OMG!! What a day! I could use some advice, please.

[Salukie]

I have a ten gallon tank that I'm fishless cycling with grocery store shrimp because I can't find any ammonia anywhere. This morning, the parameters were: ammonia: 2ppm, nitrite: 3ppm, nitrate: 0ppm.

I had ordered some plants from my LFS and I got a call that they had arrived today, so I went to go get them. When I got there, the girl gave me a bag with my plants in it, and a bag with three shrimp.

I guess there was a misunderstanding.

When I ordered the plants, I had asked if red cherry shrimp were something they could order and how much they would cost. Well, The guy must have thought that i wanted some ordered. They ordered me three. (Who orders only three shrimp?? Lol)

I asked if they could keep them because my tank is nowhere near ready yet... I was told I had to take them because they had nowhere to keep them. Meanwhile these poor little cute red things are staring at me through the plastic... At least I got them for free.

Now, there's no way these things were gonna survive in my ten gallon the way it is, so I bought a 1.5g betta cube to put them in.

So I drive home all in a panic... Now I'm one of those people driving home with the aquarium and the "fish" at the same time.

Once there, I put the bagged shrimp to float in the ten gallon so that they can stay warm, and I set up the cube as fast as I can.

I made sure I dechlorinated the water, and I grabbed a handful of gravel from the ten gallon and the marimo balls to put in the cube. (I figured it was better than nothing.)

Meanwhile, I'm freaking out because one of the shrimp isn't moving and my plants are drying up. I start with the nana Anubias, tied it to a rock I got for it and put it in the ten gallon. I tied the java fern to my driftwood and put it in.

I go to grab another plant and my cat is EATING my water wisteria!! Gah!!!

So I plant my poor chewed up wisteria, and then I notice that my java moss is missing!!

So I call the store. They apologized, gave me a credit and ordered me another java moss.

As I'm talking to them on the phone, I take the last plant, a hornwort, and put it in the ten gallon to float. Oh, my goodness, worst mistake ever!

I should have rinsed the thing, at least. I'm such a noob.

So now, my ten gallon has disgusting, rotting, slimy shrimp goo floating around in it, the water is black from all the tannins released from the driftwood (I soaked the darn things, I swear!), and now, to make matters worse, there's a bajillion-trillion loose hornwort "needles" and little hornwort bits floating around, sinking into the substrate, and clogging my filter.

And there are some poor little homeless shrimp in a bag floating into all this mess!

I tested the water in the bag; ammonia: 0ppm, nitrite: 0ppm, nitrate: 20ppm.

I tested the water in the cube; the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all at zero, of course, but the PH, water hardness and temperature are the same as in the bag of shrimp, which was what I wanted to know.

I poured some water from the cube into the bag, little by little... And then I poured the bag into the cube, shrimp, water and all.

I know you're not supposed to put the bag water into the aquarium but I did because the ammonia was zero, the shrimp are the only ones in there, and I wanted to maybe, hopefully, transfer some beneficial bacteria that may have hitched a ride with the shrimp, into the cube.

One of the shrimp died. I'm pretty sure it was dead before I put them in the cube. I wanted to fish it out but I lost it!! I can't find the body! What the heck!?

The other two are alive. One is very active. Swimming into the walls of the tank. The other one is sitting in the bottom. (Update: about 20 minutes later, they are both hanging out on a marimo ball, and their little legs are working... Are they eating? This is my first time with shrimp. I don't know what they look like when they eat.)

Thank you for reading my long story so far, helpful aquarists! Now for my questions:

Is the cube going to cycle with just two little red cherry shrimp in there? What do I do? Do I just check the water parameters every day and do a water change if I test positive for ammonia and nitrites?

What do I feed them??? I wasn't ready for shrimp yet!! I have some TetraMin and some algae wafers. How do you know when a shrimp is hungry?

Does anyone have any tips on how to deal with the case of the shedding hornwort? My, what a messy plant!! I imagine the loose "needles" are from being transported. If I clean my ten gallon tank too vigorously, I'm afraid of disturbing the cycle.

Speaking of cleaning the tank, the water being so dark from the tannins... Will that affect the amount of light reaching the plants? I imagine it would. Poor plants. I really didn't think this through.

All the plants appear healthy so far. The only one I'm worried about is the wisteria. It lost a good 40 percent of its foliage to a ravenous feline.

He seems fine, the cat, by the way. Wisteria better not be poison. He looks okay so far. Sheesh!

Anyway, thanks for reading this. Any help, advice, tips, criticisms welcome.

