Upgrading My Shrimp Tank

[Zikofski]

personally for such a low stock in your tank in regards to plants then there is no need to have ferts or even dose co2 if u stick with low light and low demanding plants like u have all will be good plant wise how are you doing on the food front? they started eating any food u put in yet??

 

[Mamashack]

Yes at long last they have started eating what I put in, Zik! I'm hoping that's a good sign that I may have got the water params right for them. I have a small clear glass dish I use to contain the food so that I can be sure I've removed what hasn't been eaten after 3-4 hrs. Sometimes tho there's nothing left to remove!
 
I was a bit disappointed I had to remove the vallis and then recently the frogbit as I thought that was quite pretty, but it was dissolving into holes so clearly wasn't going to do well in there in the long run. I can live with minimal until I feel more confident that I'm giving them what they need. Perhaps I should reduce the photoperiod from 8 hrs which is currently split into 2 x 4 hr sessions. Altho if there's only moss-balls in there and they are still lovely and green I may just leave well alone.
 
The more I look at Marvel the more I think female. I'm almost certain the yellow area is a developing egg-sac and I won't be at all surprised to see a saddle with eggs in the near future - fingers crossed!

 

[Zikofski]

nice well i went to MA today, spoke to the female person and yea she was not so helpful altho i did right down what i was looking for and my number, she said she will look at the list of shrimp and if the one i want was on there she will give me a call and see to order some in n stuff she reckons they can only get 1 type of blue shrimp at about £10 but they have had Rili shrimp in before she said, also they where selling the black crystals, 3 for £15 again they are a order only kinda shrimp as they are expensive still mixed over what to do what shrimp to get, but i did buy some more amano shrimp today so now i have 16 amano's in my main tank that tank is way over stocked lol but luckily my filter is big enough to take the load, one of the shrimp tho has a red thing inside its head similar to your yellow spot on your blue shrimp i wonder too what this is? this shrimp is much larger then my current ones and larger than any i bought il try and get a pic tomo going to do a big clean and my plants need a trim and rescaping so il see and mix around things tomo, my 2nd tank for the shrimp tho is going well half way through the cycle ammonia 0 now for 3 days in a row but my nitrites staying high won't go down was over 5ppm other day till i did that dual 90% wc it was 1ppm yesterday and slowly increased to 2ppm today will do another wc tommo tho but i did buy some bottle bacteria to see if that will help, not the same stuff i usually get that DOES work on nitrite but il see if this works 

 

[Dandyman3]

Progress with both your tanks sounds brilliant. Your 16 to my 2 shrimp 

 
I do like the Amano shrimp though. They seem like one of the most friendly bunches similar to cherries. It is quite interesting with you mentioning about feeding though. When I put my wafer in, I put it in the front of the tank and one down the side behind the plants. I never see the shrimp come to the front of the tank. Whenever I catch them, there either on the live plants or scurrying on the wood. They do seem to enjoy the fish flakes I add to it as well. 
 
In terms of your water parameters, are you strongly focusing on the hardness as the predominant level? I don't measure hardness myself at this point so wondering if you think this is key when I have plans of increasing my shrimp family. 
 

 
I was a bit disappointed I had to remove the vallis and then recently the frogbit as I thought that was quite pretty, but it was dissolving into holes so clearly wasn't going to do well in there in the long run. I can live with minimal until I feel more confident that I'm giving them what they need. Perhaps I should reduce the photoperiod from 8 hrs which is currently split into 2 x 4 hr sessions. Altho if there's only moss-balls in there and they are still lovely and green I may just leave well alone.

Perhaps you want to do like I do. At the moment I am using a combination of liquid co2 with nutrients for plants too. I have chosen all my plants which are at a basic level or require minimal co2 and they are all flourishing. These are both from Aqua Essentials so perhaps you might want to give them a shout though if you do have any concerns. Hopefully doing a similar thing like I am should let you expand your current plant range. And because it is a smaller tank makes it a lot easier and a lot less required. 

