point.
Tank has no heater, a sponge airfilter (that I hadnt cleaned since april, now that I think about it) and a monthly water change schedule.

inhabitants: lets say 15 cherry red shrimp, 1 brotia herculea snail, 1 clithon nerite snail
expected inhabitants 5 armoured stickleback.

I had to do an algae cleanup from the moss, the green hair algae is killing it and the shrimp nor the snail are helping any. Loads of algae on the glass too, I am not touching this, keeping it as a low maintenance tank
Will be getting bit of cholla wood to use as a cave, the moss is sitting on a ceramic cave too, so hopefully the fish will enjoy it.
Excited

 

[Aqua67]

You know, if you add the sticklebacks you may continue to have difficulty raising baby shrimp. Those sticklebacks are micropredators and need live and frozen foods. Newly hatched shrimp will likely be a coveted treat.

Are you going to culture your own live food for your sticklebacks? I would like to start a daphnia culture myself.

I had 8 shrimp in a 5 gallon I set up in March ’22 and now 8 months later there are over 40 shrimp in the tank. I add a tiny pinch of Bacter AE, a product by GlasGarten made especially for increasing baby shrimp survival rates. It helps to create biofilm for the shrimplets. I have a good light on the tank, my hornwort flowers but I’ve never had any algae in the tank. Of course there are several snails, both ramshorn and a couple bladder snails, and a small colony of amphipods which I fish out regularly with a turkey baster to feed fish in my other aquariums. I used to see daphnia in my little tank but I haven’t seen many lately. I may have accidentally removed them all when I suck out water from the bottom when cleaning the little aquarium.

Please show us your sticklebacks when you get them. We are almost as excited as you are about them.

 

[Beastije]

I am not having much luck breeding the shrimp as is anyway, so it wont be a big difference. I started with 20 in april and I can see like 12 now, 2 of which are second gen. I see a lot of berried females and I only recently removed the amanos I blamed for the lack of juveniles, but I only feed every few days or so with a small pinch of food and sometimes with a blanched vegetable. With the sticklebacks I will have to feed more, which will benefit the shrimp too in some way, so maybe they will breed more and survive the hunters. If not it will still be worth it.
I plan to hatch artemia and maybe in spring some daphnia, though once I get the plankton net, I will check my outdoor watering hole too, maybe some will be there too. I also have some Paramecium cultures I will rise once I get the fish and see how it goes.
That is also why I added all the leaves and stuff, to grow the zooplankton.

I used to have Conespur Bladderpod in the tank which did work very well when it was a shrimp only tank, no daphnia or other bugs bread in there. Now I sort of regret it

 

[Beastije]

I obtained 10 more red cherries and will set an alarm to feed like every other days to help with the breeding. I see two or three 5mm ones and two females are berried.
The moss grew but so did the algae, so I just now put in the frogbit to help with that. Maybe the frogbit will get better too, I took it out of the large tank and it aint pretty. Also no roots. I realized I didnt change my bulb light in my large tank in last 5 years, so I ordered a new led light with wifi controller ( excited for it, will be a nice change), which I think is the main reason the plants in the large tank are not doing well.

Sadly stickleback fish are still not available, must be seasonal from Indonesia, vendor is keeping an eye for me.

PS the brotia is not dead, you can see the opeculum, it just sleeps a lot. Saw it active yesterday and it may notice the food soonish, I was just lazy to wait to take the picture. Can you spot the small shrimp near the leaf?

 

[Beastije]

I feed very regularly now so i also bumped the water changes to once every two weeks, sift the water through my artemia nets to make sure the shrimp are safe. I see my shrimp carrying, some small shrimp are visible too, not sure how they are doing but looks good.
My 8 Indostomus paradoxus will arrive on Wednesday!! Excited!!
Could anyone advise what dimension of bamboo pipe to get? Available diameters are 0,5 cm, 1cm and 1,5 cm. I already have a ceramic tube that is 15 cm long and 5 cm in diametr, but l want to stick some bamboo in the moss and around the surface areas and can't decide what width.
I noticed copepods and mites in there, the fish will love it and i have few days to start my next artemia culture

 

[Beastije]

My indostomus paradoxus arrived and oh boy I am in love!!
I was not able to obtain the bamboo yet, some issue with the seller and the fact that I have a brutal cold. I ordered assorted widths and lenghts. I have one cholla wood there that I propped against the glass in a horizontal position, and yes, it is already occupied by one stickleback.
I can already tell the feeding is going to be complicated, they are not good hunters, they are smaller than the red cherry shrimp and unless the artemia sort of smacks them in the face they cant catch it. They do a lot of prowling and checking and darting, and especially swimming backwards, but given how long the artemia remain in the tank and how well they could hide in the moss, I will have to consider intensity and volume of said feedings.
I will also have to consider throwing out half the moss, since it is more of an algae than the moss and I dont see the fish swimming in it, but for now, they are acclimating, they are investigating, they are small and they are utterly adorable.
I cant take a good picture, they move and my phones macro is not that good for details, but at least some pictures
So glad I got them, they will be an experience for sure. BTW they do hang out together a lot and to be honest, with the size they are at, I could have gotten like 100 and they wouldnt crowd each other in this (40l) tank

 

[Beastije]

