10 Gallon Tank Pfrozen's belated shrimp tank

Finally got around to setting up a shrimp tank. I was going to use some 20g tanks for this in the past and even had plans for a 40B, but the confidence was not there and I was having some issues with some of my other builds. I finally feel confident enough so I'm going to start small.

richiep it's actually happening this time haha, I already have the thing filled

Substrate is Special Kitty rinsed thoroughly with a bit of black sand and red clay mixed in to look nicer. Typical 5000k clip on desk light. Plants are some nameless crypts and a bunch of subwassertang.

This is a very low maintenance set up. I won't be doing much here aside from 15% weekly water changes. I will stock my shrimp in February and start with 20. It is currently cycling but I am not in a hurry.

It is over filtered with a 20g HOB that will have an inlet sponge

 

I know a local place to me that specializes in shrimp online. In case you need/want some ideas.

 

Well done that will mature nice
Wish you all the best with it and keep us updated please

 

Thanks a bunch Richie, will do for sure!!

 

Not much to update, plants melted slightly cus my tank was too hot but the crypts and subwassertang have taken now. Only 2 or 3 crypt leaves melted total, seeing lots of new growth. Almost cycled already as well so I may add a dither fish or something while I wait for it to mature

no algae at all though. I mean, I had so many issues with algae in the past so Im glad both of my tanks are algae free. but I kind of need a bit of it to grow in this one haha. Oh well

 

Don't worry to much on the algae they're be plenty of biofilm, it may be a few months before the algae takes hold

 

Don't worry to much on the algae they're be plenty of biofilm, it may be a few months before the algae takes hold

Thanks Richie that's reassuring, I wish I could see the biofilm lol. I feel very patient this time around tho so definitely not in a hurry

 

If you rub your finger on the glass in the water you'll find it slippery that's biofilm,

 

If you rub your finger on the glass in the water you'll find it slippery that's biofilm,

Yup inside surfaces are definitely slippery. I have Bacter AE on my Christmas list too and actually, my Christmas list is all fish related stuff if you can believe that lol.

I am starting to think that the 20 I recently tore down had some sort of toxin in it. I have a few theories.. the barium one you've already heard.. but the silicon was black and weird looking too, so it was probably just a combination of unsafe silicon, heavy metals in the soil I used, and I was probably going overboard with all the products and additives I was using

I think my experience will be much more satisfying this time around if I wait the right amount of time and keep things simple. I am already SO much happier without a dirted layer

 

That experience as tought you a lot and me for that matter but you having hands on experience will be able to pass this on to others you find in the same situation

 

That experience as tought you a lot and me for that matter but you having hands on experience will be able to pass this on to others you find in the same situation

Thanks this is a wonderful hobby so I will certainly try to help out wherever possible

 

Its been 2.5 weeks and the tank is almost done cycling. plenty of nice brown diatoms on the rocks and green fuzz/spot on the glass too.

I never really looked into the tank much before now but it is TEEMING with life. lots of detritus, copepods, daphnia, tons of micro ramshorn snails, bladder snails, even some Planaria but I'll just treat the tank before adding shrimp in a couple months. no rush.

I've never seen so many little critters appear in my tanks so fast. I cycled this one with 2 ceramic beads from another tank, some mulm, and Nitrogen product that happens to contain ammonia and urea. Usually I do fish-in with TSS and stability. Not sure if that made a difference but wow. I didn't dip or quarantine the plants so a lot of those critters probably hitched a ride in too.

I think I'll move my 3 lone otos over to this tank when the nitrites finish. they've been at 0.3 for a couple days with ammonia at 0. it shouldn't be much longer. I've heard some advice that otos won't work in a 10g but I'm confident that 3 small fish with lots of food will be just fine. right now they're being bullied by my pencilfish in another tank
Here's a quick surface pic, everything in there looks like this. Lots of mulm and diatoms

 

Tank is cycled this morning. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites with 50+ nitrates. I did a 90% WC and dosed with 0.5 ppm ammonia... if its not all cloudy and I get a good set of numbers like 0,0,10 then I'll go ahead and add in those 3 otos tomorrow. I wanted to add them today but I need to be patient lol

 

Tank is cycled this morning. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites with 50+ nitrates. I did a 90% WC and dosed with 0.5 ppm ammonia... if its not all cloudy and I get a good set of numbers like 0,0,10 then I'll go ahead and add in those 3 otos tomorrow. I wanted to add them today but I need to be patient lol

That's lovely! Nice that it came along so quickly. You'll be adding those fish in no time!

 

Everything tested well this morning and I have lots of diatoms so I added my 3 otos. They did NOT want to be netted and were very stressed for awhile but I can see them eating like pigs now. I might order 3 more friends for them for Friday

 

They picked my tank almost clean over night and have settled in nicely. I wasn't sure about my gravid female because she was resting on the heater in the other tank for like 2 weeks before I moved her. I didn't see any of them eat very much either. Now they're all eating and chasing each other around for spawning

Not sure why but taking the otos out seems to have put the fish in my other tank in the "mood" as well lol. Hoping to have "some" kind of spawn soon because I've never raised fry. I have fry food and alder cones ready to go

 

One month update

The tank is maturing nicely. You can see tons of algae in this picture with clean areas where the otos have been grazing.

I picked up one wire-thin oto from the LFS before the holidays. Looked like he was on his way out so they didn't charge me. He colored up and put on some weight without any problems so I have 4 in there now. I'll probably aim for 8 and see how it goes.

I've been trying to get them to spawn but no luck yet.