 

[Mamashack]

Well the amanos will help remove some of the detritus produced by your other stock, Zik, and won't really add to the bioload. Looking forward to seeing some pics when you have some! You've got time to think about which shrimp whilst your tank completes its cycle so no need to rush into anything (I know you aren't anyway)
 
I do use ferts and liquid CO2 in the 2 bigger tanks, Dandyman and the amanos have been fine with it altho I'm only recently up to full strength with the CO2. It can affect shrimp breeding apparently but since amanos need brackish water for the young it's not really an issue in there.
However I don't want to mess with these cherries as I would rather like them to breed if at all possible, but it's something to consider down the line a bit when a change of scenery might be appealing.
 
I am using the TDS as the main guide altho I'm still checking the usual stuff too especially nitrates which I've been recommended to keep at 10 ppm or under. Hope I'm not tempting fate when I say that these white pearls seem to be doing ok with the water as it is now. I think that having lower TDS water levels previously might have contributed to the demise of most of the first 2 lots of blue pearls apart from this one remaining blue one. 
 
Have to say it's been a steep learning curve and it's such a pleasure to have them now I know what they need. They do have quite specific needs, but I've had a some good support and hopefully I'm getting it right now. 

 

[Mamashack]

Thought you might like to see the feeding frenzy this morning. It sounds silly but I get such pleasure out of seeing them feeding and swimming etc. Probably because I lost 2 lots in quick succession, but I'm very happy with this tank at the moment!

 

[TallTree01]

It's funny how they are perfectly willing to get in your glass cup, but bring out the fish net and they fly off the handle!
Very healthy looking shrimp mama.

 

[Mamashack]

It's funny how they are perfectly willing to get in your glass cup, but bring out the fish net and they fly off the handle!

Very healthy looking shrimp mama.

Thanks TT! It's true about the net too!
Had a lovely experience putting the dish in this morning - 2 of the shrimp landed on my hand and started walking up my fingers and they didn't jump off until I took my hands out of the water. It was a really special moment!

 

[Zikofski]

yea i am also surprised they get into the cup funny haha i guess u know how to get them tho put the cup and some food in there wait till they get in and then put the net over the cup tu da u caught yourself some shrimp but they do look very healthy and very happy in there that dark substrate really brings out there light colours

 

[Mamashack]

Yes I can almost see the point when they scent the food as their behaviour changes a minute or so after the food dish is placed in there.
I have to admit they do look very good and it's so nice to be able to find and count them all at the same time at least once a day.
As the days go by I'm more and more convinced that the coloured areas I've been noticing are developing saddles esp in the 3 larger shrimp as they actually are taking on the distinct shape of a saddle! Exciting stuff! 
There are moulted skeletons every day so there's plenty of growth happening.
 
Got hold of some reasonably priced Tetra Safe Start today at a garden centre on the outskirts of Wakefield - expiry date 02/15 so that might account for the price. My fingers are twitching to get the micro tank cycled again. Will have to start from scratch tho as the filter was transferred to this 19 L tank. Will be interesting to see if the cycle is shortened by the Safe Start, but I guess that's something for a different thread! Who knows - it might be a shrimplet tank soon! lol

 

[Dandyman3]

Wow. Obedient shrimp. I too am quite shocked they get in the glass cup. I suppose that will be helpful for breeding purposes in one sense too if you wanted to keep them segregated. In addition with the net comment you are absolutley correct. I wonder what causes it? I remember a while back when I was trying to move my shrimp it nearly jumped out of my net whilst I was transferring to another tank doing the re-scape... And surprise surprise these two were the last out of the tank... lol
 
In fact I even remember at the store when he was trying to catch the shrimp he had it in the net and it literally leaped out... He had to move all the other fish and get it again!
 
Cracking job though and thanks for continued updates. 

 

[Mamashack]

Not sure about obedient, just hungry I guess! It's one way of keeping the food and any leftovers contained so that they are easy to remove.

 

[Zikofski]

its a very gd idea and will be using it in my shrimp tank, not sure if it
will work for fish maybe i shal try a bowl and see

 

[Mamashack]

If the foods are solid enough it should work, Zik. Not sure it would work with flakes etc.
Have read in one thread about a betta in a tank with other fish and the betta was fed from its own dish whilst the others' food was added as usual. The dish was held by the owner near the top of the tank until it had eaten - amazing!

 

[Dandyman3]

Updates? 

 
Hope all is well