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Baby Shrimp or random Micro Fauna?

Baby Shrimp or random Micro Fauna?

I've seen quite a few of these today:
MicroFauna.JPG

Overall size is smaller than the head of a pin.

I though there was a berried female in the set I got, but I didn't see her after putting the shrimp in the aquarium, so I was perhaps mistaken... It seems way too early for my recently berried females to be giving birth yet?
 
Most likely micro fauna, and possibly seedshrimp (aka ostracods).

The cherry babies will look like miniture shrimp and are nearly impossible to mistake for anything else. Generally it takes 3-4 weeks for the eggs to hatch once the female is berried. It's possible that the berried shrimp dropped her eggs once introduced to your aquarium, if the adjustment was too much stress for her. Generally I start seeing the babies once they are 1-2 weeks old and a couple of mm long.
 
I did think the timing odd for baby shrimp.

My sister gave me a microscope for christmas, and I made some passible photograhps through it. I should try to capture one of these guys on a slide with the lowest power...

I'm still feeding the tank a little bit about once a week. I found my pond snails turn pale without outside nutrition occasionally.
 
Sorry to say, those are not baby shrimp. I have a picture for you of one that was about 2 weeks old. Even at birth they look the same only much smaller.
 

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My tank has gone through microfauna blooms before. I've gotten plants from several diffrent sources, so we've got all kinds of life in there. The saltwater folks would be happy with it.

I stired up the sand quite a bit in the process of re-doing the tank, so I'm having many of the same patterns I did when the tank was new, gas bubbles, micro fauna... Hopefully we don't need to repeat the green water phase!

Of note: I have a ton of particles in the water, but not much current. Think I can add the filter feeding shrimp?

A piece of me says my tank is one of the few that you'd find suitable for African Giant Filter shrimp, but it would be very difficult to breed them with 10 gallon backup tanks. The mother would not fit comfortably there, so I'd have to capture the young in the big tank for transfer to brackish conditions. (I think when you have something rare and wild-caught, you have a resposnibility to at least attempt breeding. I'd like to do a river tank someday for ottocat breeding.)

Asian filter shrimp are much more easily obtainable and could be kept in decent numbers.
 
Are those air-driven sponge filters? The filter shrimp do crave current... Maybe you could switch to a powerhead to drive a sponge filter.
 
Personally, I can stir the crap out of my sand. Enough so you can't see the back of the tank, and one hour later it's clear as a whistle. I don't think your filter is filtering properly, or not turning enough water.

The filter feeders aren't going to clean your water. I mean that's how they eat, but .............
I had 2 for over two years, they spent most of their time near the filter output fanning. They eat particles you can't see.

Don't get ne wrong, I don't think it's going to hurt to add them, it's just something's out of wack, and they aren't going to cure it.
 
majolo said:
Are those air-driven sponge filters? The filter shrimp do crave current... Maybe you could switch to a powerhead to drive a sponge filter.
Click to expand...
I do have some parts laid out, but I'm having second thoughts about the current from this pump being too strong. I've gotten several opposing opinions about the ideal current for filter feeding shrimp.

TwoHobbies said:
Don't get ne wrong, I don't think it's going to hurt to add them, it's just something's out of wack, and they aren't going to cure it.
Click to expand...
Didn't say there was anything to cure. In my opinion, aquariums are not healthy when overly sanitary any more than when overfed.

The sand problem should resove itself when my snails rebound. The problem there is the substrate is too fine, and deep, so that nitrifying bacteria build up bubbles of gas before the gas has enough strength to escape the sand. The snails took care of it before, and will again. In the meantime I'll probe the sand occasionally when doing my pruning to release the gas.

I think when I move out of my current house I'll be either changing the substrate while the tank is down or rinsing it better than I did the first time before putting it back in the tank. This stuff is way too fine, and can cloud the water when sitrred up.

Microfauna is just a sign of lots of life in the water. This is not a problem. Microscopic critters eating algae, eaten by slightly larger critters... Look at a healthy pond and you'll find more of these things than in my tank. The microfauna is proof that the tank has sufficient nutrients for filter feeders, it's not a problem for them to solve, it's a necessary condition for their health. I had been waiting for the tank to mature before adding filter feeders, and I'm taking these critters as a sign that it is ready.
 
Yes and no. As long as the microfauna outcompete the microflora, everything in in balance. The green water episode started when I hit my light timer by mistake and left it in "on" mode for a few days. The microflora shure took advantage of that!

I do need to do more water changes, and I need to decide how much current the tank should get. I've gotten very good results in my work tank with 0 current, but I don't have any filter feeders in there. I have a pump that's going to generate over 10x current, with all the parts for intake and output (only need one drill bit for making the hole in the sponges), but I'm nervous about that completely blowing away all the plants and shrimp. I could buy a lesser pump, but I can't find 3 people to agree on what the appropriate current for filter feeding shrimp is, so I don't want to buy a pump I'm going to need to replace.
 
I'm by no means an expert, but for my 2 cents I think you can certainly go significantly lower than 10x turnover/hour (I assume that's what you meant for short). The filter shrimp will seek out spots where they get current (most likely by the intakes or outflows) and so the turnover relative to the whole tank volume probably isn't relevant... It's just a matter of having some areas with decent flow. For the record, I have an AC 300 on my 55 gallon with 3 Atyopsis moluccensis, and they generally set up shop with 2 on the intake tube and one on a plant in front of the outflow, and have seemed quite happy with the arrangement for about 9 months I think.
 
I posted on a shrimp specific board, and someone said they would suppliment my main pump with additional powerheads, it sounded crazy to me.

So you're running about half the current I'm proposing, but with a targeted output instead of distributed evenly across the tank... I need to just put it together and hold my breath. I can always downgrade, but I won't know until I try...
 
Yeah, I've seen 5 of these ladies out at the same time, and who knows how many more were in hiding at the time. The tank is so big though, I'm more likely to notice the eggs missing before I notice the hatchlings swimming. Every time I spot one of the few un-berried females, I do a scan of the tank looking for new tiny life.
 
1 Baby shrimp sighted tonight, about 1/4 of an inch long. His siblings must be in hiding. I saw him because he was hanging out on the front glass.
 
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