Bb Shrimp Tank Syphoning Technique?

[cainechow]

Do any of you keep bare bottom shrimp tanks? If so, what is your technique for avoiding baby shrimps?

I've been syphoning my tank twice a day to remove shrimp poo and then topping off after. The shrimps seem to like it and I have two out of three blue pearl females berried. So I'll be watching to see if they've dropped shrimp babies. Short of simply trying to avoid the babies with the airline, do you have any suggestions?

[Ron]

First of all, I would suggesting not removing the waste. If you don't leave waste in, the cycle cannot be maintained and you'll only have enough bacteria in the tank to handle the waste you are currently leaving. A lot of shrimp keepers rarely do water changes, only top offs with RO to replace evaporated water.

No syphoning = no problem sucking up shrimp.

[Tigs]

I do weekly water changes, maybe 20%. Siphon from the top of the tank so easy enough to avoid snagging the baby shrimp. When I was keeping my tanks bare bottom I'd simply put a power filter on it for half a day to filter out all the 'poop' per say, prefilter on the intake.

cheers,

Antonio

PS I like the fill up with RO water idea, should work very well, mineral content stays put and you give them some 'fresh' water all the while bio filter is working as it should :)hmmmm

[Tigs]

btw, how blue are your blue pearls? I have a batch going but very few have even a hint of blue. Of the adults maybe 3/10, of the young 0/50-75.

thanks,

Antonio

Edited May 6, 2013 by Tigs

[cainechow]

btw, how blue are your blue pearls? I have a batch going but very few have even a hint of blue. Of the adults maybe 3/10, of the young 0/50-75.

thanks,

Antonio

Mine are not as blue as Ron's super blue girl. The bluest is maybe half as blue as Ron's but even the males have some light icy blue to them. It is harder to tell with bare bottom a bit because the bottom reflects the green in my plants which gets in the way of the blues or something.

First of all, I would suggesting not removing the waste. If you don't leave waste in, the cycle cannot be maintained and you'll only have enough bacteria in the tank to handle the waste you are currently leaving. A lot of shrimp keepers rarely do water changes, only top offs with RO to replace evaporated water.

No syphoning = no problem sucking up shrimp.

Now you got me thinking of putting in some substrate except it is too late for aquasoil unless I "cycle" that in another bucket first. What you suggest really appeals to my lazy side... and that is a big side

[Vallisneria]

I keep my shrimp tanks bare bottom and have never really had a problem with sucking up babies. I usually scare the shrimps away from the corner I plan on siphoning from and I've only sucked up a couple when I wasn't paying attention. I also keep my thump on the end of the hose so if any shrimps do wander over I can stop the hose, shoo them away and continue. I also suck it into a white bucket so its easy to spot any babies I might have sucked up. Then I net them out.

I usually do a 25% change once a week, sometimes as long as 2 weeks. I also have my tanks filled with floating plants(java fern & elodea w/ some duck weed on top)