Jump to content

My 38 Litre first shrimp tank journal

jrc693

By jrc693
in Shrimp Tank Setup

 Share

Recommended Posts

jrc693 Shrimp Keeper

jrc693

Posted
Posted

Hi everyone!

I posted this journal on another forum, but thought i could grab some expertise from shrimpers here too!

So im new to this hobby, thought I would share my experiences of this hobby so far with everyone so I can hopefully learn and also get some advice from more experienced shrimpers! I'd also like some more experienced people to aware me if I am currently doing the whole process correctly. I have been collecting bits and pieces with my spare money thats doesn't have to go towards uni for months in preparation for the two tanks that I will be creating (this shrimp tank and 3ft aquascaped tank (will journal that one in future))

For this tank I purchased a lot of second hand items from people around the community to thanks anyone that sold me something!

Anyways, my brother and I made a trip to Canley Vale nursery as I heard that they stocked some natural slate, which I heard was inert.

L0xBCl.jpgC1JJ6l.jpg

They had a few different types of rocks to choose from, they had the natural slate which i was looking for, had red slate and also had honey comb rocks (I think its called)

As I live about an hours drive from Canley Vale my brother and I decided that we will go all out in purchasing rocks as we dont want to make another trip back there too soon. If i can recall it was around $4-$6 a kilo can't remember how much exactly.

At home we have one of those high pressure spray guns so I gave the rocks a good clean. It really brought the colour out in some of the honeycomb rocks. I also have a 3 foot tank which im planning to do my first aquascape as well so thats why I grabbed the honeycomb rocks. My brother is also potentially going to do something aquarium related for his HSC so we bought extras. I also had some pieces of driftwood which i had purchased some time ago. I was worried they may break from the high pressure of the spray gun but they were really cleaned well from it.

ziFd1l.jpg

My favourite rock in the bunch

HGqwTl.jpg

Slate before put in tank

zmaPkl.jpg

Anyway for the shrimp tank im using:

Tank: Aqua One AR380

Lighting: 3x 11w T5

Filtration: Eheim 2213

Substrate: ADA Amazonia I

Driftwood, Natural black slate

So I poured in some amazonia, chucked in the driftwood and a few of the rocks. Was pretty happy with how it was looking so far.

XyWXHl.jpg

I bought some HC from a member on another forum, I wasnt sure if I wanted to put the HC in the tank as I didnt want to put co2, but the offer was too good to resist.

jikucl.jpg

Threw in some marimos which i also grabbed from a member, put diy co2 and started the cycling.

DDhskl.jpg

I took out the HC and co2 because i want this tank for shrimp. Grabbed some of those charcoal bamboo shelters off ebay, as i heard that they are able to take in some harmful toxins in the water ( i think). I bought some flame moss from LFS and tied it around a rock. I also made a little shelter cave kinda thing on the right side of the tank. I also in a sense was trying to create a scape that could both be aesthetically pleasing, but also provide the optimal environment for the shrimp which i will put in in the future. (ignor crypts they are for 3ft)

Ddvi3l.jpg

A really really kind member sent me a piece of mesh which i will eventually stick to the back side of the tank and put java moss. (Thank you very much!)

foRd8l.jpg

I am planning on putting US fissiden, java moss, java fern and a few other mosses in the tank but just gona put it in at a later time with my funds are replenished lol... I was thinking of possibily making a huge moss top to go onto the driftwood to emulate a tree. but ill think about that later.

Anyway thats my progress so far, i will put future updates when the time comes, however if any members can give me some input about anything, it would be much appreciated! I have yet to test water parameters, i will do that in the next week or two. I am currently 2 weeks into cycling and i read it should be left for about 4 - 6 weeks before any fish or invertebrates are even considered.

Thanks!

Justin

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dean Shrimp Master

Dean

Posted
Posted

Nice write up Justin. everything looks great so far.

the amazonia will take a while to cycle so just make sure you test the parameters before adding any shrimp.

also if you are planning on doing a moss wall at the back i would say to use something like Peacock or Xmas moss and

not java. java grows fast but is very messy looking and will just take over the tank.

also if you put moss on the top of the driftwood it will look great for a while but will eventually stop ligh from getting to the bottom of the tank and stop anything down there from growing to well. you would be best to put the fissidens on there as it wont over take the top of tank and will look great.

keep us updated :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
jrc693 Shrimp Keeper

jrc693

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Update..

Anyways I removed the HC, put that into my other tank, and replaced with a few other plants

Added a few more mosses, some subwassatang, fissiden, tiny bit of willow. I took your advice dean, have a peacock wall on the back now and the fissiden is just like a clump growing on the wood.

After 5 weeks finally got some shrimp!

Bp843l.jpg4TtBrl.jpg3UrlGl.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dean Shrimp Master

Dean

Posted
Posted

looking very nice mate,

that moss wall at the back will look great once it grows in and the shrimp/shrimplets will love it..

is that sunkiss in the last pic?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Heavyd Shrimp Master

Heavyd

Posted
Posted

That looks great mate. The shrimp are going to be very happy in there. Especially when the moss grows in a bit more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

    Shrimp Disease and Treatment
    Tibee, Taitbee, Pinto, Mischling, F1, F2

  • Tropical Fish Forum
    Discus Breeding Guide
    Discus Disease and Treatment Guide

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By sdlTBfanUK · Posted

      Thats a great photo, beautiful blue bolt, I hope it survived the molt without dropping the eggs! I think I can just about see some black dots (eyes) on the central egg but can't be 100% sure. I used to (and plan to again) do weekly water change of 10-15% but if you do too large or quick (not drip in new water) that would likely trigger a molt. What KH are they in, my new setup is sitting at (and refusing to budge) KH 3 and PH 7.5 so I may have to settle for neocaridina shrimp this time as opposed to the caridina I want, though not looking/deciding just yet, give the tank a bit more of a run in! Tap water here starts at kH 14, tds 320, when filtered goes to KH 0 and PH 6 but when put in the tank keeps going to KH3 and PH 7.5 despite 3 x 50% water changes???? You may be at 'maximum capacity' with only 20L tank especially if the tank is a cube type rather than shallow type?
    • beanbag
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By beanbag · Posted

      Right now this tank only has blue bolts and golden bee (red bolts?).  The eggs start off all brown, but at the end, I notice that some are kind of a clear pink-ish color.  So I don't know if that is the egg color of dud or golden bee.  Picture of shrimp only about half hour before molting. The water is always RO + remineralizer, so it should be ok. The tank seems to still be on a "good streak" ever since I started the regimen of weekly water change, monthly gravel vac and plant trim.  The point being to keep the amount of waste low and removing moss / floating plants so that the nitrates go towards growing algae.  At one point, I had three berried females, but only netted about half dozen babies by the end, due to this early molting problem.  There might be about 30-40 shrimp total in 5 gallons, but still very few full-sized adults.
    • ngoomie
      Shrimp and meds containing gentian violet

      By ngoomie · Posted

      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By sdlTBfanUK · Posted

      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Shrimp molting before eggs are hatched

      By beanbag · Posted

      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
×
×
  • Create New...