FishProfiles.com Message Forums

It seems that CRS are the new hot item here. Both you and LF have them. I would like to be put on the waiting list if you guys get too many!

Tank looks nice. Nice Apistos too! I looked at getting myself 5 of them today but they guy wanted to sell all of the stuff he had listed together. Too bad. Very pretty fish. Blackworms are a great food for them too. I hope they do well for you.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Thanks for the replys guys. Everybody managed to survive my 2 week absence, even many shrimp escaped the hungry apistos. I'll work on fattening them up again.

As LF said, I don't know if I will continue to get many babies wings. If I do, I'll keep you in mind .

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Stunning photos, Matty.

BTW, who's winning, the apistos or the shrimpsters. I'd like to try some shrimpsters myself, but everyone tells me my apistos will eat them.

Cheers
TW

Matty

I am loving this tank, I cant believe its only 5.5 Gallons. The shrimp and Apistos look awesome and the way the tank has taken shape is really kewl.

Hope to see more in comming weeks.

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Hey, thanks for reminding me I need to do an update. I recently traded in the apistos, though they never could keep up with the shrimp. I fed the tank really heavily to make sure there was enough for them to continue breeding. That obviously accompanied large water changes. I still have plenty of cherries left, as well as a couple crystal reds and amanos. I traded all 5 of the fish that were in the tank and got a few Nothobranchius rachovii. They are an annual peat spawning killi. They've already showed some breeding behavior for me, so I hope that continues. I do need to get them some peat to spawn in. The look of the tank hasn't really changed at all, so I don't have new pics of that for ya, but here are some shots of the male:










And a cherry, I named this shot "cliffhanger" :

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty ...Great shots of the Killies ..very nice fish ..I love the shot of the Cherry ..fantastic .

Garry

Matty,

That's a beautiful Killie! Good trade

Now, what do you know about breeding them. Wouldn't they lay their eggs in the moss and you then have to dry them for a while, or something like that? And, being an annual fish (whatever that means, LOL), does that mean it will die within the year?

And - nice fissidens

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Absolutley stunning Killie. Agree with LF, I heard the same about killies annuals - that they die each year after laying eggs. Am curious to hear how you would go about simulating the dry period for the eggs.

Cheers
TW

Thanks guys. They don't die right after laying eggs or anything like that, but they do have a lifespan of about one year. Luckily I got to chat with the breeder. He said he was able to save about 2000 eggs from one pair in a year. What he said to do was to boil some peat so it sinks, put it into a short deli cup, lid on with a hole in the middle. Once they spawn in it you are supposed to remove the peat and dry it out almost completely and stick it in a ziplock bag with a date on it. I guess they incubate for 5-6 months. Then they can be placed back into an aquarium. They eat newly hatched brine and smaller as freshly hatched fry. I also asked him how old they were, and this batch is about 2 months old. Lots of life ahead of them.

Thanks about the fissidens. It doesn't grow much though. I'm sure it has to do with low light levels or something. I'm thinking of upgrading the lights.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Dude

Thats some awesome information you gave there and those fish are killer.....Nice to know that you can get more supplies of fish pretty much anytime you need to lol. The killies do anything with the shrimp????

Ill ask you what i asked LF where did you get your shrimp LOL

Shane

Thanks for your input as always, Shane
http://thetanklog.blogspot.com/ - [ Thanks to ScottF ]
http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/main.html

Thanks about the fissidens. It doesn't grow much though

From my limited experience with Fissidens, it is not quite a fast grower, but it is a moss. I have some in a container in very little daylight since at least 4 weeks and it is still alive. Give it some time.

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks LF. I've had the stuff for at least 4 or 5 months without much growth at all. It's surviving just fine, but I do think a little extra light would do well.

Fishmonster-I got my shrimp locally. The guy I got them from got 8-10 of them from someone on the internet. Not sure who, sorry. I'm sure the killies go after the smaller ones they can find, but they don't look twice at the adults, and I feed them well, so I don't think they actively hunt the smaller ones.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Really sweet killies! They are a fish I always kind of wanted to try. But I have been worried about my shrimp farm. I guess if they Giant Danios and Skunk Loaches don't seem to be making an impact it might be alright.



55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

It probably is the light then, Matty.

Hey, did you know that there are various kinds of fissidens, including an American? I think I have seen the latter for sale and it didn't look all that great, somewhat stringy rather than the Asian bushy form. Can that be the case for yours?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Wings, I'd think the giant danios would be pretty nasty to shrimp. If they aren't I doubt you'd have trouble with one of the smaller brands of killies, just like you said.

Thanks LF. I'm not sure which I have. I believe it was sold to me as fissidens fontanus maybe. I got it on ebay from a guy in Malaysia. I just went back to look and the seller does recommend medium to high light for all the fissidens he sells. That's probably why it isn't doing well.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Wings, I'd think the giant danios would be pretty nasty to shrimp. If they aren't I doubt you'd have trouble with one of the smaller brands of killies, just like you said.

