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wot_fan's 1st shrimp tank


wot_fan

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I have read that once you can see eyes in the eggs that they will hatch soon.  I have also read that shrimp carry eggs for about 28 days.  When I took the shot she had only been carrying for 14 days.  Not sure what to believe.

 

From my experience once you see the eyes they usually hatch within the week but as you have said it is usually up to 30 days. It should be quite interesting to see when she pops.

 

 

I have to say it feels great.  I can't believe how neat the little guys are.  I spend a good deal of my tank watching time looking for a shrimplet.  I don't often find one, but when I do it always makes me smile :D.

Yeah after a stressful day at work and once I put the kids to bed i'll spend about 30 to 60 mins staring at the shrimp tank. I find it quite relaxing just looking at them swim around lol.

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I have read that once you can see eyes in the eggs that they will hatch soon.  I have also read that shrimp carry eggs for about 28 days.  When I took the shot she had only been carrying for 14 days.  Not sure what to believe.

 

What's your water temperature? 28 days is for 24C water. If it is colder, then it will be longer. And warmer will be faster. My shrimps in 26C tank hatches with 3 weeks. Given said that, different type of shrimps have slightly different incubation period too.

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What's your water temperature? 28 days is for 24C water. If it is colder, then it will be longer. And warmer will be faster. My shrimps in 26C tank hatches with 3 weeks. Given said that, different type of shrimps have slightly different incubation period too.

My temperature of my tank is 24°C (75°F).

 

From what I have read, many people keep their CRS at 22-24°C.  Is 26°C a better temperature to keep them at?  Or do you only keep Neos at the higher temp?

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"From what I have read, many people keep their CRS at 22-24°C" <--- This is a myth I busted recently. For your case, I will suggest 25C (77F) on your new tank. Don't apply on your existing tank (unless it is just 1 degree difference). Temperature shock will kill shrimp easily. You could consider setting this in your new tank. ;)

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"From what I have read, many people keep their CRS at 22-24°C" <--- This is a myth I busted recently. For your case, I will suggest 25C (77F) on your new tank. Don't apply on your existing tank (unless it is just 1 degree difference). Temperature shock will kill shrimp easily. You could consider setting this in your new tank. ;)

Great, thanks.  I don't have a cooler so I will have to rely on fans to cool the new tank.  It will be a lot easier to keep the water at 25°C than 22°C :D.  

 

This SKF thread is one of the places I found CRS temperature info.  You may want to share your thoughts there.  I am sure more people will read them there than here.

 

Thanks again.

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Hmm... Then I will suggest you putting a heater inside to stabilise the temperature. Shrimp dies very easily with temperature fluctuation. This has been proven by myself and my friends. With heater + fan, it will ensure the temperature is stabilised. 

 

If you are planning to use heater, I will suggest you use a reliable thermometer to adjust the temperature setting. Relying on the heater's setting on the knob is a bad idea. It is never accurate.

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Hmm... Then I will suggest you putting a heater inside to stabilise the temperature. Shrimp dies very easily with temperature fluctuation. This has been proven by myself and my friends. With heater + fan, it will ensure the temperature is stabilised. 

 

If you are planning to use heater, I will suggest you use a reliable thermometer to adjust the temperature setting. Relying on the heater's setting on the knob is a bad idea. It is never accurate.

I will be duplicating the setup I have for my Rili tank.  I will use an Omron E5CN temperature control (using a SS temp probe) to control both the heater and the fans.  I set it up so the heater comes on 0.5°F below set point and turns off at set point.  The fans come on 0.5°F above set point and turn off at set point.  

 

This winter, the Rili tank was always been between 74.5°F and 75.2°F so the E5CN is controlling the heater as desired.  Once it starts warming up, I will find out if the fans preform as well.

 

Full_Size_Render_2.jpg

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The fan mounting setup that I added last week didn't work as well as I had hoped.  The torque applied by the wire ties caused the thin wood I used to warp and twist.  Basically it wasn't rigid enough.

 

Below are pics of my second attempt.  I used 0.5" square dowels that are hot glued together for the frame.  I also hot glued some craft mesh between the fans to keep my cat from trying to drink from the tank.  Finally I hot glued some rubber feet to the bottom corners so the wood doesn't sit in any water that ends up on the lip of the tank.  Hopefully this attempt will work better than the last.

 

Full_Size_Render_7.jpgFull_Size_Render_5.jpgFull_Size_Render_8.jpg

It sets on top of the lights when I need to access the tank

Full_Size_Render_6.jpg

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I sat down in front of my tank today and saw one of the coolest things I've seen so far in this aquarium.  The berried female was sitting in the middle of the flame moss in the back right of the tank. She was only carrying about 6 eggs.  Over the next couple of minutes she periodically kicked her legs vigorously and the remaining eggs hatched.  It was over in a few minutes.  Had I sat down just a little later I would have missed it.  

