Kurobom's Shrimp Chronicle

[Kurobom]

Introduction

Greetings fellow shrimp keepers! As a new member to the hobby, I look forward to sharing my shrimp adventures here with you all.

 

My entry point was started by my brother-in-law, who started with RCS as algae eaters for his fish tank. He soon saw the appeal of these little critters, and started an RCS only planted tank. Upon learning on more about the breeding possibilities with crystals and TBs, he started a second tank with CRS and mischlings, with the hopes of cheaply generating TBs. I've always been at awe with watching these guys swim, fight, and mingle around. Being a biology and chemistry high school teacher, the moment my brother-in-law explained the complexities around maintaining tank parameters and the possible genetic outcomes, I was instantly hooked. Along with my interest in macro and animal photography, I also knew this would be a nice side hobby to take on too.

 

Chapter 1: The Chronicle Begins

Based on some preliminary readings suggested by my brother-in-law, I decided to use a fellow TSS member's method of starting and cycling a tank.

http://ebilei.blogspot.ca/2014/11/how-do-i-set-up-bee-shrimp-tank.html?m=1

I didn't want to go half bare bottom though, but I did follow through on the rest of the suggested steps.

 

So towards the end of my winter holiday in January, I set off to Angel Fins out in Guelph, Ontario, to pick up a bag of ADA Amazonia, marimo balls, a nice piece of drift wood, UGF, ceramic shrimp cubes, air pump and lines, and cholla wood. My brother-in-law hooked me up with some flame moss from his CRS tank, fishing line to tie them down, SeaChem Matrix and Prime, a few scoops of Bacter AE, and a pre-filter sponge. I cleaned up an old Hagen 10 gallon starter kit that my parents had since the early 90's, which also came with an AquaClear Mini (now known as the AquaClear 20) and water heater. I filled the HOB filter with only SeaChem Matrix, and tossed some below the UGF space as well. Speaking of the UGF, they only had a 15 gallon version on hand, so I had to cut it into smaller dimensions with a pair of strong scissors to make it fit. I switched out the old incandescent bulbs for some mini CFLs I had hanging around, tossed in two lava stones I had purchased from a prior vacation, and started the cycling with primed tap water. A few days later, I added in a water heater to keep the water at 30^o Celsius to help the bacteria come along. I was so confident that the cycling complete in no time (ha!), so I purchased some distilled water for the final water change whenever it happens. Little did I know it would be close to 3 and a half months later until things would be ready, and that was the help with lots of bacterial additives! More on that later...

 

Figure 1. Everything tossed in, with a cholla that didn't sink for a few days

 

Figure 2. Everything is humming along

 

Figure 3. Two jugs of distilled water that was representative of my over confidence. These were not used until 3 and a half months later...

 

On a side note, I know that tank wise this was not the prettiest one to go with. I originally had intentions of starting with an ADA 60P tank, Eheim filter, and LED lights too. After some debate with the wife, I agreed that putting the saved money (on using an old tank) towards some shrimp would be more worthwhile to start with. If the shrimp end up thriving and I become more "shrimp worthy", maybe then I'll go for a more fancy set up.

 

As time permits, I will share how the cycling experience went, the additions and losses of some of my first shrimp, and a few macro shots I was able to get of them. Stay tuned!

 

 

[DETAquarium]

Great start Kurobom! Really like the setup. Any shrimp in mind?

[Dluxeshrimps]

Awesome job. At 1st I wasn't shrimp worthy and the misses didn't accept my obsession with shrimps. after a while she noticed the beautiful colors and shrimplets that have become since then and has accepted me and my MTS. prepare for more and more tanks 

[Kurobom]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 8:22 AM, DETAquarium said:

Great start Kurobom! Really like the setup. Any shrimp in mind?

 Thanks DETAquarium! My tank currently has 4 black pandas, 1 shadow panda, 1 BKK, 2 BBs, and 6 pinto mischlings.

[Kurobom]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 9:39 AM, Dluxeshrimps said:

Awesome job. At 1st I wasn't shrimp worthy and the misses didn't accept my obsession with shrimps. after a while she noticed the beautiful colors and shrimplets that have become since then and has accepted me and my MTS. prepare for more and more tanks 

I do have dreams of shrimp racks being filled with hundreds of shrimp... hopefully I'll get there some day!

