Head scratching time

[Baccus]

On the weekend I decided to try siphoning out some of the mulm out of my native tank, since I am sick of every time I do anything in the tank it turns into a rather dark murk.

So I blissfully used a length of air hose tube to use as the siphon and watched carefully to ensure no shrimp or new born spotted blue eyes went for a ride into the bucket of future doom.

Now this morning after adding new green leaves to the tank yesterday, I discovered new born native shrimp hanging out on the green leaves. At first I only spied one because it moved when I shone a torch in the tank before the lights where due to come on.

So here is the head scratching moment, how on earth do I make sure that none of these insy little shrimplets are in the bucket of gunk? They are so small that they will go through almost any net, and any net fine enough to trap the shrimplets will also trap the gunk, which defeats the whole purpose.

I could just leave them in the buckets to grow up but between the other half whinging every time he see's a bucket of water laying about in the shed, and the dog thinking all water is for him to drink, as well as a cat addicted to fish water and the prospect of a million mozzies breeding in the water I am at a loss.

Any how see if you can spot the shrimplets. There is at least two in all the pictures.

Hint for the above.....look near the small rams horn snail

[Squiggle]

They look soooo tiny, very cool! I have no idea how you syphon without accidentally sucking any up cause if you put anything over the end of the hose then it won't pick up the mulm either, definitely a head scratcher! :confused:

[blindfisherman]

I would use the same method I use for checking duckweed for shrimp.

Have 3 containers, 2 small and one large.

In one small container catch out a bunch of mulm and dilute it, check for shrimp and if there are any syringe them into the other small container and then dump the waste into the large bucket.

[Baccus]

A slightly older shrimplet but still tiny.

Good to see he's eating well :)

[Baccus]

Insanely small, the tank is pretty thick with the little guys, but the best time to spot them is with a torch after the tank light has been out.

[Hyzenthlay]

Yeah. I would dilute it with clearer tank water in a shallow wide container and inspect it under strong light for shrimplets.

Any idea which natives the babies might be?

[Baccus]

My main guess would be the Blackmore shrimp since they have bred previously, the next two culprits are the Darwin Red Nose since I have seen berried females or the chameleons who I almost never see.

[Baccus]

Finally managed to get a pretty clear (in focus) picture of a native shrimplet that is at most 1 day old.

I hate to think how many would be disappearing up the filter if it was well wrapped in plant life that is supposed to be floating in the tank.

If I can locate him again and manage to get the camera to focus again I will try to get a shot with a ruler in the photo too, its so small I think he would nearly be measured in mircons rather than millimetres.

[Baccus]

The little guy with a ruler beside him

[Squiggle]

Very cool pics Baccus, they are soooooo small, awesome stuff! :victorious:

[ineke]

I can relate to tiny shrimp after my carry on today. Cool picture of such a tiny shrimp:)