We Made The Crossing
Now we've crossed the bridge, we're in clear water again!
I had fun with the botanicals and the oddities that came with this tank but I'm a plant guy at heart and wanted them back! Not only was it very difficult to see the shrimp, the botanical setup was reminding me too much of autumn/winter when spring is just on the horizon. I wanted something brighter, open and fresh.
One of the main reasons I got Cardina shrimp was to see them breed, and I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't breed in this tank. Was it the temperatures? I added a heater and no dice. Feeding? I fed them more often. Nada. Lighting? I exposed them to more sunlight and LED. Nothing. Water parameters? Even when I got to target levels, no babies.
I sat and thought about what was different about the last tank they were in that caused them to breed. If anything the last tank had very little water volume, unstable temperatures, erratic feeding, at times unknown water parameters. But what it did have is aquasoil (a lot of it), and I think that was buffering the water to the ideal parameters for breeding. So I've gone back to that in hopes they'll start again.
I've kept the hardscape as I deliberately made it one solid piece that could be removed easily. I will resurrect it soon. I've gone for an iwagumi layout which is not usually my vibe at all, but recently I've had the urge to do it so I knew that was the right time. I picked up some lovely Ice Age rock at Riverwood Aquatics with
@shangman and made a simple layout. Nothing crazy, no contest level aquascaping, just something that ticks my boxes. I love the crystal confirmations in the crevices and the character of these pieces rivals any good Frodo or Elderly stone. I believe the Ice Age stone is quartz and won't have any affect on the water.
I'm going for low energy, so I'm using a carpet of Monte Carlo as it's one of the easiest to do without CO2. There's no way I'd only do a single plant species though, it would just go against everything I believe in! 😅 So along the crevices I'll plant some Cryptocoryne parva, Litorella uniflora, Anubias barteri 'Mini Coin' and Susswassertang. In the back I'll plant Cryptocoryne albida brown, Microsorum 'Mini' (unidentified) and I'd like something that resembles albida brown but is green. I can't seem to find anything with the same leaf thickness. I think the challenge will be balancing the higher light needs of the Monte Carlo with the lower light needs of everything else and I wonder if I can counter this with a fast grower... maybe just a few floaters initially.
The shrimp are chilling out in a bucket with the filter and heater until parameters are more stable again.
