5-10 gallon shrimp stocking?

[Autumnsky]

Shrimp look pretty nice!

Oh and a 1mm flake of that stick food is enough, you will overfeed, they are so tiny. Someone told me, and i don't know if it is true, but to think of the eye as how big their stomach is!!!

I am an over feeder, I am trying to reform.

After the tank has time to mature there will be biofilm in the tank for them to eat too.

 

[TheCasualist]

Yeah i know i was overfeeding with the last feeding, i was just trying to get all of them to come out to see how many still alive. This morning i only see 3... its a bit weird, whenever i count them before midnight i never lost one, but come morning some is always missing... what do they usually do between midnight and 7am? I doubt they actually died, havent seen any corpses...

 

[Scottyhorse]

When the lfs tested the water, did they do it with a liquid test kit or strips? Strips can give you false readings, and if the tank isn't cycled, the poor water quality will kill them.

 

[Autumnsky]

They could be molting and hiding.

 

[TheCasualist]

The lfs tested with liquids... i am hoping theyre molting, though now the thought springs to mind that they might have died during molting, and the other shrimps ate them.. hope that wasnt the case, as i havent seen any stray tails or heads floating around, just some outer transparent case. What are the signs of a sick shrimp? From what i see last night theyre all still red colour, eating, some move about actively, hanging on the leaves...

 

[TheCasualist]

after further research (on shrimp deaths and moulting) it seems probably better to at least wait for a few days before truly panicking. no true corpses has come out yet and I doubt the shrimps could/would eat them(2 of them) spotless within 7 hours (that's if they started right away the moment I went to bed). I'm just gonna bet on them hiding well while moulting in the crevices of the driftwood waiting for their shells to be hardened again. I guess I'm too paranoid.. the solution? I should buy 5 more

 

[TheCasualist]

Question: has any of you ever tried experimenting with activated carbon in a planted tank? I heard conflicting report regarding these, and reason I ask is because Aquaclear 20 came with it, so it's in my filter at the moment. Not that I have any problem with the easy plants I currently have(ambulia's growing like weeds, crypts and anubias are green), but if they could flourish even more then why not? Should I replace it? and if so, what media should I put in? or should I not even bother with planted tanks?

Oh, and I saw 5 of my shrimps this morning turns out there ARE places around the driftwood that I can't see...

 

[jcolon]

Question: has any of you ever tried experimenting with activated carbon in a planted tank? I heard conflicting report regarding these, and reason I ask is because Aquaclear 20 came with it, so it's in my filter at the moment. Not that I have any problem with the easy plants I currently have(ambulia's growing like weeds, crypts and anubias are green), but if they could flourish even more then why not? Should I replace it? and if so, what media should I put in? or should I not even bother with planted tanks?

Oh, and I saw 5 of my shrimps this morning turns out there ARE places around the driftwood that I can't see...

Carbon's pretty much worthless IMO except for removing tannins and Meds fom a treated tank. Replace it with 100% Polyfill ... It'll really help polish off your water.

 

[TheCasualist]

As always, swift replies. You guys are great

will check them out, thanks!

 

[jcolon]

Oh, and I saw 5 of my shrimps this morning turns out there ARE places around the driftwood that I can't see...

BTW .. I'm running an AC-20 for a few weeks on my shrimp and I've already swapped out the Poly-fill so it really traps debris / dirt.

And yep, shrimp are masters at finding a thousand hiding spots in one piece of DW.

 

[TheCasualist]

I think we might have a problem... my last test indicates .25 to .5 ppm ammonia (I think? it was either the 2nd or 3rd colour in the API test kit... according to what I read it would kill the shrimps... would they kill automatically? I'm a bit confused because I don't see any sign of them being affected at all... not saying they're not affected though, but if they are they're basically doomed been dosing with prime, and just did a water change... the male then went a bit nuts for a few minutes running around the tank, and then calmed down again... but is there a way to deal with this without putting them out of the tank? keeping in mind I have a planted tank...

Confused again about cycling a planted tank... some sources say you don't need cycling and some say you do... and if you have a plant then the cycling process is even longer (harder to build up the BB cos they just got sucked in as nutrients by the plants)? I don't see where else that ammonia could've build up though... it can't be from the shrimps though..