Blackwater Bloody Mary Neo Setup

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2023 at 2:29 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I have a new food coming as well.  I want to see if it is easier for the shrimp to digest and break down.

@nabokovfan87 my shrimp go bonkers over Repashy soilent green. I've begun to notice that it has ingredients that are shrimp specific and they like.  I NEVER have leftover Repashy in the tank.  They frenzy over the stuff.  I do add calcium carbonate to it.  Good for snails and good for shrimps to molt.  Calcium carbonate is free of charge from Crayfish Empire. Their mission is to help prevent calcium deficiencies in inverts in the aquarium hobby. You can also make your own shrimp lollies with the Repashy.

 

Soilent Green Repashy:

These are just some things I noticed. I didn't get super in-depth with this or into all the vitamins and whatnot.  That's a project for another day 🙂 

On 8/3/2023 at 2:29 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

replace one of the filters in this tank with a fine foam one

I did this in my shrimp tank because I want to be able to maintain the filter without the worry of shrimplets inside of the sponge.  They can be easily shooed off of the fine sponge.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:16 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I did this in my shrimp tank because I want to be able to maintain the filter without the worry of shrimplets inside of the sponge.  They can be easily shooed off of the fine sponge.

I used to have them, I am not sure what I did with them.  😞

I was looking up a bunch of foods last night.  I think I have 2-3 that I really like.  Nordic and then Shrimp king might be the main 2.  Nordic has some "treats" that I am going to try to get my hands on as well.... eventually.

I also found this and might use it as a mix in for repashy batches.



There is also a seasonal mulberry leaf version of repashy, which seems great as well.  They do also just have mulberry sticks.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:32 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I used to have them, I am not sure what I did with them.  😞

I was looking up a bunch of foods last night.  I think I have 2-3 that I really like.  Nordic and then Shrimp king might be the main 2.  Nordic has some "treats" that I am going to try to get my hands on as well.... eventually.

I also found this and might use it as a mix in for repashy batches.



There is also a seasonal mulberry leaf version of repashy, which seems great as well.  They do also just have mulberry sticks.

The makers of this food also make a fun bbs hatchery where the bbs swim up into a jar or something, and then the jar can just be taken off the unit for easy harvest. Oh also the jar is freshwater, so no rinsing.  But the hatching area is saltwater. The bbs can swim up into the jar as they wish. They do it because that is the only area of the hatchery that receives light. Light attracts them.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

My neo shrimp adore frozen baby bbs, frozen mysis shrimp and plankton. Hmmm looks like I’m out of plankton. But these are what my shrimp go bananas for. 
When trying to increase population I had success with northfin fry, first bites and glass garten shrimp baby. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:43 PM, Guppysnail said:

My neo shrimp adore frozen baby bbs, frozen mysis shrimp and plankton. Hmmm looks like I’m out of plankton. But these are what my shrimp go bananas for. 
When trying to increase population I had success with northfin fry, first bites and glass garten shrimp baby. 

It's funny @Guppysnail. I always feel like it's weird to feed shrimp to.. shrimp. 🤣

[Guppysnail]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:46 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It's funny @Guppysnail. I always feel like it's weird to feed shrimp to.. shrimp. 🤣

The circle of life is a cruel mistress. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Chickens eat chickens, pigs eat pigs, turkeys eat turkeys, it's how I justify eating them myself....

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

When a Neo shrimp dies it’s like a big mosh pit around it in the shrimp tank. Everybody fighting for a bite. Super savage!

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:46 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It's funny @Guppysnail. I always feel like it's weird to feed shrimp to.. shrimp. 🤣

They like snails too!

 

On 8/3/2023 at 3:52 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

When a Neo shrimp dies it’s like a big mosh pit around it in the shrimp tank. Everybody fighting for a bite. Super savage!

They definitely enjoy their calcium....  I have some mysis I can't use anywhere else in my tanks.  I will have to see if there's any left and try it out. 

I just fed the corydoras some Super-Brine (eh, let's just go with that) and they are being feisty and ignoring me.  One of the young ones want's to go snack, but the parents were a bit stressed or something. 

I checked TDS on the shrimp, better.

I checked TDS on the 75G, still too much but it's very likely nothing to do with GH/KH from my testing.

On 8/3/2023 at 10:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

I swear I've checked the shop like 50 times and they never have it in stock.  😞

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2023 at 7:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I checked TDS on the shrimp, better.

Do you manage it with a tap water change, or do you add ro to dilute the tds?

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/3/2023 at 5:09 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Do you manage it with a tap water change, or do you add ro to dilute the tds?

