New fish bowl project for shrimp (maybe betta)

shrimp keeping is not easier than fish, fragile most time

 

shrimp keeping is not easier than fish, fragile most time

Yeah, they're definitely sensitive. They're all doing well right now though, and I've got hundreds in another tank that are just loving it since I redid it (it was a tank I took over from my sister and since scaping it they've gone crazy in numbers). Never thought shrimp be easier (I assumed they'd be about the same difficulty as fish, if not more so because of their size), just thought the bowl itself wouldn't cause many issues. world loves to prove me wrong though

 

shrimp keeping is not easier than fish, fragile most time

Depends. Ive kept red cherry shrimp for almost a year now, and they never had any issues

 

Success! My friends, I have spotted a berried cherry shrimp this evening! Gonna have some little babies floating around soon. I have been topping up water every week with spot cleaning, and I do a 50-75% water change every two weeks when I see the water is off-color or the shrimp look lighter in color. I'm not testing the tank anymore as the shrimp seem to be good indicators when something's up by losing their brightness. The s. repens still aren't looking good and I'm not sure what's causing them to lose their lower leaves (my other 10 gallon tank has this problem so I might need to look at choosing a different mid-ground plant, maybe smaller crypts?). The phoenix moss is a bit brown but not going bad or anything so I'm just going to leave it for now. But I'll let you know what the babies turn out to be! I'm just happy they're breeding! Means I've definitely got the bowl right this time

 

I hope the babies won't float like you mentioned. Sounds awesome tho. I have two shrimp tanks myself and see berried shrimp all the time. It's slowly getting out of hand.

 

I hope the babies won't float like you mentioned. Sounds awesome tho. I have two shrimp tanks myself and see berried shrimp all the time. It's slowly getting out of hand.

Lol, I didn't actually mean floating, though the shrimp in the bowl are absolutely zooming! And I totally feel you. The 15-gallon tall tank I took over and rescaped has absolutely hundreds of cherry shrimp. I don't mind, of course, but my goodness. I'm just curious to see how the babies turn out in this one since I don't know which color they're going to be.

 

Lol, I didn't actually mean floating, though the shrimp in the bowl are absolutely zooming! And I totally feel you. The 15-gallon tall tank I took over and rescaped has absolutely hundreds of cherry shrimp. I don't mind, of course, but my goodness. I'm just curious to see how the babies turn out in this one since I don't know which color they're going to be.

I'm also curious. Please let me know when they hatch. Is that the right word? hatch?

 

I'm also curious. Please let me know when they hatch. Is that the right word? hatch?

I have no idea if that's the right word but I'll let you know! Saw a second red berried female this morning so I'm excited

 

Nice. really nice

 

One question, where'd you find the 5-gallon fishbowl for $20? I did a quick amazon search and... a .5 gallon costs around 17 bucks...

 

One question, where'd you find the 5-gallon fishbowl for $20? I did a quick amazon search and... a .5 gallon costs around 17 bucks...

Hobby Lobby has a 12" fishbowl (called a Bubble Ball Vase) on sale for about $12. I was searching for ages to find a decent-sized bowl and that was the cheapest. any bigger and the price skyrockets and any smaller and it's not worth it to me. I will say it's closer to 3 gallons with how much substrate I put in, but If you do less substrate it can be a good 4-gallon. It's packed well though! Just need to be careful with it because it is glass and breakable if you don't handle it carefully.

 

Hmmmmm, I may have to upgrade my 3 gallon (or just get another one)

 

Hmmmmm, I may have to upgrade my 3 gallon (or just get another one)

you can never have too many aquariums

 

you can never have too many aquariums

You can when your wallet’s empty

 

You can when your wallet’s empty

true. I luckily haven't reached that point yet even though this was my first year keeping fish and already have a 45, 15 and two 10's.

 

Update! It’s been a while and things are going well… ish. I’ve got babies, first off. I had two berried red cherries and one has popped out a handful of little yellows. I’ve got another berried rili shrimp so we’ve got some mystery colors coming up later.

Plant wise… goods and bads. Crypts, ferns, anubias, dwarf hairgrass, and the wonderful little Hydrocotyle tripartita are doing great! New leaves, new growth, no issues. The s. repens is still having trouble. All bottom leaves are gone and most are melting away into nothing. I had some extra a. reineckii tissue culture I put in but it’s losing leaves too. Could be a lighting issue but I don’t know. Will probably use crypts if they don’t work out. There is one fern that’s browning but it’s in a darker area so I will move it to another tank and see if it bounces back.

