Aquarists unite: fish are friends, and food

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Haus

Haus

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Aazrael said:
Water quality makes a big difference for sure. We have very clean tap water in Sweden so I guess we are a bit spoiled by that. :)
Click to expand...

In my case I live in an older part of Dallas where the water pipes are the same ones which have been in the ground for so long, and the houses are old and have old pipes leeching slowly into the water. But like I said, I haven't had any notable negative effects.
 
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A

a_skeleton_06

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Awesome thread. Been wanting to get into reef building and shit for years but just waiting to buy a house since moving that shit around is more hassle than it's worth.
 
Skinner

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Haus said:
Yeah, I am wanting to add some more colorful shrimp to my 20g. Haven't decided which yet. I was somewhat amazed you can buy live shrimp on amazon and have them shipped.
Click to expand...

Just a PSA that amazon is an intermediary/3rd party and you can save money by skipping amazon and buy directly from the seller since they all have websites to purchase directly and you can buy them cheaper there and often on sale or with coupon codes. Just did a quick check to see the difference and amazon has 5 red rili's listed for a total of $47.44 from AquaticArts while AquaticArts website has them at $34.95 (shipping included in both totals). Add the 10-15% coupon AA has plus a dozen shrimp to the order or so and the savings really add up, but their shipping costs have been historically abysmal so pay extra attention to that.

Most of the listings on Amazon for shrimp come from either AquaticsArts or SoShrimp and I should also point out both have had serious issues with parasites a year or so ago (from imports). AA has since started to transition their stock to mostly all tank bred from US local breeders (their website will now tell you if its locally bred or not) so their colors won't be as vibrant but they're much safer than before. FlipAquatics have had the best shrimp I've ever purchased and even though they import they do a mandatory 30 day QT. Flips often does 25% sales too and shipping over 100 is free.
 
Gator

Gator

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Here's the 10g. I tried to go with a natural look. I had corkscrew val and pearl weed in the back but it failed. Floating some water sprite to hopefully use that as my background. It's an invertebrate only tank. Had a major outbreak with green thread algae. In the trouble shooting phase now but I cut it back, slowed the feeding of the shrimp so they would attack it, and changed the light to a dimmable one. Seems to be working for now. I dose ferts twice a week.

When it was newly planted.
IMG_20200122_135356.jpg


Things that changed from when newly planted.
Java moss failed. Reattached peacock moss to the wood.
Pearlweed and corkscrew val failed. Red Tiger Lily cuttings died back a lot. Want to get some with the bulbs attached.
Added S. Repends, Java Fern (Thor's Hammer)?, Two different types of crypts to the mid ground.
Now
IMG_20200423_200130.jpg

Shrimps In picture (Cherry, Carbon Rili, Blue Dream) Theres also amanos and a tiger nerite snail in the tank.
IMG_20200424_140138.jpg
 
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Gator

Gator

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The 2g cube tank has my kids Betta. Sorry for the horrible picture but I was fighting the glare from the French doors.
IMG_20200424_140612.jpg

The nerite was in his spot so he swam down pushed his face into the snail and stayed there.
IMG_20200424_135402.jpg
 
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Haus

Haus

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Yeah, that's a Betta that gives zero F's.... looks like he'd cut ya.


Gator said:
Here's the 10g. I tried to go with a natural look. I had corkscrew val and pearl weed in the back but it failed. Floating some water sprite to hopefully use that as my background. It's an invertebrate only tank. Had a major outbreak with green thread algae. In the trouble shooting phase now but I cut it back, slowed the feeding of the shrimp so they would attack it, and changed the light to a dimmable one. Seems to be working for now. I dose ferts twice a week.