[Kurobom]

Chapter 2: Everyday I'm Cycling

As suggested by EbiLei's cycling instructions, I started to test my water parameters every few weeks with API's Freshwater Complete kit. Another source I referenced for cycling information was:

http://www.shrimpfever.com/2013/08/12/so-you-want-to-start-a-shrimp-tank-5-setting-up-cycling/

 

I kept my water close to 30 degrees Celsius, and kept the light on for 12-14 hours a day. As expected, using ADA Amazonia leaches out huge amounts of ammonia in the beginning. I figured it would take time for the nitrosomona to kick in without bacterial additives, so I tried to be patient as long as I could... Those who are cycling a tank for the first time may have similar experiences as well.

 

Figure 1. My first ever water test on January 20th, 2016 (1.5 weeks since starting the tank)

 

A few days later I dusted in some GlasGarten Bacter AE in the hopes to spur along some bacterial growth. I was able to get some biofilm action happening with it too.

 

Figure 2. Biofilm developing on my drift wood, flame moss, and marimos

 

So by now I was thinking, "Yeah yeah! Bacteria-ville is booming! That ammonia must be tanking like a beast now!"

 

Figure 3. Water test on January 27th, 2016. Ammonia is still as high as a kite!

 

So time to call in the cavalry right? After all, I was hoping to get this tank cycled so I can celebrate Family Day in mid-February with some new shrimp! Having read some good reviews about Prodibio's Biodigest (and really, I just loved how cool tanks looked with a glass vial inside), I bought some on Amazon to try out. Being still very much in the middle of a Canadian winter though, I had some worries that the cold may have zapped my bacteria in the bottles.

 

Figure 4. Cool looking glass vials makes me feel like an old school doctor

 

A few days later, I thought "Wow, this stuff is really working!" I was so excited that I sent a picture to my brother-in-law, who's first response was, "Yo, that's some crazy hair algae you got there!".

 

Figure 5. After dosing the Biodigest, my tank became hair algae central!

 

Well, it can't be that bad right? After all, this must mean the ammonia is being soaked up with all that living stuff in there, and that algae will be food for my future shrimp?

 

Figure 6. Ammonia gone? Nope! Higher than ever on this test on February 3rd, 2016.

 

So by now I'm thinking getting some shrimp for Family Day in mid-February is probably not going to happen in time... that deep green on the API test kit was mockingly disappointing to see. After some further reading on ways to help cycle things faster, the idea to get some floater plants ensued. Being where I am in Toronto, the only close place to get some floaters was at my local Big Al's store, and all they had was frogbit. So in they went after I cleared out as much of the hair algae as possible with scrubbing and a net. I even took my wife with me to purchase them on Valentine's Day; aren't I romantic?

 

Figure 7. A modest $5 bunch of frogbit, but this will add to my arsenal against ammonia and nitrates! Muahaha! Cycling will take no time now! Muahahaha!

 

Fast forward a few more weeks, more Biodigest dosings, and multiple water tests that showed more or less the same results, this was my current progress with cycling...

 

Figure 8. Ammonia, why you no go away? Test done on March 8th, 2016.

 

Experiencing roughly the same amount of difficulty with the cycling was my brother-in-law, who restarted a tank at the same time in early January in solidarity with helping me start my entry into shrimp keeping. We both agreed a 100% water change would help get rid of the crazy high ammonia and give the nitrosomona bacteria a chance to actually chew on some of it!

 

In the hopes of getting things shrimp ready by March Break (I am a teacher after all), a member of GTA Shrimp Society also suggested using Colony ATM for Freshwater. So with another quick visit to Big Al's to pick up a bottle, and I dosed it according to their instructions after the water change.

 

Figure 9. My ghetto fabulous setup in my basement on top of an IKEA shelf unit. The height does help with water changes. Any Catan fans out there?

 

A week and a half later, things made a dent on the ammonia, but still nothing close to being ready for shrimp. After a few more doses of the Colony ATM and water changes with primed tap water, things were starting to simmer down!

 

Figure 10. Water test on March 20th, 2016. Not that crazy deep dark green anymore, but a limey bright green! Progress FTW!

 

The way the calendar year played out this year meant that March Break was coming to a close, but the Easter long weekend was the immediate following weekend. My brother-in-law squeezed some water from his CRS tank's sponge filter, and that got his ammonia levels to disappear faster than a steak in a piranha pit. He also got a person on Kijiji lined up to buy some TBs from once our tanks were ready, so I really really really wanted to get my ammonia levels down soon enough so the water has a few days to settle in before adding shrimp in. So in a bit of a hail Mary way, I went ahead and did a full RODI water change, and threw in the rest of the Colony ATM I had. On a side note, I also added some marsilea crenata to see if it can potentially carpet the tank in the future.

 

Figure 11. Distilled water purchased from Loblaw's has a TDS of 1!