Only other thing is I am getting some diatoms on the front (light hits there the most so that could be why) with the tiniest bit of green algae that’s barely noticeable. I want to get a new light for this that’s better situated but don’t have the cash right now. Still, the ramshorns and shrimp can eat it and I’m sure with more babies on the way, they’ll be fine. No testing has been done since two weeks ago (levels were perfect: 0, 0, 5) just topping up the water once a week.

 

Nice. Sounds like your shrimp love it in there.

 

Update, since it’s been a while!

There have been a few issues, though I’m not sure what’s going wrong. The levels are perfect as always, but the only adult shrimp left are one yellow and one red, and the red cherry has a green fungal issue on her belly. The rili that was berried died a few days later after I returned from an overnight trip. The other red that gave birth to half of the babies also died, from a molting issue.

The babies are all reds and rili (maybe? Hard to tell when they’re still small) and doing fine. The ramshorns are also great and I haven’t been overrun with them yet so all is good there.

Plant wise… well that’s where there’s issues. The ferns are amazing and I actually had to remove the baby ferns and was able to tie them together and make 3-4 little bunches that I tossed in other tanks of mine. The crypts in the back are doing good. The rest… not so much. The dwarf hairgrass is browning but I assumed that’s due to the light getting blocked by the ferns. Hoping they bounce back now. The repens all died off. Stems like that are not my strong suit apparently (in any of my tanks) but I got a tissue culture of undalata I’m going to try and see how they go. What moss I added never browned, but it’s dark colored and I think I see some green but I’m not sure. And those amazing little Hydrocotyle tripartita are doing great as always. Might add some of them to another tank and see how they do there too.

I do have diatom algae in the front of the bowl as well. The shrimp love it and it’s where the light is so it’s not surprising. I want to get a different light and have one picked but I’m short on cash so it’s going to have to wait for now. In general though? It’s doing better than I thought and I’m comfortable leaving it to be just topped up on water while I’m gone on my month-long trip coming up.

 

Probably "green fungus" which kills shrimp indirectly and slowly, so best to treat it with salt.

Posting pics would help to determine if it really if green fungus.

 

so sorry to hear that some of the shrimp died. I had ferns once, and they just died off. I think my Gh was too high for them

 

Probably "green fungus" which kills shrimp indirectly and slowly, so best to treat it with salt.

Posting pics would help to determine if it really if green fungus.

Here’s the pics I got. Camera doesn’t like focusing zoomed in. I’m assuming it’s green fungus. It’s fuzzy looking.

also attached some pics of the bowl and babies~

 

Here’s the pics I got. Camera doesn’t like focusing zoomed in. I’m assuming it’s green fungus. It’s fuzzy looking.

also attached some pics of the bowl and babies~

weird. never seen that before

 

weird. never seen that before

I do think it's the green fungus mentioned earlier. it looks like that when you google it. I added some aquarium salt and will do a small water change tomorrow.

 

Last update for this, I think. Plants are doing great! Sponge filter is no longer running because I needed the air pump for another project but that hasn’t changed anything. Cherry shrimp are thriving and there’s always at least 3 generations in the tank at all times. I just removed a bunch of Java fern sprouts and superglued them to rocks for my other tanks so this one is nice and bright again. I occasionally do a water change but typically just top it up 2 times a week and it’s doing amazing!

 

Haven’t been here in a while but the tank finally hit a point where it wasn’t doing well. Shrimp stopped having babies and the whole thing was covered in green algae. The light died on me too so, of course, it was time for a rescape!

Shrimp and some snails were moved to a 3-gallon of guppy fry I had and I ordered some new stuff. I wanted to do a dirted tank but my dirt got infested with ants so I just got a new bag of fluval stratum. Bottom layer of substrate was the gravel and some aqua soil from the tank, topped with new aqua soil, topped with new sand (old sand stank and was mixed with shrimp/snail poo and dead plant debris).

All hard scape was scrubbed with a tooth brush for any hair algae that stuck around and was put back in. All plants from old tank were put back in and I added a couple of stems from trimmings I had in the fry tank to see how they do. Pushed some root tabs in and added some HC Cuba. Discovered a bit late that it might not survive without CO2 but I’ll try it anyway. I’ll replace it with Dwarf Hairgrass or Monte Carlo if it dies off.

I’ll leave it without shrimp for now because I won’t be home for a week and don’t want to have the parameters go crazy while I’m gone. Oh, and I got a new light and stand for it! One of the Hiro lights with a wooden stand. Brighter and much more reliable than the small led magnet one. Dropped back in the heater and the mini sponge filter and I think it looks pretty good

 

Moved the shrimp in today! No dying off of anything so far plant-wise. Parameters are 0,0, ~5