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 ...