Yup, the feeding is going to be a problem. At this point I dont even know if all are alive, cause the most I have seen is 5 at once. They blend in so well, unless they move they are impossible to see and they hide under leaf litter!! I can only see half of the bottom of the tank, and they hang out exclusively at the bottom. Here in lies another problem.
They dont swim around, they stay static at a place near the bottom, which is like 5% of the tank. I removed a chunk of the moss yesterday, still the tank is filled 70% with it. Every time I feed, the food disperses through the tank, in the moss and I dont think the fish will ever find it. I also cant tell if they are hungry or not, cant tell if they are eating or not. I fed a dash of microworms today, and they are so small I couldnt see them in the tank after a while. And the fish didnt dart in to eat it, no, they stayed still. So this is going to be a problem. Especially if I consider the rule of mouth size for how often to feed, the fish is so tiny it should be fed constantly. I guess something exist in the tank to feed them.
First off, I might starve them, or I may overfeed, and I may foul the water. The shrimp are super excited, darting all over, picking everything, so I guess some of the food may get eaten. But then again, I only have like 20 adult shrimps, not sure how many babies in there, and with the amount of food I would need a lot more fish or shrimp. Any advice on this?
Thanks

 

[Beastije]

I am starting to reduce the moss. I cant do much at once, as it stirs too much mess (which happened yesterday) and the shrimp were not happy. I have the frogbit and I added a pennywort I will keep either on the surface, or root it once I remove the moss.
I took out two fistfuls and what do you know, no visible difference in the moss volume.

Meanwhile I am seeing still only about 5 indostomus, but they hang out in the weirdest places, behind filter sponges, under leafs,... I feed twice a day a smidge of bbs or microworms and I have seen them hunting, just hours after the feeding and not well

I decided to experiment, bought a breeding box and am putting a pair of whiteclouds into it for few hours. Given the box is too small and also necessary, so that the fish dont eat all my shrimp, I am just hoping they will manage to drop and fertilize the eggs in the short span I am putting them in there. I sadly do not have any experience with breeding and all the literature I read is not helping. My theory is, that fry wont compete with the indostomus for at least 5 weeks and will help me eat the excess food, as I have trouble guessing the necessary amount. Will see if the breeding happens at all, if any fry develops and we can go from there

 

[Beastije]

First part of the plan, i took out all the moss. Did some algae removal, some cleaning, lot of scaring the fish and shrimp. Added more leaves, more bamboo. Trying with the pennywort to place it in the ground.

Once i feel up to it, will try to separate some moss to add back. Not sure to add to where.

Good news is, during the horrible thing i did to the tank, i saw around six of the fish!! So not just the three i keep seeing

Bad thing is, i don't think i have microworms today. Will see if they climb up.

 

[Beastije]

All is good, first month has passed, no issues, regular feedings of microworms and bbs. I see more of them (but not them more) and shrimps and shrimplets are also doing ok.
Sometimes i itch to obtain a school of chilli rasboras or something, but will give these fish a try at a peaceful life and maybe a chance to breed. Can always revisit this idea later on

 

[Beastije]

WHile death of my gourami made me super sad, at least the indostomus are doing fine. Snapped a picture during bbs feeding.

 

[Beastije]

Two months in, I think I only have 5 of the fish, cause that is all I can see at once. I also have planaria, which I hope doesnt bother the fish, doesnt kill adult shrimp, only kills the baby shrimp, since I dont see any anymore... I will have to move the fish to a smaller tank with a new substrate to get rid of it. Too bad, this one has perfect lighting

 

[Beastije]

Guys, I need to know your opinion. For now I am considering moving the indostomus to a 25l tank, sandy substrate, some plants, low flow (half a sponge filter and super low air pump), no cover. I wonder, what if I didnt move the shrimp along, and instead got a freshwater clamp to filter feed through the rest of the food the indostomus dont eat
I know acclimating the clams is hard and they burrow and die and kill off the tank, but I see in every nook of this tank and have only 2cm or so of sand, thus seeing the clam (as it wouldnt be able to fully burrow) and given i feed live food and squeeze it through the tank to circulate, I would be creating a bit of a flow. Would this perhaps work?

 

[Beastije]

I moved the indostomus and shrimp over weekend. Was surprisingly easy. Shrimps I managed to net, given I only have adults, so not a hard task.
Indostomus I moved also very easily, each set of bamboo pipe I took out using my fingers to plug in the entrances, in a different bowl I would pour the water out, if the fish was in, it would go in a bowl, I would wash all the tubes and rid them of snails and possible planaria and net the fish out to the new tank.
This allowed me to finally count how many fish I had, and rejoice, all 8 indostomus I got in march are still alive.
After the move they are a wee bit more active and visible, unlike in the other tank, some already occupy the moved tubes. I also fed live bbs yesterday to make them enjoy the tank more.

All and all, not bad for a move, more plants, they will have easier time hunting
Plus a funny story, I switched my endlers and indostomus, one tank to another. In the morning I go take a look and there is an endler in my indostomus tank. I am confused, try to recount what happened, did I put it in the wrong tank when I did the move in the evening, did I drop it by accident. Nope, it must have jumped from the new tank to the old through a 1cm gap on the side where the tanks are adjacent. What a coincidence and a happy ending.

 

[Beastije]