Densha

Thanks! I'm using a Canon T3i and an external flash with Kenko extension tubes. Due for another update soon once I take some of my moss that got a little out of hand. Shrimplets are doing great and getting bigger. Couldn't be happier.

Welcome to TSS! Love seeing those bonsai-type trees in tanks. One of these days, I'm going to have to purchase a few of them.

[Day 90] Hope everyone's enjoying their summer. I know Duke has been enjoying the sights that summer brings. So remember that tank full of babies I wanted on day 40? I now have more babies than I expected. One of my blue bolts gave birth on 28 June, and the rest gave birth within that week. I'm glad they all made it through without any issues. Well, one of my blue bolts molted while she was giving birth so there were about 10 eggs still in the exoskeleton. I decided that since she was in the process of giving birth, I would just leave the exoskeleton alone and see what happens. Luckily for me, the rest of the eggs hatched by the next day and the exoskeleton was empty. I tried to count them 2 weeks after they were born, however, I ended up giving up after 40 or so. It's been a month since the first TB gave birth and it seems most if not all survived. I couldn't find any dead babies so either the adults ate the bodies or I had good luck. Regardless I have quite a bit. Most of the babies are red wine and black pandas. I'm hoping that some of the black pandas develop into shadows once they are a bit older. Among those though, there are quite the variation. I have seen one and two stripe ruby reds, one and two stripe BKK, and one that looks like it may even be a no entry. I was a bit surprised that despite all these babies, I couldn't find a single blue bolt baby. I began researching the genetics and the highest chance of them seem to be mating a blue bolt male to a blue bolt female. Although three of my pregnant females were blue bolts, I couldn't see any blue bolts at all. Then about a week ago, I found a single one! So I'm crossing my fingers that this one turns out to be an alpha male and brings his "A" game for the females! Besides that, everything is going well. The original adults are still active and doing their thing. I have noticed that the blue bolts have regained a lot of their blue color recently. The only thing I have been doing differently is leaving the amaranth leaves that I feed on the weekends in the tank longer. I was a bit apprehensive to let leaves sit in the tank too long in fear that they would foul the water. So I always removed the uneaten leaves after 1-2 days. One weekend I forgot to remove it and noticed the next day most of the adults and babies were gathered in the feeding dish devouring the leaf. I was a bit surprised because I've never seen them that aggressive eating it. I guess it takes a few days before the leaf gets soft enough for them to really go to town on it. So now I leave the leaf in there till it is gone. Besides my TB tank, I bought a few golden back neos for another 45p and they are doing well. I didn't realize but I must have placed a few babies in the tank from the shipping bag. None of the neos were pregnant when they went into the tank, but a few days later, I counted 8 babies that survived my pack of mischievous chili rasboras. I forgot how much faster neo babies grow compared to TBs. In about 2 weeks, they are double the size of the TB babies. This tank is still a work in progress and hopefully, will be entered in one of the nano contests at some point. So all in all, very happy with the tank health and the fact the babies are doing well. As I write this, I notice that my males are doing the dance so one of the females must have given birth again. I'm soon going to have more TBs than I know what to do with. I guess that's a good problem to have, though. Actually, it's a much better problem to have than the one Duke has...

Yes, I do have a lid on this tank. It covers about 80% of the tank. Excuse the iPhone pic:

Thanks Shrimpie123! I just made a gallon of remineralized RO/DI water using Lowkeys GH. .75ml of remineralizer gave me gH5 using the API test kit. 87 TDS.

I did have the diatoms before adding the shrimp. I noticed them starting just before the cycle was finished. However, they really bloomed after I added the shrimp. I don't think they minded and everything went well. I did brush some of the diatoms off the wood but left it on the glass.I saw shrimp graze on it every now and then. When I was using MK-Breed, it was around 130, and after the first water change with Lowkeys it bumped up to 140. I didn't start with Lowkeys so my TDS will no doubt be a bit skewed compared to yours. Two water changes of 10% later it's sitting at 147. I usually never measure the TDS of my new water, but I'll make some now and test.

Thanks for that! I've never heard/used a diopter before. I plan on using a dedicated macro, possible the Canon 100mm f2.8 since it has great reviews, and like you suggested, could be used as a portrait lens too. The level in your detail in your 100% crop of the tail portion of that pinto mischling makes me crave a macro lens even more! Do the shrimp react/flinch when you are using two flashes?

I've never seen that amount of growth before Sarah! The amano's i have kept only touched bba once it was dying and changing to that pinkish/red color.

After I read your post, I felt obligated to go check all of my tanks.

Awesome write up Kuro! Those macros are amazing. Thanks for providing a behind the scene photo too. Nice to see how it's done. I have the flashes, camera, extension tubes, but no macro lens. That's next on the purchase list. Hope you have a berry or 5 soon!

Awesome! Thanks. With this 9 gallon tank, the flow would be too strong without it.

@DETAquarium Hanaquatics just got the Choice Bubbler back in stock. I bought the NAG Bubbler before he restocked the original Choice version. Since you use the Choice version, I wanted to know if it came with a piece to divert the flow downwards like the NAG version does. I don't see it in your videos so I was wondering if it did. It's the piece circled below. Thanks!

Thanks. The BB is from the set I bought from you. I read that BB's can lose color due to hormones though. I've seen the blue come and go and then come back again with these so I'm not too worried about it. I think great stock and the NAG/Choice Bubbler are the reasons why this tank has responded so well. Usually when I buy nerites, a few of them die within the first week or many are gathered at the top of the tank. They require high oxygenation levels due to their natural habitats being shallow streams in the wild. While a bubble filter provides more than enough oxygenation, the NAG bubbler circulates microbubbles all over the tank and the bubbles have longer contact time suspended in the water. I feel this leaves no dead-spots that are lower in oxygen, plus more oxygenation throughout the tank. Overall I'm really happy with the bubbler. Thanks DETAquarium for the recommendation on your channel! I'm considering adding it to my other 45P to off-gass the CO2 at night.

I know shrimp genetics are pretty random when it comes to the offspring of TBs, but wanted to know if I could end up with higher quality BBs even though mine have little blue as they have grown older. I never saw which males mated with the females so I have no idea what to expect.

Appreciate it! Wanted to keep it on the simpler end of the spectrum so I can enjoy watching the shrimp.