Doc4PC2

Bleaching your plants? Putting in Peroxide in your tank? I definitely need to know more about those two subjects.

Yeah, hydra will sting the shrimp and kill them. You do not want any hydra in your shrimp tank. Good to know about the smashing too. But a little bit of Fenben does get rid of them quickly, and it doesn't hardly take any of the Fenben to do it too. Just tiny pinch is all it took to get rid of the hydra and did not seem to bother the shrimp at all. Too much Fenben will though. So becareful

Welcome, you will love it here! Great people, lots of help, great information and research, and people are there for you when you need help. You can't beat this forum!

Yeah, I am going to monitor the lights better and change the timer on it.

I just went through a huge algae explosion with one of my 10 ten gallons, and I had to clean it up. Cleaned all the décor with a toothbrush, vacuumed the substrate, cleaned the glass inside and out, changed about 65% of the water, rinsed the sponges and filters in the aquarium water and put them back in, and now the tank is back to it's normal, "looks great tank look". Pain in the butt, but once I was done, I was happy. Right now, I am starting from scratch with a Mr. Aqua 12 gallon, low iron, tank for my shrimp. It is a really nice tank. I am going with a easy to clean and maintain setup up. Substrate in holders, dish for leaves, Penn Plax Cascade 500 canister filter, Tom's nano filters, sponges, and a side HMF. I just finished making a sliding glass top for it, and a hanging light. I am making this tank, so that it will be easy to clean and deal with. Everything in this tank is setup, so I can get to anything easily, simply, quickly, clean it and put it back. With the substrate in the containers, and plants in little glass containers, bare bottom floor, with large dishes for food and leaves, the HMF, and sponges so there is still plenty of biofilm and bacteria. I am hoping, this will put an end to things like worms, planaria, hydra, and the constant cleaning and dealing with the tank. Obviously, I will have to do some, but I am trying to set this up, so everything is easier, quicker, with the ability to deal with bad things much better and easier, but still have a great environment for the shrimp. That's the plan, and hopefully, it will go the way I want. I'll let you know. But like you too, sometimes, you just get a little bummed out with the tanks. I have five of them, and I am slowly setting each one up to be much easier to deal with.

I learned a very hard lesson with Fenben. Be careful you don't over doze, or your shrimp will die. I have now gone with the trap way to get rid of planaria and worms, and snails. No chemicals with the traps and they works great. I just use the same food I would feed the shrimp in the traps, as that is what they are used to eating. With the hydra, I just smash them against the glass and then clean the glass, but I have tried just a touch of Fenben for the hydra and I turn off the lights for 24 hours and cover the tank with a cloth for 24hours, so very little light gets in. I only use just a tiny bit of Fenben, and it works great, gets rid of the hydra, and the shrimp are fine.

It is algae, not hair like, just like a kind of turned everything green, just like a light coat of green. my light is 6500

This is what I was thinking of.

It is just a 10 gallon, with a beamworks led light. I leave it on day light for 7 hours, 7 hours on blue night led lights, and off the rest of the time. Plus the light is raised some above the tank. I have had this tank for quite awhile now, and I rarely have to do anything with it, but water changes and some cleaning here and there, vacuum the substrate, normal maintenance. Like I said, yesterday, it was pristine, clean, clear, just a tiny bit of algae, all of the décor was fine and clean, the sponges look good, filter looks good. It has a biowheel 200 on it, plus two sponges, and a small UV sterilizer, and air stones. It does not have any live plants in it at all. Just decorations. No moss, no plants, nothing live. Drift wood is all. Just today, all of a sudden, I look at the tank and it had algae everywhere, on all of the decorations, sponges, substrate, glass, drift wood. I was stunned, because yesterday it was fine. I have never seen a tank just all of a sudden in one day, have a massive algae bloom explosion like that. The tank is in my kitchen and it has been for a long time now. It does not get direct sunlight at all, and normally looks great. I was just wondering what could cause something like this. I vacuumed the substrate, cleaned the glass inside, cleaned all of the decorations, cleaned the sponges in aquarium water, cleaned the filter in aquarium water. Cleaned the light, and changed about 65% of the water, and it now looks fine and back to normal. But wow, did it blow me away. Overnight, it exploded with algae. I would like to prevent this, so I was wondering if anyone would know what would cause this all of a sudden in an established tank that never does this.

