New to shrimp, sort-of new to aquaria

[Ryan]

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

 

[Mr. F]

3w per gallon is "high light" (most go by PAR now), so you might get some algae. Hopefully the shrimp clean up for you.

Mosses and bryophytes are the lowest maintenance. You could also try something slow growing, like Anubias or Java Fern.

The shrimp might have died from stress during shipping or acclimation. In could also be water parameters. Do you know you're GH, KH, and TDS?

You don't really have to feed shrimp if you have enough light on the tank. They graze the microorganisms that grow on the surfaces. You could try adding a leaf like guava, banana, Indian almond, loquat, etc. There are also other botanicals to feed long term. TanninAquatics has a nice selection. You can also just add a bit of blanched organic vegetable once in a while (spinach, zucchini, carrot, to name a few).

120-130 mg/L ~ 120-130 ppm. If this is just general hardness, then the GH is about 7, which is good for neos.

A heater would be good if the water temp will drop below 68 F.

Hope this helps! [emoji1303]

[Ryan]

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?

[Shrimple minded]

6 minutes ago, Ryan said:

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?

 

Sounds to me like this smaller fem was probably the one that molted, the males are chasing her to try and mate.  Wouldn't be surprised if she ends up berried in the next few hours.........

[Mr. F]

TDS meters are very cheap and a API GH/KH test kit is only $7-8 on Amazon. It's best to compare KH+GH to TDS to get an idea of how free of organics your water is, so it's hard to say which is best to get first...

Not sure what eating the molt means, but I've seen it in my tanks and it's never been an issue.

You can limit the light and that should decrease the amount of algae you get.

Your female might have just molted and is weak and trying to hide.

[DETAquarium]

Welcome Ryan! We are glad to have you.