my initial setup for red cherries and wild snowballs

[seansd]

Thought I'd take advantage of my sister being a professional photographer and try to share some photos of my first shrimp setup.
10G aquarium for each species. I feed a shrimp pellet every 2-3 days, rest of the time they graze the java moss and filters. For water, I use tap from a PUR water filter on the faucet and seachem, adding no more than 2 litres of water any single day. I also add some fish flake food every couple weeks for variety. Temp kept at about 75-77F.

stand with tanks in west facing window for sunlight in afternoon
top tank with red cherries
bottom tank with wild snowballs

lessons learned:
1) don't use natural type river sand with brownish shrimp. I think I have 7 adults, at least the most I've seen at any one time. Very hard to see to count, and I don't want to stress them out by trying to catch them when the ones I do see are looking so healthy.
2) give yourself plenty of time to break in a tank. Original tank for wild snowballs sprang a leak day before they arrived, so had to set up a new tank the same day as delivery. Putting old filter in new tank, and new filter in old tank seemed to have worked to prevent nitrogen cycling problems.

The wild snowball eggs started hatching a few hours after these photos were taken, so I'll try to have some more pictures taken next weekend. I expect the 3rd generation of the red cherries to start hatching in 3 weeks or so.

Thank you Mustafa for providing this website. It has made getting into the invertebrate hobby a pleasure instead of a trying task.

[Shrimpmania]

HAha! Congrats . I find this forum very useful to keep up my hobby too.

*thumps up*!

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the pictures and your contribution sean! Looking forward to your next update.

[raptor83]

Nice pics seansd! Can I ask what you mean by 'natural type river sand'? I was thinking of buying some Caribsea 'Peace River' substrate for my shrimp tank, anybody know if this is any good? Heres a link to Caribseas page:-
http://www.carib-sea.com/pages/products ... shsub.html
Thanks

[seansd]

The shrimp are almost literally invisible unless moving. Using a darker or lighter shade of gravel would make them easier to see. This is another reason I'm not sure of the exact count of shrimp in the tank. When very active, they can easily move from one end of tank to the other without me noticing when I try to count them.

[frugalfish]

I almost always use a dark substrate in my fish and shrimp tanks. I like the stark contrast it provides especially if the animals are light or bright colored. Although I notice it more with fish than shrimp, a dark substrate can also have the affect of causing the inhabitants to intensify their colors.

[seansd]

or
Downside of having a Sister as a Professional Photographer

Sis's view on the shrimp photos from yesterday

I'm thinking she had too much camera fun on her visit.....