Sulawesi Cardinal Survivor Count ... Six!!

After close to 2 weeks, the weaker ones (and disabled ones - some lost a few limbs/claws when I got them), have gone to shrimp heaven. Now left with 6 ... including the lonely cardinal that I had earlier before I got this batch.

It will be June soon and another batch of Sulawesi Cardinals will be added (this time imported from Indonesia) for better shrimplet survival ... hopefully.

No More Lonely Nights

As luck would have it, I did not have to wait until mid June for the Sulawesi Cardinals. :) A member in MAC (Malaysian Aquascaping Club) had some local-bred Sulawesi Cardinal shrimps for sale and I jumped on the opportunity ... and it arrived today!!! :) Let's see how these will survive the remaining journey in the Sulawesi tank ... no more lonely nights for the lonely Sulawesi Cardinal shrimp anymore.

Lonely Sulawesi Shrimp

Finally managed to "scavenge" one cardinal and one red gold-flake from Johnny (from his dying lot) but only to find that the red gold-flake bidding farewell 3 days later (after molting) ... sigh ... I guess, the tank may not be 100% ready for all Sulawesi shrimps but at least the sole surviving cardinal shrimp is still standing. Hopefully, this tank will at least be cardinal shrimp ready for the incoming shipment of cardinal shrimps mid June. Only time will tell ...

Sulawesi Shrimp Tank

Finally, after weeks of emotional "recovery", I've decided to give Sulawesi shrimps another try. This time, I'm going by the books i.e. setting up a dedicated tank for them with controlled water parameters.

I got a new 1ft glass tank, Shiruba XB-303 filter, DIY fan and an el-cheapo lamp for the setup. The substrate was laid with a scoop of Bacter-100 and covered with a layer of coral sand to increase the pH and alkalinity. The top is then covered with white sand and decorated with marble and lava rocks (with some moss tied) to give it a beautiful sandy look ... well, I did not have a place to put the moss tied of lava rocks and so I thought I'd just dump it in.

I also checked the water parameters for the past few days and it has been stable at pH 8.0 (did not get any test kit to check on the alkalinity but did an immediate pH check after a water change to ensure that there are no pH swings). The result was looking good and so I decided to do an acid test ... with a few green shrimps and a ramshorn snail. :)

Thankfully, the green shrimps and snail has been surviving for the past 2-3 days now indicating that the tank should be fairly stable. I've also added some Shirakura mineral powder to improve the mineral contents in the tank (heard from a friend (J-wing) that it could have helped his last Sulawesi Cardinal shrimp survive in his acidic planted tank).

Another Shrimp Mishap

Luck must be bad these days. Got a few bunches of water sprites yesterday and planted them in both cube tanks. Unfortunately, I think there must be some residue of some pesticide or fertilizer on the water sprites present without my knowledge.

I planted the water sprites at about 5.30pm and when I checked the tanks at about 8.45pm, quite a number of the RCS looked to be motionless with a bunch more struggling for life ... immediately whipped out a series of water changes in both tanks until they finally stabilize.

I woke up this morning to find that all but one of the CRS are dead with quite a few casualties on the RCS as well in both tanks. Thankfully, some still survived the ordeal and hopefully they will multiply in the future ... only time will tell.

Sulawesi Tragedy

Tragedy struck ... all Sulawesi Cardinal shrimps are gone. Time for proper research on how to keep these magnificent shrimps.