 

Figure 12. Here's the tank after the 100% RODI water change, with some marsilea plugged into the substrate.

 

So, we are now into the Easter long weekend! Pending my water test results, we would finalize the meet up with our Kijiji shimp seller on Easter Monday. And the results were...

 

Figure 13. Huzzah! As yellow as the brick road in Oz! These levels were maintained for several days. The nitrates were around 5.0 ppm, which I was told was doable for the shrimp by local members.

 

And so on that faithful Easter Monday, my brother-in-law and I trekked out to Markham to meet up with our Kijiji seller to pick up a mixture of Taiwan Bees, and then we headed over to Shrimp Fever to grab some BBs for him and Pinto Mischlings for myself. At this point, my tank had 6 Pinto Mischlings, 4 black pandas, 4 shadow pandas, and 2 BKKs. I must emphasize that I "had" them, as I will try to share more in a later post.

 

All in all, it was about 3 solid months of time, with lots of additives, plants, testing, water changing, and cursing. In hindsight, it is not unusual to need this much time to cycle a tank with the amount of ADA Amazonia I have in it. This was a good learning experience for my first tank, and whenever I do start cycling a second tank in the future, I will probably start it off with the right additives from the start, keep up regular regimes of water changes and bacterial dosing, and I think things will cycle much better and faster.

 

Here are some iPhone shots of the shrimp after they were first brought home...

 

Figure 14. The shrimp are home! And now the hard part really begins...

[Kurobom]

Chapter 3: Gone to Shrimp Heaven (figuratively and literally)

As many people suggested when first introducing their shrimp to their tanks, I drip acclimated them prior to adding them into the tank and let them explore things for a few days before feeding them. Strangely enough, my pinto mischlings were so eager to get in, three of them managed to climb up the side of the container and into my drip line during acclimation. Coaxing them out gently was a bit nerve wracking and awkward, but they came out fine. I noticed a few molts after the first and second evening, with no deaths, and so I thought things are gonna be great!

 

Two days after introducing them to the tank, I decided I needed to start feeding them. In my rotation was Shirakura Ebidama, Biomax #2, ADA Bacter100, and leftover Bacter AE. The intention was to feed them every two or three days. The Ebidama pellets were quite large and hard, so I took a hammer to the bag and tried to crush it up a bit more. I aimed for one stick of Biomax per shrimp, which in hindsight was waaaay too much food. I would use a syringe and an airline to suck out any unfinished food as well.

 

One week into the tank going live, and I noticed a dead pinto next to one of my ceramic shrimp hides. I noticed there was a new molt in the tank that looked like it would belong to it, but the body was pretty badly chewed up. Feeling unsure as to what had happened, I quickly did a water test:

 

Figure 1. Post mortem water test, but the parameters seem fine? gH was 4 to 5, and kH was 0 to 1.

 

So if the water wasn't the culprit, what was it? Upon some reading on our forum, I came across the topic of cannibalism during molting here:

After reading up on it a bit more, it seemed that some fellow hobbyists hypothesized that this might happen if the shrimp were hungry and low on protein. Thinking that this was a plausible idea, I decided to increase my feeding to once a day at 3 hour durations. Problem solved, right?

 

Figure 2. Hoping this little guy makes it in the long run. RIP to his pinto mischling buddy!

 

During the March Break, I also had a chance to pick up a Tamron 90mm VC F2.8 macro lens for my Nikon D600. Being a big fan of macro photography, I really am hoping to capture nice images of my shrimp as they develop and grow. One of the challenges of macro photography is the shallow depth of field that results in getting really close up shots of your subject. To combat this, you would use a much narrower aperture (from F8 to F22) to get a greater depth of field, but with the decrease of light going into the camera, the result is that you will raise the ISO of the camera to expose your image properly. Especially with shrimp that are moving around quite a bit, you need a faster shutter speed as well to try to get sharp images, which in turn will also require a higher ISO. High ISO images tend to lose contrast and definition compared to low ISO images, and so you end up easily losing detail in your shots. This can be compensated if you have an external light source, like a flash, to help provide extra lighting on your subject though!

 

Figure 3. Test shots with the macro lens of my brother-in-law's CRS with no flash. These images were well above ISO 1600, and came out quite smudgey looking!

 

Now that I had my own shrimp, I propped my external flash with a remote trigger over the lid, and aimed it down directly overhead. To get my best close up shots, I found that I had to use an aperture of F22 to F32 to get enough of the eyes and body in focus. The flash was at full power, and the shutter speed was 1/200, to maintain an ISO of 100 to 320. I would turn my lens to its minimum focus distance, and would use the electronic viewfinder zoomed in to try to get the eyes in focus for the shots. Here are my first attempts!

