A new home for old shrimp

[skittymars]

When I transferred my shrimps I used the cap of a water bottle to scoop up 1 or 2 at a time. This way I was able to count how many I actually got. It took awhile since I had 80 of them. I would think something hard would work better than something like a net that flops easily and possibly get their antennas and tiny legs trapped.

[Rockhopper]

Thanks skittymars! I ended up using the finest mesh net I had. The trouble was the container I was transferring them from was super small and round too boot, making the whole process stressful for both me and the shrimp. The net kept getting snagged on the tiny lava rock gravel and pieces so I had to remove each individual stone with chopsticks Eventually I was able to scoop all three

The container from fukubonsai had a SG of 1.015, so I acclimated them to the lower SG over the course of 3 hrs. I added them before going to bed worried that the stress would killed them but they are all alive! Hard to photo them, but here's a few

[Varanus]

Good to hear. One thing the supershrimp have going for them is being brackish water animals. Such creatures are adapted to thrive in environments where salinity can change rapidly and unpredictably (and indeed one advantage is being able to eat things from other waters that die when exposed to such extremes). Back when I got mine I didn't even need to acclimate them. Just put them in the tank and they were fine.

[Mustafa]

Oh man, that looks so good. I see you mention that your moss balls, like marimos, are slow growing. It must take an extremely long time to reach an inventory of that size, so I can understand the price. Approximately how long does it take a ball to grow to budding size?

--The mossballs you get are already at budding size. They bud very quickly...i'm not sure what the minimum size for budding is, but even very small balls (way smaller that what's sold on this site) bud.

On a side note, I received your macro algae shipment (a nice addition to the tank). I removed the nerite and java moss a week ago and cloudiness disappear the next day. It has been ~3 weeks since I started cycling and still no sign of algae. I'll be patient but when should I consider adding in bacteria?

Not sure if I mentioned this but I added a small 3 watt light soon after setting up the bowl.

Don't add any bacteria. The bacteria won't do anything for algae growth. And trust me...you *will* get algae growth eventually.

[Mustafa]

I've been waiting for signs of green algae before transferring the shrimp but I've notice small brown patches on the the rocks. Is this an indication that the bowl has cycled?

--Two weeks late..but yes, your tank was ready back then and definitely ready now. Also, as Varanus said...no need for salinity acclimation when salinities are that close. The only thing I recommend when people get my shrimp is to temperature acclimate by floating the bag in the container or just letting it adjust to room temperature (assuming the tanks isn't heated and also at room temperature).