# 5G -Was Shrimp Haven, Now Betta!



## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Hey! 
Time for journal #2! Since none of us can have just 1 tank lol I had bought 12 Cherry Shrimp a couple months ago to go in my 29G, but after a couple weeks, I noticed I was down to just 4 of them left :/ 

So I did what I could, and transferred them all into my 1.5G Hex until I could get another tank for them. I was wanting to get an Ebi for this, but the funds didn't work out in time and it wasn't a big deal to me to have it or not so I ended up getting a regular TopFin 5Gallon. I figured at worst, I could derim it and clean up the silicone at some point if I really wanted it to look nice, which right now i don't just yet. 

So anyways, setup the 5G with some Floramax Midnight Black(sp?), swapped the stock incandescent for a 6500k 15w CFL, the hood has a decent/ok reflector for it and it seems to work nicely for the plants, defintely have had good growth over the last week. And currently using the stock 15G HOB filter, with seeded media from my SunSun on my 29g, since my 20/50 HOB's won't fit with the stock hood on here and i'm not getting a CF for this *quite* yet.

I put the 4 cherries in here and grabbed 20 more from Malibudandy on Aquabid to put me at 24-25, didn't realize my GH/KH were to high and lost 2 but all the rest are fine and water params are good now. I've slowly acclimated this tank down to 0-1KH and around 2-3GH over the last 3 days to prepare for the new CRS I bought from BSmith that should be here.. Today!

I started dosing when i set this up but have since stopped, just gonna go for root tabs and diy co2 for now. So far so good. Only fish I have is an Oto right now for some algea clean up on the glass. Other than that this will be shrimp only 

The current scape is something I threw together super quick just so i could get the shrimp in and whatnot, when my other plants arrive this tank is due for a major rescape so no worries on that. it's gonna change.

Here's a quick FTS I took and the lone oto  More to come soon!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Few stats of the tank:

Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: ~10ppm before the last water change
KH: 0-1dKH
GH: ~2-4
Temp: 70-74 F

Flora:
E. Tenellus
Rotala Rotundifolia
Bacopa M.
Subwassertang
Fissedens Moss (?)
Marimo Balls 
*Soon* Tropica 049
**Possibly soon** UG/HM/HC and/or L. Aromatica - not sure other than that.

Fauna:
~23 Red Cherry Shrimp
1-2 Oto's
~12 A/S/S+ Crystal Red Shrimp <- will be in soon

Also waiting on the mineral rock from msnikkistar to try out ^^
Currently alternating foods between Kens bottom dweller mix(pellets), super color+ mix(pellets), shrimp growth mix(flakes), and dried bloodworms. They seem to love it all 

Note: Actual shrimp pics soon lol


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## rickztahone (Jul 20, 2009)

Just make sure when you acclimate the CRS to take your time. I recently got some SS and although i took about 3 hrs to acclimate them i still lost like 4, at least that i can tell since it's a heavily planted tank. They tend not to like newly set up tanks but from your parameters it seems like you are on point. Stability is key to CRS survival IMO. I also think my co2 might have had something to do with the deaths. Good luck!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Yeah I've been researching and reading about CRS for the past couple months to attempt to get prepared and yeah, started with the RCS for the past couple months. I will definitely acclimate them slowly and carefully. I've had luck using PlanetInverts method with acclimating shrimp so far, I *definitely* don't want to lose any though, or at least as little as humanly possible 

So far in this tank I've been doing daily 15-20% water changes with RO/DI water to keep the nitrates down and get the water down to proper specs(for CRS) since I originally used Prime'd tap water(KH/GH:10) to start this tank. 

CO2 definitely may have had something to do with the 2 RCS deaths I experienced though, it was either that or yeah, the water i attributed it to earlier; but all the info I can find says CO2 shouldn't affect them at all, assuming you raise it slowly and whatnot which is usually done and what I did. However I haven't had any deaths or any strange behavior since I've been changing the water so that was my reasoning there. idk.

