More Berried Sulawesi Cardinals

Looks like the cardinals shrimps got busy again ... spotted 2 berried cardinals 2 days ago. Hopefully, this time around they can hold the eggs until they hatch. Keeping my fingers crossed ... :)

Missing Sulawesi Shrimplets?

Unable to spot the shrimplets and the mommy shrimps appear to not be carrying the eggs anymore. I hope they hatched and are just hiding but it is just being hopeful I guess. It is strange that I did see the eggs for the past 2-3 weeks and it just disappeared a few days ago. It is strange and sad that the mommy cardinal shrimp would carry the eggs for weeks and then just decide to drop them when they are about to hatch??

Anyway, I hope they get berried again ... sigh ...

Sulawesi Shrimp Again?

After months of absence from the blogging arena, I've finally decided to return. Why? Well, the many past attempts on Sulawesi shrimps (namely cardinal shrimps) have failed. I was a little devastated to even contemplate trying again but an opportunity to get some cardinal shrimps from a local shop appeared and so I decided to try one last time ... yes, I know ... I've said this before and still tried again. I guess I'm a slow learner.

Well, I'm actually glad I did this time around as I finally saw a berried Sulawesi cardinal shrimp this morning (picture attached). Hopefully the mommy will not drop the eggs and I'll eventually be able to conquer this shrimp ... :)

A New Year ... A New Beginning

Finally, it is 2012 and my Sulawesi cardinal shrimps looks to be still scavenging healthily in their tank. I actually got 2 wild caught Sulawesi cardinal shrimps from a local fish shop on the last day of 2011 to add some variety to the genes in my Sulawesi tank. I counted 9 shrimps alive this morning (one died last week) where I should have had 11 (hopefully, the other 2 is hiding ... ).
Anyway, we got a albino full red guppy trio as well to help usher the new year mood (in a separate tank of course) and guess what ... the female dropped a litter of almost 30 frys the same day but decided to jump out of the tank this morning :(. Oh well, it looks like we'll still be having a RED Chinese New Year this year assuming the frys will grow up well in the tank ... :).

Sulawesi Shrimp Tank Update

Well, it has been almost 2 weeks since I got the cardinal shrimps and so far, they look to be doing fine in the tank. I've even seen some empty shells in the tank showing that at least they are able to molt properly. Hopefully, this time around they will survive and thrive in my tank. Here's one of my favorite picture with the cardinal shrimp picking on the yellow rabbit snail's shell. They seem to be living together well and so I guess adding rabbit snails into Sulawesi shrimp tanks does help to reduce stress in the shrimps.

Final Sulawesi Shrimp Tank Attempt

It has been a while since I've updated my blog mainly due to the multiple disappointment encountered in my aquatic adventure.  Firstly, all my previous Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimps died within a week of me acquiring them ... probably due to my own fault of not setting up the tank correctly. My 2ft tank is now semi-infested with hair algae and even my fishes in that tank is not doing particularly well. The CRS seems to be living fine in the tank but I'm down to my last female tiger endler. The tiger endlers multiplied pretty well before but for some unknown reason, they started contracting "ick" and dropped one-by-one.

Anyway, I've decided to give the Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimps a final try and setup a 1.5ft cube tank just for them. This time around, I'm using Holland sand as the substrate, ADA rocks and driftwood for hiding places and properly aerating the tank for 2 months before finally another batch (10 pcs) of the Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimps for a final try. The look to be settling in better this time around but I guess it is still too early to tell as it has only been 2 days. I guess time will tell ...

Finally .... 2ft Planted Tank!!!

Yep, I'm finally setting up my 2ft planted tank ... updates soon ...

Sulawesi Shrimps In The House!!!

Finally, the new batch of Sulawesi cardinal shrimps arrived and populated the tank. Beautiful little critters ... hopefully they will survive in my tank (fully cycled for >1 month) and bloom. :) They seem to be settling in pretty well, scouring for food all over the tank. I took the endlers out and left only a tiny red chest fry to keep the ecosystem in check. :) Pictures coming soon ...

Renewed Interest

Recently, I've also developed a renewed interest to endlers again after getting a pair of tiger endlers and red chest from a friend. Decided to house the tigers in the existing 1.5ft tank and the red chest temporarily in the Sulawesi shrimp tank. I hear keeping fishes in a shrimp tank helps it to cycle faster/better and develop the much needed bio film for the shrimps. I googled around and it appears that endlers can thrive pretty well in a variety of water conditions from acidic to alkaline. Much to my pleasure, the tiger endler female just gave birth to close to 20 frys 2 days ago. She was berried when I got them ... lucky me? :)

Also got a pair of Sulawesi snails as tank mates for the Sulawesi shrimps ... I can't wait until it is time to get the shrimps ... Also decided to add a little more scape into the Sulawesi tank ... it looked a little barren and miserable previously.