When it was newly planted.
View attachment 265199

Things that changed from when newly planted.
Java moss failed. Reattached peacock moss to the wood.
Pearlweed and corkscrew val failed. Red Tiger Lily cuttings died back a lot. Want to get some with the bulbs attached.
Added S. Repends, Java Fern (Thor's Hammer)?, Two different types of crypts to the mid ground.
Now
View attachment 265182
Shrimps In picture (Cherry, Carbon Rili, Blue Dream) Theres also amanos and a tiger nerite snail in the tank.
View attachment 265183
Click to expand...

I'm just wondering how you balanced out the water chemistry in the tank while using tapioca balls from a boba tea place as your substrate.....
 
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Gator

Gator

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Yea, I'm not crazy about the substrate https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/aqueon-plant-and-shrimp-aquarium-substrate but I figured I'd see if I could pull it off. It was an all in one kit from Aqueon from Petco which was on sale. I did some research and there was no real complaints about the substrate other than the look and it pushes the pH up. Of course I didn't test this and used my tap water but if you know anything about South Florida is that we have liquid limestone. So I couldn't tell if it was doing anything. I then decided to stop using tap and use distilled that I remineralize for the shrimp for an even balance everytime. The pH stays at 7.8 (tap is also 7.8) which I believe is being caused by substrate. I maintain the kh at 4-5 and gh 8-10 now. My taps kh was 10 and gh was 20+ so that probably caused some issues when I started everything up.

I know some are thinking "omg an Aqueon all in one kit" but for the price I figured it wouldn't be a huge loss if it was a huge failure and I threw it out the window. This is my first attempt into aquascaping and shrimp.
 
a c i d.f l y

a c i d.f l y

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Aazrael said:
Water quality makes a big difference for sure. We have very clean tap water in Sweden so I guess we are a bit spoiled by that. :)
Click to expand...
Thats another problem I have. I can grow Texas native plants like ludwigia crazy well, pink leaves and everything, but the water is so hard most plants can't handle it. I could RO but I'm lazy. It's also harsh af on shrimp.

This is the cleanup after a year of not cleaning it or my canister filter, no water changes, only topoffs. No fertilizers, no glutaraldehyde, no CO2. I stopped caring for it when I decided I was going to get rid of it to clear up space for my kiddo, but was waiting for my wife's rabbit to die before I did. Well, that fucking rabbit lived to the ripe old age of 12 before it lost mobility and had to be euthanized. By that time coronavirus fucked up my plans, because now the fish store I was going to donate to has been closed and I'm not sure if they're going to survive. Thus... if I can't get rid of it, I might as well take care of it a bit.

Plants really stopped spreading. I realized why while cleaning The bubbler and filter are splashing water up on the glass and the glass had a nice film of light blocking green algae. With the egg crate diffusers I was losing about 5ga to evaporation every couple weeks. Might have been worth it.

20200425_155139.jpg
20200425_155144.jpg

20200425_155126.jpg
 
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a c i d.f l y

a c i d.f l y

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Skinner said:
Just a PSA that amazon is an intermediary/3rd party and you can save money by skipping amazon and buy directly from the seller since they all have websites to purchase directly and you can buy them cheaper there and often on sale or with coupon codes. Just did a quick check to see the difference and amazon has 5 red rili's listed for a total of $47.44 from AquaticArts while AquaticArts website has them at $34.95 (shipping included in both totals). Add the 10-15% coupon AA has plus a dozen shrimp to the order or so and the savings really add up, but their shipping costs have been historically abysmal so pay extra attention to that.

Most of the listings on Amazon for shrimp come from either AquaticsArts or SoShrimp and I should also point out both have had serious issues with parasites a year or so ago (from imports). AA has since started to transition their stock to mostly all tank bred from US local breeders (their website will now tell you if its locally bred or not) so their colors won't be as vibrant but they're much safer than before. FlipAquatics have had the best shrimp I've ever purchased and even though they import they do a mandatory 30 day QT. Flips often does 25% sales too and shipping over 100 is free.
Click to expand...
Thats not the case 100% of the time. I found an airstone replacement cheaper through Amazon distro than even eBay or its source. I tend to order most of my fish stuff from eBay, or try to anyway.
 
a c i d.f l y

a c i d.f l y

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Haus said:
Yeah, that's a Betta that gives zero F's.... looks like he'd cut ya.

