MiniShrimps

[minishrimps]

Very interesting color on that shrimp. Or lack of color. Are your shrimp from Mustafa? I have not kept good track but it seems a few people got unique shrimp color from him.

yep, from Mustafa, i actually just watched this shrimp molt on Friday night. Pretty cool to see...

[minishrimps]

Here are a few pics of some of my crabs and a shrimp...

oh, and i've seen two other molt sheds so far... that must be a good sign!

[Varanus]

Nice pics and lovely hermit. What's that bright, rounded object in the last two pics?

[minishrimps]

Nice pics and lovely hermit. What's that bright, rounded object in the last two pics?

That's actually two hermits, those are the two small ones. Both of those shells are under 3mm. The white thing is an empty Pipipi nerite shell, it was previously inhabited by one of the other crabs, didn't suit him so he left it there and picked up a variegated nerite shell, which I had the opportunity to witness.

[minishrimps]

Here are a couple more pics. First one is of the other two crabs...

Another of that shrimp...

I had a sweet pic of the two horned Nerites, but I can't find it...

[minishrimps]

Here is the Nerite photo...

[Mustafa]

Welcome to the shrimp world, MiniShrimps! Just started going through your thread...

1.017 is indeed slightly higher than what the site recommends for breeding at least, 1.011-1.012 is a good middle ground.

1.017 would have worked just fine too. These guys are highly adaptable.

[Mustafa]

My salinity is around 1.013, and I think 1.017 is too high. I think you should try to lower your salinity before adding your snails. Your plants will be fine.

You don't have to worry about the snails. They can take salinities up to twice ocean salinity actually. How do I know...well...forgetting a container with the snails in them for months (without a top, so the water was evaporating, increasing salinity) in the corner of my shrimp room provides "instant" experimental results.

[Mustafa]

Liquid test kit. I haven't seen any measured nitrate or nitrite in any of the tests i've run so far... is that odd?

Not at all..."life" in your tank is using up ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, so, yes...they can all be 0. They're all 0 in all of my Supershrimp tanks. At least with our test kits that can't measure tiny, tiny amounts. But we don't really need worry about such super tiny amounts anyway (except with ammonia..but in a cycled tank that's not a worry either).

[Mustafa]

Nope there's definitely 12 now! Wow! that was fast maybe I missed one when I put them in there? or is it conceivable that I would have a new snail so soon. All of them are at least 3mm at this point. Are there likely more in my tank i haven't seen yet?

I either put 12 in your bag or one of them hitchhiked on the macroalgae or mossball. Happens quite often.

[JennyPenny]

My salinity is around 1.013, and I think 1.017 is too high. I think you should try to lower your salinity before adding your snails. Your plants will be fine.

You don't have to worry about the snails. They can take salinities up to twice ocean salinity actually. How do I know...well...forgetting a container with the snails in them for months (without a top, so the water was evaporating, increasing salinity) in the corner of my shrimp room provides "instant" experimental results.

That's good to know, thank you!

[minishrimps]

Welcome to the shrimp world, MiniShrimps!

Thanks! I'm enjoying the shrimp world so far. Thanks for providing the knowledge, and the shrimp, and the macroalgae, and the algae ball, and the snails...

So, an update. I just off loaded two Hawaiian Left Handed Dwarf Hermits and two horned Nerites from my Shrimp tank which was holding them for a little while. Now my 2.5 gallon tank has three Horned Nerites, three crabs, ten shrimp, and I think there are still 3 Trumpet snails cruising around in there somewhere. They're all doing fine!

2 of the crabs are moving to join some friends in my 5.5 gallon tank this weekend but I'll update the other thread I have going about that one later...

1 crab which I have named Ol' One Eye, will stay in the shrimp tank. He lost one of his eyes (maybe during shipping) and also dropped his big claw most likely due to stress from the eye injury. I'm going to try to nurse him back to health. I've heard that sometimes claws regenerate, sometimes not. But now that the other 2 Hawaiian crabs are gone he seems a bit more active.

[minishrimps]

Do the Algae balls from Mustafa separate on their own into new balls?

The reason I ask is that mine has already grown considerably and I noticed it has a gap in the middle. Actually, if I was to split it along this little gap, it would result in two pieces. One piece would be 2/3 of the ball, about the size of the original ball I received and one piece about 1/3 of the size that would look like a little mini muffin top when separated. I kind of want to help the process along so I can have small piece in my small tank and keep the bigger piece in my larger tank. Anyone tried this?

If I do this will the resulting pieces grow/reform back into ball shapes? Can I gently reform them into little ball shape? BTW, my algae ball has stopped floating. I'm pretty sure it was becuase of the light change from LED to Fluorescent.

[Mustafa]

Do the Algae balls from Mustafa separate on their own into new balls?

They usually do. I have never separated one of those balls. They kinda just "bud" and the small piece grows into a larger ball.

[minishrimps]

Jut wanted to post an update... My Shrimp are doing great, I rarely see them since they hide in the cave until the light shuts off, but when they come out they are noticeably getting bigger. I have seen at least six or seven molted skins already. My three trumpet snails are also getting bigger and my three Horned Nerites are keeping that tank ultra clean. I'm a little nervous they are keeping it too clean. I feed the tank some Algae flakes the other day and the shrimp and snails went right for it, they were gone in about an hour. I'll try and post up some pics of my shrimp as soon as I can actually get some good shots of them. I have a few with some rather interesting coloration...