 

Figure 4. My smaller BKK, later to go missing and completely disappeared

 

Figure 5. One of my red pinto mischlings

 

Figure 6. One of my shadow pandas, later on found dead in a few days

 

Figure 7. My shadow-ish panda

 

Figure 8. Black panda party!

 

Figure 9. Black panda solo shot

 

Figure 10. My bigger BKK, always mean with the food!

 

Figure 11. Pinto mischling and panda sharing the substrate

\

 

At this point of the month, I had to do a top up with RODI water, which was able to spur on more molts, which I thought looked pretty cool on a close up as well!

 

Figure 12. Macro close up of a molt

 

Over the course of 2 days after these pictures though, I lost 3 shadow pandas! They would look like they were standing completely on the substrate, and an hour or two later I would see their body just tumbling around in the water current, stiff as rocks. I immediately checked my water parameters again...

 

Figure 13. Water not showing anything out of the ordinary here! gH and kH levels were good too! Man oh man...

 

Figure 14. My little juvi shadow panda succumbed to a similar fate as its bigger siblings. Just what is going on?

 

This immediately prompted me to do a 20% water change with remineralized RODI (I use Salty Shrimp gH+). Being a chemistry teacher, I was worried I may have contaminated something by accident. I also started to doubt my photoshoot; did the flashes do something bad to the shrimp? Did the crushed Ebidama have trace plastic in it done by my own hammering? Was something in the water causing molting problems? Was it just that my shadow pandas were weak sauce? I really wasn't sure anymore...

 

Figure 15. The "IV" drip of life, desperately hoping this will help prevent any further deaths.

 

Things looked good for a few days, but then a pinto mischling died a few days afterwards much in the same way the shadow pandas did. I also noticed another mischling and my smaller BKK haven't been seen in over a week as well. Growing concerned that they might be dead under the log and it may be spurring on some of these deaths, I knew something had to be done to try to locate their bodies. Upon some other valuable advice from my fellow GTA Shrimp Society members, I also removed my rocks, ceramic hides, and log completely from the tank. And so I took out the shrimp out of the tank (which in itself was a brutally painful process of trying to catch them and not pancake them to the side of the tank), took everything out, and scrubbed away most of the obnoxious hair algae that have been around since my cycling days. To my surprise, there was no sign whatsoever of my missing pinto mischling and smaller BKK. And so to my dismay, three weeks into my keeping of 16 shrimp, I was down to 9...

 

Figure 16. The shrimp tank reset! I've actually removed the frogbit now too as the roots were getting a bit obnoxious, and it was making it difficult to count the shrimp.

 

By now, I was in full paranoia about seeing dead shrimp every morning I would look into the tank. Full out PTSD was in effect, as was shared here:

Another piece of advice from GTA Shrimp Society was to decrease the feeds to 1 hour durations every other day (thanks Avie for that!). With that new regiment in place, things started to settle down a little. On a subsequent weekend, I went back out to Shrimp Fever and picked up 3 more pinto mischlings and 3 BBs to replace my lost shadow pandas.

 

Feeling good about seeing surviving shrimp again, I was happy to start snapping up pics of them again. This time, I was even able to use Kenko extension tubes with the macro lens, and produced some pics I was pretty happy with.

 

Figure 17. New shrimps in the house! Still far from making Chris Lukhaup proud though...

 

Once the BBs were in, I did two consecutive feeds of Ebidama (one on a Tuesday, one on a Thursday), which they took quite a liking to. I did a RODI top up of 2L of water on the Wednesday. Then on the Friday, I noticed that one of my BBs was walking around very weakly and slowly. It died later in the evening. Again, the water parameters were fine! Suspecting the food now, I noticed there was a small puncture hole at the bottom of the bag. I started to get quite upset with myself, thinking that my hammering of the bag to get smaller pieces may have caused the food to go bad or get embedded with plastic somehow. Or was it the flash from the photography again? Or did it just have a bad molt that resulted from the water top up (even though the RODI was dripped in very very slowly)?

 

It has been almost a week since the BB has died. I have stopped feeding the Ebidama, and have only done a day of Biomax and a day of Bacter100. The tank will need a top up soon, but I will try to do that on a feed day to see if having food will give more energy to any of the shrimp that may molt from the water being added. As for now, I have ordered some GlasGarten Shrimp Dinner, Baby Shrimp, and 4-in-1 snack from SKA to replace the Ebidama, as well as bring some more variety into the shrimps' diet. I will also try snowflake food to see if the shrimp will take to that too. Gradually, the PTSD of the shrimp dying is wearing off, and I'm trying to stay positive about the hobby.