I plan to stay on top of this as I'd like to get all the shrimp to start breeding in here. As of about 2 days ago, all my RCS females are saddled, and all of the RCS in general have been molting regularly and are seemingly pretty happy. 

So I believe things are looking up in the shrimp department and I'm hoping it'll stay that way with the CRS. I'll definitely keep your advice in mind, and anyone else's that wants to offer up some info 

Thanks


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Ok, yay for successful arrival of all the CRS! Thanks BSmith! Looks to be 6 or so youngin's, some juvies, and the best of all, a berried adult!

Just waiting to get off work here to slowly acclimate them and put em in.

I'll update w/better pics after I get done ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Can anyone recommend a nice camera that allows you to focus the picture that doesn't cost $500? I need one because this phone is not really working out here. Pics regardless tho, there's a bunch!
Here'e a nice shot of most of the CRS acclimating, definitely a good look at the berried girl, and a good size comparison of the shrimp ^^
















Some of them are so little! I got 12 in all and so far everyone is doing fine 








This is where I wish I had a better camera  I have 2 adult CRS, one male one berried female, here's the male, really wish i could get a better shot here :/








And here's the female munching down and aerating her eggs, plus some others if you can spot them!








I swear this oto loves the camera








And a saddled Cherry! Would look nice if it wasn't so blurry! 









And thats it for now! Off to hunt for a new camera, comments welcome! ^^


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## avandss (Dec 15, 2010)

For a sub300$ camera i would stick to canon


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

BIG update here too ^^

I removed all the moss save for a bit on the right side(i forgot ) due to most of it being completely covered in BBA since that was basically the only plants i had in here and no co2. :/ I moved it all to my QT tank and have been dosing daily h2o2+excel+light blackout(there's no fauna in there) to get rid of it, so far so good and no melting of the moss. I may eventually move it back in here once i can get something to attach it to as I haven't had any aglae issues since I fully planted the tank.

I removed all the pygmy chain sword in here, and added a bunch of S. Repens, 1 limno aromatica stem, some bacopa m, and some rotala rotundifolia stems in place of that and the moss.

I had this glass co2 diffuser in my 29gallon before it broke on me while i was cleaning it, go figure for a cheap ~$5 glass diffuser off [Ebay Link Removed] So I heated up the end of an airline hose and stuck on what was left of it, then superglued to be sure and attached to another .5l bottle of diy co2. Thats working very nicely right now and i'm liking it, the plants especially are too.

Also got rid of the 5-15g HOB filter in favor of a TopFin 20 HOB. I took out all the filter media from the smaller one, cut out the activated carbon from the built in floss unit and stuck em in the topfin 20. And since I noticed there was a bunch of open space behind the filter floss, and I wanted to run an airstone somewhere in the tank without fear of degassing my co2, I decided to stick a white mist airstone from petsmart in the bottom of the back of the filter, and then add biomax on top of it, basically a mini moving bed filter that is *highly* oxygenated. So far it's working great 

New things in the shrimp world, my berried CRS still hasn't given birth yet, i'm anxiously waiting that as I know it's coming soon lol. And as of 2 days ago, one of my cherries is fully berried as well! And there's another 3-4 females fully saddled, so looking forward to that. Got some mineral rock from nikki and it's definitely helped with their colors and for sure molting. Haven't had any else go on with the tanks, all is and has been well so far. Made the switch to pure RO water and yeah, no issues 

Pics!
FTS









Berried CRS!









Left side close up









Right side close up









Comments always welcome!


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## Shrimps''R''Us (Dec 9, 2010)

HolyAngel said:


> ^^
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice CRS! I like how the the famale is PACKING with eggs. Hehe.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

hehe yeah, thats the one i'm waiting on to hatch! 

That pic doesn't show they're coloring very well unfortunately, but they're all A-SS grade. I Definitely love having them. They're a bit more interesting the Cherry shrimp.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

well i can make out eyes in the eggs she's carrying.. just a few more days then?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Still waiting on eggs to hatch, no luck yet.

