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Fluval Ebi! Updates 6/26

11K views 114 replies 13 participants last post by  diwu13 
#1 · (Edited)
6/26/2012
Current FTS:



Livestock:
Loads of CRS & CBS







Plants:
Mini marimo moss balls
Dwarf baby tears
Anubias nana mini
Saggitaria Chilensis
Frogbit
Duckweed
Some moss,
And a couple other odd plants that made their way in here


--------------------------


12/1/2011
After lots of tanks with just rocks & driftwood I'm going to try and attempt to actually have a planted tank (hornwort randomly floating around a tank doesn't count xD) and my fluval ebi came on Tuesday and I spent the rest of the day filling it with water....JEEZ! Is that stratum really DUSTY or is it just me?! Took forever to clear up and then I went and planted and messed it up again!

It's horribly bare atm, all I have is some frogbit, HC and 4 little moss balls, but I have some anubias coming in the mail and hopefully there's a trip to the store this weekend for some more plants! Plus I have a bucket of driftwood soaking for later.

Planned inhabitants are lots of CRS and some CBS mixed in. Is it safe to ship these guys to PA in December? No pet stores around here have them :( so I have to order online.

But....here are the pix. I can't wait to get more green and turn it into an underwater forest :cool:






The plan so far is to have the HC completely carpet the front and then the anubias in between the two rocks, with a background of some seaweed-like plant, any suggestions? One or two pieces of driftwood might also end up in here, they're pretty small too.
 
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#46 ·
Bit of an update, everyone has been doing good and I think growing, I definitely noticed that some of the CBS are getting bigger.

Some FTS'



And the inhabitants:









This is my favorite little CRS:


And is anyone in need of any frogbit? I've got 3 separate containers of it besides the glob in the ebi. It's multiplying like crazy! This picture was taken before I removed around half
 
#47 ·
I was just going to say how much your frogbit is covering everything on the top of your tank lol. Your CRS/CBS are coloring up nicely. Should have some berries soon :]! How much are you looking to sell that frogbit for?
 
#48 ·
Trimmed a bunch of the longest roots today on the frogbit, looks a lot less crazy. Should take a picture before they take over again ! The shrimp are also coloring up and the CBS are nearly glowing, guess they like the tank - I have high hopes for the two tiniest reds because they are showing awesome color at such a small size.



Probably just pay shipping, I'll trade for some java moss though :biggrin: I'll warn you though I've NEVER shipped anything living before so I have no idea how it would turn out. Going to look up shipping envelope/box sizes or something soon.
 
#49 ·
How'd you get all the roots out after you snipped them? Or did you hover your hand nearby and pick them out one by one?

I should have java moss ready to go soon as well, started up a moss jar to grow out the moss. If you wanna check it out it's in my journal if you'd like to look. We would probably both ship to each other using small flat rate boxes for $5.20 each. Shipping plants, at least cheaper ones like frogbit/moss, is very easy. All you have to do is:
1) wrap the frogbit in some damp paper towel
2) place the package in a ziplock bag
3) close it tightly, leave a little bit of air in. not too much for the bag to pop easily
4) pad with some newspaper
5) shove into the small flat rate box and you're good to go :D
 
#51 ·
Love the tank. Love the shrimp even more! I've only ever had RCS, for about half a year, they did great until I introduced a bunch of wild plants which apparently had dragonfly eggs laid in them. After a two week vacation and some neglection I came to the horror of some very fat nymphs and a couple dying RCS.

What's the secret to CBS/CRS? I really want to order a dozen and just try some out, I'm getting my EBI very soon, but they cost a pretty penny and losing them would be pretty bad.
 
#52 ·
Wow.. that sucks about the dragonflies hatching on you :O! "Wait.. those don't look like the RCS..." would be my first reaction :[.

Main different to CRS/CBS is that they require soft acidic water, whereas RCS can handle pretty much anything. You'll often need buffering soil to lower the pH, and RO water to keep the water soft. Rare cases where they can do fine without one of the two if you have good tap water.
 