The giant danios really don't mess with the shrimp. Their mouths aren't that big to take out a full grown cherry but I am guessing they take out some babies or the babies are really good at hiding. I never see babies but I see tons of adults.

Do you think the giant danios would mess with the killies?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Might freak them out with all the movement. They might hide more then. I know these guys at least like a calmer tank. I don't think the danios nip at fish much in my limited experience. Yours might be different though. I've heard people tell of the smaller danios doing some nipping. If that were the case I'd avoid the killies.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

beautiful killies. and the fissidens probably just needs a bit more light and i thk i am buying some plants from that guy in malaysia. it is nice that he ships his products for free! getting sme java fern and some marimo balls. i am so excited!

anyways... the tank is looking great. i have a question, how do you like the pelia? i am thinking aabout getting some and getting a few RCS as well...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

pelia seems to be perfect shrimp hiding media. They can easily navigate through a dense bunch of pelia where fish can't make it. I like it a lot. It's really easy....like java moss, but less invasive.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty...Not sure about the Giant Danio's ..but the small ones I've had for many years are terrors ...fast and nippy ...so I would avoid them with fish like Killies .


Garry

lol well its all on order an awaiting delivery!
I hope my fututre shrimpters evade the atack of the fish in the pelia!!!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Thought I'd give an update on the shrimp since I just cleaned up the tank well for the first time since I got here. I've just been doing water changes and letting it ride before now. The shrimp made it in the move to Charlottepretty well. The tank probably looks almost the same as the last fts, but in reality there's probably twice as much pelia. It's doing pretty well. The fissidens has steadily declined and is absent from what I can tell. The petite nana seems to be doing well, but is growing VERY slowly.

I have moved all fish out of here and it's now just a shrimp tank again so they can regain their numbers again. There are a ton of trumpet snails in addition to the shrimp, which have seeded my newly resetup 50g planted tank.

This tank is now in front of a window. I'm not sure how this will affect things. Instead of fighting it, I've decided to take the light off the tank and let the tank get natural sunlight (filtered through the blinds a bit) from about 9 or 10 until noonish when the sun passes the window. I'll then run the 2 18w pc fixture until 7 for a total of 10ish hours of light. I've always wondered about the sunlight = algae theory. The shrimp themselves might disrupt the results though, they are algae eating machines.

Well enough talk I guess so here's the pic:




Also, anybody know the effects of excel on the shrimp? Would it be bad to try and dose some in this tank?

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I am glad to see the shrimp made it pretty well on the trip. I lost a few on my way down here but not enough to make a major dent in the large population I have.

I am not sure the effects of Excel on shrimp. Much of it might depend on the ratio. I have lowered my water level in the 55G to spot treat BBA using excel quite a few times without any ill effects on the shrimp. I think you will be ok if you don't over do it in the little tank. You have to keep in mind that things go bad much faster in a little tank.

If you are up for it maybe we could to a shrimp swap sometime to mix up our gene pool.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

If you are up for it maybe we could to a shrimp swap sometime to mix up our gene pool.

That would be a great idea. I've thought about that in the past too. I'd like to give my shrimp a couple weeks to build up the population a bit. Right now I'd only want to round up 10 or so, and I think that would be a waste for you. I've already seen a few babies, so I think it should bounce back up by then.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty ... I have Glass Shrimp in my 60g and I dose excel every day ...no ill effects that I can tell ..I started with 20 and when I cleaned the Canister out last week I rescued about 60 .


Garry

Thanks for the info Garry. I'll start to try it out in really small doses.

On another note, I got a new lens today. Combination graduation/birthday present from everyone. So I thought I'd take pictures of small things since it's a macro lens. That's why I'm posting in this thread, Shrimps!









This guy was really small, those are grains of sand for reference:
mts.jpg" border="0">

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty,

Really nice pictures! Maybe you will just need to come up here and take photos of my tank!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I'll bring my camera if we decide to meet up at your place!

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Very Nice Pics, and cool shrimp! I've always wanted to make a small planted shrimp tank

Thanks!

Today I upgraded. The 5.5 has been retired and The shrimp now reside in a 12g nanocube. I got just the tank without the hood for $15. I figured the shrimp would like the extra room to grow.

Now I have to find a place that cuts glass for at least a partial covering of the tank.

You'll see the tank is still cloudy and I'm running the aquaclear on there for extra filtering until the tank clears up and seeds the bacteria, though I might just drop the old bio rings into one of the chambers for that and remove the aquaclear when the water clears up.

I also used a bit of tupperware to guard the filter intake from exploratory shrimp.

The pic:

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Good upgrade and talk about lush ...great plantings .

Did you get a count of your shrimp when you transfered them . Approx of course .?

Garry