Other updates are I ordered a zoomed 501 canister filter that should be here next week. I plan on running it with this HOB I have on the tank right now for atleast a month or two to make sure its properly seeded but may keep it indefinitely just for added filtration, we'll see. 

Also got some Tonina Fluviatilis in here and more on the way! I think i'm definitely going to go for a south american theme here and remove the bacopa at least, if not the rotala as well, the limno so far is looking okay and considering it took a month to grow, I'm gonna leave it for now lol.

And finally, I'm having a bit of an issue with the lighting for this tank. I'm using a 15w(most wattage the stock hood will take and only 6500k bulb i could find) compact flourescent, one of the twist kind, and the light distribution is just horrible. It looks to be high light on the far right side of the tank, and low light on the far left side, the plants are growing that way anyways(rotala on the left grows straight up, rotala on the right bends to the floor) and thats how the light even looks to the eye. 
I'm not sure what to do about it, the tank is 16"L x 8"W x 10"H. 
I've seen 12" T5NO's at walmart that I thought about using with a makeshift reflector but not sure on the amount of light that would put off at 10" from the substrate, I don't want to have high light, looking for mediumish. I've also looked at the big clip on lights and desk lamps but i'm not sure having the bulb vertical like that(in terms of the socket orientation) and then pointing it at the tank will still cover the whole tank adequetly like i'm looking for.. 

Any suggestions or thoughts?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

also considering diy LED or something, but not sure how many i'd need and/or at what wattage :/


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

OMG, they're SOOOOO tiny!! 

I've only found 2 baby crystals so far but there has to be around 10x that amount in here somewhere. yay for successful birth! 

--

Still searching for an alternative light for this tank, any idea's/suggestions would be greatly appreciated..


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Awesome! In no time you will have more offspring.


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## swissian (Aug 30, 2010)

Very cool! I love finding baby shrimps!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

^^

Also got some new flora in here today as well as a zoomed 501 canister filter! 
Took out all but one stem of bacopa and one stem of rotala rotundifolia and added in some pretty tall stems of Tonina Fluviatilis and syngonanthus 'manaus' in their place. Both of which are going to need to be trimmed soon, thanks dave!

I gotta say though, the added flow from this little canister filter is very nice and just what this tank needed. I couldn't fit any HOB on here bigger than the 20 I already have and it's been needing cleaned every 4 days or so to keep the flow up. Even then it wasn't properly moving the water across and throughout the entire tank. So now i'm running both with the intanks on either side of the tank and yeah, loving it so far and the shrimp are behaving more actively than they have been of late.

Here's the shot:








^^

Now off to try and find these baby crystals!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

see the light distribution problem? I need to find something that will fix this.. 12" T5 anyone?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

South American theme anyone? 








This is 2 days after root medic complete root capsules, and 1 day after planting the T. Fluviatilis and S. Manaus

Also some good news here:










Here's what she looks like 









And also good news here:









^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Ugh, much needed update here, things are good and yet not so well.

I lost all the baby CRS that were born, I'm pretty positive 

Problem was due to an ammonia spike that I can only attribute to the rootmedic root tabs I put in this floramax substrate. It seems to need a cap of sand or something to keep the nutrients from leeching out asap. 

So I moved all the shrimp to a 1.5 gal hex tank I've had setup for a yr now as a small quarantine tank:










Been using straight RO water and all the shrimp seem alive and well, albeit missing their 5gal lol. 

Here's the current shot of what the 5gal looks like right now:









I think I'm still going to add some sand in and rescape this a lil, but its doing good save for the ammonia I'm still waiting on to clear.

Here's an up close of that limno aromatica in the center there:









Changed the lighting from a single 15w(60-70w) spiral compact flourescent sitting right on top of the tank to a 24" t8 florasun bulb 2xODNO sitting right on top of the tank. Much better spread here, forgot about the odno tho, so far algea hasn't been a problem tho. Running 3 bottles of diy co2 as overkill since theres nothing but snails in here.