#53 ·
So... how do you trim the frogbit roots? One hand on the roots, one hand on scissors? And catch any that you snip? Am I getting some frogbit with such long roots :D?!

But omg... you aren't afraid Mr. Pickles will like flip out and touch the tank or something? Was the cover on the tank?
 
#55 ·
Oh god. The neutering :O!

And sounds fine about the roots. Hope they get super long and stringy on me too haha. Funny how you just yank those and not cut them :p. Guess that doesn't damage the plants any.
 
#58 ·
Yep haha! Too busy... xD

I freaked out when I saw the berries, I'd been guessing for a while now that she'd have some soon and today...well.:biggrin:

Two really quick pix for the day, more to follow tomorrow. Pardon the mess, was supposed to do a water change + maintenance today but the berries stopped that lol

The Sagittaria is sending out lots of runners apparently, two little plants have popped up between the driftwood this week, and it looks like there's more starting toward the back of the tank! HC started growing reaaaaaaaaaaally slow but I think once the frogbit is cleared out it should pick up again - the top is almost completely covered! Again!

 
#59 ·
Nice, I do notice lots of new growth compared with your other FTS from the past!

I have tons of frogbit and another type of floater called Hygroryza Aristata. A lot of it was cold damaged (soaked in cold water for too long) and I'm losing a ton of leaves/roots. Hopefully the stems make it and they recover or I'll be sad. About 85-90% of the top of my tank is covered now! Good thing is that it blocks out a lot of the light, which is good for me!
 
#60 ·
Yea there's definitely been tons of plant growth, and there's now a second berried shrimp!! Two batches of eggs so far and I think one more is on the way soon! The two have been hiding in the driftwood since then and haven't been bothered by the other shrimp.

Got a bunch of updated pix and a better FTS:
New berries!

Repost of the first berries:


The other shrimp of the tank




It's quickly becoming a forest in the back of the tank!



...and frogbit is amazing for shrimpkeeping, it keeps the water nice and they like scurrying all over the roots




The whole tank:


And yesterday when I was doing plant stuff, one of the shrimp landed on my hand and started cleaning me, haha it was so cute xD
 
#61 ·
Wow those are HUGE clutches of eggs as well! At least everything came along very nicely while you were playing Skyrim haha. Maybe go play a different game (like the Zelda game for Wii) and then when you return the babies will be everywhere :p

And yesterday when I was doing plant stuff, one of the shrimp landed on my hand and started cleaning me, haha it was so cute xD
Did you stay still and let it eat your skin for a while :p?
 
#62 ·
Wow those are HUGE clutches of eggs as well! At least everything came along very nicely while you were playing Skyrim haha. Maybe go play a different game (like the Zelda game for Wii) and then when you return the babies will be everywhere :p


Did you stay still and let it eat your skin for a while :p?
LOL yea :hihi:

I've been debating on setting up the little breeder box and separating one of the females before she has her eggs and just putting my 2 male CBS in there but I don't know if that would stress them too much. I think I'll have a max of 4 berried shrimp soon though!

Yep that shrimp sat on my hand for like 2 minutes before he swam off !
 
#63 ·
It generally doesn't make a huge different with CRS/CBS breeding among each other. But if you wanted to make sure you'd have to keep a saddled female in there for a while. But you'd only need one male with her in the breeder box.
 
#73 ·
Love the tank I just ordered an ebi for my bee shrimp I am excited.

Congrats on the eggs but don't expect many to survie with those tiny hunters in the tank. I tried to keep a pair of sparkling gouramis with cherry shrimp it did not work. I never saw babie. I did see the gouramis nip at adults and hunt in the HC. Mine pestered the shrimp so much that I never saw them come out of hiding. A while after I took the gouramis out I started finding Babies and my shrimp were out in the open swimming much more.

It was too bad because my sparkling gouramis did really well they bred for me and I had free swimming fry. But they just could not leave the shrimp alone so I had to pick save the shrimp.

Hope your little guy is better then mine. It looks like a male in both photos.
 
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