journal Run of the mill

[Androo]

This is my nano tank that iv set up. The current inhabitants are 4x chameleons, 2x blue rilis, 2x blue velvets, 1x L066. I will keep adding photos as it changes.

original tank fortnight ago

night I planted

a week later

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very open to any advice on how I could improve it. Even though I can't see the shrimp easily I'm happy in the idea that they can hide and hopefully act as casual as the kool potatoes they are.

[Squiggle]

Very cool looking tank, I love the changes you've made, definitely a shrimp breeding heaven, nice shrimp too dude, well done! :encouragement:

[BlueBolts]

Thanks for sharing. I'd ensure you keep an open space where yuan drop pallets of food etc..so that you can I serve, count and take pics of your shrimps. All my tanks have a open area, where I feed my shrimps...same spot, so that I can keep a count and eye on them :-)

[Androo]

That space at the front is to be left clear. Every time iv placed food in there iv had to remove it so far. I'm hoping once I have breeding in there I will see them a little more with baiting them.

[honcho]

Nice lil tank mate.. :encouragement:

Btw have you thought of getting some black backing as it wi bring out the colours in your tank more.?!

[ineke]

Lovely tank I'm sure it's a little shrimp heaven!:)

[Androo]

I have considered the black background but I'm always to excited to start to wait for background. Also my plan was for plants to be so dense along the back wall that it blocks any light. When I re-did my 6foot tank and had it empty and could move it around I was going to paint the back and sides with black paint but I'm far to anxious to wait for painting.

[honcho]

. U can buy black backing stuff at an aquarium shop.. then u dont have to wait .. you just sticky tape it on the back..!

[Wraithie]

+1 what honcho said, this way its not permanent if you dont like it. The other option which i prefer over painting, is black vinyl (like contact) there are trade secrets to putting it on though, so make sure to ask before you attempt it :)

[Wraithie]

p.s. with the amount of plant growth in there it doesnt suprise me your shrimp arent eating food :)

[Androo]

Yea I know there is the black backing, I have a roll for my 6x2 but just haven't put on yet. I don't know I have always preferred the painted backing, but I'm thinking in a few weeks I won't see the back. Once my plants have grown to the amount I want do I just lower the fertilizer or do I lower lighting aswell. Cheers for the feedback guys I might play with oil and the black backing.

[Androo]

Soooo, I go away for three days over the long weekend. And I left my partners little brother (18yo) to look after the tanks.... Every time I go away I lose some form of aquatic life. I was just hoping it wouldn't be my shrimp. Anyway I get home last night to find the nanos heater unplugged. And there is a dead shrimp....

Could it be my resent purchase of blues????

I spent over an hour trying to spot blue shrimp in amongst green plants.

i had told my partner I only spent $80 for a pair, not that I had bought more then 2 shrimp and $80 wasn't even half of it.

i found atleast 3 blues. So I'm hoping all are alive and the dead one I'm pretty sure it was a chameleon.

gosh I'm never going away again.....

[newbreed]

Fingers crossed mate!! They are tough little critters and I find the harder you look for them the better they hide!!

[Squiggle]

Tough break dude, fingers crossed you find the rest of them. Did you find out why the heater was unplugged?

[Androo]

He always denies any wrong doing. But I'm not sure, any kitchen aplience that he used.

but he's great for feeding and turning off the lights so that he didn't have to come back later to turn lights off, tearing him away from his runescape game. And result is I come back and the fish still have some food from two days ago because he didn't actually look. Owell that's enough of a rant. If only I had a better option then leaving him in charge.

[Squiggle]

If it's only three days then I wouldn't feed them at all & leave the lights off, they can go for a week or two without food & ideally should have a day a week without feeding :victorious:

[Wraithie]

A long weekend without food will be more than fine for your tanks (except marine im told...)

As an anecdote, i set up a tank with guppies at work late last year, and they were looking quite sad and the odd one died off, so when we shut down for christmas i was fully expecting to come back to a manky tank...two weeks later (no food, no light) and they were happy and healthy and have been breeding like crazy ever since.

Just goes to show how often we love our tanks to death.

[Androo]

Sorry, havnt been around for a while. Had a lot going on in life. Update on my tank, well I was doing the water changes and adding the minerals etc etc. and replanting any plant that came out and trying to plant cuttings from existing plants, and nothing, no breeding no nothing.

then my life hit a brick wall and fell in a hole and neglect set in. It's not that I didn't pay attention to my tanks, I still turned on the light each morning And looked in to see if I could spot my illusive shrimp but any maintenance went out the window, plants are over grown, slowly blocking out light to the lower plants. Bunch of plants floating after their stem rotted off or something. Havnt done a water change for around 4 weeks (maybe longer) and certainly havnt added any salts.

buuut I look in last night and there she is, my first blue velvet has a little bundle of magic under her tail. Hopefully I'll get some pics. But after trying to do everything right and paying so much attention with no success it's in my neglect that iv found they have decided to breed.

Well that's my weeks highlight. Other then on Saturday I'll have a trio of motoro stingrays

[Squiggle]

Good to have you back & I hope you're throughout the worst of it. That's very cool news about your blue velvet, congrats dude, definitely keen to see some pics! :victorious:

You most definitely have to post some pics of the motoro's, they are very cool indeed! :encouragement:

[Androo]

Some of my buried females in my planted tank.

[Squiggle]

Sweet pics dude, love the berried girls, thanks for sharing! :encouragement:

[Androo]

Neil (Bichir) and my rays

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[Squiggle]

Very cool pics dude, love the rays, thanks for sharing! :victorious:

[Androo]

First attempt at grafting moss to wood and pyramids, hopefully the US fissiden I got at last pcs auction will go ok, shrimp love it, well they seem to.

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[Squiggle]

Looking very cool dude, can't wait to see when it grows in! :encouragement: