Pika's First 10g Shrimp Tank!

[Soothing Shrimp]

congrats!

[Pika]

April 28, 2014: first teeny tiny baby shrimplet sightings!! 3 wee ones, much too small and far away for my cameras at this time, but WOOHOO!!

ETA: Got one!

[Pika]

Quick notes...

 

• SO many babies! I'm loving them, and there are at least 3 different sizes, so I guess that means at least three of my mommas hatched at least some successfully. At least two are freshly berried up again with bright yellow eggs.

 

• Ferts: Got dry ferts to try to help out my plants and be able to adjust the dosages. Bought a small pack from a great seller on TPT, and realized this is enough for, like, 50 years I'm pretty sure. Made up solution versions using the online calculators, but at PPS Pro type dosing, so a lot less concentrated than the EI. Started with CSM+B traces, KH2PO4 and K2SO4. Couldn't help myself, and added 1/2 doses of all three yesterday, about 3hrs apart for each. Frequent checking, everyone seems fine, but I'm going to give it a few days before I try again.

 

• Cooling: Also got a small fan, which did succeed in dropping the temp by about 3-4 degrees running continuously yesterday afternoon. So, hopefully that will allow us to keep the apartment AC on something reasonable and more affordable this summer without cooking the shrimpies. Also purchased some reusable "ice cubes" which will be undergoing testing and then may allow me to put the fan on the timer with the light, and use the cubes during other times to help drop a few degrees without so much fan and evaporation. I was surprised how much the water level dropped after just yesterday, and realize I may need a gallon or two of distilled water weekly just to keep up with it!

ETA: Oh, and the BBA is being kept in check by dosing my Excel (1mL/my 10g tank) directly onto it each day, turning it a lovely fuschia. It is popping up in a few more areas though, so theoretically this is going to be a problem. I'm already only on a 7.5hr light cycle, but the room in diffusely bright during the day, so that may be contributing. Have to see how the ferts affect things as well... hopefully with happier plants, I'll slowly be able to kill/trim away more BBA and not have it come back after.

[Pika]

Recent tank picture! The fan's doing a lovely job this summer.

 

Not too much new, except I've got the old floating moss ball now sandwiched between some stainless steel mesh on the bottom, growing up through and hopefully will end up attached to both. (Don't know if this will actually work, but it was easy and maybe worth a shot) I'll be happy if it's just stuck on one, at least.

 

The BBA is basically gone! Don't know exactly how it happened, can't believe the teeny amount of fertilizing I'm doing was the difference, but I'll take it. It just doesn't seem possible the pest would go away with such a minor change. There's still some visible on my tall Hygro ang. in the back where it gets near the light, but that's where I direct my daily Excel, so maybe it'll die off too.

 

But look at that dwarf sag... it just won't do anything, not even die! I accidentally bumped one up during a water change, and it's got a very minimal root system. Just nubs, really. Weird.

 

And... I'm a grand-shrimp-parent! One of my babies is now berried for the first time!

[Soothing Shrimp]

Isn't shrimpin' fun?

 

Congrats on getting rid of your algae!

[Mamashack]

Have enjoyed this journal Pika! Thanks for sharing your experiences - very helpful for me who is quite new to cherry shrimp keeping!

[aquariumlover10]

Any updates I love that tank, I love the shrimp too, I have a personal preference for sakuras myself.

[Pika]

I'm so bad about the journal thing. I have some new pics though, and some ups and downs to share, so I'll try to do an update this weekend, maybe!

[aquariumlover10]

Haha, ok.

[Shrimpie]

Wonderful journal, Pika. Great photos - looks like you've made a wonderful home for your babies!

[Mamashack]

Looking forward to the picture updates!

[eozen81]

Hi Pika,

 

Regarding you fan performance during summer, may I ask how did you control it I mean I belive you haven't used any Temperature Controller so how did you get the temp stability? For my summer torture I bought Temperature Controller STC 1000.

[Pika]

OK, so here are just a couple pictures to fill in the past months. I apparently didn't take many over the summer!

 

Early September...

 

There was actually some manipulation of the moss between the previous shot and this one, but I did end up with two Taiwan moss platforms as a front "lawn" for the tank. It's the new feeding grounds, and the babies love to crawl in it, which is nice, because they used to hide out in the back of the tank on the Myrio, mostly.

 

The Willow Hygro didn't really appreciate my tank, for some reason, and I had to keep trimming some BBA leaves, and then they didn't really want to grow back lower. I had some cool looking "palm trees" for a while though, that I wish I could have kept!

