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By Crabclaw
Hey guys, I’m going away for a few weeks and having a neighbour take care of my tank, as they are already gonna be caring for my cat during that period. I’ll be away for 2 and a half weeks, so not a huge amount of time, but the neighbour doesn’t have any experience with fish or shrimp tank maintenance.
The tank will be fine without a water change during that time as long as I do one before I leave, I know that, but my 2 main problems are feeding and stopping my intake sponge from clogging up.
For feeding I was considering getting a couple of pill boxes, like the ones that have seperate compartments for each day of the week, so I can set a certain amount for each day, and which foods.
But for the intake sponge, I’m pretty stumped. My current intake is a sponge filter connected to the intake pipe, but it’s been clogging up once or twice a week due to how fine it is (and how messy my fish are). When it’s clogged, it puts strain on the canister filter’s motor, and that’s not good. I don’t trust her with cleaning it safely, plus I’m only paying her for 5 mins in the morning, and 5 at night. I’ve considered a mesh intake, but it looks like it could hurt a fish if it went past it quickly... plus I can’t check the size of the inside where the pipe could go as the only one I’ve found would have to be posted.
Are there easy alternatives that I wouldn’t have to mod, or do intake sponges come in courser versions? (I haven’t checked).
Any input would be appreciated!
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By Crabclaw
Hey guys, I’m really wanting to get freshwater crabs, and the only ones I’ve found are A. Lacustris and A. Laevis. I can only put them in a 110 L community tank for now, but may have another option in the future. The tank is stocked with a large school of ember tetras, some rocket killies, some endlers, some tangerine tiger shrimp, and a pair of apistogrammas. Rare aqua advised that A. Lacustris would likely be eaten by the apistos, so the obvious choice would be A. Laevis, because they’re larger... right? But I’m worried that they might predate upon my shrimp, so wanted to hear some advice and opinions from more people with experience keeping these crabs.
Cheers!
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By Crabclaw
Hey guys, I’m really wanting to get freshwater crabs, and the only ones I’ve found are A. Lacustris and A. Laevis. I can only put them in a 110 L community tank for now, but may have another option in the future. The tank is stocked with a large school of ember tetras, some rocket killies, some endlers, some tangerine tiger shrimp, and a pair of apistogrammas. Rare aqua advised that A. Lacustris would likely be eaten by the apistos, so the obvious choice would be A. Laevis, because they’re larger... right? But I’m worried that they might predate upon my shrimp, so wanted to hear some advice and opinions from more people with experience keeping these crabs.
Cheers!
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By bristlenose
Hi, I've kept Red cherry shrimp for at least 3 years. I've never had a problem with them. I used to keep my shrimp in 500l tank but i got careless while buying plants and introduced planaria into my aquarium. I only noticed after the numbers got out of hand and i noticed the shrimp deaths adding up. I moved 200-300 shrimp into a standard 4ft tank planted aquarium and dosed with noplanaria along with melafix to ward off any bacterial infections. There were multiple dozens of shrimp shells all over after being moved. Initially i believed it may have been the planaria/bacterial/constant water changes/stress of new environment(i drip acclimated them for a 5 hours) that was killing them but i haven't changed the water in a 2 months but i still get the occasional death, 1 or 2 every few days. There are decent amounts of cuttlebone in the filter and also in the aquarium itself, and i also feed them the occasional powdered egg shells but i still get molting problems. Adults and also the month olds are dying, no discrimination. They're fed every other day shrimp snow, high protein discus granules and zucchini/pumpkin/spinach/dry seaweed every 3-4 days. I can see many berried females and small shrimp and also babies but i'm still losing shrimp constantly, easily 80+ in total. I don't want to buy a gh/kh test, they have never had any problems with molting in their last aquarium so can't quite understand why they're having problems now in the 150l. I've read so much online but i can't seem to find an answer, i'd sincerely appreciate any advice i can get. Thank you so much if you've managed to read all of this. Please feel free to ask any questions. The photo is from the current setup they're in.
Previous tank parameters:
Ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrates: 20ppm
Ph: 8
substrate: sand
Lighting: generic LED lights i got off ebay
I don't know any other parameters. cuttlebone in the tank and filter, no ferts, heavily infested with guppy grass. Large colony of bristlenose.
