Ryan

That may have been it. But would a temp change result in a shrimp that struggles for two days, not eating and scratching at its back with its legs?

In the coming months, room temp may drop below 65, since the office shuts off the heat at night. The heater was super inexpensive anyways. Couldn't hurt to have it.

Hello, I have a one gallon tank on my desk, and my RCS are having trouble with molting. I've had a few die on me while trying to molt now. They spend a few days arching their backs and scratching with their rear legs before they give up. It always seems to happen to females. Parameters are as follows: Ph: 7.6 Kh: 3 Gh: 7 Nitrate: 0 Ammonia and nitrite were tested by the lfs a few weeks ago and both were at 0 after the tank had been set up without shrimp for about a month. The tank is at room temp, but I have a small heater in the mail. I have a sponge filter with an air stone and the tank is heavily planted. Thanks for any help.

Thanks Mr. F, that's very informative. I don't have a gh, kh or TDS meter yet. Which of these would you say I should buy first? From what I understand, TDS meters are pretty inexpensive online. I saw one of the larger female shrimp successfully molt today. The molt was quickly eaten by a few other shrimp. I assume this means that my water hardness is alright? As far as the lighting goes, could I just limit the light to 4 or 6 hours a day? Would this prevent algae growth? I understand that algae is a result of out of balance nutrients/CO2/light And I don't plan on using any CO2. Also, just a quick update, one of the smaller female shrimp has been pretty inactive today. She has been trying to find a place to hide and every time another shrimp finds her, she jets out of the way and looks for another hiding space. Is this behavior a sign of something that I should be worried about?

Hello, When I was in college I kept a dwarf puffer and some mollies (separate tanks), but I haven't had any aquatic pets in about 6 or 7 years now. I've had a 1 gallon tank with a sponge filter on my desk for about 6 weeks now. I cycled it for 4 weeks after the local fish store gave me some bad advice. They told me I could just dump RCS in an un-cycled tank. Those shrimp died in about 24 hours. About a week ago, after 5 weeks of cycling, I took some water to the LFS where they told me I had no ammonia or nitrites in my tank and my ph was at 7.6, so I bought six shrimp from a hobbyist on Craigslist. Four of those six are still alive, and they seem to be doing pretty well. I also have a java fern (which seems to be doing well), some dwarf sag, a banana plant (which does not seem to be doing well), and the java and christmas moss that came with both shrimp purchases. I have been using Kent's pro plant and I change about 8% of my water with bottled deer park water every couple of days. I'm expecting this bulb in the mail pretty soon. I've been testing my nitrates for the past couple of days and they hover around 5 ppm I have so many questions: Will that bulb be enough or too much for a 1 gallon tank? Are there any incredibly low maintenance plants that I should consider? I'm not too happy with the banana plant. Do you think the two shrimp (out of the six I bought a week ago) died because of the shock of being transferred to a new tank? The others seem to be happy and are quite active. Should I be feeding these shrimp? they spend all day picking at the gravel and various other surfaces in the tank. Do I need to worry about water hardness? The local water utility says: "Potomac water tends to be hard (typically averaging about 120–130 milligrams per liter)." Edit: Also, Do I need a heater? I'm not sure how cold the office will get in the winter. Thanks! Ryan