 

That being said, if more shrimp die from me taking pictures of them, I will need to learn to live with high ISO shots!

 

As an aside, having an HOB filter means that it can be quite easy to make craters in the substrate. So I read up on some DIY hacks on how to prevent that from happening, and this was the solution many fellow hobbyists came up with...

 

Figure 18. My ghetto fabulous HOB redirect, made from a 2L pop bottle.

 

Here's to hoping things start to steady off. My next update will probably be after I get the GlasGarten foods from SKA and a review on how the shrimp like it!

[Kurobom]

Starting to feel like this guy, having pics of the shrimp he's lost:

http://fahadismy.name/things-ive-learnt-killing-crs/

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'm glad you made the write up.  Many other hobbyists feel isolated when it comes to shrimp deaths.  Now they are able to relate a bit more with yours.

 

One thing I've learned while keeping shrimp is to feed very very minimally.  I feed M, W, F.  That's it. Extra food will decompose and cause water problem fast.

 

One hobbyists put it this way, "Think about feeding what you think is too little, then feed less."

[Kurobom]

On ‎4‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 10:25 AM, Soothing Shrimp said:

I'm glad you made the write up.  Many other hobbyists feel isolated when it comes to shrimp deaths.  Now they are able to relate a bit more with yours.

 

One thing I've learned while keeping shrimp is to feed very very minimally.  I feed M, W, F.  That's it. Extra food will decompose and cause water problem fast.

 

One hobbyists put it this way, "Think about feeding what you think is too little, then feed less."

 

Thank you for the advice and encouraging words Soothing Shrimp!

 

In another conversation with a GTA Shrimp Society member that's been giving advice, we also spoke about how isolating it can feel when trying to figure out shrimp deaths. After all, it can be so discouraging when you see so many more success stories out there about people getting berried shrimp in what seems to be a matter of days. I think it is fair to say that many of our more capable shrimp breeders and keepers on this forum have experienced a lot of challenges and failures for years before getting consistent results from their shrimp.

 

It may very well have been my knee jerk reactions, like upping the feeding when I thought they weren't getting enough for the speculated cannibalism (which probably wasn't even the case for me), that spurred on more trouble than it was worth. I notice that on the days that I don't feed them, the shrimp still show poop in their bodies and regular poopings are made. This must mean they're managing fine without the daily feeds. They certainly are digging around more of the substrate for food in nooks and crannies they don't normally look into, but at least they aren't starving. There's an indian almond leaf that seems to be finally getting their attention too.

 

Being a science teacher, I'm all in favour of sharing my successes and failures, and view this as a collection of evidence to add to our pool of knowledge. My brother-in-law said that this was "the cost of tuition" as well, and I agree that this hobby is impossible to avoid losses in (kind of like investing in stocks, futures, or Forex). How emotional one can be about it though is where wisdom will help keep things in perspective. This is first and foremost a learning experience, and so now I will try to be more systematic in making changes and observations to methodically learn what has positive and negative impacts on the shrimp. 

[Kurobom]

I just binge watched all of DETAquarium's YouTube videos, and I wish I had sooner! It has a great collection of videos that gives good concise information about set up, TB care, and feeding of manufactured foods and leaf litter. I think I will try the MWF feeding schedule that Soothing Shrimp and DETAquarium recommends (instead of my every other day regime), and will look into ordering some guava, oak, and mulberry leaves to add them into the mix. It will be interesting to go with that regime, which would be a staple food on Monday, protein rich food on a Wednesday, and then a mineral supplement on Friday. I've got alder cones coming in via a hobbyist from Greece that I found on eBay, so I'm excited to add those too. 

 

I highly recommend all the vidoes if you are looking to start the hobby, or are new to it as well! Makes me want to start cycling a new tank already...

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/DETAquarium

[Shrimp Life]

Beautiful pics kurobom! I know it can be stressful to lose shrimp, especially if you don't know why. I think the most important thing is to try to figure out what went wrong, isolate the problem so it won't happen again. Eventually also you will find a combination of practises that you finds works best for your shrimp... Once you are on a roll with this, this stress will be a thing of the past... and you can enjoy the hobby even more and get another tank, or two! 

[Shrimple minded]

Kurobom, I also appreciate a good shrimp tale.  Thanks for sharing.

 

I really commend (and share) your scientific approach and consideration of the countless variables to consider when things are suboptimal.

