11 gallons dwarf sp. aquarium

This aquarium houses dwarf species, like fish, shrimps and snails (excluding plant sp.). As well as that it's a home of diverse micro life forms, including algae, fungus, microorganisms and bacteria.

9/29/2006

Good news-bad news-great news

The good news is one of the Cherry shrimps is carrying eggs, which was a pleasure to see.
The bad news is that the same female dropped the eggs the same day :-( and I still don't have a clue what is causing this problem. On the photo one can see the female dropping the eggs, but she left a few. I hope they stay in the pleopods and become baby's soon.
And just before I decided to post the photos above, I looked at the aquarium and saw one of the female Cherrys feeding on the power head...but that wasn't all !!! I had to get closer to the tank, because I had a feeling something tiny was moving beside that shrimp... SHOCK !!! I had a feeling it was some kind of worm or something but not a tiny baby Cherry shrimp!!! Yes it was a baby shrimp, behaving the same way as the adults do, AMAZING !!! I am so pleased with this news. I don't know how this is possible since I am observing them daily. The first carrying female must have left a few eggs that I wasn't aware of. This is a great proof that my only one male is performing good !!! BTW, the miniature shrimp is approx 3mm long. To see the Red Cherry shrimplet video click here.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.

9/13/2006

RCS becoming more RED

I am very happy to see my female Red Cherrys becoming more red. Young females are known to be more pale, but after each moulting the are turning more red. And because of that I am starting to realise that I probably have only ONE MALE !!! I just hope this little guy can fertilise all the females...hm. I believe I am better off buying another male or two. The next two photos are showing the one male I have. RCS males are very pale with very little red on the top of their abdomen, and that is more like red dots. The abdomen shape is not as deep as the females is. If you take a closer look (the first female photo) you will notice that the females abdomen is rather deep, so it can store and protect the eggs. I am 99% sure that the pale shrimp is male. Time will tell.
I fed my Neocaridina denticulata sinensis with cooked carrots but they didn't spend much time eating it. They rather feed off of the aquarium glass and from the Oak leaf litter. I am observing them very closely for the last few weeks and I believe that their main diet is formed out of microorganisms, algae and fungus, rather than boiled veggies and algae wafers. Just a few days ago, I fed them with a small piece of algae wafer but they didn't eat all of it, instead they were picking "things" from the stones, leaf litter, glass, filter, plants and gravel. I am prity sure shrimps will do much better in mature set-ups, where aquarium mulm has been formed.


And since they enjoy eating microorganisms from the Oak leaf litter, I collected some more from a near by park. I am soaking them in a bit of dechlorinated water, so they sink readily. The more leaf litter, the more surfaces for the microorganisms to grow on. I will try to collect more withered Oak leaves before the season is over.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.

9/10/2006

Another female lost the eggs :-(

Another female lost the eggs. I can see one carrying only 2-3 eggs, how sad. I am not sure what is causing them to release the eggs so soon. Is it possible that those two male RCS can't fertilise???
Are they too young? I believe that they are far over 6 month old. Is it possible that they can feel this set-up not being mature yet? There probably is not enough food resources. I have to observe more.

9/07/2006

Eggs at last.



One of my RCShrimp females has eggs :-) and the way it looks to me she is keeping them. One can be sure only after up to 7 days really. I hope for the best of course.
I apologise for the low photo quality (didn't have much time).

Photos by Dusko Bojic.

9/06/2006

One female lost the eggs + Ramshorn snails


One of my female RCS released her eggs after just one day of carrying them. They probably weren't fertilised.
Other then that, I have noticed a few 2-3 mm baby Ramshorn snails, that most possibly hitchhiked on the Java fern. On the photo one can also see diatoms and microorganisms that this snail is feeding on.

Photo by Dusko Bojic

9/05/2006

New filter...soundless :-)


For the reason this tank is set-up in my bedroom, and the air pump is making lots of noise, I decided to get a soundless internal filter. I had luck to find, probably, one of the most silent filters on the market. UNI-Filter 280 from Polish company AquaEL is a very quiet filter and has also some other qualities; adjustable water flow, adjustable O2 flow, two ways of hanging the filter box...etc. More info.

Because the air pump (box filter) was very loud, I use to switch it off in the night time for 5 hours. And that is something one should not do. Tanks with no/less filtration will very likely experience blue-green algae, which favours still water. CO2 is highly reduced in tanks with strong air flow. Because of that I highly recommend internal filters instead of corner box filters driven by an air pump in planted shrimp tanks. Of course the filter should have adjustable water flow, like this one (UNI-Filter 280).

The shrimps seem to adjust fine to new conditions and several females have white saddles. I am expecting to see the eggs attached to the females pleopods (swimming legs), soon. I wonder, how long are they developing the eggs before dropping them into the pleopods?