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46-Gallon OEBT tank

5K views 39 replies 16 participants last post by  speedie408 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello,
I finally got some decant pics of my OEBT’s. I have them in a fully planted 46-gallon tank that I am letting nature take course and wow… eggs after eggs. I am still trying to find out why the survival rate of the babies are so low unless there in all the plants and I can’t see them. I hope you enjoy them and I will expect some feedback from the big breeders.

Don













 
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#4 ·
The otto? Otto's are the only shrimp safe fish. Unless the baby shrimps are swimming down its "throat" my guess is they're all hiding. Or getting sucked into the filter. If you don't see any in a few weeks something might be up.

Nice little OEBT haven you set up for them. I'm sure they appreciate the stable conditions from the 40 :]! Looks like you could put a few assassins in there, or start crushing those pond snails for snacks.
 
#12 ·
What a happy home for those guys!!! Awesome job man. Something to just sit, watch and relax in front of....

If you're berried all the time, then I'd say you're doing something right. Besides maybe hiding or getting sucked up, the only thing I can think of is not enough biofilm and microfauna for them to eat. Has it been running for a while? Could try one of those powder-ish foods to suppliment for the babies once or a couple times a week. I use some in a pretty heavy populated and planted tank and think it helps a bit. Just keep an eye on your Amm and Nite's with that stuff. If it's not eaten, then you know what that leads to. Less is better. Which substrate are you using - Fluval? Thanks for the show!!
 
#15 ·
What a happy home for those guys!!! Awesome job man. Something to just sit, watch and relax in front of....

If you're berried all the time, then I'd say you're doing something right. Besides maybe hiding or getting sucked up, the only thing I can think of is not enough biofilm and microfauna for them to eat. Has it been running for a while? Could try one of those powder-ish foods to suppliment for the babies once or a couple times a week. I use some in a pretty heavy populated and planted tank and think it helps a bit. Just keep an eye on your Amm and Nite's with that stuff. If it's not eaten, then you know what that leads to. Less is better. Which substrate are you using - Fluval? Thanks for the show!!
Hello,
Thanks for the kind words. This tank has been a piece of work in the making. It is a 4 year old tank that has been through 3 major transformations before it was a shrimp tank. It’s time for me to clean out the filter anyway, but I don’t think I will find any shrimp there. I am using a Fluval edge intake filter sponge over the piece that connects on the intake of the Fluval 305 filter. I did in fact have a crappy sponge on there before that the holes where way too big and when I cleaned out the filter I found 6 adults and 8 shrimplets. I have been feeding the shrimp the Fluval shrimp granules with the occasional veggie. I was going to get some of the shrimp ball food or some other food. Yes I am using the Fluval stratum shrimp substrate. I also mixed in two bags of the plant stratum.

Wow very nice. It isn't everyday that we see a shrimp tank this large. Most of the shrimp tanks around are 10-20g or smaller. Are you dosing any ferts or using CO2?
Hello
Yes I am dosing with the Seachem’s line. I use Excel, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iron, and Flourish. I don’t use CO2. I regulate the light time to minimize the algae.

Once I get back from Christmas vacation, I'll think about posting one :p I finally got the algae under control! Plus, my long-finned albino bristlenose plecos seem to have made at least one baby!
I look forward to seeing it.
 
#16 ·
I was in a discussion about shrimp dying on another members post yesterday and came home from work to see one of my large females sleeping with the fishes. The worst part is that she was berried. I read somewhere in the past about a member artificially hatching shrimps from the corps of a shrimp. As sad as it is this was an opportunity to reenact the process. I started by removing the exoskeleton and pulling away the flippers. This made it easier to extract the eggs without damaging them. I placed them in clean tank water with a pinch of Seachem Purigen incase there was any trace of organic waist in the water.

I placed the container in the tank, floating to regulate the temp of the water to the water in the tank. Each day I am going to remove about 50% of the water in the container and add tank water back in. If there is any indication of success in this process, I will post it in the near future….



 
#19 ·
I was looking through my pics and decided to give a little history on how I keep changing this tank until I was happy.

This is the first pic I took of the tank when I brought it home to test for leaks.


This was the first set up I did. Yes plastic plants, LFS driftwood, Green rocks from a local landscaping company, playground sand.


I was not happy with the set up at the time and had to make some hiding spots for my clown loaches so I added some PVC pipe to elevate the wood.


I finally got up then courage to try live plants. I got some from a friend and moved the loaches and driftwood to my 90 gallon. I added some tetras and some Amono Shrimp.