 

I can't help but think there is one variable (somewhat) outside of our control when trying to get a colony going, and that is the health of the shrimp you are receiving. I know of the several batches I've brought in, some were complete disasters, with whole lots dwindling to low numbers.  On the other extreme, many of my domestic hobby breeder acquisitions have acclimated perfectly and thrived consistently.  Very recently, I added some shrimp to a tank that had been doing great for 5 months, only to lose 80% of the original inhabitants while at the same time none of the new additions perished.  I don't mean to in any way question your source shrimp breeder, but merely want to point out that we can't know how well new shrimp are going to acclimate to our tanks.  This is why I purchase large enough lots that even with losses, I have enough remaining shrimp to reach a "critical mass" where the colony gets going.  

 

It's all to convenient when things go awry to think that it is something you are doing, or even more convenient to walk down the road of "is it a bacterial infection", but I think it is important to remember that sometimes not all things are within our control.  Sometimes tapping the brakes, waiting it out, and only changing variables you strongly feel could be in play is a best pathway for us all (myself included). 

 

 

[Kurobom]

21 hours ago, Shrimple minded said:

I can't help but think there is one variable (somewhat) outside of our control when trying to get a colony going, and that is the health of the shrimp you are receiving. I know of the several batches I've brought in, some were complete disasters, with whole lots dwindling to low numbers.  On the other extreme, many of my domestic hobby breeder acquisitions have acclimated perfectly and thrived consistently.  Very recently, I added some shrimp to a tank that had been doing great for 5 months, only to lose 80% of the original inhabitants while at the same time none of the new additions perished.  I don't mean to in any way question your source shrimp breeder, but merely want to point out that we can't know how well new shrimp are going to acclimate to our tanks.  This is why I purchase large enough lots that even with losses, I have enough remaining shrimp to reach a "critical mass" where the colony gets going.  

 

Thanks for that perspective too, Shrimple minded! Although it is a bigger initial investment in getting larger lots, I can see that there are advantages to ensure enough healthy shrimp pass Darwin's test to maximize their chances of long term survival, as well as ensure there are enough females in the mix too.

 

I did ponder that myself, but the sources of my shrimp are from identical batches my brother-in-law shared. We bought 20 mixed black TBs from Kijiji, split them 10 each. All 10 of his are still alive, but I have lost 4 of mine. He didn't get any pinto mischlings from Shrimp Fever, but he did pick up 10 BBs and I bought 3 myself a few weeks later. He has had no deaths, but I lost 1 out of my 3 BBs. Doh! In terms of my pinto mischlings, I started with 6, lost 3, and bought 3 more to replace them. All are alive and well for now.

 

If I were to compare his shrimp practices to my newbie skills, he touches or fiddles with his tank as minimally as possible, but does feed his shrimp 4-5 times a week. He also cycled his tank faster than I did with a canister filter (we had identical start dates), while I used a UGF and a HOB filter. Both of our setups are filled with SeaChem Matrix. There are lots of other interesting variables to consider for sure... Either way, we are hoping both our colonies take off so that we can start swapping shrimp to see what patterns and quality shrimp we can raise!

[Kurobom]

Chapter 4: Where the Berries At?

This chapter is more an update on the current status of my tank. No shrimp deaths to report so far (knock on cholla wood), I'm on a better feed schedule now, and some new macro shots to share (though if you've been on the shrimp photo discussion on the general page, you've seen them already)!

 

Around my last post, I had lost one of my BBs for unknown reasons. Since then, I've tried to do things like water changes, feeds of specific foods, as well as shooting photos, on separate days to see if they had any good or bad effects on the shrimp. The only thing I've completely axed out was my dubious package of Shirakura Ebidama that I didn't feel was worth the risk of retrying. I'm happy to report that none of the things I've been doing seem detrimental to the shrimp!

 

My current feed schedule now, as per much of the suggestions of our board members, are now only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:

 

Monday - GlasGarten Shrimp Dinner or Shirakura Ebidama (a clean batch from my brother in law)

Wednesday - GlasGarten 4-in-1 (cycling through the four types provided)

Friday - GlasGarten Baby Shrimp or ADA Bacter100 or Snowflake Food or GenChem Biomax #2

 

I got lots of food to cycle through for sure! Not that I want to stop though... our members seem to really enjoy using Cologne Shrimp Food (CSF) as well, so I am tempted to try some of those and add that in the mix in the near future!

 

Oh, speaking of the GlasGarten products, many thanks to Shrimp Keepers Anonymous for selling them! The delivery only cost $10 CDN and because Hung is from Alberta, it was only a 5% sales tax compared to 13% in Ontario! Bonus!