As you can clearly see, a trio of red chest is swimming in it ... a pair that I just recently got and the lonely male that was from my previous batch of red chest ...

Sulawesi Shrimp Fever Again

Finally, after some very long thought and effort, the Sulawesi shrimp tank is up again. This time, I made sure that there are no lava rocks in the tank (removes the possibility of the lava rocks leeching poison).  I used the same 1.5 ft tank but this time, it is filled with only coral sand and I'm using only reverse osmosis (RO) water to ensure that there are no other "poison" that could pollute the water. I plan to eventually raise the GH of the water with Shirakura minerals to the desired GH i.e. more than 6 ... need to get a GH test kit ...
Eagerly awaiting for the arrival of my pH and temperature meter that I've just bought from eBay. That will help to tell me if the tank has reached its desired pH i.e. more than 8. I'm planning to house only cardinal shrimps for the time being (and perhaps some Sulawesi rabbit snails). Also added a big piece of driftwood and some java ferns, mini pelia and plagiomnium affine to help add some greenery into the tank. How does it look? :)
Also, decided to re-scape my original 1.5ft cube tank. Got bored of the old look ...

I'm Back!!

After months of absence, I'm making a comeback to this blog and also to my hobby. I've been neglecting the tanks for a while and was busy with the house renovation and the house move until recently. Unfortunately (or fortunately), quite a few of my livestock (mostly shrimps and some fishes) did not survive the move and perhaps even the difference in the tap water. This actually gave me an excuse to start over so I re-scaped my 1.5ft tank and sold off the cube tank.
Suddenly, the spur of excitement for Sulawesi shrimps started resurfacing and so I'm in the process of setting up ... yes ... I'm trying again despite saying that I won't. This is going to be my LAST ... LAST ... LAST ... attempt on Sulawesi shrimps so wish me luck. Lots of learning to apply from the past mistakes and hopefully, it will be good this time ... only time will tell ...

A New Endler Saga

A few months after the female tiger endler died (leaving me with one sole male), I decided to give the male away to a friend (who only had female tiger endlers - could be hybrid with blue/red grass since they are kept together in his tank) in hopes that he will be able to repopulate the numbers.
Luckily, I managed to get a new trio of wild endlers (red chest - Class N) from a friend along with some boraras brigittae (very hard to find these days) 2.5 weeks ago. To my surprise, I saw two little endler frys zipping past the tank. It looks like the endlers have comfortably settled in their new home now ... I hope the continue to populate so that eventually, we'll have an army of these beautiful creatures ... :)

Downsizing

Planning to downsize my aquarium numbers to prepare for my move ... yes, temporarily decommissioning one more nano tank. I may end up selling the entire tank if there is anyone that wants it. Else, it should all be in preparation for the house moving ...

Sulawesi Adventure Ended

After months of trying, I finally decided to end my Sulawesi shrimp adventure ... why? Well, my last batch of 4 surviving (with one berried) cardinal shrimps just decided to move on ... sigh. I was so looking forward to seeing cardinal babies but unfortunately things just went downhill a few weeks after the cardinal got berried. The shrimps started dropping mysteriously one-by-one until none was left.

When I finally decided to decommission the Sulawesi tank, much to my dismay, I found a LAVA ROCK hidden deep within some of the other rocks tied with moss. I guess that last lava rock may be the one still quietly leeching some poison to kill the remaining shrimps ... sigh. Well, after so much investment (both time and money), I am just going to chill for a while ... keeping hopes of possibly trying again in the future ... when both time and money permits.

Finally, Berried Shrimps!!!

YES!!!! You read the title right. :) After months of trying, I finally spotted one berried Sulawesi shrimp. It has been a while since I last updated this blog and the reason was there was nothing much to update. :)

I almost gave up a month ago when I was down to my last Sulawesi shrimp due to the lava rock poisoning. Luckily, Johnny wanted to give up on his shrimping hobby and sold me his remaining 3 Sulawesi shrimps (since they did not reproduce even after more than 2 months in his tank) with a few CRS. Much to my surprise yesterday night, I saw my last surviving Sulawesi shrimp berried. I guess I must have a female shrimp and Johnny's shrimps are all male. One of the CRS was berried as well last week but dropped quite a few of her eggs ... I guess maybe because I did not have a chiller.

Hopefully, both the Sulawesi shrimp and CRS will give baby shrimps soon ... I'm so excited ... :)

Lava Rocks - Poisonous to Sulawesi Shrimps?

As luck would have it, my recent batch of Sulawesi shrimps started dying again after a few weeks. At first, they look to be quite stable but all of a sudden, they started dying again ... up to 2-3 shrimps a day. :( I was determined to save them this time.

