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A not so stressed shrimp now, just has a hint of blue still otherwise its taken on more mottled browns. A nice little Flyspeck Hardhead And the reason I am just in love with Blue Eyes......Stunning Eyes

Got too excited dealing with ordering new shrimp I Almost missed it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Still not really the clearest picture of the tiny snails that I got down at the Narrows but it does show what look to be some interesting eyes and a mouth that looks similar to a MTS mouth.

Found your problem ... Most time they are ok, but when they get it wrong, it's really wrong!! What's your plans with the plants? They need CO2, a lot of it. I have revived crypts at the point of melting by putting them in a clear air tight container, filling it with Soda water (the kind you can buy in coles) and placing it in the sun. The high CO2 levels really helped it pull through.

Today we went for a little excursion to a place called The Narrows near Mt Larcom, along the way we crossed quite a few dry creeks and culvets but saw 3 creeks still with water and plant life (from the car we could also see fish movement) which I intended to check out more fully on our way back from the actual Narrows, which is a sheltered tidal area that is s jumble of creek enterences, mudflats and mangroves. On the way to the Narrows This creek was actually tidal and I would say quite brackish since there where a few mangroves growing on the sides of the banks. In the above creek I did see some little Pacific Blue Eyes but I was not eager to go wading about in the water because it was quite deep and impossible to see the floor of the creek, remember this is Croc country and we where basically in the middle of no where. Also it was thick with sandflies, as was the boat ramp at the Narrows. This other creek was much more promising we had seen fish movement when we crossed it earlier, there was lots of water skaters skittering across the surface and quite a few aquatic plants. And thankfully no sandflies. Once we approached the water it was plain to see the water was teeming with Pacific Blue Eyes, Flyspecked Hardyheads, Some type of Rainbow (more on this later), shrimp and even gudgeons Some of the Glass shrimp turned "stressed blue" which is a shame they wont keep such pretty colouring. One of the shrimp has white muscle so I will dispose of it carefully to prevent its spread. The solitary rainbow fish I managed to catch I have the faintest hope it could be a Rhad, its eye is huge but I have not so far been able to get a good photo of its fins. I know its most likely another Dawson/ Fitzroy Rainbow but I can always live in hope.

After a 5 year break from fish keeping. Thought I would get back into it with a shrimp tank. Ill keep a tab on all expenses etc because I find it helpful and like to see what I spend on a tank. Also dad has a shed full of fish gear so alot of things came from there. AR-620- free from the shed Sponge filters - From the shed Schego WS3 air pump- free from the shed Eheim 2215- $25 Pisces iron sand 20kg- $60 The tech den Up aqua shrimp sand red- $50 The tech den Ceramic shrimp breeding cave- $8 The tech den Java moss- $5 Weeping moss- $5 SS mesh x 4 - $5 Wood- free Shrimp are 10 yellow 5 carbon rilli and 5 blue cherry shrimp. Wanted some colour but didn't want to go to expensive as Im just starting out. End goal is a display tank with white gloves as they are my favourite but $$$ for my liking. Thinking of adding some CRS in soon, I see alot of micshlings which look like CBS to me. Need to read up on those. Pictures from start until now. Cycling with the help of some established sponge filters Sand and moss in. Lilly pipes in. Still deciding on what to do with the intake cover. This is just a cut up piece of foam. Trying to make a nice display piece of wood out of about 10 pieces. I ended up using 3 pieces. As it sits now Still playing around with the wood designs etc. Also will cut the sponges out next weekend. I have read that shrimp love a lot of air and most just use sponge filters. Are there any nice looking sponge filters on the market? Black back ground will be applied this weekend. Thats all for today. Any help and tips will be greatly appreciated! Thanks Zac

Thanks for the tips @neo-2FX and @jc12! I feel much more confident going forward.

do what you can to save the barclaya, ill send you some hygro but you'll have to reattach it to the wood.

Neverheard of co2 burn. It's not like using too much Excel or glut. Mix with some tank water to be on the cautious side. It's just high levels of co2 gas. You could put in some macro nutrients like potassium as well.

Tank cycle test results Tank 1 Day 2 Tank size - 18" x 9"x 9.5" Substrate - ADA Amazonia Ph - 7.6 Ammonia - 0.25 ppm Nitrite - 1.0ppm Nitrate - 5.0ppm thought id share my cycle progress to make sure it's in check.

Turns out I also accidently got quite a few tiny little snails, my camera just wont do them justice trying to zoom in on their tiny shells and bodies. Mainly the snails look to have black turban type shells. This little snail seems to have a clear body at the moment too. Because I am guessing the little Rainbow is a juvi its hard to tell if its elongated, its certainly not as slim and long as a flyspeck hardyhead. Sorry about the quality of the pictures but I had to try and single it out since it kept disappearing into the crowd of blue eyes. I forgot to mention that the creek was also running but the other 2 weren't, very nice to see since we have not had rain in ages and the countryside is looking very brown and dry.

The story is these were originally designed to be a filter medium, but ended up being used more aesthetically! Cheers guys!! Another JC, lol! Glad Google found the right link, lol, Thanks everyone one for participating and letting the humour flow, something that should be mandatory in life!! and massive massive Congrats and Thanks to @Disciple!! He is a living legend and goes out of his way to ensure everyone has a good time and gets the information they need plus keeping competitions and auctions running!! Busy man!! Cheers Basri!

Personally I don't have a preference over heater make/model even though most of my heaters are Eheim Jagers. I use any make/model I could get but for some of my sumps, a 300W Eheim Jager is too big to fit so I had to use a different one. To prevent shrimp soup regardless of make/model of heaters, I would recommend an additional thermostat for each heater which cost around $10-$15 from eBay. Send me a PM if you would like a link. All heaters would eventually fail so a cheap redundancy is a good investment IMO.

I'm a big fan of the AquaEl heaters. Compact, black and not glass! Unbreakable! Only drawback for me is you can hear when it turns on. It's like some flicks a switch which makes a noise haha. A bit on the expensive side $40 for the 50W