I definitely don't have access to RO.  It's just from the hose.  I wish I could filter it somehow.  KH on the tap is ~4 degrees.  GH is anywhere from 4-6 I believe.  It could be changing, but I've given up trying to track that.  I miss my liquid rock.

for reference. used to be a GH of ~25 degrees.

[nabokovfan87]

I'll get some photos in person, but here's a quick side by side.  The new food on the left.  As long as the shrimp do enjoy it, it'll end up being the day to day food for me.

Here's why....

Old food:
Ingredients: Grain Products, Animal Protein Products of Marine Origins, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Soy Lecithin, Limestone Ground, Fish Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Propionate (preservative), Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, dl-Methionine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin-5 Phosphate, Niacin d-Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Zinc Oxide, Ethoxyquin We replaced probiotics with Vitality Pak, an all-natural, nutritional feed supplement, designed to improve overall fish health and resistance to disease.

New food:
Composition: kelp, insect proteins, dandelion, stinging nettle, spinach, mulberry leaves, chlorella, montmorillonite, moringaoleifera, rosemary, mannanoligosaccarides, ß-glucans, flower pollen, turmeric, cinnamon

We'll see how they do with it tomorrow. 🙂

......and of course the little piece I fed today the amano shrimp immediately took and doesn't want to share.  Silly Gojira. 😂

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:41 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Composition: kelp, insect proteins, dandelion, stinging nettle, spinach, mulberry leaves, chlorella, montmorillonite, moringaoleifera, rosemary, mannanoligosaccarides, ß-glucans, flower pollen, turmeric, cinnamon

This sounds like all the tasty things shrimp love. Some foods say “prevent failed molts”. I need to look up the minerals or nutrients that that refers to. I always feel like there’s so much more I need to know or should know about shrimpkeeping. The learning curve seems steep. Part of that is because of the illness that I had to contend with. I’m guessing calcium is one of the happy molt things. Maybe magnesium also? Just guessing, idk

Something else interesting is drip water changes. I do “full speed” through airline tubing, but my friend does drop by drop through airline tubing. I think I’m ok with what I’m doing because I was having losses just dumping new water in with a bucket. Since I’ve moved to the fully-speed-airline tubing method, they don’t perish after water change. I wonder what is considered “the right way”. Another thing on the to do list to look up.

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/6/2023 at 4:07 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Part of that is because of the illness that I had to contend with. I’m guessing calcium is one of the happy molt things. Maybe magnesium also? Just guessing, idk

The ß-glucans from what I've found is your "bacter AE" of sorts. It's the probiotic in the food.  The montmorillonite is the calcium / clay supplement. The turmeric and cinnamon and pollen being the other things I really like.

The same food they have a lot of versions. One I'd like is the stinging nettle food and I found another that is just the pelletized mulberry leaves. Interesting stuff to use and try to make it easier for the shrimp to get what the need.

On 8/6/2023 at 4:07 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Something else interesting is drip water changes. I do “full speed” through airline tubing, but my friend does drop by drop through airline tubing. I think I’m ok with what I’m doing because I was having losses just dumping new water in with a bucket. Since I’ve moved to the fully-speed-airline tubing method, they don’t perish after water change. I wonder what is considered “the right way”. Another thing on the to do list to look up.

Yeah. MST has always done pretty high flow through airline. Drip acclimation but not as slow for the neos on his water change vids.

I use the buckets and I can absolutely see the damage from water going back in there too fast.  I've use a catch cup, small pumps might work well too, but the main tools to diffuse the output that were successful is just my hand and Styrofoam.

Last water change was 50%. Two buckets matched to temp and added back in. (I won't say the words out of trying to jinx it but) it's been going ok for a while. I need to make a request post in experiments for my shrimp stuff and trying to put together all of the research papers into a care technique for neocaridina.

[nabokovfan87]

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:20 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The ß-glucans from what I've found is your "bacter AE" of sorts. It's the probiotic in the food.  The montmorillonite is the calcium / clay supplement. The turmeric and cinnamon and pollen being the other things I really like.

The same food they have a lot of versions. One I'd like is the stinging nettle food and I found another that is just the pelletized mulberry leaves. Interesting stuff to use and try to make it easier for the shrimp to get what the need.

Yeah. MST has always done pretty high flow through airline. Drip acclimation but not as slow for the neos on his water change vids.

I use the buckets and I can absolutely see the damage from water going back in there too fast.  I've use a catch cup, small pumps might work well too, but the main tools to diffuse the output that were successful is just my hand and Styrofoam.

Last water change was 50%. Two buckets matched to temp and added back in. (I won't say the words out of trying to jinx it but) it's been going ok for a while. I need to make a request post in experiments for my shrimp stuff and trying to put together all of the research papers into a care technique for neocaridina.

