# Shrimp 2 gallon Jar Present- No tech.



## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

My boyfriend came home from work this morning with a present for me.

Can anyone guess what is going to happen to this "jar"? 

Still thinking up ideas for it and need a small treeish looking piece of driftwood but I am absolutely excited about it!! Such a great surprise.

Will need some color of 2 to 4 male/female neo shrimp to go into it. Blues, painted red or yellow, orange? would be lovely. And some blue or pink ramshorn snails. Of course none of which I have yet.

But first things first, critters aren't the main attraction at all. Now I have to spend the next 2 months deciding on plants and finding moss. YAY!!

Presents are so exciting!!


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Oh, that's a nice present!


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

I like that. There is so much u could do with that

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## sc91006 (Nov 8, 2011)

You have a great BF there.


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

I have a crapload of Taiwan moss from my Mini-M if you are interested. I just did a trim yesterday and can send some your way.


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## assasin6547 (Feb 6, 2013)

sc91006 said:


> You have a great BF there.


Lucky. :biggrin:


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

PeterN1986 said:


> I have a crapload of Taiwan moss from my Mini-M if you are interested. I just did a trim yesterday and can send some your way.



That would be really lovely.  TYVM

---

I've been soaking soil and getting the big pieces out. Mixed in a bit of floramax that I had extra sitting around, so should be ready for plants in about 4 days. Going to top with black diamond blasting sand. 

Thinking for plants I will start with - 
jungle val
bacopa carolinia - i think it will transition well growing out of the top for a nice flower effect and leave the water line below the rim, which is curved in so nothing should be able to jump out.
Assorted mosses, depends I what we have on hand when I plant the tank next week
Dwarf sag 
Dwarf hair grass - to be added later, have to hit Petco up first for a tiny bag of it to see if we can grow it in our tanks with no Co2, i hope so.
And if I can find some pretty parrot feather, i also think this will grow up and out of the water nicely. The fluffy look of parrot feather fits with the look I want for the cactus tree.
1 type of floater but undecided as to which one to use, leaning towards dwarf water lettuce but may go with frogbit, just depends on what grows, we have 2 pieces of frogbit and 1 water lettuce that showed up after putting a mix of duckweed, red root floaters and salvinia in our tanks. Lovely surprise, they are both beautiful, nice long roots growing out!

I made a nice looking cholla wood "tree" cut up a piece and super glued it for a semi-half-kind of stunted cactus look, will super glue moss to the tree and hopefully get a very nice happy place for the future shrimps. I super glued it to a very flat rock so that it won't be in danger of ever falling over (I hope). I may super glue it to the bottom of the jar, if it is a tipping over issue. 

I found several very nice rocks but will probably use them in the 1.5 gallon cube that is currently housing mystery snails and a very small dragonscale halfmoon plakat named Damien that followed us home from the local petstore yesterday (Badfish! LOL). I'm actually considering smashing the larger rock with a hammer but am afraid it will lose the beautiful color if I do, it's so pretty, if i could get it into several smaller rocks I'd be overjoyed.

Such a small 2 gallon jar but so much happiness contained inside. I am so lucky to have my boyfriend. He brought home my first small tank as a surprise in November and now we have MTS for sure. It's been a slow and very work intensive project but has kept me going and involved every step of the way. The wonders it has done for depression is staggering, although it still creeps in, the tanks are peaceful and help tremendously when my RSD flairs up and I am in agony in the middle of the night, which happens very, very often. Just watching the tanks has helped me through quite a few bad spots and he somehow knew it would. He's the best thing to ever happen to me, everyone should be so lucky. 

More updates soon. I'll try to get pictures of my stunted cholla cactus tree.


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## Scottyhorse (Mar 13, 2013)

Great present! I had a one gallon planted pickle jar, but it was a pain to maintain because of the shape I took it down. I would like to get a larger bowl or jar like yours and resurrect the planted jar again! 

I've got some Pink Ramshorns if you're interested


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

that's an awesome gift. very thoughtful! i bet its going to be a fun project!


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

The cholla wood tree, I am going to tie moss to the tips of each branch for a fuzz cactus look. Surround the bottom with small rocks with moss tied to them and maybe some baby java ferns, since my plants keep shooting off a bajillion plantlets.


