 |
| Fire |
 |
| Ice |
I figured I post up a photo of my Red/Blue Taiwan Bee for my followers to see as it's been a few days since my last post. The photo of the Blue Bolt is an old one and folks following me on forums might have already seen it, but Red Wine is a new photo taken today The photo might seem a bit rushed as it's nearing my bed time (the ZzzQuil is kicking in and I'm starting to fall asleep) so please excuse the poor photo.
With regards to the Stainless Steel Wire rack housing my dual 10G rimless tanks, the newly added tank is now in the second week of it's cycling process and everything is so far so good. Nitrate and Nitrite are both at 0 ppm while Ammonia is still at 2p2 ppm which is pretty amazing for anyone with experience cycling ADA AS. I predict within a week the ammonia will drop off and the tank will be safe to add plants and shrimps. I'm going overdose the tank with CO2 and ferts so I can grow a centerpiece for that tank and then once moss and other assorted plants grows in and then dial the CO2 back and flush the tank before adding shrimps.
I also spent the past week setting up 3x 10G tanks for the rack at my parent's home. The folks seems to be really getting into shrimping as my parents are always so curious about their behavior observed during feeding. I'm going to devote this weekend to finishing up the rack by finally settting up the remaining 3x 10G tank. Total tank count for the rack will be 8 tanks. It's going to be a busy week!
PS: A small sidenote for my readers. A question/pizzle for you -
Scenario: The shrimps inside my 8gal Red Taiwan Bee tank has been breeding proactively for months now, even into the onset of winter. Since adding shrimps to this tank, I've experienced a total of 4 clutch release (births I should say) from the Red Taiwan Bee mothers. Of these 4 releases, only the first and last (most current) batches have shown signs of babies surviving. Given that all else are the same, why is it take only the first and last batch of babies have survive. Parameters are kept EXACTLY the same. This means PH, GH, KH, and TDS are all kept within the same parameters. Procedures such as bi-monthly water changes and fert dosage are kept the same. First batch of babies released sometime near the ending of summer and the second/third batches of babies occurred during the onset of Fall.
Question: Why is it that only the first/last batch of babies have survived thus far? What could have happened during the second and third batches that would have caused babies to die?
Tip: Second batch of babies occurred during the end of fall and the third batch of babies occurred during onset of winter and while I was away in Japan.
Answer: TO-BE-REVEALED!!! On next post.
Prize: Hmmmm. I'll add a prize for those that can make the correct guess. Shrimp toys (those cool miniatures I have), shrimp foods, moss, or even live shrimp. I'll figure that out when the time nears, but it'll be awesome and fun. I promise!
As always, thank you for reading!!
Cheers.
Was the temperature also kept constant? Was there a sudden temperature change and you were not there to compensate?
ReplyDeleteTanks does have a heater which is working overtime during the winter but the tank's temperature is constant. You're heading in the right direction!
ReplyDeleteGive me a scenario if you can.
Was it due to an increase in evaporation from warming the living space in the cooler months? Wouldn't the parameters shift until you were able to top off with RO?
ReplyDeleteYou both are on the right track! Because the atmosphic temperature is cooling, the heater is working overtime (always on) and the difference between tank and atmosphic temperature is causing a doubling effect of evaporation. Fortunately, topoffs are done daily. Topoff, temp, and evaporation are all valid reasons and pointing you guys towards the right direction.
ReplyDeleteWhat are we missing? What is so special about the topoff?
Temp and/or ph of the topoff water? Topping of with unheated RO water would cause temp fluctuations until the heater is able to compensate for the difference in temperature. That is unless you keep the topoff water at the same temp as the tank water. This is interesting btw...
ReplyDeleteYou got it buddy! Well the both of you were super close to begin with.
ReplyDeleteBecause the temperature rapidly dropped during the on-set of winter... the heater was forced to always be on and work on overdrive. Due to the difference between the tank/air temperature, the water evaporation was much higher than normally would be but not high enough to cause the GH/TDS to swing to the extreme ends.
For an 8gal tank, I would need to topoff with 500mL of RODI water, daily, during the winter (250mL or less during the spring and summer). 500mL of topoff water during the winter is sufficient to drop 2-4 degrees F in an 8Gal, especially when the RODI is stored in water bottles kept on wooden floors where cold air is whisking down the temperature of the bottles of water. This sudden drop is sufficient to kill most newborns with relative ease. Worst off, I was topping off the water on my fissidens (area where newborns congregate) and thus greatly compacted the problem (I was topping off on the moss because I didn't want to disturb the substrate…)
In my attempt to mediate the problem and avoid disturbing my substrate, I inadvertently killed off 2 batches of newborns and immediately made my situation worst!
So… moral of the story and main point of this puzzle, there are a lot of unaccounted factors that can lead to sudden death and loss of shrimps. It’s not always… nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, food poison, copper, TDS, GH, KH, Ph and etc… We’re too quick to jump the gun and point the finger at the most recently thing we did and forget to analyze the situation to properly identify the problem. I bet not many would sit back and positively ID that topping off would be the main problem… definitely not if topping off is something you do on a regular basis…
Infamouz23 – Can you toss me an email at shrimpfan.us@gmail.com to provide address? I’ll send you a little present for participating and winning the puzzle.
Could you use a lid to solve this problem or do you already have one?
ReplyDeleteCould you use a lid to solve this problem or do you already have one?
ReplyDeleteThe tank is an open top rimless and with the way things are attached (light, filters, and heater) I would be hard pressed to make the lid idea work. My other tanks (non-rimless) do have lids to prevent/slow evaporation. Those tanks with the lid work wonders and helps reduce my topoff to just weekly.
ReplyDelete