Inert Substrate For Caridina? Cycling.

[Aqua67]

Does anyone keep tiger Caridina shrimp on inert substrate successfully?  

I’m 1 week in to cycling a new 3.5 gallon aquarium for 5-10 super tiger shrimp.  I’m using plantable (small pebble) inert substrate which I sprinkled with Bacter AE when I set it up.  I’ve also mixed some Bacter AE with tank water and added it to the aquarium.  Three tiny ramshorn snails are now in the aquarium.

I’m so anxious to add some tigers that right now are being kept with my neocaridina in a tank that is a couple of years old.

Despite the tank being so small, I’ve added a separate tiny nano sponge filter and tiny air pump, in addition to the existing HOB filter with a course sponge over the intake, ceramic rings and the filter cartridge (right now with the carbon it came with - I usually slice the filter and shake all of the carbon out in all of my tanks), plus some old dirty filter floss from one of my established aquariums.  I couldn’t fit all of the filter material I took into the little HOB filter, so I do have a piece of dirty filter floss just sitting in the aquarium also.

There is already many botanicals, some covered in thick fungus/biofilm, which have been soaking in the water for the full week.  That includes catappa bark and leaf, an oak leaf, casuarina cone, alder cone.  There is a lot of plants, although not the stem/rooted kind.  There is a small bolbitis herteroclita, a could tiny windelov ferns, a rosette sword that stays small, a coconut moss covered arch, a rock covered in moss, and a piece of cholla wood covered in black pearl Bruce which had been sitting in an established tank for several months.  One Thrive fertilizer table is sitting under the sword plant and a small dose of Flourish Excel was added which probably bumped up my TDS some.

I’ve added a few drops of household ammonia last week but checked the next day and never had any ammonia reading when I tested.  Now I don’t want to add any more ammonia because the ingredients on the bottle indicate added “fragrance” which I don’t think is good for my aquarium.   I have been added Stability from the start in addition to the Quick Start.  There is no algae growing in the tank yet, but I have left the 6500K lights on 24/7 over this past week.  I realize this may have slowed some bacterial growth initially.

TDS this morning was around 165 and I did a small water change to bring it back down to 150.

I am so anxious to begin to add some tiger shrimp to the new little aquarium.  I did a similar process with my neocaridina back when I first acquired them and my tank was about a week old when I added the bloody Mary’s and I suffered no losses.  Might I be as lucky with Caridina Cantonensis?

Thanks for reading my post.  I attached some pics of the subject shrimp currently living in my neo tank and my new little empty aquarium.

 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Those are some great shrimp and the tank look awesome!

The tiger shrimp are between neocaridina and caridina when it come to ease and toughness. They should be fine in the neocaridina tank until you are ready to transfer them to their new home.

You may need to drip acclimate them when transferring them if the water parameters of the 2 tanks are different and I would just transfer a couple to start just to check as it hasn't been running for long. Also make sure you have finished with the additives/chemicals (especially ammonia) you are using before adding any shrimps, apart from bacter ae which is ok as I use regularly anyway and the tank is set up and running as it will be regularly, light time etc.. Being a small tank anyway you don't want to risk throwing the balance out by adding too many shrimps in one go at the very start.

You may want to decide on one or other of the filters as you don't need 2 and are making extra work for yourself, but if you decide to remove 1, leave the sponge in the tank for a few weeks for the bacteria balance not to crash etc. From the way you have set it up the tank probably is cycled but there won't be much for the shrimp to graze on yet (another good reason to just do a couple for now). Be very cautious about using plant fertilizers, I know you don't have soil substrate, but I would try NO ferts from the start as the shrimp waste etc will be a source of fert. If you later find you do need fertilizer then be VERY cautious and use as little as you can get away with, but I suspect you snouldn't need any when you have the tank with enough shrimps in it. Aside from that you don't want the plants to grow quickly anyway in a small aquarium as that just makes a lot more work and disturbance.

When dosing bacter ae (or any powder, inc food) I use a wood matchstick or similar, dip that quickly half a cm or cm in the water, then put it into the bacter ae, shake excess off and then swirl the matchstick in the tank, this way you don't get too much in the tank and it gets spread around more, and is just the easiest way all round.

I would add 2 or 3 shrimps and if all goes ok for a week then transfer the remainder? Maybe do a 50%+ water change first because of all the stuff you have been using to get everything started?

Good luck and i'll keep my fingers crossed!