Aquarium fish

[BlackCurtains]

Two females, including Big Bertha are pregnant again

You know, I like having these shrimp so much I almost forgot I want a betta fish

[BlackCurtains]

They are successfully molting! I saw one with half a molt trying to get away with it, but Big Bertha caught on and stole it from her They will "fight" (nothing aggressive, they are peaceful shrimp) over molts because they eat them.

[BlackCurtains]

I decided to give the shrimp some dried blood worms. I bought them as a betta treat (which I am still going to get a fish, I just need to get over to the pet store). Anyway, the shrimp loved them! Big Bertha isn't just the biggest shrimp, she's also the smartest. Since the blood worms are dried they didn't sink very well and some were floating on the top. Bertha swam up and hung upside down on the duckweed and munched the worms that way.

[BlackCurtains]

I don't know if anyone is following this but I'll keep my updates here.

So most of the shrimp died. I thought at first they were dying of old age and blamed the seller. I have since re-revised my review back to 5 stars because it wasn't his fault. All of those shrimp would not have died so close together even if it was old age. Then I thought I had an ammonia spike. I bought some test strips and filter media to reduce ammonia. The strips tested at zero. Then I was thinking... when did they start dying? I took some rocks and driftwood out, because I thought it was too crowded. I siphon vacuumed the gravel. The siphon took out about half the tank water. I dumped this water and put in fresh tap water along with the conditioner, shrimp minerals, and some plant fertilizer.

It was then they started to die.

In almost a weeks time, even shorter than that, all but two adults and as far as I've seen, three babies, had died. So I figure it was the big water change. I guess shrimp are very sensitive to big water changes like that. I also should have waited to put the fertilizer in after it settled and it tested okay.

So it was completely my fault I killed Big Bertha

The five surviving shrimp are doing fine. They are active and always looking for food, which is how they should be. My water parameters are perfect and my temp is also in range.

Now that I know not to do big water changes, of course I won't do it again. In fact, I watched a guy on YouTube who never does water changes and his techniques and tips. I will only add water when the level gets lower (but not too much).

The plants are doing extremely well.

I have brown algae growing by the heater but read that it would be okay as long as it doesn't take over the tank. I scrub off as much as I can with a toothbrush. I also had some white bio film but that ran its course and is now gone. The driftwood has some slime, but that's normal and something the shrimp can eat.

My next plan is to order more ghost shrimp and some cherry shrimp as well. "Techincally" I can house 20 shrimp per gallon and my tank is seven gallons, but that's far too many. So I am going to get ten of each. They can live together just fine but they can't interbreed. I am also going to get a Mexican orange crayfish. They are super cool and can live with shrimp peacefully as long as you keep them fed. With the ten ghost shrimp, ten cherry shrimp and the crayfish, that's about the limit of my tank. I was thinking of getting two nerite snails as well, but I think the waste from everyone would be too much, so I took them off my list.

I will no longer be getting a Betta fish.

I find the invertebrates much more interesting and fun to watch

Later, when I have the money, I'm going to get a second tank as a baby shrimp nursery. It's 3 gallons and is made for shrimp so the filter is covered and shrimp safe. I'll be ordering more plants to plant the nursery with and also some java moss for both tanks. I did have java moss before but I took it out because I thought it would impede the betta fish. Now that I'm not getting the fish I can add it back.

[Nella]

I'm sorry for the loss of most of your shrimp . I would advise a 10 up till max 20% water change every 14 days. No more indeed. No waterchange can only be done with a perfect balance and I wouldn't risk that. They can die without it too. Just the basic changes probably will work best. Good luck with the surviving shrimps.

[BlackCurtains]

Okay, I will try that

[Nella]

And of course make sure the temperature is more or less the same. Too hot or too cold isn't good either.

[BlackCurtains]

Right. I do try to make sure the temp is slightly above room temp from the tap. I do the same for my plants. I live in Florida so room temp is usually around 75-80

[Ponybookworm]

We all learn as we go BC!!! At least you have some survivors xxx Wishing the hardy shrimp all the best xxx

[BlackCurtains]

The three babies are still alive I put a small pellet in the other day and they all came to eat. I changed my mind about the snails and I'm going to get 5 of the sun spiked ones. I have to prep the tank with the magnetic mesh top though, so they can't crawl out. I'm going to scrub what algae I can. Think I'll unplug the heater and scrub that too. The top and sides of the filter housing could use a cleaning too. There's a white build up - lime? Calcium? Something. I suppose I should wipe the light too.

I still want to get more shrimp, the crayfish, and I've added clams to my list. I'm also looking into getting a bigger tank. I can't go too big, my apartment lease doesn't allow large tanks. Just something bigger that still fits on my desk, maybe a 15 gallon.

[BlackCurtains]

I scrubbed all the brown algae off. And I made a discovery! There are FOUR babies! They got very active after I cleaned and two were in one corner and another two were in a different corner.

The mesh top is on and it doesn't look so bad. I can still access the top easily by pulling up a corner. Now the snails can't escape. I've changed my mind about them again, well the way they look anyway. The sellers that had the sun spiked ones were in New Jersey and Florida... but the Florida ones were way expensive, and I thought New Jersey was too far away. I looked around at other nerite snails and found some tigers from Georgia for a reasonable price with free shipping

I bought a proper bucket and an acclimation drip. They'll be here Tuesday. Then I'll order more ghost shrimp.