Just a few shots from around the tank. I got some decent snaps of the shrimp on the IAL (Indian Almond Leaf) as I mentioned before they love the stuff, get yourself some today. Mama to be still is not showing her face. Enjoy these other random pics from the tank.
Delicious Leaf nom nomin'
Look a tent! OEBT style
Speaking of noms this wood is delicious!
Just a little spec in the dark
What is that in the mirror?
No my berried blue tiger has not started hatching yet but I believe that my Mystery Snail eggs have begun to hatch. I am no expert on mystery snails but I don’t have any other snails in the tank and i wash all my plants well before they are put in the tank. The egg sack is also starting to show signs of hatching. Getting a photo was not easy because they are so small but I got 1. Hopefully I am correct and it is not some pest snail.
Update – They are probably Freshwater limpets, Acroloxus lacustris, a strange but harmless addition to the tank it seems, will keep you updated if that diagnosis changes.
Freshwater limpets, Acroloxus lacustris or possibly a very young - Mystery snail/apple snail baby.
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I highly recommend this Aquabid seller.
Based on temperature fluctuation and margin of error since it was first noticed, it is estimated we have about 5 days left. I am going to do a water change this weekend so when they arrive I wont have any need or desire to do another one for two or three weeks, right now the water is exceptionally clean and I expect it to stay that way though the hatching. I don’t want to add a breeder net to this tank because there is nothing to threaten the shrimp fry like in my community tank, where it is more important to keep the berried shrimp in the breeder nets.
As always I will keep you updated on the start of affairs.
OEBT on the edge
Hey are those free range OEBT eggs?
Nom Nom Nom, so tasty.
Seriously I am pretty sure my tank got Zerg rushed by the blue player today! I have never really been able to get a good photo of what the Mopani looks like first thing in the morning, that is until today when they decided to that they were going to hold their ground against. Enough of the Starcraft nerd-dom and back to the shrimp. I think today really captured how much my OEBT really like the Mopani and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is raising shrimp that prefer softer water and lower pH.
Obviously I have an infestation.
Seriously that piece of blue substrate stuck in the wood is so annoying.
I had not seen Prego in a while and was starting to get worried and then last night I noticed a molting of about the proper size hiding near one of my plants, so I think she was just hiding after she had molted. This morning she was up and about again as active as ever.
Berried OEBT after a molt (day 15)
Here she is again.
Man if I could only get the shrimp to have a little Superman Shield… Either way it took quite a bit of coaxing to get this shrimp out of the CO2 diffuser before he died of lack of O2. Personally I think he wanted to pretend he was SuperShrimp and get some alone time in his own personal Fortress of Solitude, or maybe he was being Emo, I don’t know. On a more serious note when I did find him, he was really lethargic and at first I tried just shaking the diffuser a bit hoping he would get himself out but he was barely moving. The solution was rather simple in that I just tilted the diffuser and once “fresh” water came in the shrimp quickly came back to life and go himself out. I have taken this device out until I can rig it to make this not happen again.
Here are some of the Shrimp around the tank, I have a particular fondness for the medium blue color of these two
I really like the appearance of the Medium Blue OEBTs.
I find that my shrimp are spending much of there time exploring the newly changed sponge filter, I am not sure why but they seem to like it more for the first few days it is in the tank and then are less interested in it after that. Because the filter is on the back of the tank, snapping photos is more difficult but here is one I got of an OEBT with one of the two Otocinclus in the tank, they also like the new Filters.
Oto and OEBT having a snack at the Filter Bar
My Berried Orange Eyed Blue Tiger is still healthy and happy and moving along the Mopani, which seems to be the favorite place for these shrimp to graze new filter or not. They also like to hide in the darker underside of the wood and they do blend in quite well. I think it makes them feel safer and more secure.
13 days berried and still doing well.
Berried OEBT Day 13
Berried OEBT on Mopani - Day 13
Speaking of the Mopani, here are a couple more shots of OEBT on the Mopani
Very Light Blue, On Mopani.
Very light Blue on Mopani
Finally a couple miscellaneous shots from around my tank
As you can see the tank and all the inhabitants are doing well.
It is the start of March and already the weather is becoming an issue. I was doing a water change today and my RO unit is hooked to the hose and by the time I had enough water in the bucket the water was already about 76 degrees. (all of this was done before 11am)
I had anticipated this so I had frozen a zip lock bad full of water before hand and added that to the bucket. It cooled the ~3 gallons of water down to about 68 before I dumped it into the tank. The tank water went from 72 degrees down to 70 degrees and the shrimp all seem happy.
She also ate some dirt. Okay so my shrimp are not talking to me, but I did see her picking through some sand. On a more serious note she seems fine after another tank temperature spike today while I was in the office. I need to go get both a timer for the new very bright very hot lighting system so it does not run mid day anymore, and some fans to keep the tank at a cooler temperature. The water got to ~82 degrees today, no deaths and everyone seems fine and with no real signs of stress and the water is back down to around 75. Going to do a water change tomorrow, and hoping all is well in the morning.
Got some new lighting today, it was far from perfect, it was fairly cheap on eBay, obviously made in China but the light output is really good. It came with no instructions and the mounts were not exactly intuitive and didn’t fit as well as I had hoped. But it does work much better than my previous setup. There are 4 bulbs and 2 can be turned on at a time to give me 2 or 4 watts per gallon 4 x 24W – T5 HO 6500k Fluorescent Lamp and 2 x Dual Bluemoon LEDs.
New Lighting
Berried Day 11 OEBT Female
The little lady was a bit less shy today and let me snap a couple photos as well.
Berried Day 11 OEBT Female
Berried Day 11 OEBT Female
Jason Wechsler
Orange Eyed Blue Tiger Shrimp Blog (OEBT) 