Design a new home for Steve McQueen!

[Jawjagrrl]

Some of you have possibly seen my journals on shrimp in a 2.5 nano tank with the occasional reference to the 5gal that lives next to it, which is home to some rasboras, endlers...and Steve. 

Steve is a platinum red dragon plakat I sort of accidentally won on Ebay last summer when I was getting the bug to keep fish again. I searched auctions closing that evening with no bids, and there he was. We threw in a lowball bid, not thinking it would be the ONLY bid. But it was, and he came to join us as our first feature fish in my first nano tank. He is prettier in person and a tiny water puppy, but not always nice to his tankmates. 

The 2.5 shrimp tank is exploding with shrimp, and 4 endler males after briefly housing Steve's nemesis, Donald (my avatar) who sadly passed away mysteriously in December. Steve's current home is 5gal that he shares with 2 nerites, 2 endler males and 7 chili rasboras. He killed the shrimp I tried to keep with him and sometimes chases the endlers. Thinking he might be happier on his own (the rasboaras wouldn't mind either) and am considering moving him to the 2.5 and moving everything in it to the larger tank that was originally intended to be for shrimp and nano fish.

The 5gal:

The 2.5:

I'm likely moving out a couple of the plants to larger tanks, but am totally open to ideas for a new setup just for Steve. What should his bachelor pad look like? Open to any and all ideas, no matter how offbeat! There is a prefilter sponge to the left side to lower flow rate and it does have a heater. Very well seasoned tank, plants and all life thriving in it, so I think Steve would be happy.

Bring on your crazy ideas! Let's have some fun here!

[AndreaW]

@Jawjagrrl ~ I think you should let him decide! Seriously, acclimate him and put him in to see what he thinks of it and what he likes/dislikes.

Maybe some floaters with longer roots. Mine seems to love wandering through his roots. Definitely his log (assuming he likes that)

Sorry, not too many crazy ideas flowing here! 

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 1:42 PM, AndreaW said:

@Jawjagrrl ~ I think you should let him decide! Seriously, acclimate him and put him in to see what he thinks of it and what he likes/dislikes.

Maybe some floaters with longer roots. Mine seems to love wandering through his roots. Definitely his log (assuming he likes that)

Sorry, not too many crazy ideas flowing here! 

He does LOVE that log, which he inherited from Donald. He also likes the duckweed, and I do have some red root floaters coming. 

I saw MD Fish tanks's crazy little shrimp scape recently and wondered how crazy something like that would be? Too much? 😜 I have some Wish credits I want to use up (keep trying to quit them, but every order comes in wrong and I end up with even more credits) and could try something off the wall like these bubbles or something.

 

[AndreaW]

@Jawjagrrl ~ I have one of those glass holders in my tank and I use it for Cosmo's "food trough" where I dump his food to keep it contained. I filled it with gravel and it's nice because I can pull it out and clean it when it gets messy. I thought about getting another one or two to plant some Anubias to have growing on the side walls but unfortunately I got Anubias rot and I'm afraid to try more in his tank.

[AndreaW]

Is your tank open top or could you have a section at the back open? I think this is a neat idea if you don't have a jumper. He uses a Peace Lily out the top.

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 2:18 PM, AndreaW said:

Is your tank open top or could you have a section at the back open? I think this is a neat idea if you don't have a jumper. He uses a Peace Lily out the top.

I have coveted a tank like this in the future, maybe with CPDs. But with cats that already drink from the HOB 🙄(it's the tastiest!), I better keep a lid on Steve for now 🙂

[AndreaW]

My 46G has a glass lid and my cat jumps on top of it frequently. I think if I took the lid off it might take him jumping once to learn his lesson....

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:40 PM, AndreaW said:

My 46G has a glass lid and my cat jumps on top of it frequently. I think if I took the lid off it might take him jumping once to learn his lesson....

I had a rambunctious siamese cat in my Mbuna days and he loved watching them up close. I was doing maintenance one night when he thought to go fishing...and fell in! Last time he tried fishing 😉

Steve has an observer in the form of Daniel.  I have no doubt if I had any rimless setups he would expand his menu! He got into the algae tablets while i was outside this afternoon 😉

[Bev C]

@Jawjagrrl love the photo … looks like at my house  at times , I do not have jumpers but have a escape artist  my nitrite snails try’s to escape all the time  ..  &when i first got my bristolnose pelco he would try to escape every time i turn around  have to keep lid on .. I do not think my bristolnose wants to leave anymore since he is older and gets vegetables  he is happy ..

 my dachshund watches the tank like a hawk  my couch is beside the tank and tank stand he sits on arm of couch and watches the fish but i am sure if one of the snails or bristolnose  successful escapes they would be in trouble with Joey closely watching 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Bev C

