Blackwater Bloody Mary Neo Setup

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/23/2023 at 9:53 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'm flabbergasted....

 

Made sure he got back to the sponge after cleaning. Might've seen 2 but at least 1 left. That shrimp is beautiful.

This is the 3rd or 4th round of spawns for the pandas and their current size. They are basically ready to go. I'll check weather this week and try to get them out soon rather than later. I'll move grace tomorrow into the other 29G tank and then I can move the swords into the 10G following that and hopefully give the shrimp some breathing room and more sustainable water.

Maintenance done. Haven't tested anything and I have been feeding crazy heavy.

I told you them shrimp were sneaky ninjas!

ord 😍

[nabokovfan87]

I spy a little shrimp. 🙂

I think this is still the same one shrimp, but who knows.  Pandas are in there and the shrimp is just being a shrimp doing shrimp things grazing on food with the lights out.

What do you think, male or female? Quality look ok, like a bloody mary not a painted fire red? (cc @SandBkeeper)

On 2/8/2023 at 9:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Hoping it's this female.  She was amazing when I first opened the box!

Edited February 27, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/27/2023 at 6:58 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What do you think, male or female

Looks like a female to me. 

[SandBkeeper]

I agree, female because of the shape of the abdomen. Though I could be wrong, that shrimp is still quite small and hard to tell. And yep, that's a bloody mary shrimp!

[nabokovfan87]

Definitely not berried or anything. Was hanging out on the BBA / heater yesterday. Still, very very light sensitive at that size.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/28/2023 at 12:01 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Definitely not berried or anything. Was hanging out on the BBA / heater yesterday. Still, very very light sensitive at that size.

Well… it takes 2 to tango

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:36 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Well… it takes 2 to tango

There was 7 😞

It's ok. There will be more. This one is at least acclimated to how I run the tank, progress made. It's alive. Doing good.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:53 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

There was 7 😞

It's ok. There will be more. This one is at least acclimated to how I run the tank, progress made. It's alive. Doing good.

Did you check the HOB? Maybe they got beamed up.

[Lennie]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:36 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Well… it takes 2 to tango

If a single male manage to find the single molted female in the tank, they can dance! 😄 

 

On 2/28/2023 at 8:01 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Definitely not berried or anything.

Looks pretty young to be berried! My adult females are close to the size of an adult rummynose

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/28/2023 at 1:34 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Did you check the HOB? Maybe they got beamed up.

Nah they got attacked. 😞

No HoB on this tank, just two sponge filters.

On 2/28/2023 at 1:45 PM, Lennie said:

Looks pretty young to be berried! My adult females are close to the size of an adult rummynose

Yeah 100%. It's a good sign and there's definitely some growing to do.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:19 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Nah they got attacked

The 2 I culled I guess were eaten or idk.. now where am I gonna cull to? 🤨

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/28/2023 at 6:06 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

The 2 I culled I guess were eaten or idk.. now where am I gonna cull to? 🤨

It is a cull tank. Unless you want two colonies....

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/1/2023 at 2:19 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

It is a cull tank. Unless you want two colonies....

Yeah! I do! I’m not trying to send the shrimps to an unfortunate fate. My friend said she’d adopt culls but her water is so different . I have 1,00,000 kH and she has 7. Her gH is between 0-7 too. Think they’d live?  

Edited March 1, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

I can't say she's eating the BBA but there's a lot of good stuff on the heater for shrimp to eat and it's a lower flow area.

She found a spot to hang on. Is usually right here going back and forth all night/day.

Pandas take the bottom, she's got security up there.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:41 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I have 1,00,000 kH and she has 7. Her gH is between 0-7 too. Think they’d live?  

I'll test mine and show you. Kh is low. GH is high. I buffer kh and pH up.

Main thing is KH over a certain amount and just PH at the right spot.

She doesn't have to buffer anything right?

[Lennie]

On 3/1/2023 at 12:41 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah! I do! I’m not trying to send the shrimps to an unfortunate fate. My friend said she’d adopt culls but her water is so different . I have 1,00,000 kH and she has 7. Her gH is between 0-7 too. Think they’d live?  

If you manage to cull them before they get bigger, the chances would be higher I bet. Juviniles tend to get used to different parameters much better.

But I personally see molting issues from anything below 6 gh, so I would not advice anything less than 6 gh tbh. Maybe it is my experience

[SandBkeeper]

Honestly, I keep my shrimp with a Kh of about 3-4, and I don't think I've ever had huge molting problems. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 3/1/2023 at 12:36 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'll test mine and show you. Kh is low. GH is high. I buffer kh and pH up.

Main thing is KH over a certain amount and just PH at the right spot.

She doesn't have to buffer anything right?

This is the gal that added the crushed coral recently and had the misfortune.

[knee]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:41 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah! I do! I’m not trying to send the shrimps to an unfortunate fate. My friend said she’d adopt culls but her water is so different . I have 1,00,000 kH and she has 7. Her gH is between 0-7 too. Think they’d live?  