Comments/suggestions? Thanks


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## cervantesmx (Feb 16, 2011)

I like the choice of flora, good mix, definately a "south american" look. What else are you planning to do to it?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Well I'm not positive on everything yet. 

I know I'm going to cap this floramax substrate with some Tahitian moon black sand to stop the root capsule nutrient leak.
Will rescape a bit when I do that to even out the look/height of the plants. I may or may not slope the substrate.

I'd remove the castles completely but they seem to be the favorite spot of my berried shrimp and some of the others too. If I could find some appropriate DW I would substitute them, but not until then I suppose. 

I am looking for a few more species of plants but no biggie right now. Still trying to get growing this tonina down, its definitely a finicky little plant thats for sure. I had a Black background on this tank but it just didn't look right so I went with the blue. 

Decisions decisions.. ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

ok, capped the flora max with tahitian moon sand like I planned and that stopped my parameter problems like I thought it would. I added around 1"-1 1/2" of sand.

Put the shrimp back in after 48hrs and watched them for 3 days, after another 4 days of vacation i came back to everyone alive and happy, another berried cherry shrimp, and a pretty good growth of the new rescape. I didn't change it too much but evened out all the stem plants and removed the castles completely for the foreseeable future. The lone stem of limnophilia aromatica is still the centerpiece in this tank.

FTS soon!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

FTS:


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

well at least one of my cherries had her babies, so there's little cherries runnin about now ^^

Temp got up to 80 F though while I was at work and I lost two juvie crystals 

Hoping the female gets berried again here soon though, shouldn't be much longer as she's saddled ^^


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## vinniemabuna (Oct 20, 2006)

Wow , the tank looks great, what floating plant is that, and what lighting do you have on this tank, I want to do something like yours .:biggrin:


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Thanks! 

The floating plant is duckweed lol, and the lighting is a 2xODNO 17w T8 zoomed Flora sun, either that or its a flora glo but i'm pretty sure it's the zoomed and not the hagen. 

It's overkill on the lighting, but I haven't felt like removing the wire's to drop it down to normal output... with the duckweed covering the entire top of the tank though, it puts the substrate at a low light level. The duckweed literally has like a 2" long root now on almost all of them lol. I've been tempted to plant some in the substrate but no luck so far on the few i've tried. 

I'll post some new pics tomorrow


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

horrible iphone pic, but i think it gets the point across ^^


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## matt12 (Jan 16, 2011)

HolyAngel said:


> It's overkill on the lighting


 no such thing:biggrin:


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

lol well I mean with diy co2 its overkill without the floaters covering the top. I can't do pressurized co2 as my extra 24oz tank is leaking from the burst disc and I'm really saving it for the new tank, all 1/4 inch acrylic and dimension's are 24"Lx12"Wx12"T so it'll fit my 24" T8's perfectly. That'll be the new shrimp tank with my baby cory's for the time being unless someone wants them. Still don't know what they are yet, either bronze/emerald cory's or peppered corys and all my shrimp. I'm on the lookout for some CBS... the shrimplab is all out for the time being.. and I need to reup on my CRS stock as i'm getting low after my initial issues


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

The light is sitting right on top of the 5 gallon, it's like ~8" or so from the substrate..


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Update:
Well 2 of the berried cherries had their babies so there's a bunch of em running around the tank now ^^

I had about 4 deaths tho over the last week, despite all parameters being in check. 

So after everything, I decided to follow Nikki's experience and got some BioChem-zorb and threw that in the zoomed 501 CF. 

it's been a few days now and there hasn't been any more deaths and all of the shrimp seem more active and happy now so I'm assuming it cleared up whatever the problem was.