 

I looked around but could only find two shrimplets.  Below is a pic of one of them.  You will have to zoom in to see him.  He is in the center of the pic. Because he is so small and I wasn't able to use my flash the picture isn't very good.  To be honest, I am happy just having any picture of a new born shrimp.

 

It has been 20 days since I first saw that the female had berried.  The eggs hatched much quicker than I expected.

 

IMG_9131.jpg

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Fantastic congrats, I am still awaiting my first hatching.

Thank you :D.

 

I managed to get a better shot of one my new shrimplets.  

IMG_9148.jpg

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Congrats man,

 

I guess when you do start seeing the eyes it does mean they will hatch soon. I have not been lucky enough to see them actually hatch yet. From here on in you are going to see a population boom. Once they start they don't stop lol

 

Happy for you man. Seems like this shrimplet has a nice pattern and colour. Keep it up.

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I have almost all good news to report for the last week.  The only bad news is I lost the first female that berried for me.  She was the last sick/discolored shrimp in the tank.  Of the 13 I started with I have 6-7 remaining.

 

On the positive side, at least one of the shrimplets from the female that passed is doing well.  The batch of shrimplets that hatched a week ago are also thriving.  I have no idea how many I have, but I can usually spot 6-8 without looking too hard.  They have become more mobile which also makes it easier to spot them.

 

My remaining female has a full saddle.  I expect her to berry up any day now.  It looks like my colony actually has a shot.

 

So take the above and add it to the fact that I started a CRS tank and you can see that it has been a very good shrimp week for me :D.

 

As always, I want to thank Shrimpy Daddy for advising and educating me.  He has saved me and my shrimp a lot of stress.

 

Here are a couple of my adult shrimp (males I think)

IMG_9273.jpgIMG_9227.jpg

 

Here is the shrimplet from the female that I lost

IMG_9221.jpgIMG_9254.jpg

 

Here are a couple of my 1 week old shrimplets

IMG_9275.jpgIMG_9303.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

It has been a month since my last update so I figured it was time for another.  Everything is going good in the tank.  My female has had another batch of shrimplets though it was much smaller than the first batch.  From the first time I saw her berried she was only carrying 8-10 eggs.  She has a nice saddle again so I expect her to be berried in the next week or so.  I am interested to see how many eggs she carries this time.

 

I now have shrimplets ranging from 1 week to almost 2 months.  The tank is much more lively than it has ever been.  

 

IMG_9489.jpg

Here are a couple shots of my favorite adult male

IMG_9460.jpgIMG_9483.jpg

Some of my shrimplets

IMG_9369.jpgIMG_9373.jpgIMG_9428.jpgIMG_9435.jpgIMG_9464.jpgIMG_9478.jpg

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You are making me feeling like finding some sunkist shrimp I am really starting to like that color! Thanks for sharing.

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  • 4 months later...

Sorry it has been so long since my last update.  The tank has had its ups and downs in the last few months but I think I have everything on track again.  

The main issue I had was low pH.  For some reason, every time I swapped out the Purigen in the tank for Purigen I had recharged, the pH would drop.  When I started losing shrimp I checked the WP and found the pH was about 5.5.  

I used aragonite to slowly raise the pH.  It has been stable for about 6 weeks at about 6.7.  I lost my remaining adults but many of the juveniles and shrimplets survived.  I would guess there are about 50 shrimp in the tank now.

The good news is the oldest of these are starting to get berried.  Two berried this weekend and there are at least half a dozen more with saddles forming.  My colony should be growing again soon.

Below are few pictures of my shrimp.  Sorry, I forgot to clean the glass before taking them.  Also, I recently fed powdered food so the water may look a little cloudy.

IMG_0481.jpgIMG_0422.jpgIMG_0430.jpgIMG_0445.jpg

Edited by wot_fan
Fixed pictures
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Great work wot_fan keep it up. Brilliant pictures as always

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  • 1 month later...

The tank continues to do well.  Since my last update, several more females have berried and several batches of shrimplets have been born.  They are still too small for me to have any idea of how many are in the tank but everywhere I look I see a few so I think there are a good number in there.

I took some pics yesterday.  Here are the best of them.

IMG_0558.jpgIMG_0552.jpgIMG_0509.jpgIMG_0514.jpgIMG_0548.jpg

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Glad to hear your colony is recovering. The colours are getting better too. Thanks for sharing.

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Glad to hear your colony is recovering. The colours are getting better too. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks :).  It is great to see things moving in the right direction.  

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