 

Figure 1. Shrimp food from SKA!

 

The shrimp have enjoyed all the GlasGarten products and flock to it relatively quickly! I'd say 4-5 pellets of the Shrimp Dinner Gran was the right amount for my 14 shrimp. The recommended amount of a 0.5cm pellet of the 4-in-1 snacks was about right too. The shrimp don't finish eating all of it, but much of it are just ground up leaf products anyways. The 4-in-1 comes with four individually sealed packs of each type of snack inside, so you don't need to worry about it coming all mixed up. So far, all varieties have been well received. Last but not least, the Baby Shrimp gets devoured quickly as well. I have no babies (yet), but the ingredients looked good for the grown ups too. I pour in about 1/4 of a scoop for my 10 gallon tank.

 

For those of us that haven't tried snowflake food yet, I highly recommend it! My shrimp all flocked to it immediately, and leaving the leftover flakes have not changed my water parameters. I'd say 90% of the flakes have disappeared in the days following the feeding of it as well. For my 14 shrimp, I chip off a 1mm-2mm chunk of the pellet and allow it to expand to all its glory!

 

Figure 2. Thumbs up from the shrimp for the snowflakes! If they had thumbs...

 

I've added in a dried mulberry leaf as well, and have Tantora guava leaves coming in the mail. I hope to provide a healthy amount of leaf litter to supplement what the shrimp need to eat.

 

I'll take a moment to also say that the shrimp keeping experience has been generally a positive one for my family as well. I have a nice hobby to distract me, and my daughters have taken a genuine interest in the little critters too. I keep my shrimp tank in my basement, so it has become an integral part of my Man Cave too...

 

Figure 3. "Doddy" is always in the basement!

 

I must admit, I was very amused by my 5 year old's somewhat accurate representation of what is in my tank so far... compare and see what she noticed!

 

Figure 4. My daughter's interpretation of what is in the tank

 

Sorry for the crappy iPhone shots! Here are some of my more recent macro shots to make up for it. You may have seen some in the shrimp photos post in the General Discussion!

 

 

As for now, I am (impatiently) waiting for the shrimp to get large enough to start getting berried. I'm still unsure as to how many females or males I have exactly. My tank is consistently around 21 to 22 degrees Celsius, which may be contributing to slower growth and development. My brother-in-law's tank is usually around 24 degrees, and he has since seen 4 berried BBs. Only time will tell I suppose!

[Shrimple minded]

Kuro, your daughter's pic of your tank is awesome.

[Maurice]

Great quality pics of your shrimp Kurobom!

 

What kit you using for these shots?

[Kurobom]

4 hours ago, Maurice said:

Great quality pics of your shrimp Kurobom!

 

What kit you using for these shots?

 

Thank you for the kind words Maurice, and I enjoy your shots a lot as well! What are you using for your shots?

 

I was using a Tamron 90mm F2.8 VC Macro lens, with Kenko Extension Tubes, on my Nikon D600. I also use a flash that has a wireless trigger. My camera was sent in to clean the sensor for oil spots (again), and they've decided to send me a brand new D610 instead in a few weeks! Hopefully I can sell it and get a used D800E...

[Maurice]

On 20 May 2016 at 8:47 PM, Kurobom said:

Thank you for the kind words Maurice, and I enjoy your shots a lot as well! What are you using for your shots?

 

I was using a Tamron 90mm F2.8 VC Macro lens, with Kenko Extension Tubes, on my Nikon D600. I also use a flash that has a wireless trigger. My camera was sent in to clean the sensor for oil spots (again), and they've decided to send me a brand new D610 instead in a few weeks! Hopefully I can sell it and get a used D800E...

Awesome! thanks very much.

 

A Canon 550d with 15-85USM and extension tubes. and off camera flash

Would love to get the 100mm f2.8...

 

Sorry, don't want to go off topic from your thread....

 

 

 

[ShrimpP]

Nice camera set ups. I've never used extension tubes before. Do you practically have to use a tripod for taking macro pictures or is free-handing still doable?

Are the cheap extension tubes (like the 3 piece sets on eBay for $20) any good? Read there is no optical glass and just circuitry that allows the camera to focus better for macro shots, so from that it sound like the cheap ones should work, but I'm still a newbie to photography.

Sorry to go off topic a bit, just really am impressed with the amount of detail able to be seen in your guys' pics.

[Kurobom]

1 hour ago, ShrimpP said:

Nice camera set ups. I've never used extension tubes before. Do you practically have to use a tripod for taking macro pictures or is free-handing still doable?

