Takashi Amano feeding his Altum Angels

9000 litres, a school of Angel Altums T_T..my dream tank..at this point I'll be content with a 350L and a school of Angels. Well, what's life without dreams eh? ^_^

60L Shrimp Farm

As promised, here are a few photos of my 60L Shrimp Farm. Only using my olde Point & Shoot camera, no DSLR (no money to buy one ler... T_T ) . A bit color correction/brightness/contrast/sharpness correction with Photoshop (still need to learn more about this photoshoping thing really *_*)

RCS madness

Whoa, it has been some time since I posted anything. I've been hit with a some sort of "career crisis" up to a point I can't decide on a career path that I want. So much for working for a company that wants to do everything but achieves nothing. Well, maybe I'll rant about this later if I feel like it.

For now, following my previous post about Red Cherry Shrimps, I've started a species tank (RCS species of course) about 2 months ago to experience shrimp keeping myself. Tank specs are as follows:

Size: 2ft x 1ft x 1ft
Substrate: Shirui Sand + Gravel
Lighting: 36W Azoo 10,000K PLL
Filter: Hang on Back (HOB) 600L/h
Cooling: 2 x DIY 3" Fans
Hardscape: Bogwood
Flora: Singapore Moss (I think), Java Moss, Microsorum Pteropus "Windelov", Java Fern
Fauna: Red Cherry Shrimp
CO2: DIY 2L Yeast bottle + ceramic diffuser
Fertilization: Seachem Potassium + Micro (Cheap one I got from LFS) once a week.

I started off with 3 RCS. 1 Male and 2 Female. I originally had 10 RCS which was in my first 1.5ft tank. 7 of them died when I took down that tank and transfered to my nano tank. My guess is poor acclimatization. I used the same method as acclimatizing fish rather than the drip line method recommended by many shrimp keepers.

On the bright side, the 3 that survived started breeding within the first week they were inside their new home. Yeay!! I had them in the new tank the very first day it was setup. Since I used half of their old tank water and filter (HOB 250L/h), it cycled quickly. Also, I used inert substrate therefore no worries about substrate leaching excess ammonia into the water column.

As all shrimpkeepers said, RCS will breed like rabbits once they are comfortable and settled in. Within the first week 1 female was berried. About 4 weeks later she gave birth to ~20 shrimplets. The were so small (a few milimeters long) I hardly noticed them at all. Right after that another female was berried and just recently gave birth. I squinted and so far I've counted a dozen new shrimplets and the number just keep adding up. Now the first female that's berried is berried again!! This time I see a lot more eggs than her first pregnancy, and as of last night, I can see tiny black dots within the eggs. The eggs should be due in another week or two. Right now I'm feeding them a quarter of an algae wafer once a week. There's a lot of moss in the tank and recently the tank is getting some hair algae (unstable CO2 injection I presume) and staghorn algae. Manual removal seems to help a bit but the staghorn just keep coming back. Hair algae is under control however.

So, to recap, I started with 3 RCS. Within 1 month, its 20+ RCS, and at 2 months I have 30++ RCS. Might be even more!! The first batch has grown to about ~1cm length, while the second batch is still in its infancy, roughly 3-4mm each. Lots of moss in the tank, a dash of algae and cool water = happy shrimps.

I'll try to get some pics up this weekend, but its damn hard to get a decent pictures of those tiny guys. :D

Neocaridina heteropoda sp. red

Neocaridina heteropoda sp. red or Red Cheery Shrimp (RCS) is a common if not compulsory (next to Yamato Shrimp - Caridina japonica that is) fauna to be added in the planted tank. Some hobbyist even dedicate special tanks for these caridea.

RCS is easy fauna to keep in your planted tanks (plural since I know that most nature aquarium hobbyist have more that 1 tank haha) and from internet literature, quite easy to breed as well. RCS have no intermediate plankton stage, so they hatch as miniature version of the adults. I personally have no experience breeding this species since most of my RCS are juvinile although they are molting like crazy these few weeks.

Smaller than the Yamato shrimp, RCS grows to only about 1/2 inch, can tolerate wide range of water condition as long as it is not in the extremes. This is also true temperature-wise. Sexing this species is harder when they are in the early juvinile stage but after they grow a bit you can quickly identify the males and females. Females are full red in color with a distinct white/yellow/cream line running along their back ( the left one in the picture above). Males are smaller and have less coloration, stripes of red but if the conditions are ideal, they can be quite full as the females.

These hardy shrimps are widely used in new setups since one of their major diet is algae. Feasting on the brown diatoms that appears in new tanks as well as other various types of algae, RCS do also eat leftover fish food, provided they are not part of the menu, if you know what I'm saying ^_^.

I bought my first batch of RCS about a month ago (5 of them) and later on added 5 more. Since the addition, along with a Yamato and Otto in my tank, algae have been in check. My observation is that they are more active in groups, so get as much as you can. Hobbyists recommends that you get juviniles, not full adults when you buy from your LFS simply because they are young and acclimatizes better. With proper conditions, they will grow and mature in your tank. You wouldn't want to get an old shrimp today only for it to die tomorrow right?

A planted aquarium is recommended as a home for RCS because these guys tend to do better in moderately planted tanks rather than bare bottom tanks since they are scavengers. The more places they can crawl onto, the happier they are. Size of the aquarium doesn't really matter much as long as it has some space, a 1ft nano should small enough. I recommend a 2ft x 1ft x 1ft tho since the setup cost is almost the same as a 1ft nano but since there's more water volume, changes in the water condition is less drastic. As always, in this hobby, bigger is always better. So, go with a setup that you can afford.