If they are swimming around like crazy after water change time, they are stressed. Also if a bunch molt the next day or overnight, also water change stress. This can happen with drip water changes too, if changing a large %

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/6/2023 at 9:50 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

If they are swimming around like crazy after water change time, they are stressed. Also if a bunch molt the next day or overnight, also water change stress. This can happen with drip water changes too, if changing a large %

Sometimes they swim around due to the new oxygenation water.  It encourages breeding a lot of the time.  But yes, I definitely keep an eye out for the stress signs.  I don't seem to have any with this line.  They hardly even notice it most times.

The new food went in today.  In about an hour or so I peeked back in and I love what I am seeing.  The adults are on the food and the smaller particles are expanding outward in the dish and on the sand surface for the baby shrimp.  The food is breaking down nicely and it was just fun to see them do their thing.  so far so good.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/6/2023 at 3:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The new food went in today.  In about an hour or so I peeked back in and I love what I am seeing.  The adults are on the food and the smaller particles are expanding outward in the dish and on the sand surface for the baby shrimp.  The food is breaking down nicely and it was just fun to see them do their thing.  so far so good.

Update.... it's however many hours later and there is still a little bit of food leftover.  Not an amazing sign. 

I have been basically feeding 4-6x my normal dose as a means to ensure I am "feeding enough", but I think I realized something pretty critical today.  Most directions are written and they say something like feed 1 pellet per 5 shrimp, feed 1 granule for every 3 shrimp, etc.  The only issue there is if you don't have adult shrimp, you'd want to scale that back a bit.  I was feeding for 60-80 shrimp, and I probably need to feed a QTY of food moreso for ~30-40 shrimp due to how many I have that aren't fully developed yet.  It's a relatively young colony, so it's just something I need to keep in mind. 

I didn't feed them today, but I cleaned the glass and made sure they had access to said leftover food.  I will remove it if I need to, but the hope is that some of the smaller shrimp went and had some of it today while I was out.  I'll give them another rest day and then try again the day after with the new food and report back.

[nabokovfan87]

Old vs new

I'll check on the shrimp again today. I'm looking specifically for how the food is doing and how much is left given the time. Essentially, did I feed too much or have I finally managed to feed the right dose.

In the photo above. The top is labelled at 1 per 3 shrimp and the bottom is labeled as 1 per 20 shrimp.

Here's the latest:

^^Gojira going crazy on a piece of alder cone.

This is the feeding dish after a few hours, 6 or so.  You can see the state of the food and how broken down it is. 

 

You can see the "fines" here and that's the chunks that break off for the shrimp outside of the feeding dish and the smaller shrimp to go ahead and graze on.  For whatever reason that isn't something I was seeing with the old food.  The size above, you can see it's really easy for one shrimp to just run off with that bit of food.  Hikari makes theirs in little balls/granules, which is something I do enjoy as a feeding size for shrimp.  It's really easy then to just do 1 ball per shrimp (or something similar to that).  At some point though the granule is so small you're somewhat feeding a powdered food? Maybe, not entirely though.

Riddick in her tank, using the dish on some repashy.  She is able to eat a little better with the dish, thankfully.  One day the plan is to toss some shrimp into this tank.  Hopefully she can learn to share the dish.

Edited August 14, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added photo and comments

[nabokovfan87]

I just got done with the maintenance on the tank.  I couldn't remember the last time I was able to sit and really spend time on the tank.  I took my sweet time and siphoned the sand, got a bit of the junk up and it was really nice to be able to do that for the shrimp.  I ended up finding an anubias surprise as well and tried to fix a bunch of their plants.

The shrimps were being a bit funny today.  There was all these female shrimp that kept chasing my hand while I was trying to move things and clean the tank.  I was putting anubias on the rock and I see a few shrimp, then 5, then 10, then 20.  It was just fun.  Pure joy.  I am really enjoying spending time with the colony and watching them do their thing. 

I had to use some ice to match the temp in the tank as it's a bit hot outside today.  Yesterday they got some mysis shrimp and I think they did well with it.  I'll have to find a method to get it "sort of" in the feeding dish.  It blends in with the white sand and so that's just a bit difficult to really keep track if they don't eat it.

Anyways, nothing too fancy, nothing too deep, just wanted to post about those moments so I remember to appreciate them in future. 

