My planted tank evolution

[morpheus]

sounds like a lot of good progress in the grow out. whenever you have pics lets see!

the assassins are definitely helpful, especially if you have a sand substrate. they stir everything up so no pockets of gas form, and get rid of pests. they also keep their own population under control. if their numbers start to outweigh the food available, they will cannibalize eachother until equilibrium is reached. i have had them in my african grow out tank for a while.

one on my plant tanks has turned into a pond snail breeding ground, but i use them for puffer snacks :)

[ptran]

Yes, pics are always eye candy LOL

[Crush]

Lol...puffer snacks...love it

[Crush]

I'll try to get some pics tonight

[Crush]

as promised

[ptran]

Looks good man

[Crush]

Counted 5 baby ghost shrimp, I'm sure there is more hiding. Iv had ghost shrimp years ago berried but no babies so this is pretty neat. Thank you all for your input, iv learned a lot.

[ptran]

Those plants provide nice cover for your baby shrimps. I'm sure there's more hiding in the plants.

Soooo...,what exactly did you do to get the shrimp breeding?

[Crush]

Nothing that I'm aware of. Tank temp is 78, water specs are as follows ph-7.8 ammonia, nitrate, nitrite-0 feeding 2 times daily, light feeding of tetramin tropical crisps in the morning with a dose of co2 booster soon after. Dinner time consists of a larger pinch of tropical crisps with fluval shrimp food and 2 topfin algae wafers broken into small pieces. Lights are on for 12 hours a day. Weekly water changes of roughly 8%-10%. Seachem root tabs. Once every 3 months or so adding half a calcium pill. That's all I can think of that might affect them other than an established planted tank.

[Crush]

Last night I got to see some fresh hatched ghost shrimp. They must be only a day or two old I would think. They just look like little specs till you get one about an inch from your eyes. If this keeps up I'll be giving away ghost shrimp and Dalmatian mollies...lol. Never realized how quickly ghost shrimp grow. They go from tiny specs to fingernail length in a couple of weeks

[Crush]

it seems at any given time in any given area of my 60 you will see 3-5 ghost shrimp though they seem to favor the left side of my tank. finally got around to putting a timer on my lights, got them set to 9 hours per day. trying to kill off some or limit the green spot algae. seems to help a bit. I wanted soo badly to add a few more white clouds to the tank but petsmart's stock didn't look healthy, white clouds looked pale and stressed so I passed. its about time to change out t5 lamps I think, ill try putting a new one on and look at the color and intensity. that should let me know if its time or not. with that idea in my head I wonder if its time for the uv lamp to be changed aswell. that one I cant judge.

[morpheus]

it probably varies in species of shrimp the growth rate, but i want to be in your boat someday and actually have a good colony going. maybe i should start with ghosts and can be a good running live food source for my cichlid tanks. i have heard similar things to what you described....that you dont really have to do all that much. just let them be and they do their thing. as long as its clean water, lots of cover for shrimplets, good quality food, filter covers on the intakes, etc....i have read about so many different shrimp specific foods out there now being part of the shrimp FB group, but they do eat everything

as for them keeping to one side of the tank who knows. maybe there is more/less flow over there depending what they prefer. or a specific kind of plant they like to munch on the micro algae. as long as they are thriving its all good

[Crush]

Left side has a weaker flow so that could be it. Rcs don't seem to be breeding though. I only seen one female carrying or atleast from what I could see.

[Crush]

Checked my t5 lamps and it was about time to change them, they still have life left in them but compared to new lamps they were dimming towards the outer edges. Tank looks a touch brighter. Stirred up the gravel a little to get some of the detritus up and sucked into one of my filters. I got lazy and just filled the tanks today, next week I'll get a good water change in.

[ptran]

Really like the anakaris background


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