New tank parameters:
ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates:30-40ppm
co2: 3-4 bps
Ph: 6.5
Lighting: generic LED lights i got off ebay
substrate: ada aquasoil
The new tank is heavily planted and dosed with root tabs and liquid ferts. Cuttlebone in the tank and filter. 6 large pieces of seiryu stone 17kg (i doubt they're authentic so they're some kind of limestone) Shrimp only tank
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By Seattleshrimp
Hi !
I live in Seattle where the water is incredibly soft and I have a tap water pH of 6.7, GH of 0-1 and KH 2. My existing tank with plants already has buffered substrate. Would I have better chance of keeping CRS than RCS with my current water parameters ? Or would RCS do okay? I do have an RO system already, and I could remineralize my water with salty shrimp KH/GH+. Which would allow my GH and KH parameter to be okay for neocaridinas, but I already have a tank with active substrate. I’m 100% I don’t have space to set up another tank with inert substrate. Would do you recommend ? What are pH you have successfully kept neocaridinas and have them thriving ? Thanks ! I appreciate all the help as I am new to the hobby.
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By DEL 707 · Posted
Again, thanks for all the help. I ordered the Shrimp GH+KH minerals and they arrived today and did a 20l water change. I plan to do 20l on Saturday and 20l on Tuesday when I'm off, so that'll be over 100% water change. If my tank stats come back o.k, I might finally look into getting some shrimp next week. -
By sdlTBfanUK · Posted
It is definitely more of a balancing act when trying to keep everything happy in a tank with Shrimps and plants, but don't be put off I think you will be fine. When putting the shrimps in the tank you should take hours of dripping to acclimate them and you may lose a few with the low Ph but I am sure it will work out in the end as cherry shrimps are fairly tough. If you use all RO water and GH/KH+ then the PH will always be lower even after the buffering of the soil stops, but this is the easiest route to go! If you go the mixed water 1:3 with GH+ the same applies but the PH will be slightly higher and will be cheaper (less GH+ and RO water needed), so overall this is the way I would go, and it isn't all that complicated once you get it up and running! As with JayC I doubt you really will need any ferts but if you must then use a lot less than the packaging recommends! The best thing to do is just decide which route you prefer to go from the start as it gets so much more difficult to change it later? I don't have any issue with keeping shrimps/fish/plants happy and I don't use CO2 or any fertilizers so it is definitely possible and not that difficult if I can do it? I think that a lot of the plant fertilizers etc are really intended for plant aquascapes without any inhabitants but with fish and/or shrimps there will be natural fertilizer and the soil should have enough to start everything off? If you still aren't too sure I would just try running the tank without the CO2 or ferts (with the exception of as JayC recommends above) for a few weeks and just see how the plants get on, as you can start using either/both again at any point if they don't look like they are ok, but I expect it will work out fine. This will also give you time to mull it over at leisure? Simon -
By jayc · Posted
You only need Flourish Potassium, as needed, in an aquarium. Potassium will be the limiting factor to growth in most aquariums. But with shrimp in the tank, I would dose it at 1/4 strength once every 2 weeks or more. Seachem Flourish for micro nutrients at half recommended dose every other 2 weeks in between the Potassium. But !! I don't believe you will need too much ferts in your tank. The type of plants and the amount of plants do not warrant much ferts at all. The waste from the fish and shrimps will be enough ferts, and if they are getting enough light a day, the plants will be fine without any additional ferts, except maybe a little potassium once every few weeks. -
By DEL 707 · Posted
O.k rethink. If I use that Salty Shrimp GH/KH stuff. Can you recommend any good fertilisers I could use for the plants? I'm not dosing anything at the moment. -
By DEL 707 · Posted
Not going to lie, this is giving me a headache. Just want a nice planted tank with fish and shrimp. 🤨 At the moment it looks like it have to either pick 1 or the other. Would this be a solution. Use Seachems Equilibrium and KH products to bring my GH and KH up to 4, then use that Shrimp King Mineral Fluid Double, to bring the GH up to 6. That would make sure that there are at least some minerals for the shrimp.
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