You could put like a hydro farm piece on the bottom of the tank. It would help the plants to grow.

In one of my fish tanks. It just has a nice size Angel Fish, a yoyo loach, and four neon tetra. The tank is fine, clean, decorations are clean, water is crystal clear, water parameters are great. Then one day out of the blue, the tank all of a sudden has algae on the glass, decorations, bottom of the substrate, everywhere? It was just fine yesterday, you couldn't even hardly see any algae, but today, it all of a sudden has a massive burst of algae. Like a big algae bloom out of nowhere? Does anyone know what could cause this? The tank is not in the sun or by a window, and I rarely have to clean algae off the glass. It is very strange? Thanks for any help. Doc

The Tortondo or something like that Mulberry Leaves that are dried and vacuum sealed in a package, my shrimp go nuts over. It is without a doubt, their favorite food, big time. Nothing even comes close. They will clean it to the skeleton within a couple of days, sometimes overnight. They seem to like to eat the Mulberry leaves at night. I don't see them around it much during the day, but the next day, it is almost gone. So they are munching at night on them big time. Even the new born fry love the Mulberry leaves, especially after I leave one in the tank for a couple of days. It seems like the don't touch it at all with the fry, then after a couple of days, they go after it big time. I boil the leaf for 5 minutes, let cool and put it in the tanks. But out of all the food I feed the shrimp, even blanched zucchini slices, or shrimp king, or snowflakes, or powder, or oak leaves, or Indian Almond leaves, or all kinds of different food. The Mulberry leaf is by far their favorite food.

Wow, those are awesome! I would love to have a tank for them.

1. Soothing Shrimp 2. Country boy 12 4 3. Mystiknitelite 4. Miwu 5. Greenteam 6. Elo500 7. Duff0712 8. Doc4 PC2

Thanks!

okay, but do you mean the fresh leaves, or do I let the leaves dry for few days first, then boil them, let them cool and put them in. Or can I just boil the fresh cut leaves, let them cool and put them in? Thanks!

Does anyone know how to prepare the stinging nettles leaves? I grew some over the past couple of months in a huge flower pot. Do you cut off the leaves and let them dry, then boil them and put them in? or do you just cut of the green leaves, boil them and put them in? Or do you boil the green leaves, let them dry and then put them in? Is fresh stinging nettles leaves what they like, or dry one? Any info, if anyone knows would be great and thanks!

Every heater I've tried has been inconsistant except ehiem heaters. I have tried at least Eight different brands, and not a single one keep the temp consistent except the ehiem.

Yeah, Thanks, good tip for sure. I see that in the Malaysia Drift wood that is sold.

Sweet!

Thanks everyone. I do use a baby supplement powder, and the tank has been setup for 5 months now, and the water parameters are stable and steady. I use a dark blue background, that is solid. I never knew that even your background can make a difference. Is there a certain background you should be using on your shrimp tanks? Hopefully, they are all hiding. There is also three more CBS that are almost ready for the fry to be born. Any day now, I would say. This tank will have a ton of fry if all three, have their fry this week, so I am watching it closely and monitoring the water closely.

My low grade CBS has some fry a couple of days ago, and I could see the little ones. There was about a dozen or so that I could see on the sides of the glass and here and there. But now when I look today, I can only see one or two of them? Did they all die, or did they all find a good hiding spot somewhere that I just can't find? Water parameters are all good and unchanged from the time they were born to today. Is there a survival rate on fry?

I just bought a new Mr Aqua 12 gallon tank, and I bought the mat with it. It says it evens out the tank some, helps it to stay level, and helps it so the pressure is even. I have never used a mat before and I haven't had a problem, so this will be the first mat I have tried.

When I go down to the river bed, there is a ton of branches, drift wood, twigs, that are all dried and by the river bed on the river rocks when the river is down. But I have no idea if they would be okay, if I boiled them good, let them dry again, boiled them again and then put them in the tank. The things you have to know to keep shrimp.....

Congrats! U lucky ....... Eric's shrimp are healthy, and amazing! I have Lots of shrimp from Eric's and they are all doing great!