5 gallon planted

[kindafishy]

What a great looking little tank. Love it!

However, you are a bad influence on me.... I want a little betta tank now!!!!!!

 

[KatieJ]

So while doing a pwc today, I noticed a translucent shrimp lying dead on the bottom of the tank. Disheartened, I scooped it up with my net - only to realize it was a discarded exoskeleton, not a dead shrimp XD Scared the crap out of me.

It's becoming a little harder to do head counts, and I'm noticing bits and pieces of exoskeletons here and there. How long does it usually take for them to grow their shells back and come out of hiding? Also, don't females breed right after molting? (hoping to have lots of babies since it might be a while 'till I get my chili rasboras 8D)

 

[absolutangel04]

I have thought my bamboo shrimp died like a dozen times. I do not about the female breeding/molting thing. But I have certainly mistook molts for dead shrimp before. I was positive my bamboo was dead and it scared me to death when I was cleaning and he swam out from under a plant.

 

[KatieJ]

O__O;; So I was checking on the tank this morning, after dosing some plant ferts... I noticed this little white line on the glass and was curious, so focused my vision to get a better look. I was kinda freaked out when I saw the white line - and several others - was moving.

I tried to get some super macro pics with my camera. Anyone know wtf they are? I'm wondering if they're planaria, but I'm not 100% sure.

Edit: After doing a little research I'm not so sure if they are planaria or not. Apparently planaria can get pretty big? These are really only visible if I look reeeally really hard at the glass.

 

[KatieJ]

Starting to wonder if they're nematodes...

 

[Batt4Christ]

Good Nano fish
Chili Rasboras
Celestial Pearl Danios
Otos

If you get a ton of Shrimp, then you can add a Dario Dario (Scarlet Badis) or 2. They will eat baby shrimp but leave adults alone. I have one in my Shrimp tank.

I second the scarlet badis! I don't have any only because they would be supper in either of my tanks. But if I were setting up a small tank- they would be at or near the top of my list!

 

[KatieJ]

So my plants are starting to brown at the very tip, and one of my wisteria plants is yellowing a little on the tip of one leaf. Just checked my nitrates wit the API kit - haven't done a pwc since 3ish days ago. The levels are reading less than 5 ppm, maybe closer to 2 or 3! Ammonia and nitrite are 0....

Would the nitrate levels be too little considering I only have a dozen shrimp in the 5g tank, and no fish? Would I need to consider adding Flourish Nitrogen or something? O_0 I was always a little skeptical on Flourish Nitrogen though because it's just basically adding toxins into the water that's bad for the fish/inverts, right?

(^ This question also kinda applies to the planaria/nematodes-looking things on my glass. I thought they really liked nitrates and waste and such. I'm afraid to vigorously clean my Eco-complete because of all the plants that have (finally) taken root there - how else could I get rid of them? There are pics on the thread for identification purposes.)

As far as pH goes, oddly enough, when I tested it it read in-between freaking 8.2 and 8.4. I know as long as it's stable it doesn't matter, but for my plants, shrimp and eventually rasboras, wouldn't this be a liiittle too high? If I went ahead and put my driftwood in the tank, would this lower it?

Edit: Just tested the aquarium water's pH again, and then the dorm's tap water pH. The aquarium results still have the same brownish-purple, while the tap water results, strangely, read a dark yellow color (around 7.4). This is so weird - I know I'm testing this right, using the High Range pH one because the regular pH results just show up as too high for the chart. Any thoughts?

 

[Coursair]

So my plants are starting to brown at the very tip, and one of my wisteria plants is yellowing a little on the tip of one leaf. Just checked my nitrates wit the API kit - haven't done a pwc since 3ish days ago. The levels are reading less than 5 ppm, maybe closer to 2 or 3! Ammonia and nitrite are 0....

Would the nitrate levels be too little considering I only have a dozen shrimp in the 5g tank, and no fish? Would I need to consider adding Flourish Nitrogen or something? O_0 I was always a little skeptical on Flourish Nitrogen though because it's just basically adding toxins into the water that's bad for the fish/inverts, right?

(^ This question also kinda applies to the planaria/nematodes-looking things on my glass. I thought they really liked nitrates and waste and such. I'm afraid to vigorously clean my Eco-complete because of all the plants that have (finally) taken root there - how else could I get rid of them? There are pics on the thread for identification purposes.)

As far as pH goes, oddly enough, when I tested it it read in-between freaking 8.2 and 8.4. I know as long as it's stable it doesn't matter, but for my plants, shrimp and eventually rasboras, wouldn't this be a liiittle too high? If I went ahead and put my driftwood in the tank, would this lower it?

Edit: Just tested the aquarium water's pH again, and then the dorm's tap water pH. The aquarium results still have the same brownish-purple, while the tap water results, strangely, read a dark yellow color (around 7.4). This is so weird - I know I'm testing this right, using the High Range pH one because the regular pH results just show up as too high for the chart. Any thoughts?

To kill Planaria and/or Hydra read this article. I've used this method.
http://www.arizonainverts.com/articles/UseofDewormer(Fenbendazole).html

As far as your plants, I'd do a partial water change. I would Not add Nitrogen, but you might add Flourish or Leaf Zone. Check your lighting. I don't remember your tank specs. High PH can be hard on plants also.

