Shrimp

It’s now September and the aquarium is doing well! Steve the mystery snail had a rapid growth spurt, likely from the heat wave we’ve been experiencing. I haven’t seen Bob the bladder snail in a long time; I believe he has passed. Though Bob’s hundreds of children, the Bobettes, live on to carry his legacy. The shrimp are seemingly happy, mindlessly munching away on algae, veg, and bug bites. They have all successfully molted multiple times which is encouraging.

This month I did light maintenance. I didn’t add liquid plant fertilizer, root tabs, and kept the water changes to a minimum, to let the shrimps adjust in peace. Since my aquarium has a large amount of filtration (bacterial, mechanical, plants) I only do a small water change about once a month. I spot cleaned occasionally with a turkey baster covered in a net (so I don’t alien abduct the Bobettes). I also cleaned up some hair algae with my hand (it’s easiest to roll it into a roll to take it out) and scrubbed the glass with a magnetic scrubber.

I do want to start working on the aquascaping part of my tank. I gave the plants 2 big chops this month. Well, mostly I trimmed the Jungle Vallisneria. While I love these plants, the 5 foot leaves are a bit much for my 10 gallon setup. I’ll think I’ll just keep one around and sell the rest for now.

I think I’m getting the hang of using my camera (Canon Powershot G16), some of my photos are actually in focus!

July 9

I’m learning to use a different camera, so bear with me as my photo quality… varies (I accidentally made the ISO too high, oops). I learn best by doing.

I finally got a lid. It doesn’t fit perfectly and there’s a large gap, but it does reduce evaporation a lot. I was getting pretty tired of always topping up the water level.

I trimmed some melting leaves on my amazon sword, and gave it a root tab.

July 19

The large val plants are blocking the light so I’m giving them a hard cut back.

I also gave it a small gravel vac. I cover it with a net to prevent sucking up the bladder snails.

July 29

I GOT SHRIMP!

I finally got shrimp! They’re the whole reason I got into planted tanks. I’ve been obsessed with them for the last 2 years.

I ordered 5 Bloody Mary Neocaridina shrimp from AquaFloraCanada and I’m so happy with them! They even sent extras! One didn’t make the trip and ended up being a travel snack for the others.

July 30

I found one dead this morning (RIP lil’ guy). The Bobette’s (Bob the Bladder’s babes) made short work of the corpse. I almost didn’t notice it. The remaining 5 seem very happy and healthy.

Besides spending a couple hours acclimatizing the shrimp and feeding, I haven’t touched the tank. I’m going to leave it be for a week to let the new lil guys settle in.