jeremoose

my experiences with neo's in low ph tanks have been mixed.

They seem to do fine in tanks that i had fluval shrimp statum as it only buffers the ph down to around 6.6 ~ 6.8.

The one time i had some pumpkin shrimps in my super tiger tank (ph < 6.0) it really stumped their growth; at 6 months there were less than 1 cm - they usually reach that size at around 4-6 weeks normally.

Hmmmm, very interesting. I'll keep a close watch on them. Thanks for the heads up.

Some pics from tonight, trying to get the camera settings right to get some good pics:

Just "made" my first proper shrimp water using RO water and Fluval Shrimp Mineral Supplement to try to breed my Crystal Reds. They're doing just fine in their current tank but I REALLY want to see shrimplets so I'm going to do 10% water changes every week on this new concoction until all the old water is out.

Special "shrimp water" parameters:

6.0 PH

KH 0

GH 5.6

TDS 142

Excited to see how the breeding goes once I get them fully switched over!

EDIT: the CRS are sharing a tank with the Yellow Shrimp, I know the preferred breeding parameters for each type of shrimp are slightly different. CRS prefer lower PH/KH/GH/TDS... But seeing as Yellow Shrimp are like guppies, I figured I could cater to the CRS and still get a thriving Yellow Shrimp population as well. Is this wishful thinking? Are Yellow Shrimp/Cherry Shrimp too sensitive to breed in CRS tailor-made water? Anybody tried it? Just for the record, I've had the shrimp for about 2 weeks now and I have pregnant Yellow Shrimp already but no sign of it in the CRS.

Wow, that's a great deal.

Ended up getting 8 cyprichromis fry. Decided to take a risk and put them in the 50 gallon.

I now have 7 cyprichromis and a sated green terror...

Moved the cyps to the 10 gallon.

Haha

They just look and act so much like... Food.

On the lookout for a cheap 50-75 gallon tank... (stress - cheap)

Lol it's always a toss up with cichlids it seems. Your GT is definitely a female (and a real looker) like you thought, so at least you won't have to deal with the ridiculous size of a male GT along with the aggression.

Are you planning on wintering them inside or outside? Are you doing the work yourself? Would love to see a pic of your hard to see what you have to work with!

You can use a regular desk lamp with a CFL bulb in it. Use the 6500K ones. I find staples or walmart good places to get the lamp.

I've done this on a 10g I had awhile back and it works great. You can get everything you need for like 15$ too.

Depending on how many fry you get, a 10g would be fine growing them out to 2 inches or so. So happy the GT is working out, one of my favorite fish. When they're smaller they're absolute pussycats imo, similar to a Firemouth.. All bark and no bite.

Edit: PICS!

I tried to move it out so its directly under the light. hopefully that will help. The hornwort was growing really good too. Same with the stuff in the picture too, but some of them started loosing their leaves while others are branching out maybe because some of it was shadowed by my driftwood.. Thanks for the advice. Do you think a co2 diffuser would help?

How old is the bulb on your EBI?

I actually found my EBI to throw some pretty decent light, but not for long. It needed replacing after 2, maybe 3 months. As Jvision said, it's probably a lighting problem. But they're not garbage when the leaves fall off, they can be brought back. The only time I find plants are truly garbage is when they've browned and rotted to the point where if you touch them they break apart.

I'd increase the number of rummy nose and hatchets.

This and/or add some Rams!

Just wanted to show the evolution of my planted 150g.

When I first started the tank about 3 months ago:

When I added co2 one month ago:

This morning:

Moral of the story? Pressurized co2 is awesome.

I've kept Assassin Snails with shripm before and never seen them take a healthy shrimp. They'll only get old, sick, dying shrimp in my opinion, which kind of makes them a good thing to have in a shrimp tank.

What type of tilapia? There's a few species that are fairly routinely kept in the aquarium, like Buttikoferi.

Any word on the spring auction? Also, who do I message about becoming a member? Thanks!

Just got my order in today from www.shrimpwiki.com, I ordered 15 Yellow Shrimp and 10 CRS. Canada post flubbed my order a bit but ended up getting them in while only losing a single CRS (but shrimpwiki packed an extra of type of shrimp) so things ended up great. Literally couldn't be happier about ordering them despite my misgivings about the idea of shipping shrimp in winter.

Thanks for looking. I hope to have some shrimp for sale come auction time.

Good point, on being able to just take it out.

I am just worried that I'll go to sleep, and fish I paid money for will be missing when I wake up... lol

I guess I'll just have to move it over and see what happens, because I don't intend on keeping it in the 10 gallon regardless of the circumstances.

Keep us posted with the results! If you need a new home for the GT... *COUGH* *NUDGE* Let me know.

I have a breeding pair of GT's in my 150g right now (heavily planted) and I have 1" Convict fry in there with them that the GT's don't even pay any attention to. So yeah, I would definitely try the mix, you can always remove the GT. But if it doesn't work out in the 50g I would definitely re-home the GT, a 10g is no place for a 5" fish.

Okay thanks guys.

Here's a question: since most of that growth is emergent growth on the Wisteria, should I just trim the leaves bare so they don't fall off and rot in their own time?

I don't think plants change their names when you put them in water...

Also, space them out a little. When I plant stems, I take them out of the wrapper, cut any dead or dying part off the bottom and plant them singly about 1/2 - 1" apart. They seem to start growing better than when left in a bunch.

Lol I thought they'd take a different look after being in the tank for awhile. And yeah I always take the wrapper off but got lazy this time and planted them as a bunch (which has since been rectified).

Just checkin'

Still the same verdict with the better pic?

Hmmm...may be a trickier proposition than I originally thought.

Like Jvision said Betas will happily eat shrimp, but I've also heard of Betas that leave them alone. It seems to depend on the personality of the Beta, I'd establish the shrimp in the tank first and try to give them good plant cover THEN introduce a Beta. If you go with a less expensive shrimp species like RCS you can try it out without too much concern over losing 1 or 2 and the RCS' breeding will outpace the Betas appetite anyways.

If it's the GE Silicone with the picture of a bathtub and toilet and stuff on it's the wrong stuff! The bathroom silicone has chemicals in it to stop gunk from growing. The stuff you want has a picture of a Window on it I believe. I've used the GE "Window stuff" on 3 silicone jobs now with no ill effects.

Ahhh thanks people. The emergent growth really threw me off on the first one..