Absolute beginner - Some concerns

[Super Jess]

If any pets can survive a shutdown, it's these shrimp. Thank goodness they thrive on benign neglect!

[roygbiv]

I still haven't set foot in the office (where my shrimp live) since March 18, but a co-worker went in on Wednesday, and sent me a couple of pictures of the tanks.

The good thing is that I could see the algae hasn't grown or shrunk too much, which suggests that things are in balance, and the lamp (on a timer) still works.

The bad news is that she didn't get close enough for me to make out much detail, although I'm pretty sure I could make out at least two little shrimp in the larger tank.

I did notice that the evaporation had brought the water level down by about 10% in each tank, so I asked her to refill them (with distilled water I have in the office).

The third tank, that just has two nerite snails, was really low on water, and she topped it off. I expected that they were both long dead from starvation, but the second round of photos showed that at least one of them was still moving around the tank. There's a small LED light aimed directly into that tank 24/7, so it must be keeping some biofilm growing enough to support at least one snail.

I was going to get a car and drive myself in tomorrow, but I decided to put that off for a week, so I'll share photos of what's going on next week.

[roygbiv]

So after nearly five months away from my office, I finally made it in today to pick up some personal items.

I found that someone had switched off the power strip that my timer+lamp was plugged into! I have to assume it was the IT guy who dropped off a headset on Friday for me to pick up today. If it had been off much longer, I don't think things would be going as well as they seem to be, because that office is almost completely dark (no windows).

First thing I saw was that the larger tank (~3/4 gallon) is FULL of new shrimp! I started with the 10 I ordered here, and when I left, back in March, there were two berried females. There are now dozens of shrimp just swimming around like crazy, all sizes. It was shocking to see so much activity after months of seeing only one or two shrimp swimming around at any given time. There was also clear evidence of new snails.

Next I took a look in the smaller tank, which held the four rescuees from the Ecosphere. For some reason, I didn't take the time to make sure all four had survived. I know that at least two were alive in there, but there were many small snails all over the place, which I take as a good sign. I was just trying to do too many things at once, or I would have verified that all four shrimp where alive.

Then there was the smaller tank with the two nerite snails. They somehow managed to survive all this time, even though the LED light that I left shining into their tank was no longer on (either burned out or the power to that docking station was also turned off). My friend, who topped up all the tanks a few weeks ago, left the top off this little tank, and it was already down to about 2/3 full. I topped it off again, dropped in an tiny speck of shrimp pellet, moved it under the timer light, and put the lid back on to slow evaporation.

I also put up a sign asking people to not unplug the timer/light or my shrimp will starve.

Here's a video of all the activity going on: https://youtu.be/RwkMPwciIWo

I'm going to be out of the country until late November, so these guys will have another long period without any interruption.
I checked the ammonia levels on all three tanks, and all look good.
I considered moving these tanks to my house, but as long as the light works, they have a steadier temperature in the office.
I can ask members of our "essential" team to check in on them every once in a while to make sure the lamp is still working. I don't anticipate evaporation being an issue again before I get back (they went four months before getting a top up).

[Varanus]

It certainly is a interesting unintentional experiment to be able to leave the shrimp alone for so long and see what has changed.