[Jawjagrrl]

On 5/24/2022 at 3:28 AM, Bev C said:

my dachshund watches the tank like a hawk  my couch is beside the tank and tank stand he sits on arm of couch and watches the fish but i am sure if one of the snails or bristolnose  successful escapes they would be in trouble with Joey closely watching 

My french bulldog brought me a still wet kuhli loach on Christmas Eve - looking sheepish and concerned. She didn't do anything but seemed to know this wasn't supposed to happen. It had jumped through the teeniest space imaginable in the lid! She was so delicate with it and I tried to return him, but she didn't find him fast enough 😞 She generally ignores the tanks but knows I watch them a lot - a (mostly) good girl!

UPDATE: I actually just broke down this little tank and rebuilt it today - it was overrun with scuds and leeches that had slowed down the shrimp colony growth a lot. Shrimp returned and it will be home to a starter colony of Rocket Killifish that I hope will enjoy the live food in the form of the smallest scuds. Endlers went into the halfmoon and Steve remains with his rasbora buddies for now.

[Bev C]

 Oh my you have a wonderful puppy  not hurt the fish  and he brought to you very nice .. I am sure that would not  the case at my house or dachshund they are big hunters    best wishes on the new rebuild 

[Jawjagrrl]

On 5/24/2022 at 4:32 PM, Bev C said:

 Oh my you have a wonderful puppy  not hurt the fish  and he brought to you very nice .. I am sure that would not  the case at my house or dachshund they are big hunters    best wishes on the new rebuild 

Doxies can be very tenacious, but doing the job they were bred to do! My Godparents growing up had one named Gretel that I loved to visit.

Shrimp seem happy to not have so much competition for resources in a small space. Now I need to research how to keep a scud colony by themselves - good live food for future fish!

 

[Torrey]

@Bev C and @Jawjagrrl the second night Houdini was with us, I couldn't find Houdini in the tank. I looked *everywhere* and finally took everything off the table, and then cleaned out under the table looking for my inherited Zebra nerite (hence the name, Houdini) and we couldn't find the snail anywhere. 

Knowing the Papillion x chihuahua x pom we inherited from my MIL eats everything, I resolved myself to having to explain that the zebra nerite had escaped under my care.... Fast forward... Munchie (above mentioned canine) starts a weird tribble sound and I come to check it out. I have zero clue where the snail had hidden, but the zebra nerite had magically appeared under the buffet and Munchie was alerting that an unfamiliar something was moving down there. As I rescued the Zebra Nerite from the puffball of tribble sounds, Patient Spouse™ dubbed him Houdini, and the other nerite snail was named Watson. They are (well, Houdini is) capable of lifting the Aqueon lids, so they now live in the T4' in my spouse's bedroom, because it has a locking reptile lid that is Houdini escape proof.

My aunt and uncle had a Doxie named Tootsie Roll, and my old next door neighbor had one for 23 years named Jack. They are excellent hunting dogs, and can be trained to have a mouth as gentle as a lab, with a little work. My service dog is a big mastador, who thought it was her job to bring me the chickens everyday so I wouldn't have to go collect the eggs. She would bring them into the living room through the dog door, and they would lay the egg right there.🙄 She never did believe us that the chickens didn't want to get slobbery and were much happier in the chicken run.

@Jawjagrrl scuds are super easy to breed up to astronomical levels. I have the 5 gallon with the snails and planaria. It's got a UGF, some floating plants (if they start eating the healthy plants you are underfeeding them) and hornwort (lets me know when I need to add more calcium). I like having the spigot to turn, to just collect scuds in a cup.

I used recycled items from around the house (so technically this was my first Scapes from Scraps, TOUS) to build the UGF. Filled the cut bottles with a mixture of hydroballs and plastic bioballs to host the beneficial bacteria colony.

The scuds really like to hang out in the hornwort.

 

I added a piece of canvas for the scuds to climb on and eat biofilm off of.... When I drop in some baby brine shrimp it looks like the canvas is moving! I suspect they also filter feed, as the water from the pump comes down the canvas like a guided water fall, and they just hang out grabbing microfauna straight out of the water column. Biggest cause of colony crashes is underfeeding. You won't notice how much the colony has grown because they are tiny, and without the canvas mesh to hang out on they generally stayed hidden. I accidentally underfed my initial colony, and they went cannibalistic. They eat a surprising amount of protein, blackworms don't stand a chance if you add them to the substrate *after* you add scuds.

 

You can see the UGF a little in the 5 gallon. This has been running since 2019.