Now I just have to restock on crystal red's, I'm down to 3 left out of the original 13 I received because of the root tabs and some type of heavy metal or whatever it was that was in here *tear* 

thank god it's cleared up now and things should be fine from here on out. I'll definitely be continuing to use this BioChem-zorb in the future, that's for sure!

And here's to hoping there's 2 females and 1 male out of the 3 I have left! if anyone has some A/S grade CRS/CBS I'm on the lookout for some!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Down to 2 CRS from 13 but they're going strong! 

Thank god for biochemzorb! and Nikki's experience and her posting it here or I would've lost them all!

Latest FTS:









My Lonely S grade  :









And my camera whore, Flonne(my favorite(RIP :/):


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

well the tank hasnt changed too much, still looks basically the same, its finally fully cycled and adjusted properly for the shrimp. I added some flame moss that seems to be doing really well in here, and ive had about 4 or 5 spawns of cherry reds so theres tons of baby rcs all over the place ^^

and not sure if i mentioned this in my last post but i got 2 assasin snails to get rid of my massive population of pond/ramshorn snails i had in here. i think they had something to do with the shrimp dieoffs and water quality. anyways, the tank is all good now thats for sure.

oh also, I just ordered 5 S+ Crystal Black Shrimp this morning to accompany my lone S CRS until i can afford to get more of them too, so pic's when they arrive and updated shots of the other shrimpy and tank!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Oh, decided to just go ahead and go for it and bought some CRS from taniner that got shipped out today, so those should be arriving next week too ^^

Grabbed a dual sponge filter as well for this tank, I already have the zoomed 501 CF in here, but it's flow rate is not what I would like.. And the other sponge+airstone doesn't function close enough to a sponge filter for me to feel satisfied. I haven't lost any shrimp in months now, but better safe than sorry


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

well got all my shrimpy today! so 6 new CRS and 5 new CBS successfully acclimated and added to the tank ^^

ill see if i can get any good pics of them in a bit. I got two seperate shipments from two different ppl and both gave me baby shrimp so theyre pretty tiny still and im not sure how my phone camera will think about that 

we'll see soon!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Well the FTS hasn't changed since the last one, so i'm not gonna post another one for now. I think the next step for this tank is going to be an iwagumi scape with s. repens since its a bit difficult to keep stems with the tank height being so short. Anyways, I Got a couple shots of the new CBS but all the CRS one's came out blurry and not good so i'll try and retake later when I can catch them out but for now, enjoy!









Azolla Caroliniana with 2 crowns of T. Fluviatilis breaking the surface ^^









Here's a good shot of most of my RCS Female's that I happened to catch ^^


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## snausage (Mar 8, 2010)

That picture of to tonina breaking through the mat of vegetation is awesome!!!!

At first glance, I thought I was looking at a flat piece of live rock.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

snausage said:


> That picture of to tonina breaking through the mat of vegetation is awesome!!!!
> 
> At first glance, I thought I was looking at a flat piece of live rock.


hehe thanks, I think so too ^^

----

Update! Finally got some OK shots of the new CRS plus some of the other shrimp. Sorry for the quality, but you get the idea  
(Don't mind the horrible looking plants/algea, I haven't dosed this tank in months and stopped the co2 then as well)


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)




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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Ooh more


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

New arrivals as of today! 

6 SS Grade CRS! I actually only ordered 4 but got two extras, as well as a baseball size portion of moss 









Obviously they're acclimating right now


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

And another sneak peak ^^


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

nice shrimps!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> nice shrimps!


Thank you!! ^^

Just wish I had as nice of a camera to take pictures of them with  

The FTS in here is basically the same, gotta love that low light, no co2, and no ferts. I don't think it's changed really since i first set up the tank.

The shrimp populations have been changed a LOT though. I've moved most of adult cherries into my 29 gallon now that i've changed its parameters to match that of this 5 gallon/what CRS prefer. Thats leaving me with all my redest cherries in here to breed. I have 2 females and 2 males with around 40 baby cherries swimming around. All bright red, damn near Painted. 

