Small Planted Setup

[MaloK]

Well, I didn't find any pestle and mortar.

But, got something even better, a little pill press that you screw in to crush... It's so controllable you can make consistent crumble size, I thought I could make a mixed sampler of one week supply of everything I have and sprinkle a little bit of that every meal instead of choosing separately.

I went ahead and mixed all the staple food I have + all the supplement in according quantity...

I sprinkle a little of this mix 2 times per day in the most stealth manner possible. And it's perfect the shrimps are getting more food and it prevented dangerous agglomerations... And I can bring them out of hiding a bit safely.

And oops, it permitted me to see how many shrimps there is in there... A ... lot...

Still on the podium. The Pumpkins with around 70% of the population, followed by the mutts, around 20% then by the Rillis and Reds at 5% respectively.

I removed the dangerous rock to make sure no more buildups occurs there and it's going to give a little more flat space, the plants are beginning to be jungle style as I still partially fertilized since the incident.

I did My 7th water change of 9 to replace the water, by RO/DI... I should be over 80% water completely replaced atm. when reaching 9, there will be 97% of the water replaced.

The feeling to be able to be doing large water changes without fearing everybody is going to start dying.

Is priceless...

I changed so much water so fast lately that my biological filter recessed and I will probably be forced to cut back on water change slowly to let it cope back.

I'm very happy... The shrimps are back in blooming mode.

 

[Magnum Man]

I also thought about blending the staple feeds, but I actually think there is an advantage to feeding a different one each day... lets say you have, for example, one fish that really likes bug bites... and the other fish eat it as well... if you are feeding 7 times more bug bites, once a week, everyone is going to get some, unless they refuse to eat them... now if you put 1/7 as much of each food into a mix, there may not be enough bug bites for everyone to get some... if this continues everyday, the other fish that aren't getting a chance to eat them, and thus get little benefit from adding it to your mix, & if the bug bite lover spends too much time in search of the bug bites portion of the mix, it may not get some of the other foods in the blend... in the end I decided to rotate a different food each day...

 

[MaloK]

Yeah, I understand for fishes, but in a shrimp only tank... "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere" (That's their mojo)... All the food I tried draws them nearly equally and they are sifting the bottom relentlessly until total depletion.

In fact I only blended 4 staples that are vegetable based, 3 that are omnivorous, and 3 supplements... At some point I only have different flavors of somewhat similar already "complete" food in essence... I could use only one staple food plus the supplements if wanted.

I have adults that are nuts for baby food and babies that goes for the biggest adult pellets.

But they always eat everything down to the last bits... They start with what they love the most... Then check the rest...

This way. "Everybody gets their broccoli"... Partially in powder or in crumble.

 

[MaloK]

If you tikkle on a RO/DI system... Close your eyes, and take the leap... It's easy to install and maintain.

Saying that my water chemistry changed from "Good" to "Fantastic" is a real understatement !!! SaltySrimp minerals maintains the water exactly on the sweet spot.

In the last weeks, they have all brightened in color so much, it's amazing... Their playful behaviors at feeding time suggest total happiness... The look of their shells thickening and hardening, Pfffff. what an upgrade !!!

OMG... at 16 cents a gallon... I waited way too long... I feel so stupid. It's a day and night difference. For the first time in my life, I have total control on the water chemistry and it's marvelous.

Now I feel that I can easily keep the most delicate species without problems. Cheese, even if my back hurts like hell... I've been cheering all week.

My trip to Mosti Mondiale was pretty fruitful, I found a humongous polyethylene holding tank and all the plumbing gear I need... Just a little more tinkering and I will be able to easily maintain my 3 tanks with regular large refreshing water changes.

I also got a UV light to install in the holding tank to keep it free from biofilm longer. It was supposed to last 9000 hours but, when tested it did only 9 before frying .

I'm eager to install the holding tank but I need a much stronger support for it to tackle that job. The sink itself is made of concrete and weigh in excess of 300 pounds and can hold more than 300 pounds of water. The steel legs look in pretty good shape and is thick enough, but my pseudo shelf needs serious reinforcement to take the 150 pounds on top of the equation...

Going, going !!! This is a pretty positive week for my ongoing, going put-up job !

 

[MaloK]

Strange sight when the lights came on this morning... Habitually there not a single shrimp in view...

Today the tank looks like a Christmas tree !!!

Loll.

 

[MattW]

Holy shrimp!

 

[MaloK]

Last water change has been performed, and now the water is completely replaced...

I haven't done any testing the last month because the results speaks from them selves.

I also resumed feeding the tank Until every one poops.... Because after thorough observation. Starving the colony... Is too cruel for me... (Shrimps died again) I think I prefer the demographic crashes...

Seeing the lady of the tank taking a sun bath in the center top of all the plants, Supplanting every thing (dreaming males) with a smooth whoop of the tail. She even held a male by the carapace a couple minutes with one chella, looking at him in the eyes, waiting for him to calm down...

Without losing her poop trail.

 

[MaloK]

A srimp skewer

 

[gwand]

What is drawing them to the skewer, Rapashy?