 

[Desastre]

I just noted some I'n my shrimp tank guess I have to make a trip to my petsmart when I get a chance.

 

[ashleynicole]

That is a beautiful tank! You have really given me some great ideas, as I am going to set up each of my kids a 5 gallon tank for Christmas. (I already bought them but hubby won't let me set them up yet) I am going to be doing some hardy plants in these tanks as well, and there are two female betta's in my 29 gallon tank waiting patiently for their new homes . I was thinking of doing an apple snail or shrimp, I am glad to know that I should go with the snail idea instead of the shrimp!

 

[ashleynicole]

oh, and if you are really worried about the PH in the tank, you could purchase a few gallons of Reverse Osmosis water. I imagine that since the tank is so small, it wouldn't be to expensive to do pwc's with bottled water.

Also, I just planted my 29 gallon tank a couple of weeks ago, I had some die off in the first week, brown leaves, etc. I just removed the dead/dying leaves and dosed seachem flourish and now I have some new growth that is looking really healthy. I think it is ok to have some initial die off in the first week or so as the plants are adjusting to your water and lighting.

 

[KatieJ]

I'm hesitant to do RO water or even bottled water - I don't have a car and ride my bike 2 miles to the pet store, so carrying a bunch of water in a backpack is out of the question. Bottled water is expensive as well - I'm a college student and can't afford to pour all that money down the drain, so to speak.

The thing I'm concerned about is that this isn't the "first week or so" - these plants have been in here for almost a month.

Thanks for the article! But unfortunately I'm afraid the method won't work - if I add dewormer and have to remove the shrimp from the tank, I'd have nowhere to put them. My betta is temporarily in the only other tank I have, and I'm too broke to afford a tank just for the shrimp while getting rid of the worms. Would water changes and scrubbing the glass really hard work? (Then again, I'd worry about disrupting the bacteria) Some sort of shrimp/plant-safe chemical?

As far as lighting goes, the specs are on the first page. I have a 13w compact flourescent lamp (a neat clip-on from Fluval), and the tank is five gallons. Less than that if you count the fact that there's 2-3 inches of substrate. From what I've researched, it's enough light for moderate plants.

 

[KatieJ]

Ugh, these things are ALL over my tank now. Anyone know any other methods of getting rid of them/telling what the heck they are? I can't even get a water sample without one or two of them somehow ending up in my test tube - they're hovering around the surface now.

 

[Vircomore]

If they are planaria, then that is a sign that you have an excessive buildup of debris, waste, and uneaten food in the substrate. Bust out the siphon and give the gravel a good cleaning, and while they wont go away immediately - their numbers will thin as they get starved out.

However, they could also be a tapeworm parasite that came in with the Ghost Shrimp. They infect the shrimp's digestive tract and can potentially kill the shrimp. If that's the case - get a scraper and start purging those suckers with a vengeance.

 

[KatieJ]

Thank you!
I don't think they're tapeworms, though - aren't tapeworms really long? These guys are LESS than a millimeter in length. This is kinda what they look like, only they're really, really tiny. http://theaquariumwiki.com/images/thumb/e/e4/Nematodes1.jpg/200px-Nematodes1.jpg
This video is the most accurate one I could find as to what they look like, but even then it doesn't really show it much. The worms in my tank are much shorter than this, and don't move as fast (though it could be that they're just so tiny they appear to be slow in my eyes) Little tiny worms living in the aquarium - YouTube

I'll try to siphon the gravel as best as I can - however, I'm worried about uprooting my plants. I don't have any carpet plants other than DHG, and the other plants are anubias, wisteria and rotala. Would these be okay if I gently vac

 

[KatieJ]

Apologies for the double post - but I managed to take a video of them using my camera's macro settings. Hope this helps in identifying. D: As you can see, they're very, very tiny. Worms? - YouTube

 

[Atxpunx]

They do look like flatworms. Have you seen this planet inverts page? http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html it shows a lot of info that helped me.

 

[KatieJ]

I didn't really find anything in there that was terribly useful. D: I'm getting a lot of conflicting reports of what they are and what to do with them.

 

[ashleynicole]

I didn't really find anything in there that was terribly useful. D: I'm getting a lot of conflicting reports of what they are and what to do with them.

I would say to remove them manually one by one, and do as many water changes as you can to remove larvae. I don't know what they are either, but that's what I would do.

 

[jetajockey]

I've used fenbendazole a few times in the past for shrimp and fry tanks without any issue primarily to get rid of hydra, but it also works on planarians. I've heard that it is bad for apple snails, but I've never had any shrimp or fry deaths over it. I just dose a little sprinkle (for a small fry tank literally the edge of a fingernail's worth) stirred into tank water, wait 24hrs and they are gone, then do some 50% water changes the following days to remove the med. It only takes a tiny bit, let me know if you need any, I can send some via letter envelope since its just a dab.

I've also heard that praziquantel/prazipro works but I have not used it in conjunction with this particular issue so I can't say for sure.