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## kclone (Nov 11, 2011)

I love it! Very cool. Your shrimp will be smiling!


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

Updated picture of my Present Jar. It's mostly planted. I believe I will add some DHG or Chain swords to the front/side next week when they get here possibly a riccia carpet. It's cycling so plan to add 2 to 4 shrimp and pink ramshorn snails in a few weeks after the cycle is done. It's turned out very well and I'm really happy with it. It will be a joy to watch the shrimp grow and breed as an observation jar right next to me. 

Still undecided as to the color of shrimp to add - orange, red or blue. I'd like the malawa that breed fun colors occasionally but it's crazy to pay shipping for just 2 shrimp 

Will update after I add the live critters.


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

Special thanks to PeterN1986 for the taiwan moss and clippings from his tank that he sent me, they look wonderful in there.

A picture of the cholla wood cave I made and covered with the moss for the shrimp to hide under and in.


Edit- for some reason after the post up there, i could not get another picture to load. So had to post a second time. Sorry for the back to back posts.


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## GreenBliss (Mar 7, 2012)

I love it! Looks great.


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## REEFBUG (Mar 19, 2010)

Very nice, that's a cool jar.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

Those pickle jars are a lot of fun for sure. There is a singular problem with them: having only one .

Small floaters like frog bit, dwarf lettuce, etc. work well in these jars and help to keep the environment stable.

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

Looks great! I like the spiky look of the wood there. Refreshingly different.


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

OVT said:


> Those pickle jars are a lot of fun for sure. There is a singular problem with them: having only one .
> 
> Small floaters like frog bit, dwarf lettuce, etc. work well in these jars and help to keep the environment stable.
> 
> via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2



I have a tiny dwarf water lettuce, a frogbit, a salvinia patch and one greater duckweed in there right now. Having an issue with small duckweed in my other tanks so took out 1 piece, washed them and put them in to grow and multiply to ensure no small duckweed infests the jar. 

Probably going to have to re-do a few tanks completely to eradicate the small duckweed, i dislike it immensely and can't seem to get rid of it. 

---------
Thanks Peter


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

Added 3 RCS, an amano and a Thai Micro Crab to the jar a week ago. All seem to be doing well and next will be to add the few ramshorn snails and the jar will be done. Already thinking of maybe doing a another jar, to hopefully put a couple blue shrimp into. I can't wait to (hopefully) watch the babies grow. The amano is going to come out and go in a 10 gallon after he gets a little bigger, I didn't want my betta to eat him since he was kind of small when he got here. 

Plants are growing beautifully. The taiwan moss seems to be really, really happy in there, it has started growing great and the shrimp love it. Surprisingly I may have actually managed to not infect it with regular duckweed!! So happy about that, i can't even explain.


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## eadams2010 (Jul 7, 2013)

peachii said:


> Plants are growing beautifully. The taiwan moss seems to be really, really happy in there, it has started growing great and the shrimp love it. Surprisingly I may have actually managed to not infect it with regular duckweed!! So happy about that, i can't even explain.


 
What is that floating plant? Id love to get some for my Neons planted 10gal if I knew the name.


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## TankYouVeryMuch (Jul 5, 2013)

eadams2010 said:


> What is that floating plant? Id love to get some for my Neons planted 10gal if I knew the name.


Its in the post right above the pictures #18


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

eadams2010 said:


> What is that floating plant? Id love to get some for my Neons planted 10gal if I knew the name.


The small rounds plants are salvinia (which has spread nice and fast) and the bigger round patch is frogbit. You can't really see the water lettuce or greater duckweed in the picture.


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## CheyLillymama22 (Jun 9, 2013)

Looks great! Send some taiwan moss my way when its time for a trim.
lol


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

One of the amano's molted today. The 2 red cherries inside are saddled and the assassins won't stop banging. I didn't want assassin eggs in there so will have to watch for babies for the next few months when I take them out. I got blue and pink ramshorns from a trade of plants last week, so I think the Pink ramshorns are going in this jar and hope to start a second jar for the blue. For the time being the pink and blue are getting daily water changes in a half gallon and several mason jars. I split them up based off of current color so will watch them for a few weeks before i decide what tank to put them into. Have to eradicate the brown ramshorns out of a few tanks before i add the blue or pink to anywhere  so probably easiest to just start a second Jar just for blue ramshorns.