I'll try to attach some pictures.

Helene

 

[Fresh2o]

Wow...what a day! Lots of things going on. First, the shrimp; I think they will be fine in the 1.5g; just monitor the water params. Check the ingredients for the flakes and wafers for copper.

Retrieve the shrimp chunks in the cycling tank and place them in a filter media bag or hosiery of some type (less messy and easy removal).

Usually you would not do a WC in a fishless cycle unless the nitrites were high but in this case you may want to try to siphon out the hornwort needles. This will remove some of the tannins as well. Best of luck and ill be following.

 

[Salukie]

Here's a couple pictures. First, the cube. I put a little piece of the hornwort in there. I figured some more greenery wouldn't hurt.

Second pic is shrimp #1, "Joe" and third pic is shrimp #2, "Marley".
I know, I'm ridiculous for giving them names. I can't even tell them apart.

Oh, and the white filaments on the marimo balls? Don't mind those. It's cat hair!! Gah, darnit!!! The stuff gets everywhere! I swear!

 

[Salukie]

Darnit! The picture is sideways! Sorry about that.

Gah! I can't manage to upload the other pics. They're too big. Anyway, you can kind of see one of the little guys in the first picture. Sitting on the bottom in front of the marimo.

Thanks, fresh2o, for the words of encouragement. I'll try to do a little cleanup of the ten gallon tomorrow. I'll just do a little every day so as not to mess up the cycle.

Will the hornwort be happy just floating at the top, or should I plant the thing at some point? There are no roots that I can see. Just stems. (And the darn needles, of course.)

 

[Salukie]

Huh.. I guess I should update my signature now, eh? Lol!

 

[Salukie]

There doesn't appear to be any copper in either the TetraMin or the TetraVeggie. Are either of those okay for shrimp?

I put a little tiny piece of a TetraVeggie algae wafer in the cube. One whole one seemed like a lot for two minuscule shrimp. "Joe" is checking it out. "Marley" is hiding under a marimo.

I tested the water in the cube again.
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

I guess I'm okay to leave them and go to bed... I still wonder where the heck the dead one disappeared to!!

Anyway. Good night!

 

[MMantelli]

Wow sounds like quite a day. For the most part doing a pwc during a fishless cycle won't hurt as long as its quick I did 2 75% changes throughout mine and everything cycled very well in only 3 weeks. And yes it sounds like the shrimp are feeding on stuff caught in the moss balls. They also lime moss when you get it in put some in there for them they will keep it clean. And for feeding them mine seem to eat just about anything. Flakes wafers pellets bloodworms. But be very careful not to over feed them they are pretty sensitive to ammonia spikes.

 

[jwh0818]

WOW! Very interesting day. It stressed me out reading it! How are the shrimp doing now?

 

[Salukie]

Thanks, MMantelli.
It's going to be hard, not over feeding two shrimp! Lol.

I'm disappointed that I didn't get my java moss. On the ride home yesterday, I was thinking about the poor little shrimp and at least I had some java moss to put in the cube with them. And then, no java moss! I should have opened the bag of plants at the store to make sure everything was there. It was hard to tell with all the plants in the same bag. I thought they would all be in their own separate bag... Oh well.

Jwh0818, Joe and Marley are still alive this morning! Yay!
I'm going to test the water in a minute, and do a little tiny mini water change to get rid of some of the hornwort debris. Darn hornwort! I like the look of it, but is it ever MESSY!!

 

[Salukie]

Well, the ammonia is still at zero in the cube.

Joe is definitely eating. He's stuffing little morsels of algae wafer in his mouth and I can see him chewing. It's sooo cute!!!

I'm not sure what Marley's doing. I couldn't find him for a couple minutes. He's hanging on the back of the filter.

 

[MMantelli]

Well, the ammonia is still at zero in the cube.

Joe is definitely eating. He's stuffing little morsels of algae wafer in his mouth and I can see him chewing. It's sooo cute!!!

I'm not sure what Marley's doing. I couldn't find him for a couple minutes. He's hanging on the back of the filter.

That's good I bet if you took a sponge filter and put it in one of your cycled tanks for a couple weeks your shrimp would love to have it.

 

[Tetra1990]

Take a deep breath, we are here to help. Ok then, with my experience with hornwort, I had it floating and it soon took over my tank, so it had to go. While it was acclimating, all the needles fell off as well. What a mess! If you have any established media from other tanks, adding this will speed up the cycle to your 10g. Shrimp are great fun to have and since you got them for free it was a bonus.

