Ecosphere rescue :)

[lewisart]

Hi all,

I suspect this isnt going to be anything you haven't already read before, and I promise I've scoured this site for the past 4 days trying to find some help
for the poor souls in my newly acquired ecoprison.

I only got this thing last Thursday - I'm fascinated by fish, although have never kept anything other than goldfish as a kid (but with quite decent success, I hasten to add) I truly didnt want just a desk ornament - I really loved the look of this thing and was taken in by all the blurb completely and can't forgive myself for what is happening to these poor little creatures. I realise you're all probably shaking your heads by now, but I'd really like to put things right - if I can, for the shrimps - one of which, has looked poorly from day after arrival and has stopped trying to feed and seems to have no balance at all. Looks to be a mature shrimp from what little knowledge I have gleaned so far. The others are all a reasonably reddish colour and are feeding & swimming.

I've got my shopping list together for a small 10 litre tank, plus water, plus marine reef salt granules for the brackish water etc - but havent ordered anything yet as I have no idea how hard these spheres are to open? I know a tank needs to be cycled first - so do I wait before opening the sphere?

Any help or advice you can give me would be much appreciated. It might be too late for the poorly guy I know. The thought of having to watch him die in there is upsetting the heck out of me I'm a lass and in UK by the way.

Thanks in advance.

[Mech]

buy your tank and your salt, id go with instant ocean and mix about half the amount of salt they suggest on the back with RO water from your fish shop.


Do you have a photo of the unit you have with shrimps in? im guessing its opening is in the base covered with a felt or sticker.. id SLOWLY turn the sphere upside down real gently so it all just slides around easy so you have access to the base and open it up. Id take a small amount of the water from it and put it in you new tank to help cycle it along mean while you sphere is open letting oxygen in and you can always drop some food in to them until you new tank has some algae growing in it and you can pour the echo sphere and shrimp into the main tank.

hope that helps.

[lewisart]

Hi Mech!

I'm guessing you are UK based as well? Thanks so much for the response. I've left the sphere upstairs all day today, out of direct sunlight, as advised. My studio is very cold at night, as its single brick so I'm opting for a small 10L tank to start with, with a little heater & Led light - so they can be in a more stable situation hopefully.

I'm going to attempt opening the sphere asap. I'd read somewhere that spirulina powder is a good food source in very tiny amounts - is this an idea to help my poor shrimp or should I just stick to tiny amount of flake food? I'll take some photos for you in the morning. Its a 'medium' sphere and there are 10 Opae resident - with one struggling quite badly as mentioned before.

Thanks again for your help - so sorry to be always questions!

[Mech]

Hey, yeah I'm in the UK too. If you google evivo do it your self video on YouTube it shows how to turn the glass ball and move all the substrate around from top to bottom without hurting the shrimps and you can do this in reverse to expose your base with the hole in it. The sooner you open it up for gas exchange the better really... It will be the same conditions in the open glass ball but just smaller then your new tank and then you don't have any rush to have the new tank setup and matured.

If you do feed them you want a minuscule amount of food. If you need any more help just ask. I also started off with a ecosphere but mine all died before I realised the error of my ways

[lewisart]

Well, I have to say, its nowhere near as easy as it looks on you tube...but they're finally free!

I dont know at this point, who's more traumatised - them or me. They're now in a goldfish bowl, with the fatality from overnight (before I
even tried to open the sphere) removed. I just can't think eco or not, why it would be anyone's idea of fun watching a tiny body decomposing.
I'm praying they'll all be ok - they certainly seemed to have more energy about them the minute the oxygen went into the seal hole.

I'll order a small tank & bits in the morning (It'll do to start me & them off with, I hope) I've got no food to give them yet, have kept the gorgonia &
algae in.

I need a lie down!

[KenCotigirl]

Hope you enjoy your lie down. Glad you found us and happy mech was able to help you. Keep your posts coming and add a picture.

[lewisart]

Hi Mech & KenCotigirl!

First up thank you SO much Mech for all your support this week. Its been so daunting for a complete novice like me to try to make amends to the ecoprisoners!

Tomorrow is going to be a VERY busy day - the lucky shrimplets have a new 30 ltr nano tank, some extra fine black gravel, an incredible fake tree stump kind of aquarium sculpture with great hidey holes, small box of Instant Ocean & RO water all arriving so I can with luck start cycling over the weekend.

They all look really well even in their old goldfish bowl and I've covered the top temporarily to help stop evaporation. Ok, so one thing that's puzzling me - is the algae situation for the tank. The Ecosphere had a thin cluster of it which they've got with them. Do I put a little of that in their new tank with the LED on - will they have enough to feed on in the bowl if so? Am so scared of overfeeding - we've got this far between us & I'm so attached to them already! Any help would be so so much appreciated...

Here's a pic of one of them showing the tiny strands of algae - sorry its not great quality!





This is their new bit of tank decor....

[Mech]

cool looking shrimp! If i were you id get the tank, fill it to the top with RO water from your local fish shop (they all sell it for about £2.50 for 25 liters) and mix in your instant ocean salt (50% of what the pack instructs) then switch the light on and leave it for a few weeks, if you water starts to evaporate out of the bowl you shrimps are in right now just top it up with some fresh RO only water. you can take out a few spoons of the old water and your bowl substrate and drop it in your tank to aid it (kick start).

The light from your tank will start the algae growing, id keep it on for at least 12 hours a day.

[KenCotigirl]

Your fake tree stump. Is it a resin material. Make sure clean and soak it well before placing it into tank. Interesting gravel. Your shrimp looks nice.

Ken

[lewisart]

Hi again guys

Ken - yes the tree stump is resin. I've washed and soaked overnight then rinsed in cold water, scrubbed with a clean toothbrush and rinsed with some RO water this morning then added to tank just now. Hope I've done it right. I rinsed all the Unipac fine gravel till clear too.

Mech - I've done as you kindly suggested - well the first part anyway! My tank with the stump holds 25 litres of RO (but that's not right up to the top - have left about 1.5" to compensate for any more small rock additions. I calculated the Instant Ocean needed would be 413g so have just tipped that in the tank now. Looks like its snowing in there!

I've not got the heater on as its warm in here during daytime, light is on, filter in situ but not plugged in as I thoughte its not to be used (didnt know if its used temp to help disperse salt) Do I leave salt to dissolve before adding some small strands of algae, substarte from the Ecosphere (have gently added a drop or two of RO this morning to help compensate for the bit lost during transfer - they didnt appreciate it at all - nice red went to transparent huff in seconds)

I'll take a photo of the tank so far when the snow globe effect has calmed down a bit! So pleased with it so far and so glad I'm on this road trying to help the shrimpos.

Thanks again for all your help Mech & Ken

[lewisart]

As its been just a little over 3 weeks since I opened my 'sphere, just thought I'd share my laptop desktop photo of one of my Opaes looking a fair bit more happy with life in the new tank (cycling going slow but good - thanks Mech for all your help!!) the tree branch is resin by the way -and you can probably just make out the tip of the gorgonia that they came with...

Lovely to see them swim free laps & enjoy living x

[Mech]

healthy looking shrimp good on ya for giving them a nice big tank to live in.

[Mustafa]

Thanks for the experience report. Let us know if anything different/exciting happens.