Cherry Shrimp Experiment

This is my little Cherry shrimp experiment!!

Primary objective is to test these Cherry shrimps' intelligence by allowing them to find the entrance to this crystal box filled with food inside!!

This is not an easy task for animals with stupid minds...to do the obvious!





The shrimps are apparently pretty smart!

My Tilapia Turns Black! Nice!

My friend Felix and I caught several Tilapia (a.k.a. Japanese Fish possibly a Oreochromis niloticus about one month back. I am not quite sure if it's the right name but at first all of them is silver Grey color in my fish tank.

Now, one of them turning in a stunning BLACK color with pink tail.


I read about the male Tilapia will turn black when they are going to mating!! So I may get babies! LOL I think my 2 feet tank is not big enough!!

Random Images of my Shrimp Tank!!

I am taking some photos for the previous experiment for getting rid of BBA but realize there are more beautiful scene in my shrimp tank...like the ones below!

Trying out new experiment to get rid of BBA (Black Bush Algae)

Currently I have a BBA (Black Bush Algae) problem for my 2 feet planted fish tank for about 2 weeks now.

I had previously ignored the problem but only to find out it had spread across my whole planted fish tank!!

This is the photos of my tank being infected with BBA.

It's dark red in color and very hairy like a bush. It reminded me of those red worms that usually sold as fish food.

However, they are not the favorite food for my fishes s they spread quickly to many parts of the fish tank!!



I had tried switching off my 55Watt lights for 3 days, over dosing of "EXCEL" and putting 5 SAE & 2 Yamato Shrimps with no major improvement....

Now I like to experiment with the BBA in my other shrimp tank which is filled with hundreds of cherry shrimps. Hahaha...I trimmed some of the infected plants from the planted fish tank and migrated to the shrimp tank.

This is day 1 of the test. 8th September 2008 12.52am


DAY 2 of the experiment



There are significant reduction of BBA algae however, more can be done by the shrimps as strands of the BBA still exist on the plant that can be totally remove. Decided to put it longer in the tank to see if the shrimps can remove them totally...clean.

Day 3 of the experiment!!




I can safely say that the cherry shrimps definitely can clean my BBA effectively but it's still not 100% clean up yet...hehe

My Cherry Shrimps MULTIPLIED!!! hahahahahaha

I had bought 1 month back about 20 cherry shrimps from local fish shops at Clementi (C238).

I done the following.

1. Transferred some "cycled" water from the other fish tank into a new tank.
2. Put in new water + few drops of "de-chlorine" solution
3. Put in 2 bags of blackish blue stones (look light blue when in water)
4. Put in 2 sponge air bubble filter (shrimp friendly)
   
5. Put in the Cherry Shrimps (Very hardy for this species)
6. Put some Taiwan Moss or ferns in
7. Put a 55 Watt lights on top
8. Put a overhead fan and on it 24/7
9. Put a digital aquarium thermometer inside and make it below 29 degree Celsius
   
10. Feed the cherry shrimps with "Japanese" label food found in C238 twice a day
11. If found moldy food, fish it out.
12. Wait for them to breed!!!
    

This is what I have right now!

RIP Lobster #7

One of my lobster had just died during his adventurous escape from the fish tank together with Mat Salamat while I was cleaning the tank. The lobster tank had lot's of uneaten food that had grown many white hair fungus around the left over hence needed to clean it totally.

Using a fish net, I had fished out almost a "tonne" of floating dead food that previously unseen to the naked eye. While I was "stirring" the net...Mat and Lobster #7 jumped out of the tank without me knowing and venture into the deep unknown of my living room.

After satisfied with my cleaning, I went to bath after a hard day work. My dad and aunt returned home shocked to see the biggest lobster "Mat" crawling in the kitchen!!! They say he had the "great escape" and promptly caught it and returned to the tank...however my lobster #7 is the smallest of them all was not noticed...by them.

I came out of the bathroom and went to the kitchen to deposit my dirty clothes only to feel a small squish below my leg...SHOCK!!!! Lobster #7!!!! It's flatten by me!! ARhhh!!! A feeling of yucky feeling spread with goosebumps spread through my body!!! ARHhhh...I went to the toilet and wash my leg throughly...only to come back to a pretty dead small lobster..on the ground.

Sadness and pity comes in waves...haiz. Not much of a sentimental type, I promptly put lobster #7 into the dustbin beside "ground zero" of his death place...haiz.

Now, I will have to really watch my cleaning regime and not let them escape again...the rest of the lobsters should still be inside hopefully.

Wooot...Some random photos on my Aquariums

This is my lobster trying to climb up the plants to escape the aquarium! He is not the only one doing that since his "band of brothers" are below cheering him on and they will be next in line to try to escape themselves! Haha

One of the biggest one I name "Mat" which is the famous terrorist that happened to had escaped and not found till now. The biggest lobster mat had escaped previously and terrorist my parents under the sofa.

