April's 5.5 gallon shrimpster

[Silmarwen]

Oh, it's not free bussing. It's $3 round trip, if I don't make more than one stop! (Yeah... Our school sucks. The other Uni in the area gets free bus passes.)

I'm going to have to start a list, though! There's so many plants, and I was never good with names. ("The green one with the long leaves" won't cut it here, I'm guessing!) It's going to take a long time before I remember anything. For example, I know in my 10g, I have Amazon Swords, Argentine Swords, Anacharis, and two other plants, one that starts with an Aposomethingsomething, and one whose scientific names start with an H and a B, but in which order I can't recall...

Add in all the abbreviations and such that I'm having to learn (took me ages to deduce UGF, and I went the first three days having no idea what LFS meant, other than 'someplace to buy stuff, apparently??') I looked through an abbreviations guide someone had created, but so many terms, lots of chemistry, equipment, etc... It's sort of going in one ear and out the other at the moment. (in one eyeball...?)

Aiyaa. Thanks for being helpful, by the way! I've joined forums where the only people I've talked to have been super condescending until I prove I know what I'm talking about, which I can't here (because I don't know it!)

[Gnomecatcher]

There's no reason to be condescending when someone is a newbie. It's a shame you've been treated that way. I totally get it, though, I was there once.

I'm messaging you my email right now. If you've got a question, give me a holler. If I don't know the answer, I'll be happy to help you find it! I know a lot of plant names, I'm a biochem major, and I've been perusing this website for quite a while, so I hope I'll be some use to you.

[Silmarwen]

Thanks a bunch! I really do appreciate it. I'm glad there's awesome people like you willing to help newbies out.

[Gnomecatcher]

Here's an update, for the sake of tracking growth. I am starting to fear H. tripartita, it is clearly very happy and spitting out leaves like nobody's biz. As you can see, I superglued the weeping moss to the mesh instead of sandwich it, which was a huge mistake because now a lot of the moss has died. I just hope whatever didn't die will start to take off soon so that I can fix up the bare spots.

I also replaced that bolbitis with S. repens. Hope that starts to take off soon.



Mini xmas moss is also doing really well!



Some shots of my shrimp. Sorry for the blurry pics, not that good with the camera.



Here's a saddled girl. I could find her, but I've also got my first berried female since the move!

[tinkerpuppet]

Love this little tank!

[.Mko.]

love the hydrocotyle! =D

[Gnomecatcher]

Thanks!

[Silmarwen]

Aww, the poor weeping moss! Everything else looks like it's filling in nicely, though

[Sluuuder]

That tank is awesome!!!!!!

[Gnomecatcher]

Here, have an update:



I'm trying to grow H. tripartita emersed on that sponge. Hope it fills in pretty quickly. As you can see the wall was not going so well. I transferred the moss to rocks to make sort of a carpet.

I've had the worst luck with any and every type of plant except H. tripartita, so I'm trying my hand at crypts to see how it goes.

All of my shrimp have died, but their babies are almost full grown. I'm going to replenish the colony soon with some cherries.

[Gnomecatcher]

Seeing is believing. I added some Amanos to the mix, and I have always known that they were supposedly the best algae eating shrimp of them all. Overnight, they cleared off most of the spot algae from the lantern and the driftwood. They still haven't touched the thread algae, which has been plaguing me since the dawn of time. And who would have guessed that Petco carried them? At $2.39 a pop and having no job until I start research this summer, I only got 4. Sorry for the crappy(er) pics, used the little old point and shoot this time.

One of them has a busty eye and developed this funky color.



Chillin on the moss.

[sdaugherty]

The tank looks very cool. Good Job!

[artresz]

Nice work so far. I gather you are using CO2? How are the crypts working out for you?
I love your moss "carpet".

[Gnomecatcher]

Yep, using CO2, rather haphazardly I might add. (I don't keep track of ppm or anything)

Crypts are doing rather well. No melting during the transition stage. The only thing is that I had a difficult time getting their roots buried, because the biomedia under my substrate is beginning to rise to the top.