~T~
Fish Gatherer
Ok so last spring/early summer I put about 20 juvie cherry shrimp into a 20gal tub in my back garden with a few bunches of elodia crispa and a dozen or so giant pond snails. They thrived over the summer months although didnt multiply as much as I was expecting. Turns out the plants were full of newt eggs and the efts were eating the young shrimp. I removed the newts and they continued to thrive. I didnt do any water changes although being Scotland it rained a lot. Anyways last autumn I fished out as many as I could (nice fat healthy adults) and then pretty much forgot about the tub. Now the weather is improving I decided to have a look and see if the plants and/or snails had survived the winter. This was our worst winter in quite a few years although nothing compared to the ones we used to get. We had a lot of snow and the tub regularly froze over. Anyways the plants and snails had indeed made it and upon closer inspection I spotted a cherry shrimp! I moved the plants back a bit and was pleasently surprised to spot about another half dozen or so cherries. I think I'll try and remove a lot of the crap from the bottom and do a big waterchange and let things go again. I might even start a second tub going.
water only turns back into a liquid when lower then 0C under huge pressure like at the bottom of glaciars. I would guess the water temp was around 2-4C with highs of 6C on sunny days.