The photo on the right is Mat fighting with his brother...they love to clash together sometimes but usually non-fatal. I heard they will fight furiously to win the position to mate with the female crayfish.

I don't know if there are any female crayfish "aka freshwater lobster" in the tank as they all look the same to me. Behind is their lovely accommodation of quality PVC and Active Carbon Bamboo Charcoal "tube Condominium" that they retreat in daily for their much needed rest from their daily "escape routine"

The left photo is my 10 cm Soon Hock (aka Oxyeleotris marmorata) and yes it's optical illusion to look bigger in the photo but in fact it's a baby soon hock.

The weird thing is this baby guppy is so daring to park itself below this fish killer (Soon Hock eat small fishes and anything that can fit into it's mouth)...I guess this soon hock had just eaten too many small fishes to fit in more food....haha. It's almost amazing to see them sneak up on these small fishes and GULP!!! No more small fish! Left only a horrifying memory of a swallowed fish...once happily swimming innocently around the tank. Do not put your prize fishes with Soon Hock or it will be the only fish remaining in the end.

It can be Only One...(Highlander music playing loudly)

My Planted Aquarium Tank!

I had recently did a upgrade to my fish tank by adding more plants and supplying the tank with Carbon Dioxide (CO2) via a CO2 tank bought from Clementi fish shop (LFS).

The small internal tank is actually a breeding tank for my newly acquired pregnant freshwater shrimp and it will give birth hopefully soon! It's exciting to see shrimp giving birth and this is a much bigger shrimp! (Almost like a prawn!)

You can see that green unfertilized eggs under it's belly now. They look greenish now :)

I have another aquarium that holds little "Soon Hock" and baby freshwater lobster, they are a fun to watch when I feed them with sea-monkey (Brine Shrimps) or feeder fishes.

That's all for today!! :)

Introduction To My Shrimp Tank!! :)

This is a video introduction to my humble newbie shrimp tank! Hope you like it!!

"Mat Salamat" Lobster Escaped My Aqurium 2 times!

Yes, I have 4 lobsters that I had caught at Little Guilin yesterday afternoon and one of them is nickname "Mat Salamat" the escape artist.

The first time it escaped is when I switch off the 55 Watts lights to the aquarium and I heard a "thud" sound under the table while I am there...and I bend down to see it crawling slowly to freedom...haha..quickly picked it up with my net and put it back to the aquarium.

Not knowing it's characteristic I didn't secure the top of the tank until later in the night just now...I went to inspect the tank and sure enough it's no longer inside.

I searched high and low for the lobster and eventually found it resting under my sofa!!How on earth? Ok, this time round I promptly covered the tank with a 2 feet glass and some orange translucent sheets that I had bought previously to prevent wild fishes from jumping out of the tank.

Two heavy object also placed on top of it and keeping my finger crossed...it will not jump out again. After researching online, I found out that they are famous escape artist and attack fishes at night when they sleep as well...gosh.. I think I need to take it out and put in a pail of water or something...sucks.

I hope the fishes can survive tonight...without being crawled to death in their sleep otherwise that lobster is going to see the frying pan tomorrow!! Hot Spicy Chili lobster anyone??!!

Ok, looks like I need another tank dedicated for it to roam and enjoy itself without hurting other fishes... not sure if lobster can breed... but the color is pretty nice. I will try to upload photos tomorrow....if I got time.

Now I can only pray hard....nothing will happen to my fishes now sleeping with the predator...name "salamat"This is My Naughty "Mat Salamat" That escaped twice in a day!!

My Cherry Red Shrimp is giving birth!!

The video is fresh from the oven and hope youtube can show it clearly. I caught my shrimp giving birth in the breeding tank yesterday night (early morning) and captured the kodak moment with my PsP camera armed together with a magnifying glass.

I am so proud of my cherry red shrimps!! They are fast breeders!! I have a total of 6 pregnant shrimps in the breeding tank and all are giving me shrimp babies!!

Hopefully all of them can survive long enough to grow up...they had a rough start when I found 4 shrimp babies trapped in my air bubble filter!! I rushed to clementi fish shop and bought the breeder tank and rushed back to rescue these baby shrimps from my bubble filter medium and put them securely in the breeding tank!!

Now, I am a happy owner of 40+++ baby cherry red shrimps!! yay!!

Fish Trap To Aquarium

I had went fish trapping again last Saturday and I caught a hell lot of small fishes!!! I am not really sure if they are all the same type of fish which the website I found look exactly like a common molly.

Here's my fishes in my new aquarium!




Here's the Common Molly photo from the website on fresh water guide :)




Now My fishes are swimming wildly in my new 2 feet aquarium tank that I just bought on Sunday. I am still figuring out how to raise these fishes as the bread I had given them made the water all milky almost immediately and the fish food seem to be too big for them to "bite".

Anyone got experience on fresh water fish feeding? What is the best fish food for these fishes that does not "dirty the aquarium too quickly? :)