Jump to content

Learnt something surprising


Baccus

Recommended Posts

A while ago I took all the shrimp out of my black cherry shrimp tank and put all the nonblacks (chocolate or not dark enough black) cherries into another tank, but left a tub of water with remaining shrimp too hard to catch from the black tank sitting around. The tub remained in the shed for a while and then migrated outside and was left where frangipani leaves along along with flowers and leaves from golden bells shrub fell into the tub.

Fast forward to this afternoon and I needed the forgotten about tub to pre-age some water for my native shrimp tank. Simple enough idea, just tip out the tub rinse it and then refill. But when I went to the tub low and behold not only was there 2 small guppies living quite happily but also quite a few shrimp. After painstaking catching we removed the shrimp and I found a rather nice surprise colouration.

The main really surprising thing was that the frangipani ( horrid white caustic sapped plants in case anyone is not familiar with it) is not apparently toxic to shrimp, which was not something I ever planned to test nor would I have considered trying.

Any way here are some pictures of the nice coloured shrimp saved from the tannin rich soup that was in the tub......next question is what on earth do I do with this one?

 

oddshrimp1.JPG

oddshrimp2.JPG

oddshrimp3.JPG

oddshrimp4.JPG

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Green! or are they blue? 

Feed them more flowers. And see what colours they develop into.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really cant decide what colour it is, blue with hints of green with a gold wash?. The gold wash I am thinking could be something to do with the amount of tannins they where in. Because I know wild caught golden tetras are very gold ( they think its something to do with tannins in the wild waterways) but captive bred ones are silver.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think so, two others that I caught with it and kept aside very quickly dropped their faint green/ blue and went a brownish red sort of colour. There where some other ones in the tub that may have been also similar (but much smaller) but it was getting late and I ran out of time to keep sorting them and scrutinising them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm almost tempted to just move a tank outside under a tree with a couple of guppies to control mozzies.

See what turns out from that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It doesn't even have to be a tank, these guys where in a large black plastic tub that holds probably close to 100L but it was only half full and that was only after getting a couple of days of rain after months of absolutely nothing. If you do set something up just make sure it has so many leaves the water is the colour of a good strong tea . There was even some bits of java fern slowly dying in the mix and lots of bloodworms.

Once I get some coraletia vine ( Antigonon leptopus) growing and flowering again I might see how the shrimp enjoy its flowers. They are popular with bees and butterflies and are related to seagrape and in the Buckwheat family. Apparently its an edible plant from its seeds to its tubers and popular with pigs, deer and racoons (I know we don't get racoons here but I have never seen or heard of our equivalent Brushtailed or ringtail possums eating this plant), and sheep. Apparently it also has medicinal qualities too, being noted for being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and analgesic while also being used to treat blood pressure and diabetes. Who knows this gem of a plant that grows insanely wild along my fence might be the next big thing to hit shrimp tanks.

I know that the shrimp don't mind the leaves, flowers and fruit of icecream bean trees too. It appears my yard is not just a smorgasboard of foods for me and my dogs (the dogs like the white mulberries and Icecream beans too and would probably have a good crack at the Jaboticaba if they thought about it) but I may be able to use more home grown foliage in my tanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Baccus said:

It doesn't even have to be a tank, these guys where in a large black plastic tub that holds probably close to 100L

Oh yeah, I didn't mean a glass tank. I have an old plastic sand pit, that the kids have out grown and don't play in anymore. LOL, they are too old for that.

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
  • Join Our Community!

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

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...