Meanwhile, my little 2 gallon has been thriving! I don't know if you can blow the picture up enough to see all the scuds, but they are covering the bioballs in the UGF (they much prefer the open weave design of the black plastic bioballs to the compressed clay hydroballs). There's no planaria in this one, just snails and scuds, hornwort, duckweed and Bacopa carolinia. They eat a baby carrot every other day, BBS at least once a week, and they polish off any fish food that manages to not get eaten by the fish in under 3 weeks... otherwise they get a pinch or 6 of the same food I am feeding the fish. If you notice your plants are getting eaten, either harvest some scuds or start feeding more.

But having the spigot at the bottom definitely makes harvesting infinitely easier!

[Streetwise]

You are a Nerm. Please continue!

[Jawjagrrl]

On 5/29/2022 at 12:37 AM, Torrey said:

@Bev C and @Jawjagrrl the second night Houdini was with us, I couldn't find Houdini in the tank. I looked *everywhere* and finally took everything off the table, and then cleaned out under the table looking for my inherited Zebra nerite (hence the name, Houdini) and we couldn't find the snail anywhere. 

Knowing the Papillion x chihuahua x pom we inherited from my MIL eats everything, I resolved myself to having to explain that the zebra nerite had escaped under my care.... Fast forward... Munchie (above mentioned canine) starts a weird tribble sound and I come to check it out. I have zero clue where the snail had hidden, but the zebra nerite had magically appeared under the buffet and Munchie was alerting that an unfamiliar something was moving down there. As I rescued the Zebra Nerite from the puffball of tribble sounds, Patient Spouse™ dubbed him Houdini, and the other nerite snail was named Watson. They are (well, Houdini is) capable of lifting the Aqueon lids, so they now live in the T4' in my spouse's bedroom, because it has a locking reptile lid that is Houdini escape proof.

My aunt and uncle had a Doxie named Tootsie Roll, and my old next door neighbor had one for 23 years named Jack. They are excellent hunting dogs, and can be trained to have a mouth as gentle as a lab, with a little work. My service dog is a big mastador, who thought it was her job to bring me the chickens everyday so I wouldn't have to go collect the eggs. She would bring them into the living room through the dog door, and they would lay the egg right there.🙄 She never did believe us that the chickens didn't want to get slobbery and were much happier in the chicken run.

@Jawjagrrl scuds are super easy to breed up to astronomical levels. I have the 5 gallon with the snails and planaria. It's got a UGF, some floating plants (if they start eating the healthy plants you are underfeeding them) and hornwort (lets me know when I need to add more calcium). I like having the spigot to turn, to just collect scuds in a cup.

I used recycled items from around the house (so technically this was my first Scapes from Scraps, TOUS) to build the UGF. Filled the cut bottles with a mixture of hydroballs and plastic bioballs to host the beneficial bacteria colony.

The scuds really like to hang out in the hornwort.

 

I added a piece of canvas for the scuds to climb on and eat biofilm off of.... When I drop in some baby brine shrimp it looks like the canvas is moving! I suspect they also filter feed, as the water from the pump comes down the canvas like a guided water fall, and they just hang out grabbing microfauna straight out of the water column. Biggest cause of colony crashes is underfeeding. You won't notice how much the colony has grown because they are tiny, and without the canvas mesh to hang out on they generally stayed hidden. I accidentally underfed my initial colony, and they went cannibalistic. They eat a surprising amount of protein, blackworms don't stand a chance if you add them to the substrate *after* you add scuds.

 

You can see the UGF a little in the 5 gallon. This has been running since 2019.

Meanwhile, my little 2 gallon has been thriving! I don't know if you can blow the picture up enough to see all the scuds, but they are covering the bioballs in the UGF (they much prefer the open weave design of the black plastic bioballs to the compressed clay hydroballs). There's no planaria in this one, just snails and scuds, hornwort, duckweed and Bacopa carolinia. They eat a baby carrot every other day, BBS at least once a week, and they polish off any fish food that manages to not get eaten by the fish in under 3 weeks... otherwise they get a pinch or 6 of the same food I am feeding the fish. If you notice your plants are getting eaten, either harvest some scuds or start feeding more.

But having the spigot at the bottom definitely makes harvesting infinitely easier!

Sounds like my lemonade dispenser would be good fit (I do love the idea of scuds on tap!), but the shrimp are doing so well in there I hate to rock the boat. My colony is on the counter in a plastic show box with a bunch of substrate I didn't use. They have plants, snails, probably planaria, definitely leeches, so it's quite the little ecosystem and seems happy. It would be great if I could keep them lo-tech this way with a little fish food now and then, but wondering if they need some filtration long-term.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Jawjagrrl