Also moved out all the B-A+ Grade CRS(6 or so) I have into the 29 gallon as well leaving me with 5 S+(Tigertooth) CBS, 1 S+(Tigertooth) CRS, 8 SS(Hino No-Entry) CRS, and 1 SSS(Crown/Flower) CRS. This way the lower grades can breed together, and all my higher grades will breed together, giving me a great mix of genes and hopefully some good chances at getting a lot of very nice shrimp once they do breed ^^


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

GREAT bunch of Shrimp Ya got there!!! 

Also I LOVE the Floaters Pic!!! I too thought it was a shot of Live Rock!!!

I am wanting to dive into shrimp keeping, so Your post is going to help me a lot, Thank You! 1 question though, and forgive my ignorance, but what are all of those white/cream colored balls on the substrate in the last few pics?

Keep up the GREAT WORK!!!
Drewroud:


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

BoxxerBoyDrew said:


> GREAT bunch of Shrimp Ya got there!!!
> 
> Also I LOVE the Floaters Pic!!! I too thought it was a shot of Live Rock!!!
> 
> ...


Thanks!

Yeah gotta love that azolla caroliniana, sadly most of it fungus'd shortly after that pic for some unknown reason, I'm thinking too much uv from the odno'd flora sun bulb but not positive. I only have a couple fronds left of it now that are healthy.. And TONS of duckweed still  lol

Let me know if you have any questions on the shrimp keeping, my biggest advice is to use Pure RO water( I get mine from my one of those glacial water dispensers at my local grocery store) for the tank, and biochemzorb in your filter. Then get some shirakura Chi Ebi for the baby shrimp that come along, and some shrimpball cuisine or something like it to feed them with for their main diet. Definitely have had awesome results with no losses doing it this way. Just make sure the tank they go in has been up for a few months and already 110% cycled 

As for the tannish balls in my photos, they're the shrimplabs bacterhouse bio balls for the shrimp to make sure they get everything they need. ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Well been a long time in coming, but finally some good news!

First things first: anyone have a black and gold CBS?









Then a praytell:









Yep! That's a new mom as of last night!









/dances ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

So 2 berried S+ CBS, and as of two days ago, a berried SS CRS ^^


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Wow you have babies everywhere...are you still using straight RO?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Yep sure am, I ordered a TDS pen over the weekend so I'll start dosing mosura mineral plus ultra once I get it and make sure it's calibrated. I have already had atleast 8 rcs give birth in this tank to some nice almost painted fire red shrimplets so I'm sure the crystals will be fine but I have noticed the white coloration on the crystals fade since I got them a few months ago and have been using pure RO water.. Can't tell with the cherries, but so far so good ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Make that 3 berried S+ CBS, 1 berried SS CRS, and at least 2 berried RCS.. should have a lot of shrimplets here in a couple weeks ::Excited:: lol^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Well it's been a lil over a month since the first CBS got berried and now all 3 s+ CBS and my 1 SS CRS all had they're shrimplets ^^
I've counted atleast 15 of them that I can see out in the open and there is a LOT of cover in here so there could easily be twice that many. They're SO tiny!

No pics yet as the tank looks disastrous and I couldn't get a good pic with my phone yet..

I moved the large external breeder box from the 29 and put it on the back of this 5 gallon. Currently it's housing the 4 female CBS/CRS mentioned above, and my lone SSS grade male CRS. really hoping I can get him to get all 4 girls berried so I can spread the genes ^^

I have 10 golden bee's that will be on the way here next week care of Nikki(TY!). I plan to put the partitions in the breeder box so they will be separate and not interbreed.. Although depending on what they look like, I may start a side breeding project there. And I'm also ordering a medium breeder box to put on the side of this tank to house my two BKK's that will be coming the first week of September


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

HolyAngel said:


> Well it's been a lil over a month since the first CBS got berried and now all 3 s+ CBS and my 1 SS CRS all had they're shrimplets ^^
> I've counted atleast 15 of them that I can see out in the open and there is a LOT of cover in here so there could easily be twice that many. They're SO tiny!
> 
> No pics yet as the tank looks disastrous and I couldn't get a good pic with my phone yet..
> ...



lol sounds like a shrimp prison....golden gang, bkk gang, crs/cbs gang...


