"Planted" supershrimp tank

A forum for discussing everything about the Supershrimp (Halocaridina rubra, Opae ula).

Moderator: Mustafa

Stalker
Shrimp
Shrimp
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:23 pm

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Stalker »

Mustafa
Founder
Founder
Posts: 6057
Joined: Fri May 28, 2004 2:13 pm
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Mustafa »

Awesome, congratulations! :) Also, can you provide an update on the surviving plants?
Stalker
Shrimp
Shrimp
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:23 pm

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Stalker »

Yes I can. I had a huge blue-green cyanobacteria bloom followed by a brown-red cyanobacteria bloom, again followed by the comming of millions of tiny forams who eat the cyanobacteria. I think my tank is at the edge of equilibrum and sadly most of my plants/algae died with the first bloom.

Pandan: I decided to move it back to fresh water, forgot to acclimate and the tree died the same day. It's sad because it's a rare house plant.

Marimo ball: some pieces survived the two algae blooms and are still green. I know blue algae produce a lot of chemicals blocking the growth of other vegetables so I dont know if it will grow again, I'm waiting.

1mm wide chaeto: during the algae bloom I took my chaeto ball into the trash. But somehow some cells have survived the disaster and are growing again

Red moss: it was completly destroyed during the blooms, but I still have some in fresh water to try again
Mustafa
Founder
Founder
Posts: 6057
Joined: Fri May 28, 2004 2:13 pm
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Mustafa »

Thanks for the update! Sorry to hear about the algae cyanobacteria blooms! They tend to happen when there's a lot of dying/decaying biomass. So some plants probably started decaying and caused the bloom which then killed the other plants.
Stalker
Shrimp
Shrimp
Posts: 166
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:23 pm

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Stalker »

A little update.

The cyanobacteria finally stopped growing after changing its color (and probably species) 3 times. Now I have a little filamentous alga growing everywhere along with the remaining black cyanobacteria. Brown dust, too thin to be diatoms (i'm shortsighted enough to recognise them with naked eyes) is growing on the glass. Green and bright red unicellular aglae are growing on the suface, the red one have an interesting behavior: it sink in the morning, coloring the water in red, then return to the surface at midday until the next morning. MTS, Mieniplotia scabra and Potamopyrgus antipodarum are breeding. The later is very prolific and help me to establish a real nutrient cycle i think since other animals in there are slow breeder and growers. Also the forams disapeared. No one in the tank is interested in any spiruline or shrimp food I put in there (the same snails are craving for spiruline in freshwater), but I still put some everytime Donald Trump say something intelligent. I have now 1.5 to 2 times more shrimps than I purchaised and the young one are crimson red! I began to acclimate some ornamental algae again (Marimo, Caloglossa, Compsopogon and now Thorea hispida). The tank is kind of dark because of the floating algae so it's difficult to make any exploitable picture.

BTW Mustafa, I still remember our deal but i'm waiting for a good weather, so I think you have to wait a season and a half ;)

On the microscope, the red motile alga is an euglenoïde, maybe Euglena rubra or sanguinea. The green, non motile alga is hydrophobic and is a colonial cyanobacteria producing fat to float, euglena may even be hunting on it. On the place where mold like cyanobacteria was growing some months ago, exist pieces of organic mats, probably the rest of a thick biofilm made of polysaccharids, but now it's free of cells. The diversity of cyanobacteria is huge, it's of all shapes, sizes and colors but almost no eukariot alga exept for euglena.
Mustafa
Founder
Founder
Posts: 6057
Joined: Fri May 28, 2004 2:13 pm
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: "Planted" supershrimp tank

Post by Mustafa »

Thanks for the extensive and detailed report! :) (And yes, I know you remember the deal. :) I'm in no rush anyway, so it'll happen when things warm up a bit).

Do you have any pictures of the Potamopyrgus antipodarum in your tank?
Post Reply