Fishmosy's zebra shrimp biotope tank (Mark II)

[revolutionhope]

you must be proud ben :-) i knwo i would be!!! i finally have some time on my hands now so will at last be getting some of these beauties !! (i paid for them probably 2 months ago now hahah)

stupid family-life getting in the way of more important things like shrimp keeping dammit!

love n peace

will

[fishmosy]

Yeah pretty happy so far. Just glad that the shrimp are happy and healthy. Next challenge is keeping them long term. 

[fishmosy]

Update for this tank:

I entered the tank in the AGA aquascaping competition, biotope category in September. The results have just been released. I finished with a top ten position.

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2015/show457.html

I'll upload some more pictures and a full write-up on how I'm keeping this tank shortly.

[jayc]

Top 10 !

Well done !

[fishmosy]

Here is a coupe of shots that didn't make the final cut

[Grubs]

Well done!  Really great.   Mine are persisting but not breeding so I'm jealous!

Edited November 9, 2015 by Grubs
(I need more granite!)

[anthonyd]

Your tank, shrimps and pictures are beautifull.

 

[fishmosy]

11 hours ago, anthonyd said:

Your tank, shrimps and pictures are beautifull.

 

Thanks mate.

 

11 hours ago, Grubs said:

Well done!  Really great.   Mine are persisting but not breeding so I'm jealous!

Thanks. Mine haven't dropped any shrimplets for a month or so but I've been feeding only low protein foods. I'm hoping a couple of feeds with some frozen foods will get them going again. When I fed some the other night, I noticed a moulted shell the next day but haven't seen any berried females yet.

[fishmosy]

Some more photos that didn't make the cut.

I don't know how I got this shot. Must have been playing with the camera settings!

 

 

 

[Disciple]

Awesome.

How is the colony going? It looks like it is growing.

[Grubs]

So well done.  Its a berry farm. Keep doing what you are doing.

The babies are cute!

[Paul Minett]

looking great

 

[fishmosy]

The above are photos from early September. The colony is currently doing well. I haven't seen any deaths since I started the tank, not to say they haven't been occurring though, but certainly no large die offs. The juvies in the above pics are getting close to adult size now. I'm currently playing around with protein levels in order to get some more berried females as I've only been feeding fairly low protein foods for the past month or two. I've tried feeding frozen spirulina brineshrimp and saw a moult but no eggs. I'm reluctant to try bloodworm until I get the TDS a bit lower (its currently 25) as I want the shrimp in the best of health before I introduce something that could spike the bacteria count and/or nitrogen levels in the tank. One or two feedings of bloodworm over two weeks has been enough to kickstart breeding in my CRS and Bloody Mary colonies so I'm hoping the same will happen with the zebs.

[jayc]

46 minutes ago, fishmosy said:

One or two feedings of bloodworm over two weeks has been enough to kickstart breeding in my CRS and Bloody Mary colonies

That does it everytime for my shrimps as well.

 

[fishmosy]

[NoGi]

Nice work, is that 2 generations in the tank now?

[fishmosy]

pretty sure its still F1 (only one generation from wild), and the majority of the colony is still the wild caught originals. The F1s are nearly big enough to breed so I imagine there will be some F2 in the next six months or so. Its getting there, the tank is stable and I'm concentrating on getting some more berried females.

[fishmosy]

So despite feeding bloodworm over the past couple of weeks, I've yet to see any more berried females. I just happened to be reading a thesis looking at riffle shrimp that mentioned how decapods (i.e. crustaceans) can be induced to become reproductive by increasing daylength (typically more than 14 hours per day for yabbies and macros). Some months ago, I reduced my lighting period to only 6 hours total over my zebra tank to reduce the amount of filamentous algae growth in the tank. I'm going to try increasing my daylength back to at least 8 hours and step it up from there to 10 or 12 hours and see what happens.

@Grubs I'm wondering what daylength you have your zebs under?

[Grubs]

@fishmosy - on at 9am off at 5:30pm. (8.5h).  Using an UpAqua ProZ.   When I set up my tank room with a room-wide timer circuit  I always intended to adjust the day length with the seasons for triggering some of my rarer Aponogetons (plants) to flower and/or break dormancy,  Over winter is was 7h (9am  to 4pm) ... and now that you've reminded me and given a good reason to I'm going to add another 1.5

I was using a PetWorx light over the zebs (white and blue) and I was hoping the move to a more "equatorial" spectrum with warmer tints in the ProZ light would be of benefit but no change.

I've been adding very small amounts of protein (a couple of frozen brine shrimp, hikari crab food) but also no berries.

Fingers crossed!  (spoken like a good scientist!)

[fishmosy]

The Up Aqua Pro Z are great lights hey? I'm using a couple and really like them. 

I remember reading somewhere that blue light (high Kelvin) induce/increases reproduction in bee shrimp (probably in one of the breeders and keepers magazines). I wonder if using a 'moon light' might help to increase day length without encouraging algae growth. I think I will try that next (in a month or two), and then really large water changes if all else fails. 

[ineke]

Ben when mine get stuck in the no breeding cycle the water change trick nearly always works. Dean recommended 3 x 30% water changes 3 days apart. It does induce moulting though so if there are a lot of berried mamas there would be a chance they might moult and the eggs may stay with the moult.  Good luck you have done really well with this colony.?

[fishmosy]

Thanks Ineke. I need to buy my own RO filter before I do that. The Mrs would think that it would be too expensive to buy that much water in a week. 

[ineke]

Yes you need to get one!  I have a small portable unit but I fill a 120 litre wheelie bin and have that on hand all the time just top it up as I use it. It's surprising how much I use but then I have 13 tanks most are 70 litre.

[Grubs]

On 28/11/2015, 1:26:23, Grubs said:

on at 9am off at 5:30pm. (8.5h).  Using an UpAqua ProZ.  ......... I'm going to add another 1.5

 

Anyone for green water?  (not the zebs) many other tanks are blooming however just from increasing light duration from 8.5 to 10h.  Going to let it run its course for a bit.

 

On the bad news I did a "too big" water change and found 3 dead the next day.  DOH!  I dont have enough to be careless.  Going to migrate them to a bigger thank and rainwater dripthrough this week for greater stability.

Bob's gone quiet so I better not balls it up - who knows when I could replace them.

[fishmosy]

How big was your water change @Grubs?

Edited December 1, 2015 by fishmosy