I initially thought it was my water conditioner as I got the cheap water conditioner for all of my tanks. After changing the water conditioner to Tension Gon, the problem still persisted. Luckily, J-wing suggested that it could potentially be the lava rocks that I put into the tank as the lava rocks could be leeching some poisonous metals like copper or sulfur. Since I had nothing more to loose, I decided to remove all of the lava rocks and amazingly, the deaths stopped. However, it stopped a little too late as it already dealt a great blow to my Sulawesi shrimp population. I've also reduced the number of ramshorn snails in the tank so that the bio load remains low.

I've also since started to ensure that the top up water parameters is matching as closely to that of the tank. I've setup a bucket with coral chips in it and have the water in that bucket treated for 1 day with Mosura Shizhen before adding it into the tank to top up the evaporated water. It has been going well for the past few days now and I hope the situation continues to stay that way ...

New Sulawesi Shrimps Docked

Hooray!!! A new batch of Sulawesi shrimps arrived yesterday!!! This time around, I originally got 15 cardinal shrimps. However, 4 of the cardinals arrived dead in the bag when Ken (from Aquatic Paradise) delivered it to me. The seller was nice enough to offer a substitute for the dead shrimps ... Sulawesi harlequin shrimps. He gave me 3 harlequin shrimps (which is what he has left alive) and offered to refund me the money for the 1 shrimp ... thanks Ken!! :) However, after looking at it further, I think the 3 shrimps are not harlequins ... and a little googling revealed that they are actually Sulawesi Red Tigers (Caridina sp. Tigri) ... looks just as nice as harlequins.

When I got home yesterday, the shrimps do not look to be in good condition as they are not very active, losing color and I can even see some jumping frantically once in a while. Instead of the proper acclimatization techniques usually used to accustom new shrimps, I decided to dump them straight into my tank. Hopefully I made the right decision. FYI, I tested the water that the shrimps came in and its pH was over 8.8 (beyond what my test kit can measure) and that was what prompted me to act.

No dead bodies yet as of this morning but since I bought so many this time, I've lost count of the shrimps since they are all mixed up with the rest of the Brown Camo shrimps. Here's the count that I should be having (yes, some of the Brown Camo shrimps died :( ...):

Cardinal Shrimp (Caridina sp. "Cardinal"): 12
Brown Camo Shrimp (Caridina sp. "Matano Red Orchid"): 7
Red Tiger Shrimp (Caridina sp. Tigri): 3

Quitting Sulawesi Shrimps?

Should I quit on Sulawesi shrimps? That's the question that has been going on in my mind for a while ... but I managed to convince myself to not do it. In fact, an opportunity came up to acquire some new species (non-Cardinal shrimps) when a friend of mine (J-wing) wanted to get some from a seller in Johor. So I jumped on the band wagon and ordered 10 pieces of the Caridina sp. 'Matano Red Orchid' a.k.a. Brown Camo shrimp.

Sure enough, the shrimps arrived yesterday evening but there was only 9 pieces in the bag. :( I guess the seller may have miscounted when putting them in or one died and got eaten by the rest during the transit. I hope the seller will honor the 100% DOA guarantee (or in my case, a missing shrimp).

Anyway, I spent quite some time last night trying to acclimatize them in hopes that they will survive in my tank. I kind of guessed that one will not make it until morning (since it was already jumping in frenzy and turning pale) and I was right. So I'm now down to 8 pieces of this magnificent shrimp ... and hopefully they stay that way or multiply ... :)

Back to Square One ... :(

Just an update that I'm now down to my last cardinal shrimp (picture attached). :( Lesson learnt ... do not change the water in a shrimp tank unless necessary. Just top up water lost due to evaporation.

I'll be getting more cardinal shrimps soon when Aquatic Paradise (Ken) comes to Penang. Hopefully, this time around, I'll have a good chance to keep them alive and eventually breed them.

Currently also have plans to get a few pieces of another type of Sulawesi shrimp i.e. the Caridina sp. 'Brown Camo' or Caridina sp. 'Matano Red Orchid'. I hear that they are as hardy as the cardinal shrimps and so I may give it a try. Keeping my fingers crossed ... :)

Double Whammy!!

It is mid June now and still no new Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimps. Ken said that it will now be end of June or early July before the shipment arrives ... sigh ... and to make things worst, 3 out of the remaining 6 cardinal shrimps that I currently have died over the weekend after a water change. As far as I am aware, I did nothing different from the other water changes. But I did see 2 of my RCS in another tank dying as well and so this leads me to suspect it is either the water that I used that day, the Mosura Shizhen or the Shirakura Ebi-Chi that was added. Need to find out soon before the new batch arrives ... don't want to risk killing more.