The plants inside this jar are really, really, really liking the mix of soil and floramax, they are growing out of control. The vals have put out more runners than the entire time they were in the bigger tank and the taiwan moss is doing the best out of any other tank in the house. I am extremely pleased with how this jar has turned out. Thinking these jars would be the perfect place to grow out just the different types of mosses we have collected so far.

CheyLily- after it grows out I'll be happy to pay it forward. I'll Pm when it gets there if you just pay shipping


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

That's the spirit 
Just keep feeding us pictures.

v2


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## daylily (Nov 11, 2012)

peachii

I must have missed your thread when you first posted it. Beautiful jar. I would love to try one some day. 

I had to write in support of what you are doing. I was diagnosed with RSD/CRPS in 2001 but had it for a few years before that. I used to have a huge outdoor garden, and hybridized daylilies, had a sales garden and mail order business Now almost all of the outdoor plants are gone. Only a few left, and will probably downsize that even more this fall. 

I have wanted an aquarium ever since we got rid of the one I had as a child over 40 years ago, and fell in love with planted tanks a few years back. When pain was high at night, I used to watch youtube videos of planted tanks and it was so good to take my mind off the pain. One day while going in a local specialty fish store to look - I thought I am just going to go ahead and get a 5 gallon and set it up. I got a Fluval Spec V, and I put it near my bed, cycled it, joined a local fish club, got starts and trimmings from their plant guy, put a red male betta in, and it was so great to watch the betta when pain levels are so high at night. Liked it so well, moved him out to another area, and now I have a 15 gallon right by my bed, with the light cycle on at night, so I can watch them all night if I want to.

We might not be able to get out like we would want, or experience life like "normal" people - but the key is in finding joy in what we can do. And, the small planted tanks have given me such joy. I've tried nearly all the treatments for the RSD - they just have not helped, and I'm at 75% of my body now. But, I deal with it ok - meditation helps a lot, and so does sitting and watching the fish and shrimp and seeing the beauty of the plants right next to the bed. I have the 15 and two Fluval Specs with male bettas. I would LOVE to have a couple 40 breeder size tanks all planted, but the reality is that I don't think I can care for more than a 15 or 20. But, maybe I could add a couple jars.... ;-)

RSD/CRPS is a rare disease, and people that don't have it just cannot comprehend what having it is like. I just wanted to let you know you are not alone, and keep your chin up, and I hope you find something that helps you soon. I'm so glad that you have found the planted tanks and that they are helping you too! 

I will be looking for one of those jars....


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

daylily, 

Thank you so much for your story and your kind words. I'm going on 3 years now with no remission and it's really been a struggle. The fish and the plants really give me something else to try to focus on when the nights get bad, which is 90% of the nights here lately. I just can't imagine this going on forever but I guess it's best to just not think about that!

Take care and good luck finding your own jar, they might just be slightly addictive


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

My cherry shrimp are berried finally, all 3 of them the same night. It didn't happen until I added one more female and one more male into the jar with them. I picked the reddest male and females, and one of the females has the slight purple tone to her that I hope stays with it after the shrimplets hatch. No idea -how- in the world I am going to get 50+ shrimplets out of the jar when the time comes, guess it's going to be fun for a few months trying to fish them out. In our 8 gallon shrimp tank, I am guessing we have over 100 shrimplets just hatched, looks like all the girls got berried around the same time and they all hatched really close together. Going to need a second shrimp tank soon looks like to through culls into.


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## peachii (Jun 1, 2013)

I have shrimplets! Sometime in the last day or two one of the girls had her babies. I can see right now at least 12 babies, this jar has been extremely successful with zero (knock on wood and pray I didn't just jinx it) deaths so far. They love all of the taiwan moss, cholla wood and fast growing plants in it. 

When we get our second type of shrimp, which are probably going to be Malawa and chocolates in the next month or so, hopefully I can add one more jar with those in it to sit beside my chair. 

Shrimp are a joy to watch, when I can see them since the jar is grown in so well. I've really fallen in love with the shrimp and snails. Hands down I enjoy them more than fish, except for my bettas of course.


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## JoshBA (Aug 21, 2013)

I've actually seen that exact jar for sale Target for only 8 dollars. I might have to try something like this some time.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

That is so cute! Love the 'cactus'


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