 

[Salukie]

Gah!! These poor, poor shrimp!

So I tested the ammonia in the cube this morning and it was at zero but the nitrite was at 0.5ppm, so I decided that a little water change was in order.

I had been wanting to try and clean up the mess from the hornwort anyway.

Man, let me tell you, the water sure drains fast from a little 1.5g!! And it was hard trying to suck up hornwort needles without sucking up the shrimp too! Joe was swimming all over like, "what the hell??" While Marley hid behind the heater.

So I manage to not drain the entire tank and clean it up a little, and now I'm ready to refill the water. I go to grab the thermometer to see what temp my replacement water is at, and I manage to break the darn thing!! Now there's broken glass and little lead beads all over the cube!! Gah!!!

I think I found all the glass. And I managed to get most of the lead. Is this lead gonna leach all into the water and kill my shrimp??

Now, I'm kind of impresses these things are still alive so far, but still!

What else can go wrong??

Thanks, Mantelli, for the sponge filter idea... I'll see if I can find one.

Tetra1990, I only have two tanks. A ten gallon that is mid-cycle with high ammonia and nitrite, and no nitrates, and the cube which isn't cycled at all that I got to try and save these shrimp. Thanks for the hornwort advice, I've managed to kill all my plants so far, except for the marimo balls. I had some swords, though. I guess they're more high maintenance than I could handle. We'll see how I do with this batch.

My Anubias is looking pretty good, the marimo too. The wisteria and java fern are alive. The hornwort is messy.

 

[Salukie]

Gasp!! My heart stopped for a second as I witnessed Joe getting sucked up into the filter, but he swam right back out!!

I think these little guys are gonna be okay.

I didn't know shrimp could have different personalities. I'm really enjoying these little things.

 

[bettaowner]

Wow I feel bad for you. I hope things improve

 

[Fishperson]

Wow! That is one bad day! Anyway, you should do what MMantelli said to cycle a small filter for your 1.5G. I would do a water change or two to get rid of any lead or mercury from the thermometer. Also, try to get rid of all of the hornwort needles and everything, they will break down and produce ammonia.

 

[KPhilly]

Those shrimp are troopers!! Totally getting some for my tank.

 

[Salukie]

So I get up this morning and the first thing I do is check on my shrimp. Now they're pretty tiny so I don't always spot them at first glance. On the other hand, they're in a 1.5g cube. There are only so many places they can hide.

So I look, and I look... And I start to get worried. They're not on the marimo balls, they're not behind the heater, they're not behind the filter, they're not hanging out with the thermometer, they're not a the bottom on the substrate, they're not at the surface with the hornwort... Where are they?????!!

I disconnect the filter and look inside. They're both in there, not moving. I get really sad and prepare myself to say RIP to my poor little shrimp when, ZOOM, one of them starts swimming around! So I dump them out of the filter into the cube, and they're both alive! OMG!! I thought they were goners for sure!

I have some replacement filter stuff for my ten gallon. It's the little white bags that you fill with the carbon stuff. I cut a corner off one of the bags and tied it to the water intake of the cube filter with a twist tie. I don't want those poor shrimp to get sucked up in there again!

I can tell them apart, now. Joe is slightly larger, but he has lost a bit of his colour. (Stress?) he's the more active one of the two.

Marley is smaller and redder. He likes to hang out on the heater.

Plus, guess what else??

I sat there staring at Joe and Marley after their ordeal to see if they were okay, (they went right back to foraging and eating), and I spotted something! I can't believe I even saw it! It's really small and translucent, but you can tell what it is.

It's a snail! There's a snail in the cube with the shrimp! It must have come off the hornwort, I don't see where else it could have come out of.

Now, most of the hornwort I put in the ten gallon, but with the high ammonia and nitrites in there, if there were other snails, I doubt they'll survive that.

The snail, how can I tell if it's a good kind or a bad one? I'm assuming, since it came with the hornwort, that it came out of someone's aquarium somewhere, and that it's not a bad kind. But then, who knows?

The little thing is about 3mm across. It's translucent for now. How long does it take for snails to grow big?

 

[Fresh2o]

Glad you found your shrimp! Not sure what type of snail that it.
I don't mind them. I have some in my shrimp tank that look like rams horn but are small (2-3 mm), pretty translucent and they carry the shell sideways. I figure its a part of the micro fauna one might expect with plants; I also have FW limpets and on occasion have seen seed shrimp, Copepods, detritus worms and hydra.

 

[reefdiver]

Look up pond snail. More or less that is what coes in plants.