New to Shrimping

1694 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Pika, May 18, 2014

Brolly33

Discussion Starter · Apr 28, 2014 (Edited)

Heya,

Long time reader of the forums as I gradually progress from rampant plant killer to moderately skilled grower of algae. As part of the long process, I have finally joined the ranks of shrimp-keeper. Started about 3 months ago with a colony of 50 Red Cherries of mixed grades in a 10 gallon, bare bottom tank with some plants in shallow pots.

The really fun part for me currently is taking pots from my main algae tank and temporarily putting them in the shrimp tank for cleaning. It is amazing to see them take a large Sword or a pot of hairgrass that is covered in BBA and completely clear it in a matter of a week.

It seems a bit interesting that my females seem to all berry up about the same time. Is that typical that a colony synchronizes breeding?

The baby shrimplets seem to do quite well on all that fresh BBA and I am looking forward to starting to put my culls into the main tank once the colony is well established.

In the meantime, I tossed up a closeup webcam on one of the pots for your viewing pleasure. Comments and suggestions welcome.

http://brolly.us (changed URL to standard port)

Cheers,

Brolly

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TheFishWhoKnocks

· #2 · May 7, 2014

Welcome Brolly! Where did you acquire your batch of starting shrimp from? Love that you have a shrimp cam... couldn't see anything as I assume you are all sleeping!:biggrin:

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Pika

· #3 · May 7, 2014

Shrimp cam! I love it! (They were shrimping around when I looked)
Dangerous though, as I can already spend a great deal of time staring at my own shrimp.

So your cherries are actually eating away the BBA?
I haven't noticed mine doing that (I'm currently spot treating with tiny amounts of H2O2 and Excel to make it die) but maybe that's because I like to spoil them and give them lots of extra variety. I try not to overfeed, but my shrimp are definitely not starving, and I imagine BBA is pretty far down the list of choice things to eat.

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Brolly33

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 15, 2014 (Edited)

TheFishWhoKnocks said:
Welcome Brolly! Where did you acquire your batch of starting shrimp from? Love that you have a shrimp cam... couldn't see anything as I assume you are all sleeping!

Heya TheFishWhoKnocks,

I got my starter culture from an eBay seller in Georgia. Woody35077 I think. He does not have any up right now. I picked him for proximity and price and positive feedbacks. I was pleasantly surprised to get some decently solid red females in the batch of 50 and they have been steadily breeding since early March 2014.

I plan to switch to a more delicate breed in a year or so, when I am confident that I can be a good shrimp-daddy. I dream of high quality Orange Eye Blue Tigers in a heavily planted 12 gallon long with ADA Amazonia substrate...

You posted at 11:30pm EST, so yes, the shrimp were safely asleep. I tend to feed in the afternoon or evening, one every few days. the rest of the time I make sure there are plenty of dirty plants in there for them to clean. Sometimes they eat so much algae that they turn brownish.

I have an improved view now at http://brolly.us with a bit more information and a second camera angle. I am in IT by trade and passion, so the webcam is every bit as fun as the aquariums for me. The second view drops out a lot. I have not found a reliable iPad cam app yet, so I just reset it from time to time for now.

Pika said:
So your cherries are actually eating away the BBA?

Hey Pika,

I am not sure if they are eating the BBA, or eating the bacteria that grows on it and in the process stressing it to death. Either way I can take a sword leaf with tons of BBA on it out of my high tech main tank (don't ask... it's been a long battle and I am still not winning) and they will all swarm it and strip it clean in 2-3 days.

It's funny, the solid red females will sometimes eat so much green algae that they turn almost brown.

Cheers,

Brolly

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Farm Fish

· #5 · May 15, 2014

Awesome Shrimpcam Brolly! Thanks for sharing it!
I've been wanting to add shrimp to my planted tank myself to use as algae eaters. For now it'll be fun to watch yours.

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Brolly33

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 17, 2014 (Edited)

Pika said:
Shrimp cam! I love it! (They were shrimping around when I looked)
Dangerous though, as I can already spend a great deal of time staring at my own shrimp.

So your cherries are actually eating away the BBA?
I haven't noticed mine doing that (I'm currently spot treating with tiny amounts of H2O2 and Excel to make it die) but maybe that's because I like to spoil them and give them lots of extra variety. I try not to overfeed, but my shrimp are definitely not starving, and I imagine BBA is pretty far down the list of choice things to eat.

I think so. Here is a fresh pot of African fern getting cleaned

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sapphoqueen

· #7 · May 17, 2014

love the cams... good work!

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Brolly33

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 18, 2014 (Edited)

Full tank shot

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Lonestarbandit

· #9 · May 18, 2014

Great looking tanks! So clear I'm jealous lol.
Cherries are great fun aren't they

Sent from my BN NookHD+ using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2

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Pika

· #10 · May 18, 2014

All right, I guess I'm gonna have to stop spoiling my cherries so they'll clean up the last bits of that stubborn BBA!

The only reason I think that plan will fail is how much I enjoy seeing them eat all the other fun tasties I've got for them... They go nuts for spinach, zucchini, shrimp king complete bits... I'm not sure I have the willpower to stop spoiling them long enough for them to eat the algae.

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Soothing Shrimp

· #11 · May 18, 2014

Common misconception. They won't eat the algae. Only the food the algae produces.

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Pika

· #12 · May 18, 2014

That's what I'd always heard, and I certainly see them grazing on mine, but not ripping bits off. Do you think, like Brolly33 suggested, maybe they're stressing his algae out enough to kill it?

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