Nanosphere 9

[Ace]

I may be mistaken but there may be a 4th shrimp with eggs. This time, the eggs are red brown.

[Ace]

There are so many shrimp carrying eggs that I no longer know how many there are. Things are going very well as I can see 4 shrimp with eggs on just part of a single rock. The population is going to explode!

The water is nearly crystal clear. And everything looks better with somewhat clean glass. I think I will clean more of the glass.

I also want to say that I believe that the water remains well oxygenated from the plants bubbling away all day.

When I give millet it takes them a few days for them to eat it. I am not concerned about it polluting the water during that time because the surface layer of the millet is constantly being scrapped away. When they finish it, I wait until the next day to give them something else. Today, they are having a light snow fall of spirulina after having finished organic red rice yesterday. Next, I may give them pulverized organic raw baby spinach.

I am very surprised at the quantity of mothers-to-be.

[Ace]

Photo #2 shows three shrimpies carrying eggs.
Photo #4 shows the green eggs.

[KenCotigirl]

Real nice Ace. I hope Mustafa chimes in on the green egg shrimp. I have seen green eggs in the fresh water red dwarf shrimp.

Ken

[Varanus]

I think Mustafa has mentioned in a older thread that green eggs are a known variation for the supershrimp.

[Ace]

Last night, I searched this forum and I did see that others here have had green eggs.

I am kind of excited. I got two more horned nerites today to cut down on the algae on the glass! What is not so exciting is that they are too big. :/

I finally have a better photo of the green eggs and I thought I would show a photo of the sphere.

[KenCotigirl]

Looking nice.

KenP

[Mustafa]

I think Mustafa has mentioned in a older thread that green eggs are a known variation for the supershrimp.

I saw developing green eggs on my white mutations. I don't think I have seen green eggs on red shrimp, but I may be wrong. I should probably pay more attention to it.

[Ace]

I had not seen Miss Green Eggs for a while and then I saw her a couple of days ago. She looked like she may have had less eggs. I saw a pale shrimp today with a single egg. I think Miss Green Eggs has lost her clutch. :/

[KenCotigirl]

That is a shame. It has b en said before the shrimps first clutch of eggs is sometimes lost. Keep us updated if you see more. I am quite interested.

KenP

[JennyPenny]

It's always a bummer when a shrimp drops all of her eggs. At least you know your tank is healthy, and I think you will have more berried shrimp soon.

[Ace]

Oh, no. There has been about a dozen or so shrimpies with eggs. Unfortunately, Miss Green Eggs, that last I saw only had one green egg left, is not the only one to have dropped eggs. After the flashbomb appearance of about 10 shrimp with eggs I noticed egg counts of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 and then there were a couple or so others with more eggs than I could count. What I see now are egg counts of 3, 5, and only a couple others with eggs and now there is Queen Zilla that has eggs three rows high and three rows wide. It would appear that most shrimp have dropped their eggs and that there are some others that are more recently carrying.

[Ace]

I am not happy with it at all. The water clouded and I couldn't see very well when I was putting it back together. Everything is off. The black tree coral was much larger than I expected it to be. I cut it into pieces so it would fit and I cut all of the bases as much as I could. I couldn't cut it down any further without losing the three dimensional quality that it has. Every single thing in there is going to have to be adjusted. It looks like a big mess. It's still a pretty mess but it doesn't look natural. As it is currently situated, it looks more decorated than natural. I killed three shrimp in this process and I don't want to disturb them anymore. On a more positive note, the shrimp seem to be attracted to the black tree coral. They seem to gravitate to that side of the sphere.

I'm also unhappy with the 9 gallon 16 inch size and want to go to perhaps 20 gallons. I've been thinking to speak with a glass blower since the largest bubble vase I can find is only 19 inches and has a large 10 or 11 inch opening at the top making it more bowl like and less sphere like.

One of the nerites I purchased was actually an olive Nerite. That was a mistake. I was rushed and saw the pretty shell. Ooops! There are currently 6 horned nerites and 1 olive. I should probably remove the olive nerite and I would still have too many horned nerites for this size sphere. There hasn't been much sunlight for a while and the algae growth is low for them.

There are a few shrimp with eggs at a moderate load and some others with small clutches. One appears to be a little loaded. There are no larvae yet.

The marimo seems to be doing well although a couple of the nerites and I did do some manual removal of hair or strand algae.

I think the Amano shrimp is a beneficial addition to the sphere as it does things a little differently than the Opae Ula. I have seen it excavating the sand numerous times and once I even saw it dig a trench. Grains that I feed are in the sphere for less time as the Amano shrimp polishes it off. I don't think it has done anything with the hair algae.

I purchased some small green Sputnik urchins to put in the sphere but honestly I'm not sure how I could use them without it looking decorated instead of natural. They are so pretty. I couldn't resist.

[Arquisto]

Thanks for the updates Ace!

Glad the Marimo are doing well. I'm hoping mine wont melt in the low salinity water but so far so good on my end too.
I assumed Amano shrimp had to be in freshwater and never considered them as tank mates... might be a good idea! I read that they may require a current though but it seems yours are doing well in a sphere without it.

[Ace]

Arquisto,

How long have you had your marimo in there and what is your salenity level?

If I had access to red nosed or Rudolf shrimp, I would put one of those in there for hair / thread algae control. Have a look at those. They are half the size of an Amano shrimp and The Fish Pimp says they are excellent for controlling hair/thread algae.