Another ecosphere liberation attempt

[BrizzleShrimp]

Hi everybody,

First of all many thanks to all of you who have contributed to this forum, it's been a great help!

Two days ago I got a small Ecosphere with around 13 shrimp as a birthday present (15 cm / 6 inch in diameter, probably around 1 litre = 0.2 gallons of water inside). The sphere was made by a German company, not sure what their link is to the US original.

I googled the shrimp and luckily found this site in the process. So I slowly turned the sphere upside down (supported underneath by a small bowl so it won't roll), popped the seal open with a screwdriver and then removed it. So that's air taken care of!

I've ordered the API saltwater test kit, a refractometer, ocean salt, and of course a larger aquarium (around 10 litres = 2 gallons). They haven't arrived yet.

My main concern is that the sphere probably hasn't been cycled yet. It just looks too pristine - no shrimp poop among the white sand granules on day 1 (there is some now on day 3), only three or four separate strands of hair algae (about an inch and a half each on day one), and not a single patch of algae anywhere. So I fear an ammonia/nitrite spike at some point over the next several weeks. I hope that at least the gorgonia was taken from a cycled tank!

The hair algae appears to have grown (more than quadrupled in mass over two days?), and there are now two small clumps that definitely weren't there on day 1. So I'm guessing there's nitrate in the tank. The question is whether this was produced by the ecosystem or whether it was put there by the ecosphere people to prime the algae.

That said the shrimp all look fairly happy for now. About two or three are white and fairly transparent, but the rest are various shades of pink and there are now even several bright red ones, especially the smaller ones. They have become noticeably more colourful over the two days I've had them. The bigger ones are around 1cm long, the smaller ones are probably half that. They mostly swim around the perimeter of the sphere, graze on the gorgonia twigs or feed/rest on the bottom. During the day they seem to really like the shade provided by the bowl! (See further down for lighting.)

I couldn't resist and on day 2 I fed them one crumb of goldfish food around 1mm across, ground into a fine dust. This was probably a bad idea on several levels. Much of it stayed on the surface where the shrimp had a hard time accessing it, although after a while they did figure out a way of swimming upside down along the surface. It definitely took them more than two hours to consume the bulk of it, but it was virtually impossible to fish out the remainders. I am also concerned that the portion that did manage to sink then promptly fell into the gaps in the substrate, where it is inaccessible to the shrimp and will now slowly decompose... which won't help with the ammonia spike!

I'm certainly done feeding for the next two weeks, it was quite a nerve-racking experience. I am thinking of trying Harry's boiled spinach leaf next (or rather 1/5 of a leaf, just to be on the safe side), with the proviso that I will fish it out after a couple of hours.

Not sure how to proceed once the new aquarium and reef salt arrive -- any suggestions? I guess I will take the ammonia and nitrite readings and will decide based on how bad the water is.

I've tried ordering some of the macroalgae + snails from Mustafa's store, but it looks like he doesn't ship to Europe (I live in Bristol, England). I was going to use the snails + macroalgae to help cycle the new tank, and also to put some of the macroalgae inside the ecosphere. But unless there is someone in Europe who could help me out, I guess I'll just have to let nature run its course...

One last question: I'm not planning to use any artificial lights. I see that lights are highly recommended, which makes sense for a shrimp that comes from Hawaii. But my idea is to have the tank on our dining room table (where the ecosphere currently is). The room is a combined kitchen/dining room/living room and faces north, so receives no direct sunlight. It *is* quite dark, but it is also the room where we spend the most time and the lights are on the most in the evenings.

Well that's more than enough for now. I hope I will resist the temptation to interfere with the sphere until the test kit arrives!

Cheers,

Martin

[below_radar_00]

Welcome to the forums!

I am by no means the authority on all things Supershrimp...I'm relatively a newbie myself BUT I have owned four Ecospheres myself and I've freed all four so I can tell you a little bit about my experiences.

I tested the water in my Ecospheres, at least three of them if not all, when I set them free because I was curious about the conditions. My spheres were all no more than a few months old and the conditions were actually pretty good according to the test. Not everything was a perfect 0 but it was close. I imagine the longer the sphere sits, the worse things get but mine was in good shape. I did lose a good bit of my shrimp population before setting them free but I think it has more to do with them not getting any oxygen. I actually used the Ecosphere water in all my tank setups. I set up a one gallon in my living room, a one gallon in my office, and a one gallon at my parents house as a Christmas gift. I haven't seen a single shrimp die since I did that back in January. Basically, I think that you just opening up that container will make all the difference. They might could live like that permanently but obviously giving them more room means they might breed. I read that they typically breed in around a gallon or more sized tank.

I can tell you from my experience that these guys are virtually indestructible. You should check out these two threads I started:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5221
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5326

The first thread deals with my Ecosphere journey and the second is an update when I found my first berried shrimp. Those two threads (especially the second) will give you an idea of how hardy these shrimp are.

As far as light goes, my living room tank only gets natural light and it seems to be doing good. It's a little dirty in there but seems healthy. I suspect that one may get too much light or maybe I overfed those guys or something. My office tank has a light on top that I used to turn on all the time but I don't do that as often anymore. It's in a room with one window. It's a VERY healthy tank. That's the tank that's breeding like crazy. It's more than doubled in size from breeding since Jan. It's very clean compared to the other tank. It really blows my mind how well this office tank is doing considering the back story on it which you can read about in that second thread above. So I think you'll want some light but you probably don't want to set it in a sunroom or something.

I'm sure the consensus here would be to cycle your new tank before dumping the Ecosphere shrimp in. I can tell you from my experience that if you get into an emergency situation (shrimp are dying in the Ecosphere) that it's probably okay to put them in the uncycled tank. Again, see my second thread. I don't think that's the recommended way here but at did work for me. Other members could chime in on their experience. Maybe I just got lucky with mine? But I really think your shrimp will be fine while the tank cycles. You could have probably left the sphere sealed for a good month or so before any shrimp died. So with the seal off you'll be fine I think.

Again...I'm not the authority on this stuff...just about every other member on this site will know more than me so I'm just speaking from my own personal experience. So hopefully some other members will chime in but I think what you are doing is perfect. You'll have to let us know how the salinity, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels are. My guess is they are all spot on or thereabout since that sphere is so new.