 

PS, I'd like to make special mention of the Dwarf Sag again, which looks remarkably similar to the first time I planted it! *shakes head*

[Pika]

Late September/First days of October...

 

My birthday was coming up, so I treated myself to generous low-light plant trim package someone was offering on TPT.

 

This is shortly after planting.

 

Added:

Downoi

Star Grass

Ludwigia repens x arcuata

Hydrocotyle 'Japan'

Crypt 'ponditerofolia'

Java ferns

 

This is pretty much right after planting. Most stuff stayed put, though some moved a bit.

 

You can also see we're in the awkward time of year where I still have the fan out for cooling when it gets up above 76*F in the apt, but there's the cord from the heater I put back in because sometimes the nights go down into the mid-sixties. (We're big on not over climate-controlling the apt, so we flow with the seasons more than the tank would like)

[Pika]

Here's today, not the greatest because of lighting, but officially documented.

 

Here's a recent shrimp pic...

 

 

And my snail never gets any pics, so one of him too. He used to live in the cull vase, and had a rough time of it there, so don't judge his shell too harshly...

 

[Pika]

So, the more dramatic update.

 

About a week and a half ago, I started to have a few adult shrimp deaths. About one a day for 3 days. Then one of my Otos passed away. :( It was probably a day or two before I found him in the back of the tank, so he was kinda slimy when I pulled him out.

 

Started to get suspicious something was going on, did a couple quick, usual tests (gH, kH, nitrate, TDS) and a water change. Nothing too remarkable, although kH was like 1+ drop (already almost changed with the first drop). That's not too unusual for my tank though, although I know it's a little lower than most people keep Neos.

 

Then I couldn't find a second Oto. Never have found him, because I think he probably passed away deep in the back jungle or in one of the crevices under the driftwood they like. Pulled out all the tests, and my pH was super low - like below 6 on the API test. I used some emergency baking soda doses for a day or two to creep the pH up until I could get in a good water change, and didn't lose anyone else. I'm hoping we're stable now, but will be testing daily, and have to back down the TDS which crept up quite a bit with the baking soda usage.

 

I'm not sure what set off this mini-cycle/crash, but suspect it may have happened with the substrate disturbance from planting and messing with my new plantage. I can't think of anything else that could have gotten into the tank. However, I did change out my Purigen a week before deaths, so after the Oto died, I pulled out the "new" (recharged) one and put back in the "dirty" one that I hadn't treated yet, with the hope that some of the BB were still viable in it. So, two suspects, or they could be in cahoots (decreased BB at a time of increased ammonia) but the truth will probably never be known.

 

The BBA has flared up again remarkably fast too, with the tank imbalance, so I'll have to fight that back down slowly. I stopped fertilizing or the past week or two with all the other changes, so I'll have to start gradually back to that.

 

Anyway, the shrimp and remaining Oto aren't hiding anymore and parameters seem better now. Here's hoping they stay that way!

 

I'll probably be getting the Oto at least one or two buddies, but want to make sure we're stable for a while before that, so he'll have to be lonely for a while. And then I have to worry about new quarantine/fish diseases... sigh.

[Pika]

Hi Pika,

 

Regarding you fan performance during summer, may I ask how did you control it I mean I belive you haven't used any Temperature Controller so how did you get the temp stability? For my summer torture I bought Temperature Controller STC 1000.

 

Hi eozen81,

In the summer, I used the fan on a timer with the LED light for the milder times, as that managed to diffuse the heat enough through evaporation to keep it 72-74*F. During the really hot times, I kept the fan on all the time, since even the cooler times were too hot. It was pretty warm at times, but it did ok. I could also adjust where the fan was aimed, to either skim the water, or to really blow at it, causing a lot of surface agitation and evaporation.

[aquariumlover10]

Looks great I lovethetank and shrimp.

[aquariumlover10]

Sorry, it took me to the first page instead of third

[EbiBunBun]

Great journal! So inspiring, I'm working on a 10g now and this is giving me so many ideas. And Pikas are awesome BTW =)

I have a bunch of Sculpey lying around, are there any colors one should avoid?

[Pika]

Here's a pic from early December! At this point, the pH issue was all resolved, and I had berried girls again! Plants were doing well, although BBA was still pretty prevalent. Stopped all ferts except Excel just to let things get back to normal.

Alas, more drama was to come...