Then I decided to go straight into shrimp by changing the substrate and adding a moss wall. I added lots of new plants and some new wood.


And this brings me to the present. I removed the moss wall after it got way to much BBA. Added a lot more plants and now I have a nice population of OEBT’s


I hope you enjoyed the show
Don
 
#21 ·
Thank you so much for the kind words. As far as the eggs go... Well I think there going well. I looked today and most of them are developing nicely. I can make out there backs and what looks like some faint tiger markings. I tried to get a pic but there so small. I managed to get one good one and I will post it soon.
 
#22 ·
As for the eggs….. sad news I think. I never ran an air stone in the water and I believe there wasted. I didn’t know to do that. I was changing out the water every day, I guess that wasn’t enough oxygen. They all have turned a dirty milky color and most of them are fuzzy. I am so mad that I couldn’t save at least one. I now believe that we all learn from our mistakes in this hobby. Hopefully I will not have to do this again. At lease I know now to rig an air stone in the water column. Sorry for the bad news.
 
#23 ·
Hello everyone,
Little update…. Since my last post I have started a second job at Petsmart. Yes I get discounts on my hobby….finally. As far as the OEBT’s, many of them have survived some toxic water levels due to me being lazy. I keep putting off water changes for about 3-4 weeks. At the same time I was pounding the water with fertilizers for the plants and the Gh levels reached 12-13. The shrimp where dying off about 1 a day. So in frustration, I contacted greensisgood here on the site. After explaining to her how stupid I was, she helped me come up with a fix. I had to start water changes on a daily basis of one gallon of tank water out and replacing it with one gallon of DI water by setting the bottle on top of the tank and poking a hole in the bottom corner and the lid to drip it in over the span of about an hour. During this process the shrimp deaths where slowing down as I dropped the Gh levels. This process went on for about a month (or it seemed like it). Finally we got the water parameters down to where they need to be. Although the females never stopped producing eggs, none of the eggs were able to develop.

I always check my tanks in the morning before I leave for work and behold, a very tiny baby shrimp caught my eye on the glass. I also saw another one on the substrate about 3-4 inches away from the on the glass. I felt like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I have learned my lesson about being lazy in this hobby. So when you are feeling a bit lazy and saying to yourself “oh I can do my Wc tomorrow” just remember that disaster comes quick. So I leave you with this…. Thank you greenisgood for all your advice and patients in my panic to fix what was my own doing, and always do your routine water changes.

Thanks
Don
 
#25 ·
Not saying this isn't true, but I have a 5g tank with Fluval shrimp Stratum and I have great sucess with my OEBT's.. I can count around 20-25 babies at all times, and a several juvi's.. and I always have 4-5 berried mamas (Only started with 16 OEBT's, and I have a low Female to male ratio) Personally I think it all comes to keeping water stable.. no matter what substrate you use. Perhaps F Shrimp Stratum just doesn't buffer the water as long as Akadma and similar soils.. maybe that is why people are having issues?
 
#26 ·
I'm not even sure honestly if any of the trouble has been with tigers but CRS I know were some of the shrimp that people were having problems with. There are a couple lengthy threads over at Shrimp Now!!! and here is another thread. Like I said, it might be something to look into...seems like folks are having mixed results and maybe the hardier tigers aren't affected like the CRS.
 
#29 ·
Alright, I've now officially looked at your thread in detail. =) Your tank looks nice and your shrimp seem very happy with it. I may just have to settle with a 29 gallon shrimp tank. I don't think moving a giant one into the family room is going to fly....

Hey there Lindsey,
29 gallons will be cool. You would be able to see your shrimp better that I can. I am going to try a breeding basket and do some selective breeding. When do you think you are going to start it up?
 
#33 ·
Hello everyone,
It has been awhile and I have wonderful news. I have got some supreme painted fire Red Neo’s from Nick not too far back. I was looking around the tank last night and cleaning out the intake sponge and something caught my eye. I have floaters that cover about ¾ of the surface of my tank and when I moved them it was like a meteor shower in the tank. A bunch of little shrimp started darting around from the roots. As I looked closer I noticed that some had orange eyes and the others had black eyes. I am glad to see that both my OEBT’s and PFR are breeding strong.
 
#35 ·
That's great news!! I just recently acquired some oebt and plan on breeding them so reading through this shows not to get discouraged and keep at it! Great post thank you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cpd,
If you make these shrimp happy they will thrive. I almost wiped out my entire colony by being lazy. Keep up with your wc’s and testing. I test every week for Ph, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and Gh. I learned from my mistakes and haven’t been happier with this species. I have some really nice color coming out.
 
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