Jump to content

Katie's 10g Cherry Shrimp House!


kcoscia

Recommended Posts

Guess it's time I journal this bad boy!

 

Specs:

Basic 10g Tank

Dual Sponge Filter

Aqueon QuietFlow 10 with Purigen and prefilter sponge 

Finnex Planted+

 

Plants:

Java Fern on Cholla wood

Micro Sword that may or may not actually exist

Corkscrew Vals

Marimo Ball

floaters - frogbit, duckweed, dwarf water lettuce, salvinia

Peacock moss that lives wherever it wants

Various algae that I "allow" to exist  :P

 

Inverts:

Cherry shrimp of various grades

One large female amano

seed shrimp (they count right?)

pond and bladder snails

mini ramshorns

 

Parameters:

Ammonia 0   Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0       pH 7.4

kH 2-3          GH 7

TDS 262      Temp. 66

 

tumblr_n6i1hiwYjh1scbrdfo1_500.jpg

 

Shrimp are as active as they have ever been today!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks great! Love the open space to see your shrimp when you want to see them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember where but I read an article about shrimp tanks with lots of space. I think shrimps prefer more things rather than empty space. After all, the more plants/wood/rocks you have in your tank, the more biofilm for your shrimp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember where but I read an article about shrimp tanks with lots of space. I think shrimps prefer more things rather than empty space. After all, the more plants/wood/rocks you have in your tank, the more biofilm for your shrimp.

IMHO, It is a balance that you need. The easier for clean up is better to maintain the quality water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Take out dead leaves. Things you don't want to leave inside the water too long. I learned that you don't disturb the substrate as Soothing said but i get very close to substrate without stir it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't do planted tanks, so I'm curious.  Why take out dead leaves, if we put in dead leaves for shrimp anyway?

Hi Soothing,

I learned from a gentleman in Asia not to let leaves decaying inside the tank is to control the quality of water. He said a leaf dying inside the tank is a different thing than IAL. Even with IAL, he put in the clear container with aquarium water and cover with lid. Leave it sunbathe long and drain the water before put in shrimp tank.

You are lucky that you don't want a planted shrimp tank. It is a lot of work.i notice that many different things from the East and West. Don't have enough shrimps to experience different ways yet.

What is your opinion on this? Please share.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suppose it is possible that as a leaf dies it releases some potentially bad things that may be toxic in the water.  I really don't know.

 

It also may depend on how fast the shrimp eat it. (?)  May depend on the leaf, too.  If the shrimp won't eat it or touch it, it just decays I suppose.

 

I've dropped in green mulberry leaves and dried mulberry leaves with no problems.  The shrimp have swarmed on both and had nice meals.

 

Dried IAL, or dried banana leaf is dropped in the tank by many and left until gone with no ill effects.  The shrimp don't eat the leaf as much as the biofilm/decay fungus and the leaf is nibbed away t nothing over time.  Some people do let it soak in a bowl or bucket for a week or so to add biofilm before adding to the tank, however from what I've been able to gather thus far it's just personal preference.

 

We blanch spinach and other leaves, or drop them in fresh.

 

I'm not doubting what you are saying, just finding the reasoning. :)

 

The types of leaves we use for shrimping is enormous. heh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My shrimp have been eating the dying Hygro leaves that were dropping in my tank recently. I was torn on whether to pull them out or not, because generally I do pull out whatever I'm trimming. The shrimp have never attacked a live plant leaf that I know of (just grazed on them) but I think they were actually eating the translucent dead ones, just like they would IAL, or like my blanched spinach. I let 'em have it, haven't noticed any issues, but did wonder if anyone else had seen it or what I "should" be doing!

Oh, and to clarify, I definitely take out most of the dead stuff! If they're not eating the dead or excess bits, it will definitely affect the water quality. Unlike adding a bit of spinach now and then, a planted tank with older or dying plants will drop a lot of crud. I also swirl and vacuum over the substrate. Haven't gotten a feeding dish yet but I'm starting to see why they're worth it. The main feeding area gets almost all my swirling attention. (And that's where the snails hang out too)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use pipette to distribute powder food. Strictly use veggie powder food mix with aquarium water. Turn off filter and use pipette to distribute food on open substrate and give it a minute til food sinking down then turn filter back on. One important factor is to start with little food to know how much is too much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My neos eat from their dish like good little children.

 

Dying leaves don't really do anything from my experience. They typically just get processed and turned into nitrates. So if you've got cover for nitrates you're fine. An occasional dying leaf has never spiked my nitrates. If removal is easy, take it out. If not, you'll be fine.

 

My plants get nothing really. The corkscrew vals have osmocote root tabs under them. With no true care/nutrient additives I don't expect perfect growth, leading to an occasional dying leaf.

 

I have sand so I do not vaccuum, but I do pull waste up with the siphon when I get a chance. I rarely get those chances though since the shrimp are everywhere I want to siphon and they would get sucked up so I just don't. Seachem Super Naturals keeps the waste on the top layer of sand so it comes up rather easily with minimal sand uptake.

 

I like the open look for easy cleaning in general, but it's more a taste thing. They have plenty of places to hide, but I will probably add more cholla wood eventually and I added this:

 

tumblr_n6jwmythvr1scbrdfo1_500.jpg

 

It's their new meeting and gathering place to conspire against me. It probably has a lot of biofilm since it came from a nonshrimp tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a development:

 

This is probably the first time my shrimp have actually been active.

They're swimming around the tank. I don't think I've ever had this. One even swam through their new tunnel.

 

This is awesome.

 

All I changed was smaller water changes with TDS monitoring and mixing the GH booster outside of the tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a development:

 

This is probably the first time my shrimp have actually been active.

They're swimming around the tank. I don't think I've ever had this. One even swam through their new tunnel.

 

This is awesome.

 

All I changed was smaller water changes with TDS monitoring and mixing the GH booster outside of the tank.

Keep in mind that your TDS will be higher as you have more plants. Mix GH booster a day in advance is better

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks soothing!

 

Hungle- thanks for the info! Does the GH booster dissolve better that way? I'm actually not very happy with it as for some reason mine became rock solid very quickly even though they said it wouldnt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks soothing!

 

Hungle- thanks for the info! Does the GH booster dissolve better that way? I'm actually not very happy with it as for some reason mine became rock solid very quickly even though they said it wouldnt.

I had tested mineral salt when they first dissolved in water there is a big swing in PH but if you leave until next day then PH is stable. Don't want shrimps to be stress with the PH swing.

May be some others can help you with salt becoming solid, don't have experience on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...