Is this her tank? It looks like kh is at 80ppm/4.5dKH and gh is at 120ppm/6.71dGH. They will live and be able to breed in that water. 

I've kept neocaridinas with caridinas in soft acidic water and the neos were pushing out more babies. GH was 4 and KH was 1. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:05 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

This is the gal that added the crushed coral recently and had the misfortune.

No biggie. By all means I'd be happy to help fix/sort whatever in whatever way.

The big thing is what's in the tank now? If nothing then she can just add the CC and test. Wait for shrimp. Again, I don't think the amount she added was too much. Let's say flow was higher than your tank or someone else, that increases the KH boost. All fine. Not an issue or concern at all.

If it's shrimp only, I would do WCs once a month or once every 2 weeks. You don't want to know what I'm doing it'd shock you, but my experience is that shrimp love water being clean. The issue is if you're buffering, then you have to be precise and on top of tracking changes. That's all. That's the key.

Once we know what KH is, that it's "stable" we can do a test WC and see how it affects the tank and for how long. If she is overly concerned I do recommend dosing in alkalinity buffer (powdered) similar to the stuff by seachem or by salty shrimp KH+.

In terms of what @Lenniehhad said, the interesting thing is whether or not food itself would be sufficient enough to produce the needs of the shrimp and stop any molting issues.

 

Neos are forgiving. And in my experience.... As long as they aren't snacks, shrimp are often forgiving to human error. Some lines, just like guppies and Bettas might be so inbred that causes serious issues. All variables at play and as long as method is "good" then things should do ok.

If the colony crashes, learn from it, then just add more culls. That's the awesome part about this setup. It's a good situation for you and her to get it going.

[Lennie]

I've never had a dedicated shrimp tank tho. I've always been keeping shrimp in my community tanks. I feel like it would be much easier to keep shrimp in shrimp only tanks.

Therefore, they get what food is being dropped to the community tank. I do have a special shrimp food as well, but there is no way for me to track who eats what when I drop them in the tank. All I can say is they basically eat everything different every day of the week including some crab cuisine and shrimp food, and I dose equilibrium and tropica premium nutrition so I know the water has calcium/magnesium content as well as trace elements. Also they probably enjoy snail poops as well 😄

But yea, anything below 6 gh didn't work well for me. Aquaticarts seems to recommend a least 6 gh as well which seems parallel to my experience

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

My concern is just the change in kH. Not can they survive in a low kH or gH. The question is regarding
going from a tank with 80 kH to a tank with 7. I think that will be hard on the little guys, no?

@Lenniei can never see the shrimp food in the tank. It’s so small. I’m using Hikari shrimp cuisine. I’m trying to figure out how much of the other foods to feed them. If I put a few crab cuisine in the morning, I take most of it out in the eve. Same with algae wafers. But one thing they always eat all of is Repashy. They love it. I haven’t tried them on vegetables yet. Except a boiled carrot. Which they didn’t like.

On 3/1/2023 at 4:47 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The big thing is what's in the tank now

Just 2 mystery snails. 

On 3/1/2023 at 4:15 PM, knee said:

Is this her tank

No, this is my tank. This is what the shrimp are at now.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

Water change done for the week.  Pandas are trying to lay eggs again, I pulled one that had a bit of sand on it but it was stuck to the glass.  I saw the smallest fry in there doing it's thing and bounced luigi's house looking for the shrimp.  Just trying to make sure it was ok and not on the sponges or anything in the bucket.  Once I have more in there I won't have to be as concerned, one sponge a week is the plan, but I don't have any real issue cleaning both each time.
 

On 3/1/2023 at 4:40 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

My concern is just the change in kH. Not can they survive in a low kH or gH. The question is regarding
going from a tank with 80 kH to a tank with 7. I think that will be hard on the little guys, no?

This is my water:



As far as your question, she's going to want to acclimate the shrimp each time she adds them to her tank from yours.  Slow drip, normal procedure.  This just means you might want to wait until you have a good amount of culls (10+) so that it's a bit easier to do the acclimation in batches.  Setup an airline+clip+drip valve and explain the use so that things are normal.

I would also review / explain dwarf shrimp diseases just so that she's aware of visually what to look for. 
 

On 3/1/2023 at 4:40 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

On 3/1/2023 at 1:47 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The big thing is what's in the tank now

Just 2 mystery snails. 

So then  let's keep an eye on KH and PH and do 25% WC every other week.  Even low stocking I plan to change water weekly, but dosing in the CC you would want to extend out water changes.  If she wanted to change things once a month, especially with snails in there, I would opt for 50% monthly at minimum.

After ~3-4 water changes we'll have an idea on how well the coral/aragonite is working and we can go from there.

By then, you'll have a good trend and we can adjust anything if need be.

[nabokovfan87]

We have a second sighting!

 

Went to try to take a better photo. NOW THERE IS THREE.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Woo hoo! And they found each other too.