Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a while and decided to post again. I just wanted to share my joy about being bitten by the shrimp bug.
I have a Eclipse 12 gallon shrimp-only tank. I have live plants and a Hagen CO2 bubbler. My tank has sand and a few aquarium pebbles as the substrate. I purchased a few resin rocks after reading experiences of others that had used large rocks for decor. I also placed a cuttlebone on top of my filterpad inside my filter. I ended up having to use a filter media bag to cover the intake of my filter since I ordered the wrong size sponge one (be sure to have this tightly tied around your filter intake since new shrimp are really small). I also have numerous test kits for copper, ph, etc.
I never knew how long it took an aquarium to cycle. (ohhh, the poor fish that sacrificed their lives to have an aquarium when I was a child). It took a little over a month to get things in order. I used ammonia and an old filter my sis-in-law let me have from her aquarium to get things moving. I assume having live plants may have helped too.
Once I was certain the water parameters were in the range for shrimp, I ordered my shrimp. Mustafa, thank you for how well the shrimp were packed! My only mistake was letting the poor kids sit inside the bag to acclimate them to the temp of my tank (hey, at least that is what we used to do YEARS ago when we had fish). I carefully opened the bag to allow some of my water to mix with the shrimp and then read that I was NOT supposed to float the breathable bag in the tank. Oooops.
The shrimp were soooo tiny. I was afraid they would get sucked through the media bag. I now see why Mustafa ships them so small. They grow quickly. I believe all my shrimp are still alive. I have six males and four very pregnant females now. We watched as all of the shrimp have gotten more coloring on them. I am hoping the more colored males have bred with my more red females to make future super red babies.
I can sit for hours and watch the males swim and move around the aquarium. They remind me of some of the deep water creatures from the movie "The Abyss". I enjoy watching them forage for food. Their antennae are so long. The females have been spending most of their time hidden away in the plants. They will come out when I put food in the tank (which I do very sparingly). I like watching the females move the eggs around on their undersides. I guess I never really realized all the behaviors shrimp have.
I really love the beauty of my tank and watching these tiny creatures thrive. I just have to get over the "when are you going to have us over for dinner" jokes that many people tend to make when you tell them you have pet shrimp. I also look forward to having babies sometime in the near future.
My New Experiences With Red Cherry Shrimp
Moderator: Mustafa
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GunmetalBlue
- Shrimpoholic
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 11:10 am
- Location: CA
Hi Mctwo - glad you shared your joys of being bitten by the shrimp bug - that was really nice! 
I think you were the one who inquired about the Biorbe and its pros and cons (mostly cons). Good to hear you have a nice roomy 12 gallon instead. You'll need it with 4 pregnant females ready to pop. Believe it or not, it gets better. It is even more of a joy to watch a large group of your very own home-bred shrimplets, busily going about their business and watching them grow.
Tell me about watching them for hours. I get so behind on everything because once I look, I end up staying too long to watch. We have a joke about the shrimp minute being like the football minute. When I say, "I'll be back in a minute, I need to go check on the shrimp..." Well you know the rest of the story.
I'm fascinated by their "picking" arms. When they're near the glass, I use an Agfa loop or magnifying glass to watch, and their pincher claws remind me of sock puppets. And it's amazing how quickly and tirelessly they turn their arms over and over, rotating the sand around, sometimes digging a tiny hole.
-GB
I think you were the one who inquired about the Biorbe and its pros and cons (mostly cons). Good to hear you have a nice roomy 12 gallon instead. You'll need it with 4 pregnant females ready to pop. Believe it or not, it gets better. It is even more of a joy to watch a large group of your very own home-bred shrimplets, busily going about their business and watching them grow.
Tell me about watching them for hours. I get so behind on everything because once I look, I end up staying too long to watch. We have a joke about the shrimp minute being like the football minute. When I say, "I'll be back in a minute, I need to go check on the shrimp..." Well you know the rest of the story.
I'm fascinated by their "picking" arms. When they're near the glass, I use an Agfa loop or magnifying glass to watch, and their pincher claws remind me of sock puppets. And it's amazing how quickly and tirelessly they turn their arms over and over, rotating the sand around, sometimes digging a tiny hole.
Lol. Over here, having been a dwarf hamster fanatic, the people I knew from that say, "What's WITH shrimp? how do you cuddle and hold and koochii koochii kooo a shrimp?"mctwo wrote:I just have to get over the "when are you going to have us over for dinner" jokes that many people tend to make when you tell them you have pet shrimp."
-GB