Learnt something surprising

[Baccus]

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?

 

[jayc]

Green! or are they blue? 

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

 

[Baccus]

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.

[jayc]

Is there one the one specimen?

[Baccus]

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.

[jayc]

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.

[Baccus]

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.

[jayc]

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.