Are the cheap extension tubes (like the 3 piece sets on eBay for $20) any good? Read there is no optical glass and just circuitry that allows the camera to focus better for macro shots, so from that it sound like the cheap ones should work, but I'm still a newbie to photography.

Sorry to go off topic a bit, just really am impressed with the amount of detail able to be seen in your guys' pics.

 

1 hour ago, Maurice said:

A Canon 550d with 15-85USM and extension tubes. and off camera flash

Would love to get the 100mm f2.8...

 

Sorry, don't want to go off topic from your thread....

 

I'm more than happy to share and chat about our photography experiences here! It is something I feel as passionate and interested about as shrimping  

 

With the off camera flash, you can get higher shutter speed shots, so my pictures are all hand held. My shots are still blurrier than I'd like, but hopefully developing steadier hands and trying to stage some shots for a tripod setup will yield sharper pictures in the future. If my shots can emulate pictures closer to Chris Lukhaup levels of sharpness, I will be very very happy! How he gets sharp shots at 1/80th second hand held with his gear boggles me and is a testament to his skill and experience!

 

I've read mixed reviews on the cheaper third party extension tubes on eBay. They will work the same as the more expensive ones (just a hollow tube after all), but if you get a poorly made one, the electrical contacts don't contact well, may be loosely or too tightly attached to the body and lens. That's why I opted for Kenko ones as they were reputed to be better, quality wise. I was able to get a good price for mine on Kijiji, but the previous owner broke their 12mm one and now I wish I had it too to stack with the 20mm and 36mm tubes.

 

Maurice has all three, and they seem to have a good fit too. I've heard the 15-85mm is quite a sharp lens, so maybe at 85mm with the 1.6x crop factor, you won't need the 100mm F2.8, Maurice! When I was on my Canon 60D, I used the 55-250mm lens with a Raynox DC-250 diopter and got some reasonable macro-ish shots too. 

[ShrimpP]

Happen to know a decent budget (say for under $200, preferably closer to $100?) lens for macro shooting?

For a Canon T5i (EOS EF mount, but also have a m42 adapter for Takumar/Carl Zeiss lenses)

Haha, been a long while plus I'm a newbie, but what lens specs are most important for macro pics?

[Kurobom]

6 hours ago, ShrimpP said:

Happen to know a decent budget (say for under $200, preferably closer to $100?) lens for macro shooting?

For a Canon T5i (EOS EF mount, but also have a m42 adapter for Takumar/Carl Zeiss lenses)

Haha, been a long while plus I'm a newbie, but what lens specs are most important for macro pics?

 

The T5i is a nice camera! I started on a T3i myself before going on to the 60D. The most cost effective way to get into macro shots is to always start with extension tubes, attached to something like a 50mm F1.8 lens ("Nifty Fifty"). Something like this:

 

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=977827

 

I've also heard interesting results from using a reverse mounted ring on a Nifty Fifty. Another choice is to add a diopter in front! I've used a Raynox DCR-250 (there's a DCR-150 as well) on a Canon EF-S 55-250mm lens and got good close up shots.

 

At the end, the easiest thing to do is to pick up a true macro lens, which is a lens that natively allows you to achieve a 1:1 ratio of the subject size on your sensor. This is normally achieved at the Minimum Focus Distance of the lens. Most lenses that have a small Minimum Focus Distance will allow better than average close up shots, thus gaining a higher magnification of the subject. At best, most lenses get you 1:3 magnification, but macro lenses let you get down to 1:1.

 

I've heard people get good results with the older version of my Tamron macro lens. It lacks VC (vibration control AKA image stabilization) but it won't be used if you're on a tripod or have a quick enough shutter speed anyways. I think it looks like this one:

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/459-Tamron-SP-AF-90mm-F-2-8-Macro-For-Canon-With-Pouch-Hood-272E-From-Japan-/262444221689?hash=item3d1ae504f9:g:INMAAOSwYmZXKo0V

 

Do watch out for some lenses that have a Macro designation. They are not true macro lenses, just have a lower than average minimum focus distance (many older Sigma lenses say this). These lenses will allow you to gain focus at a lower distance, but usually there is a good amount of compromise in the image quality.

 

Just my 2 cents from my own limited learning as well  

[Kurobom]

Mini Update

I just picked up 2 BBs and 6 black TBs (looks like a mix of BKK and Shadow Pandas) from Tommy at Shrimp Fever today! Drip acclimating them now and looking forward to see what they add to the colony!

 

[DETAquarium]

Looking forward to seeing them in the tank!