2 more months and I can add shrimp

 

Just a general update. Tank now has 6 otos and a large colony of micro ramshorns. I keep the light on 10-11 hours per day and that seems to generate more algae than the otos can eat. I lost one oto yesterday but it had no tail when I bought it a couple weeks ago and the others that I purchased had fin rot as well. All those symptoms cleared up but this one guy was so little I guess he was just too weak. Tested all my parameters and everything was perfect. Too bad. I dosed with flubendazole just to be proactive and it seems like all is well now.

Hoping to add shrimp near the end of February. The shrimp in my other tank are all thriving now, molting on a regular consistent schedule and grazing off the pothos roots and floaters constantly. I'll probably add some more cherries to that tank because its been running longer.

 

Thanks for the update and glad its working for you

 

Added 24 cherries a week or so ago and all is well so far. I've seen one or two with a molting issue but no deaths or anything else to report. Crypts and subwassertang have exploded too! Heres a side shot

 

Just a quick update. The few that had trouble molting have now molted with no issues. I have TONS of saddled females in there too, at least 10. Looks like waiting 3 months was the magic solution. Thank to richiep for helping me throughout this process!

 

Goid to see you back around these parts!

 

Goid to see you back around these parts!

Thanks friend, means a lot! missed this place

 

Hay Pfrozen great news you're on your way, its surprising what a little patients will accomplish.

 

Had one berried female a few days ago and now have 3!!!! Excited to have shrimplets in the very near future.

Just a question: I don't have an intake sponge on the HOB but shrimp, otos, and even copepods literally hang out directly on the intake and don't seem to experience problems. I don't think shrimplets will have an issue either but I'm not an expert. Thoughts?

 

Got a picture of the intake

 

Got a picture of the intake

Hey Richie its one of these, same thing except mine is covered in staghorn algae lol

Redirect Notice

Not sure why but Fishore isn't letting me post the picture. What is a redirect notice? sheesh. I don't have a phone to take a picture with at the moment but hang on I'll find a different picture

Hopefully this one works:

https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/PetSmart/5262296

 

They look small but I think young will get through, if you leave a sponge off be carefull when cleaning the hob

 

They look small but I think young will get through, if you leave a sponge off be carefull when cleaning the hob

Perfect, thanks Richie. I have the media positioned so that any young that get into the filter will flow over and back into the tank. I was mostly concerned about the impeller harming them.. if that isn't an issue then no big deal

 

The impeller may leave a few through but will also take some as well

 

The impeller may leave a few through but will also take some as well

Ah, that settles it then. I'll order an XL intake sponge online. I left it uncovered because I couldn't find one that fit

Thanks a bunch!

I just looked at my old pics and wow this tank has changed so much. I'll post a new pic soon

 

Spotted my first death this morning. I was real busy for the past few days so I put my weekly water change off by 2 days. I'm not sure if that's what caused the death but the shrimp was torn in half, which doesn't make a lot of sense. I doubt there's a dragonfly nymph in a tank thats been running for several months so it was probably just intense snail activity. Anyways, I did the maximum 20% change, added the prefilter sponge, and double treated with stability. I still have 3 or 4 berried females so hopefully shrimplets soon

 

The chances are the other shrimp tor the dead one apart to eat him, most of the time it goes un noticed

 

The chances are the other shrimp tor the dead one apart to eat him, most of the time it goes un noticed

Ah that's too bad. Hopefully I haven't had more casualties

I was reading that shrimp berries hatch after 2-3 weeks, is that accurate? Just wondering since I have so many females in this tank. At least 10 are saddled on top of the 3-4 that are berried

 

That correct and they will disappear sometimes for a few days, the young may not show for a few weeks after being born

 

I know I’m a little late to the party but I think your tank is really cool

 

That correct and they will disappear sometimes for a few days, the young may not show for a few weeks after being born

Awesome, thanks Richie. Maybe I already have some shrimplets then, I believe I noticed the first berried female at least 2 weeks ago

I know I’m a little late to the party but I think your tank is really cool

Thank you!!

As promised here is a new picture. Its changed a lot since I set it up. sorry if the quality isn't great.. fishlore resizes my photos down to nothing

 

Found a berried female stuck in her molt on Friday. Probably the worst I've seen. She was swimming upside down and very inactive. Moved her to my Blackwater with higher gH and shes actually doing better now. I'm not sure if she molted but the white line is gone and she's still berried.

So the molting issues I've been having since I started out in this hobby aren't due to diet or biofilm. I'm completely certain that I'm doing everything properly now. I guess there really is something in my water that the shrimp don't like.

I'll try adding a nice pothos to see if that helps. My other tank is completely filled with pothos roots so maybe it's making a difference

 

Found a berried female stuck in her molt on Friday. Probably the worst I've seen. She was swimming upside down and very inactive. Moved her to my Blackwater with higher gH and shes actually doing better now. I'm not sure if she molted but the white line is gone and she's still berried.

So the molting issues I've been having since I started out in this hobby aren't due to diet or biofilm. I'm completely certain that I'm doing everything properly now. I guess there really is something in my water that the shrimp don't like.

I'll try adding a nice pothos to see if that helps. My other tank is completely filled with pothos roots so maybe it's making a difference

Least you are getting things narrowed down. That's always a good feeling

 

Awesome, thanks Richie. Maybe I already have some shrimplets then, I believe I noticed the first berried female at least 2 weeks ago



Thank you!!

As promised here is a new picture. Its changed a lot since I set it up. sorry if the quality isn't great.. fishlore resizes my photos down to nothing

wow it looks awesome!