[Pika]

So, that brings us to a couple weeks ago, end of Dec, when I did a water change and decided to switch out my recharged Purigen again. A day or so later, I noticed my little fish seemed kinda sluggish, and I wasn't seeing the shrimp out grazing as much. So, test, test, test and... pH crash again. Appears the current most likely culprit was/is that particular bag of Purigen. I have no idea how it could have gone "bad"... it was double soaked in prime and rinsed in RO water overnight and with water poured through it, and dried. It must have picked up something nasty that it's slow releasing, is the only thing I can imagine, but when/how that happened, I don't know.

 

Anyway, took it out, put the used Purigen bag back in (the good one, probably mostly just holding BB right now), did baking soda bumps and water changes, and things are stable again at pH 6.6 or so, GH 6, KH 1-2, TDS 240ish. The shrimp came out to graze again, the fish pulled through, and everyone seems more content. The girls all dropped their berries, but I can hardly blame them!

 

No new berries, yet, but I figure when these guys do reproduce again, they are going to be the toughest Neos on the planet!

 

I also did some spot treatment with H2O2 followed by Excel, and the BBA has decreased some, although it's still there. I'm planning on remixing new batches of ferts and starting those at low doses again, assuming no further crashes with the next filter rinse in a few weeks (NOT changing the purigen though!)

 

I treated myself to a new filter guard, some cholla wood, and some aquascaping tools with some holiday money. Filter guard is fabulous (thanks Han!). The aquascaping tools aren't here yet, but they will certainly be put to use as soon as they get here. It's a jungle in there!

 

[aquariumlover10]

I bet your shrimplets would love that tank.

[Pika]

Trim day! And new cholla wood on suction cup!

PS there are SHRIMPLETS in there! Somebody maintained her berries and, now that I've trimmed everything away, I can see little guys have been born in the last few weeks. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that not just low quality adults survived... I have some right pretty sakura and fire quality guys left. Neos are tanks. SMH

[Pika]

A couple new pics! Things have been stable in terms of water quality and parameters, and the baby shrimp are growing up nicely. There are mostly two generations of young shrimp, and most of the older shrimp are no longer with us. There was one dowager old lady with beautiful color and red legs, but I haven't seen her for a few weeks, and I think she may have left us as well. (I was hoping she could provide one more clutch to pass on her good genes, but so it goes.)

 

Of course, since things have been stable, I decided it was time to shake them up a bit with algae control. (yeah, dumb idea, but spoiler... nothing really bad happened!)

 

I did the "One-Two Punch" method discussed on TPT, combining an intense H2O2 treatment and a heavy Excel treatment back-to-back, to weaken and hopefully kill tough algae - namely my BBA that had a field day during the tank instability.  I used slightly over 2 TBsp H2O2 to my tank, and ran the filter (sans media) and swished with a cup like crazy to get good flow. I followed with a big water change (60%+) and a capful of Excel. Then, I waited. 

 

Here is 2 days after the treatment:

 

I actually had NO visible shrimp deaths (they still have the ability to hide pretty well in parts of my jungle) but better yet, I had really minimal shrimp stress. They were out and about just like after a normal water change. The Oto also did just fine - I think he was more concerned with the agitating/swishing of the tank water and the water change. Once things settled down, he went back to normal as well.

 

Another couple days after treatment and the biggest thing I'm dealing with is PLANT death. Who knew? Maybe they were all sad and weak from the algae, or maybe I did something else weird, but the plants seem the hardest hit. My java ferns have brown leaves, although the rhizomes seem ok, and the crypts in the front are browning and melting a little. Again, still good at the crown, likely won't die entirely, but definitely took a hit. There's also some brown Myrio in the back corner, but that corner is tough for flow because it's so jungly, and I wonder if I didn't get enough of the H2O2 out of it when I was changing water and stopping the treatment. The floaters also had a die-off, but they're always prolific, and it's only a problem in scraping off the sadder bits from the surface.

 

Here's now:

 

I trimmed out a lot of moss, and a lot of infected other stems throughout the process. (And will be trimming back even more) And yes, the BBA took a substantial hit. There are still some hold-out spots, so I haven't ruled out another "punch" in a few weeks, depending on how things recover and whether I have the params right that it's not exploding again.

 

Here's hoping things get back to normal soon! Everyone's saddled up so I'm hoping for berries in the next week or two!

 

And here's a happy shrimp who volunteered to pose today. (Which reminds me, I DID remove the Marimo from the tank, so they were not burned at all) Dying but not all-gone BBA on the Anubias petite.

 

ETA: Oh, and the snails were fine too. No noticeable death from Ramshorn or MTS.