Avoid mixing RCS with fishes that have mouth large enough to eat the shrimps if you want to keep the population numbers. Puffers and loaches are known culprits of RCS population demise. Most smaller fishes would not mind sharing the tank. If you wish to expand the population, it is worth the trouble of having them in their own tank and cover the filter inlet with filter sponge. The babies are so tiny the filter will suck them in and other fishes will snack on those poor babies. Other threats include ammonia, nitrite spikes and copper. Copper have been proven to be lethal to RCS and also higher amounts of other heavy metals. So, if you plan to keep RCS, dose them ferts in smaller amounts.

As for myself, right now its just happy sailing with my batch of RCS. Growing and maturing each day, I see molting almost every week in my 5 gal tank. Feeding them algae wafers and occasionally blanched cucumber. Hoping to get some breeding going on soon and probably introduce some more RCS from other sources to prevent in-breeding. I'm thinking about rescaping the tank (or get a new tank all together) since I got some plants leftover from my nano and my teenie tiny holding tank is getting crowded...well, "To the planning room Wonder Boy!!" ^_^

Puffin' away...

amidst of my own puffing,

I want a Dwarf-Puffer!!!

Black out

Did a quick water change to my 5g tank this evening and trimmed off algae infested leaves on the vallis, anubias and hairgrass. Scrapped off most of the GDA on the glass and left some at the back for the Ottos to suck on. There are a tad bit of GDA on the anubias but I decided to leave them for the Algae crew to snack on.

At this point I decided to do a semi-black out to the tank. The usual refers to covering the whole aquarium (front, back, sides & top) so that no light enters for a week or so. A semi-blackout I'm doing is switching off the lights and cover any areas that faces a window. Filter is at full flow to agitate the water (aeration), fan is on 24hrs, no CO2 supply and no fert dosing during the process. I'm gonna continue this for about a week and see how it turns out.

Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of my dad's lotus blooming

Aquaristic Adventure

I noticed that i haven't put up a single post in this blog for a good +/-2 months. Well, I've been busy. With what one may ask. Well, quite recently I've discovered the joy of slow life. What? slow life? WTF mate?

OK, let me clear this up. By slow life I mean "Aquascaping". Keeping an aquarium with a twist. I know most of us at some point had or have an aquarium. Stocked with some fish, goldfish being the popular choice although I never had goldfish in my "childhood" aquarium days. Its either Bettas (ikan laga) or ikan puyu (sorry, don't know the English name). Topped of with some white gravel, plastic plants and a puny filter. Water change each week by papa and overfeeding by the kids.

Well, those were the days. Growing up means learning new things right? Now here's something to learn. A LOT of learning really.

Aquascaping is an art form enjoyed by aquarium enthusiasts around the world. It entails arranging aquatic plants in an aesthetically-pleasing manner within an aquarium.

How I got hooked? Well, do a search on Takashi Amano, founder of Aqua Design Amano. Before you say WTF is this... checkout the gallery section at Malaysia's ADA website. I need not say more.

Only after buying all the stuff I realized that this hobby is, well, expensive. Not to mention ULTRA hard to master. It takes dedication, patience, knowledge and a shitload of reading to give you the least chance of obtaining zen in aquascaping. Take that for a challenge haha. So, after some deep thought, I decided to accept the challenge in a few phases. Namely, Growing, Problem Solving and Scaping. Here's a breakdown.

Growing: Here's the phase where I try to get a grip at growing aquatic plants. I don't have a green thumb so this phase will take some time.

Problem Solving: In this phase, solving common (and uncommon) problems in the planted aquarium. Plants health, water quality, algae, dying fish (gasps) and the sorts

Scaping: Now this is the fun part. Doing an aquascape. I haven't reach this part yet as I am still in the first 2 phases.

That being said, I grabbed my dad's full of gunk aquarium (algae, fish poop...nasty) and cleaned it up good. Procured a filter, substrate, proper lights, some plants and broad spectrum fertilizer. DIYed a CO2 reactor (fermentation method) and started planting. After a week, on 25 Mar 2008, voila...


Pathetic...haha. I got Vallisneria spiralis, Eleocharis sp. (not sure which variant of hairgrass) and Java Moss. No livestock yet at this point. Realizing that I had quite a low volume of plants, I added more...this is after 2 and a half weeks (10 Apr 2008)


Not much of an aquascape eh? Remember, I plan to take thigs in phases. Added in the tanks are Anubias nana, Hydrocotyle sp (found in longkang LOL) and a stem plant that I can't seem to ID from the databases on the net. Looks like a keladi type plant. Most of the hairgrass has sprouted submersed leaves and Vallis are growing wild. Since I got a bad case of brown diatom outbreak on the hairgrass and moss, I took out the moss and cleaned the hairgrass. I also added an algae crew - 1 Otocinlus, & 2 Caridina japonica (Yamato Shrimp). A week later 1 otto and 1 yamato died...I have no idea why. So, I added 1 more otto and decided to add 5 Neocaridina denticulata sinensis (Red cheery shrimps). This time acclimatized both species over 1 hour.

As of now, Algae outbreak!!! got a serious case of Green Dust Algae (GDA), spotted some Black Brush Algae (BBA) and Thread Algae. Time for Problem Solving phase... Good thing is, my RCS, Yamato and Ottos are active and happy.."Ottobots...mobilize!!" LOL