 

[Sparx]

What are the green shrimp?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I love this journal so much! So happy it was bumped and I happened to see it today, and thank you for sharing your progress!

Shrimp are so much fun, and I'm really impressed with the scientific way you approached this, your ingenuity for making and adapting devices, and you clearly know the chemistry well.


But mainly, I just love how much joy you're getting from this, how dedicated you are to taking the best possible care of each shrimp as you can, and of the colony and their environment overall! That you went from the first post and wanting tonnes of fish, to beginning with shrimp, and then being captivated and enthralled with them! Observing them and sharing your notes too... it's just all lovely, and inspirational!

I kinda want this thread to be pinned in the shrimp section (whaddya think, mods?)

 

[MaloK]

What is drawing them to the skewer, Rapashy?

Powdered spirulin + Baby shrimp food + powdered gelatin + bacter AE in volume order.

After buying commercial lollies... I soon was brought to the fact... that, they're thin... At least I have nice skewers left.

What are the green shrimp?

In a word... Mutts.

I love'em !

Between all the colors I mixed initially. Some brown mosquitos, pure jade, black, purple... sprouted out...

And some really funky ones... like: Translucent... Pumpkings Rili... Blue striped and solid deep blue at like 4 mm long.... Are incoming... blue has not been seen for more than 2 months....But.

OH boy... I try to feed as carefully I can, Keep the water flow high and the plants growing.

No nitrogen in sight.

 

[MaloK]

I love this journal so much! So happy it was bumped and I happened to see it today, and thank you for sharing your progress!

Shrimp are so much fun, and I'm really impressed with the scientific way you approached this, your ingenuity for making and adapting devices, and you clearly know the chemistry well.


But mainly, I just love how much joy you're getting from this, how dedicated you are to taking the best possible care of each shrimp as you can, and of the colony and their environment overall! That you went from the first post and wanting tonnes of fish, to beginning with shrimp, and then being captivated and enthralled with them! Observing them and sharing your notes too... it's just all lovely, and inspirational!

I kinda want this thread to be pinned in the shrimp section (whaddya think, mods?)

Thanks for all these kind words... I'm still working on a small tank with lots of fish tho... But it's filled with algae now... I have a journal on this poor thing too.

After returning to the hobby after a good while... And the price of these little fellas... Failure is not really an option. I gave a try with a betta... And the sum of all the tribulations encountered still makes me... mmmmm.

I must admit that, when the tank is theirs, Cherries are very entertaining and surprisingly playful critters to watch. How ladies are able to eclipse invading "boys" by swift use of strength or ruse makes me laugh. Little babies following adults "because they know", Race competitions with the wannabe "Alphas". And yes... They play dead at the surface, to have peace some times... loll

When you reach the point of having happy specimens, everything tilts over. And you can "observe" Fantastic things. I never was greedy on "observations" and for me a journal is based on that.

From one of the simplest of all beings. I'm in admiration.

 

[MaloK]

After returning the feeding schedule to something more consistent, I was waiting for nitrates to show up anytime soon.

In addition of all the skipped gravel vacuuming, because of my persistent "achy back" I suffered the last months.

This week nitrate started rising... So I did the deed. And it was about time... Took me three 25% water changes 1 every other day to go trough a good de-mulming and I hit a couple smelly spots... Remaining "true to myself": Being able to have a tank suffer from OTS in under a year. At least I'm a lot more comfortable dealing with OTS than NTS. Since I have a lot of experience with it, loll.

Just the vacuuming process was enough to feed the shrimps the whole week. And "Once you start to vac, you can't go back..." Because the place you moved the substrate just fills up with shrimps instantly.

My Mini Gravel Vac works very well, It goes many places the standard one can only dream of, It has a lower flow that let you do some good cleaning without emptying the tank each time.



I had many "nosy" fish in the past... But Cherry Shrimps are just on another level, You cant hammer a nail without having shrimps on both the nail and the hammer's head at the same time. If I drop a thermometer in the tank it becomes all covered in seconds and I can't read it, they hike on all tools used too, as soon as they touch the water, loll.

Every time I want to do serious maintenance or modifications. It needs some kind of diversion or what I'm doing becomes covered to the point I can't do anything.

The general health of the tank seems very good, The water cannot be really better than that, And after the last blitz the substrate is back to the look it was when I setup the tank .

The latest change in water chemistry (while relatively slow) seems to have influenced my "Supplemental Bacteria" and seed shrimps colony negatively. But it's the exact opposite for the Cherries, that are showing all the good signs of thriving. The seed shrimps will probably adapt and still go trough the change tho.

I expect the remaining nitrate to vanish on their own in the next weeks, (dreaming never hurts).

If I can just... Get my food dosing a "little" better...

 

[MaloK]

Well there wasn't supposed to have any updates on this thread for a little while...

But tragedy stroked again

A foot fan near, fell on it's side and broke the tank. I used some gorilla tape to prevent the tank from getting empty too fast and ran to my LFS to get a new one ASAP.

I trowed new substrate in the tank added water moved all the plants and decor.

Now I'm trying to catch the remaining shrimps in what is left of the water in the old tank. with food and a ladle.

It's a complete catastrophe...