Here's a bit of George for your entertainment. 🙂
 

 

[nabokovfan87]

TLDR - Shrimp Tank edition

Feb 9th - 7 shrimp added to community tank (it went badly)
Feb 23rd - I found one shrimp, maybe 2. Community fish removed from shrimp tank.
March 2nd - I found 2 shrimp, then 3.
March 5th - Ordered shrimp batch #2.
March 7th- Arrived DoA, 1-2 survivors added to tank.
March 12th - Moved the tank due to room tank moving things
March 16th - Final group of 7 shrimp added to the tank.
March 21st - Feeding dish added
April 3rd - First berried female shrimp
April 13th - First real deep clean on the tank
April 19th - First loss due to molting issues, ordered secondary test method
April 30th - Discovered GH had severely crashed due to new testing kit
May 3rd - First colored up Shrimplet (female arrived berried)
May 31st - Actually had a decent method for cleaning the tank established.
June 8th - Between Adult and Shrimplet ~60 shrimp in the colony.
June 21st - First culls sighted, Amano shrimp added to colony
June 21st - Found Scutariella Japonica parasites, Prazi meds added
June 26th - Salt treatment #1
June 28th - Rili female discovered
July 9th - Salt treatment #2
July 14th - Amano Zoes released in the tank
July 19th - First Cull (11 shrimp)
July 23rd - Tank returned to normal service post treatment
Aug 8th - Switched to new food

[itsfoxtail]

I actually saw your listing for Bloody Mary shrimp before I did a double take and rushed back over to catch up on this (I'm so behind, omg!) THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL! 😭 I'm so ridiculously happy to see you actually have so many offspring you're selling them! So is it official? Do you have the bug? Are there more colors in your future?

On an off note I'm so jealous of people who like shrimp king food. I haven't ever owned a single shrimp that would touch the stuff and I'm almost starting to think it's personal now.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/23/2023 at 11:54 PM, itsfoxtail said:

😭 I'm so ridiculously happy to see you actually have so many offspring you're selling them! So is it official? Do you have the bug? Are there more colors in your future?

Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot.  I was so intimidated by neos and the information overload starting out.  Oh I definitely want some wilds for fun.  I really dig the look of them.  Right now I have the BMs and I think I can get a line of red rili going with the culls, but we'll see.  Right now I don't have a ton of space, but one day... for sure I'll have a few tanks for shrimp. 🙂

On 8/23/2023 at 11:54 PM, itsfoxtail said:

On an off note I'm so jealous of people who like shrimp king food. I haven't ever owned a single shrimp that would touch the stuff and I'm almost starting to think it's personal now.

Very, very, very strange!  I can see it and I did see something similar for the first day or so.  they were just a bit confused.  You wouldn't believe the pile of shrimp on the food nowadays though.  I would have to imagine there is more to the setup/story as for why they don't go for it.  Maybe there's just a lot of other food options?  Hard to say, but very interesting reaction to the food for sure.  I just read a research paper that said they can go ~14 days with no food without issues long term.  I would hold back any food for 2 days, try it out, hold food for 3-4 days, try it out and just see what happens.  Maybe someone local can give you a few sticks to get them to go for it.

[itsfoxtail]

On 8/24/2023 at 2:14 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Oh I definitely want some wilds for fun.  I really dig the look of them.  Right now I have the BMs and I think I can get a line of red rili going with the culls, but we'll see.  Right now I don't have a ton of space, but one day... for sure I'll have a few tanks for shrimp. 🙂

Wilds would be so cool! There's a 'wild type' craze going on in my city right now out of absolutely nowhere, almost every store is selling them and they're gone in like two days. I'll be curious to see if people start giving them a shot! They're most definitely slept on!

On 8/24/2023 at 2:14 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Very, very, very strange!  I can see it and I did see something similar for the first day or so.  they were just a bit confused.  You wouldn't believe the pile of shrimp on the food nowadays though.  I would have to imagine there is more to the setup/story as for why they don't go for it.  Maybe there's just a lot of other food options?  Hard to say, but very interesting reaction to the food for sure.  I just read a research paper that said they can go ~14 days with no food without issues long term.  I would hold back any food for 2 days, try it out, hold food for 3-4 days, try it out and just see what happens.  Maybe someone local can give you a few sticks to get them to go for it.

I feed my shrimp every ~2-3 days or so, maybe I'll play around with waiting longer in between and then trying the shrimp king food then! Maybe they just have to get a taste for it. 🤷‍♀️ Definitely some food for thought (pun intended).

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/24/2023 at 12:20 AM, itsfoxtail said:

Wilds would be so cool! There's a 'wild type' craze going on in my city right now out of absolutely nowhere, almost every store is selling them and they're gone in like two days. I'll be curious to see if people start giving them a shot! They're most definitely slept on!

There is also the newer neocaridina species to try out too! 😉
 

 

On 8/24/2023 at 12:20 AM, itsfoxtail said:

Maybe they just have to get a taste for it. 🤷‍♀️ Definitely some food for thought (pun intended).

interesting!  We'll have to see how it goes.