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> lol sounds like a shrimp prison....golden gang, bkk gang, crs/cbs gang...


Lol well that wasn't my intention... But basically 
It's a happy prison though! lol

I just can't setup any more tanks since I'm getting a house next April, even another 5gallon or something will take months to be shrimp ready so this will have to do.. It's like 7 gallons now including the breeder box's, the canister filter, and the hob though 

Think I have enough filtration? Can't forget the dual sponge filter either!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

*5G Caridina Haven - New Golden Bee's!*

well got the 10 golden bee's nice and acclimated. There is definitely some variation in them though. Some look like snow whites, while others look almost orange. Really wish I had a better camera here :/


















































I think im going to need to breed two different lines out of them, white and orage lol. We'll see


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

How about a FTS of the entire prison system?


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> How about a FTS of the entire prison system?


Lol will do as soon as I get home from work 

I'm warning you guys though, this tank looks horrid lol 
Ive been slacking on the ferts and there are dozens of empty ramshorn snail shells all over from the assassin snails feasting away. It's actually why I haven't taken an FTS lately


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

what was it again? The shrimp are the best part of the tank thread? ^^


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

Hey bro...most shrimp tanks are not the best looking tanks....sponge filter..low light plants...just show us the goods...


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

This photo is killer, really a nice capture.



HolyAngel said:


> Azolla Caroliniana with 2 crowns of T. Fluviatilis breaking the surface ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

@ shrimpnmoss: hmm true that, thanks ^^

I'll try my best to get some nice pics tonight of everything and maybe a video of the whole thing since there's a bunch going on in here right now with the two breeder boxes and everything. 

Last night I actually moved crs/cbs that were being selectively bred back into the 5 gallon and moved all the RCS save for 2 into the large breeder box(they switched places) as I'm selling them to make more room/food for my caridina shrimplets. 

Since moving them in and the RCS out, there has been a noticeable improvement in their behavior though. They've been swimming around a bit more and are definitely more pushy(aggressive but not mean?)/active since they are now the majority species in the tank.. and they know it.

The golden's I only just got yesterday along with the medium breeder box, so I put them in there with some of the moonlight sand I had lying around. I initially was going to leave it bare bottom but they kept trying to swim through the bottom of the box lol once i added the sand they stopped. They are noticeably active, more so than what i've seen from the crs/cbs I've kept. Not sure what I want to do there but my initial thoughts are to seperate the two different colors(snowwhite/golden) so i can breed the looks seperately rather then let the true goldens mate with the snow whites and lower the quality of the white that I want to increase. Either way, both look stunning and a nice change/addition from the red/black look i've gotten accustom to 

Anyways, pics and more descriptions and stuff coming this way in about 5 hours!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

150EH said:


> This photo is killer, really a nice capture.


Thank you! Can you believe i took that with an iPhone 3GS? Was really just a lucky shot to be honest but I like it


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Ok here we go!

Couple FTS's of the whole setup



















And shrimpy!

Here's a couple shots/vids of the RCS
















http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/...f/5e353f53.mp4
http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/...f/1882d415.mp4

CRS/CBS



























And finally, more pics of the goldens ^^



























Enjoy and let me know!


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

I apologize for my only camera being a phone and I not having any camera skills 

Here's kind of a random video of all of it that gives justice to the shrimp and what they really look like since it's usually at least slightly blurry in the pic..

http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc408/SlverWolf/69abe9ce.mp4


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

That's a nice shrimp tank. Looks like you are ready for more shrimp tanks.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

shrimpnmoss said:


> That's a nice shrimp tank. Looks like you are ready for more shrimp tanks.