I'm just wondering how you balanced out the water chemistry in the tank while using tapioca balls from a boba tea place as your substrate.....
Click to expand...
Ew, Aqueon. It's an imitation of ADA's aqua soil which the pros use. It has an asston of nutrients, but I think it looks like rabbit shit. Actually... That's the shrimp substrate. Almost the same thing but formulated for shrimp breeding. Actual breeders just use barebottom tanks.
 
Haus

Haus

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Well, I have also seen "mineral balls" for shrimp and other things. I have a handful of these in my 20 gallon.

Amazon product ASIN B07H1KC2BZ
Within a couple weeks of putting them in the tank I noticed my amano shrimp had went through a molt and had deeper color to their shells. At first glance, it looks like you simply filled the tank with these as substrate.
 
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Skinner

Skinner

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a c i d.f l y said:
Thats not the case 100% of the time. I found an airstone replacement cheaper through Amazon distro than even eBay or its source. I tend to order most of my fish stuff from eBay, or try to anyway.
Click to expand...

Brother I'm talking specifically about purchasing shrimp.
 
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BrutulTM

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a c i d.f l y said:
Thats another problem I have. I can grow Texas native plants like ludwigia crazy well, pink leaves and everything, but the water is so hard most plants can't handle it. I could RO but I'm lazy. It's also harsh af on shrimp.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good place for an African cichlid tank. They like hard water and you can't really have plants with them anyway. A bunch of mbuna and a shitload of tastefully arranged rocks is the lowest maintenance tank you can get.
 
Gator

Gator

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Yea, I want to try cichlids next since my water should work well with them but not sure where I'd put the tank. I suggested to the wife we get rid of the couch we only use once a year but I got a death stare. I'll take it easy for now so I don't come down with MTS.
 
Haus

Haus

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Xadion said:
Can you eat these shrimp?
Click to expand...

The ones we're talking about.. no. On the other hand years ago when I had a 55gal with green severum in it I would buy ghost shrimp as live food for them. I bought some once and one seemed to be sneaky and survive... It kept growing. Soon I realized that somehow a full on monster prawn or somesuch tucked into a batch of ghost shrimp as he got larger and I caught him eating one of the smaller (non severum) fish one day. The fish store actually gave me a nice credit for him when I brought him in as they figured someone would pay well for what was at the time an almost 4" long prawn for their tank.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Haus said:
The ones we're talking about.. no. On the other hand years ago when I had a 55gal with green severum in it I would buy ghost shrimp as live food for them. I bought some once and one seemed to be sneaky and survive... It kept growing. Soon I realized that somehow a full on monster prawn or somesuch tucked into a batch of ghost shrimp as he got larger and I caught him eating one of the smaller (non severum) fish one day. The fish store actually gave me a nice credit for him when I brought him in as they figured someone would pay well for what was at the time an almost 4" long prawn for their tank.
Click to expand...

Sounds like he should have been grilled.
 
Aamry

Aamry

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Haus said:
The ones we're talking about.. no. On the other hand years ago when I had a 55gal with green severum in it I would buy ghost shrimp as live food for them. I bought some once and one seemed to be sneaky and survive... It kept growing. Soon I realized that somehow a full on monster prawn or somesuch tucked into a batch of ghost shrimp as he got larger and I caught him eating one of the smaller (non severum) fish one day. The fish store actually gave me a nice credit for him when I brought him in as they figured someone would pay well for what was at the time an almost 4" long prawn for their tank.
Click to expand...

Yeah, "ghost shrimp" are sold as juveniles as feeders, and can get massive if they aren't eaten. I used to buy them for my eel, he had no size issues with them though.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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Now I want to start a tank with shrimp and then eat them, thanks guys... nothing better to do during corn teen
 
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