LilBoot Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 So, went up in the attic last week to store something and ran across my old marinland portrait 5.5 gallon aquarium. It was a gift from my kids a few Father’s Day past. It was meant to upgrade my betta 2.5 gallon temp tank he had been happily living in. Unfortunately, as he was a full fin guy, the height of the tank was not the best environment for him. I ended up upgrading to a 20 long planted. I retired the portrait and hadn’t thought about it since. Anyways I have been trying to test my hand at shrimp. I have a few cherrys in my community tank, but want to dive head first into Cardina shrimp. Now I haven’t a clue how I’m going to solve my hard water issue, but here is the first step. I cleaned and setup the portrait on my dresser. I used the small bag of fluval stratum, and an old lava rock that had been removed from my old tank. I had a cycled filter from another tank, but went ahead and wrung out another sponge to muck up the tank real nice. Going to run the lights for 16 hours a day for the next 2 weeks see if I can get some good algae growing. I’ll add some plants, reduce the lights and introduce the shrimp probably around August 7. I’m going to Aquashella in Dallas that weekend and will probably have all kind of goodies to add. If anyone has shrimp experience, add sees me doing something incorrect, please feel free to drop a line in the thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 That's a cute little tank. If you add new driftwood kind of close to when you add the shrimp, the driftwood will create biofilm that the shrimp like to eat. You can boil the driftwood first to kill anything bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 Thanks! i have a few options in my current tanks, but haven't decided yet which to use! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted July 23, 2022 Author Share Posted July 23, 2022 Added river rock pebbles to cap the stratum, like the look better. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 I really like the look of those tanks. I think you’re on the right track, but I’d wait until the end of August before adding shrimp. That’s just me though. I don’t have great luck with shrimp so I try and follow best practices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted July 24, 2022 Author Share Posted July 24, 2022 Pulled some plants from my other tanks, still need to add as many as I cram in. Will do that in a couple of weeks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted August 3, 2022 Author Share Posted August 3, 2022 Wrung out another filter sponge into the tank earlier this week, made a complete disaster of the tank…however the tank is full cycled and has a good amount of algae growing…going to try to pickup my shrimp this weekend. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anitstuk Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 They should love this tank! Please keep us updated on the little Shrimp journey. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Is that lava rock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Went to Aquashella this weekend, loaded up on plants, a few fish, and of course found the shrimp for this project. I went with the Red Reli shrimp, they looked nice, i had not had them before, and most importantly they were in my budget. I performed a water change early in the day, did a water acclimation, and finally a drip acclimation. I added a s. repens, a flamingo crypt, susswassertang, hydrocotyle japan and some red root floaters all that i got from show. Also floating a piece of cholla wood i got as well. When i went to bed i had noticed no casualties. I will see what they look like when i get home from work this afternoon. Grabbed a tiger nerite snail as well! I will post update. Hopefully i can clean this tank real nice in a few weeks once it balance out and and the plants grow in a bit, get some better looking tank shots. On 8/2/2022 at 8:45 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Is that lava rock? Yup, i had one big chunk leftover from when i rescaped my 29 gallon a few months ago. Edited August 8, 2022 by LilBoot 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) On 8/8/2022 at 8:20 AM, LilBoot said: Went to Aquashella this weekend, loaded up on plants, a few fish, and of course found the shrimp for this project. I went with the Red Reli shrimp, they looked nice, i had not had them before, and most importantly they were in my budget. I performed a water change early in the day, did a water acclimation, and finally a drip acclimation. I added a s. repens, a flamingo crypt, susswassertang, hydrocotyle japan and some red root floaters all that i got from show. Also floating a piece of cholla wood i got as well. When i went to bed i had noticed no casualties. I will see what they look like when i get home from work this afternoon. Grabbed a tiger nerite snail as well! I will post update. Hopefully i can clean this tank real nice in a few weeks once it balance out and and the plants grow in a bit, get some better looking tank shots. Yup, i had one big chunk leftover from when i rescaped my 29 gallon a few months ago. Ah Aquashella! I've never been but hope to go when it happens in my state; I think next spring. The type of snail you bought is a Zebra nerite. Edited August 8, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 On 8/8/2022 at 10:03 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Ah Aquashella! I've never been but hope to go when it happens in my state; I think next spring. The type of snail you bought is a Zebra nerite. Thanks, i was close! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 On 8/8/2022 at 5:20 AM, LilBoot said: Yup, i had one big chunk leftover from when i rescaped my 29 gallon a few months ago. Looks great! I think it's subtle but fits the design and setup very nicely. Because it's a shrimp tank, if you ever have a "branch" or some sort of leftover nano size wood, I'm sure the shrimp wouldn't mind that to graze on. I can't wait to see it grow in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted August 10, 2022 Author Share Posted August 10, 2022 Close up: 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LilBoot Posted August 14, 2022 Author Share Posted August 14, 2022 (edited) Week one with shrimp, have had 1 confirmed death, and 2 confirmed molts. I can see for sure 4 females, and maybe 3 small males. Hopefully get some breeding to the colony. Added more plants and driftwoods. No water changes yet just top off. Had to remove the zebra nerite, he was not doing well. Barely moving, maybe just too cold for him, put him in my 20 gallon. Edited August 14, 2022 by LilBoot 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/8/2022 at 11:03 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Ah Aquashella! I've never been but hope to go when it happens in my state; I think next spring. The type of snail you bought is a Zebra nerite. Are you in FL? I think Aquashella in Orlando happens in Spring... and I'm soooo hoping to make it since it's only an hour from me! On 8/10/2022 at 8:56 AM, LilBoot said: Close up: The tan \k looks gorgeous and the Shrimp are beautiful! I'm now inspired to redo my 3 gallon Cherry Shrimp tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/14/2022 at 4:27 PM, FLFishChik said: Are you in FL? I think Aquashella in Orlando Yep, it would be pretty close by! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/14/2022 at 6:39 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: Yep, it would be pretty close by! Well, maybe we’ll see each other there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redfish Posted August 15, 2022 Share Posted August 15, 2022 Man, now I want a shrimp tank too. Y’all are really a bad influence around here. 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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