Oh yeah I want to! Sadly I can't until we move to the new house this April 
That's why I'm selling my RCS colony.. Gotta have room for these bkk's


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## shrimpnmoss (Apr 8, 2011)

April? You mean 2012? What about subdividing a 20g long? You can pretty much put everything over...and you'll still only have one tank...hehehe...


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Yeah 2012.. I would but this tank is sitting next to my monitor on my glass computer desk as that's the only place I have for it.. I don't think it'll support a 20 long lol I'm not even sure a 10 gal would work.. Plus I'd have to get more substrate and hope the tank doesn't cycle or anything and has enough microfauna.. I'd just rather wait it out for now. 
Come April though it's on! Ill be dedicating my custom 15 gallon to these shrimp.. Possibly among other tanks as well ^^


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

*Betta Haven!*

Well the shrimp haven has been closed in light of needing a bigger tank for these breeding projects I have. 

It is now my fiancee's tank and home to her betta thats been living in a 2gal quarantine tank for the last month or so.









She actually picked out the plants from all that I have and scaped it herself, apparently me doing it 5 or 6 times in front of her finally rubbed off on her 

And here he is, Pongo


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

New Additions!









Will try and get an updated FTS, but I swear it looks pretty much exactly the same, the plants have grown quite a bit.. and who knew you could grow R. Inundatus in low light with no co2? Go figure ;P


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## PlantedHobbyist (Nov 9, 2011)

I am curious as to how those Cory's are doing with the Betta. Am thinking of picking some up myself! How are they doing together? Which species is that as well, looking for some schooling comments with them in the same tank as the Betta.

Thanks


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

Oh, they're actually doing great together! They are Panda Cory's, I only lost 1 in quarantine so there's just 3 in the 5gal with the betta. The cories school pretty much constantly, and the betta will follow them around a lot of the time like he's trying to be part of the school lol. If they're digging around all in one spot he'll swim over and try and take a look too.
Not a single case of nipping or chasing ever since they were added. The betta actually seems happier now that he's not by himself. He's pretty laid back though and will rarely even flare up in front a mirror, so that could have something to do with it.. But that's the experience so far in the last 3.5 weeks of having them. ^^


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## PlantedHobbyist (Nov 9, 2011)

HolyAngel said:


> Oh, they're actually doing great together! They are Panda Cory's, I only lost 1 in quarantine so there's just 3 in the 5gal with the betta. The cories school pretty much constantly, and the betta will follow them around a lot of the time like he's trying to be part of the school lol. If they're digging around all in one spot he'll swim over and try and take a look too.
> Not a single case of nipping or chasing ever since they were added. The betta actually seems happier now that he's not by himself. He's pretty laid back though and will rarely even flare up in front a mirror, so that could have something to do with it.. But that's the experience so far in the last 3.5 weeks of having them. ^^


Awesome, thanks for the reply! That's kind of what I was looking for. Not sure what species, as I think my guy would like to swim mid level with some of the more active cories, as he does prefer to be on the bottom within the plants sometimes, so I am not sure.

I think mine will react the same, he is relatively calm from everything I could see so far; flares a little bit at his reflection but that's about it. Going to add some shrimp though first to see how friendly he is.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

FTS!









Everything's been growing in quite well, just slowly ^^


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## NEM0 (Feb 12, 2012)

Thanks for your posts, I very new at this and am learning a lot. I've recently bought a 5 gallon Ecopico that I'm thinking about making into a Iwagumi shrimp tank in my office. Do you sell your shrimp? I have a long way to go before I'm ready for shrimp but was just wondering.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

thanks! you should check my 20long thread as thats where the shrimp moved to 

Currently im not selling any of my shrimp save for PFR culls. 

The crs/cbs I have will be involved in an ongoing breeding project for the foreseeable future. I want a couple hundred and a few generations in first before I really start selling any of those, save for maybe culls but yeah, I don't have any of those yet.


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