Hi, still relatively new to shrimp. Please bear with the backstory so I can explain the question:
I started by adding some neocaridina to a small tank (25L PAH) which, with a marina box on the back for the female, I have used for a while for livebearer newborns. I've moved them on to a grow-out tank after a couple of weeks. I now realise I've not been moving them on soon enough, since a couple of weeks with the tank empty of young livebearers has seen a massive increase in shrimplet survival. The tank has a sponge filter, I keep TDS around 200 - 250, but this isn't a question about parameters or filtration; it's about managing the routine maintenance.
Surface has duckweed, red-root floater and occasional trimmings from other tanks. It gives a nice level of shade / light diffusion, fry and shrimplets like to hang out in the roots. The odd bit of wood, banana leaf. Sand / gravel substrate a bit gungy, full of snails. I cull the snails and lift the worst of the mulm with a dip tube every now and then as a kind of late night zen thing.
Given how well the shrimp are doing, I'll either stop using it for livebearer newborns, or shift them on to the growout quicker. (I keep the two stage thing for young fry, with a first cull / selection before moving them into the larger growout - that means leaving them in the first tank long enough to make a judgment on colour etc.)
Problem is cleaning & water changes. The floating stuff makes it hard to do that without picking up the odd shrimplet. If I want to thin out the duckweed / rrf, same problem. I'm wary of using the dip tube because it's so hard to make out young shrimplets, who seem most attracted to the gungiest substrate. I'm reduced to clumsy guddling between small jugs of mixed duckweed, substrate and snails, plus a couple of shrimplets, trying to decant rubbish without losing shrimplets.
Any ideas on managing this? Ditch the duckweed (will take forever!) and go for a chunkier floater (Limnobium?) .. rely on the shrimplets to get themselves out of the way if I'm simply thinning out duckweed? .. accept the odd shrimplet loss? Refine my method for decanting shrimplets from changed water / skimmed duckweed? I'm reluctant to lose the duckweed as it works so well in every respect apart from physical management. In any case, how do people do even minimal water changes in tanks with shrimplets without catching them in the process? Any specific version of the various syphon / gravel cleaner / water changer thingies particularly good for small tanks? Dennerle nano?
Couple of pics of the tank. Going for a bit of an Alexander Williamson vibe.
I started by adding some neocaridina to a small tank (25L PAH) which, with a marina box on the back for the female, I have used for a while for livebearer newborns. I've moved them on to a grow-out tank after a couple of weeks. I now realise I've not been moving them on soon enough, since a couple of weeks with the tank empty of young livebearers has seen a massive increase in shrimplet survival. The tank has a sponge filter, I keep TDS around 200 - 250, but this isn't a question about parameters or filtration; it's about managing the routine maintenance.
Surface has duckweed, red-root floater and occasional trimmings from other tanks. It gives a nice level of shade / light diffusion, fry and shrimplets like to hang out in the roots. The odd bit of wood, banana leaf. Sand / gravel substrate a bit gungy, full of snails. I cull the snails and lift the worst of the mulm with a dip tube every now and then as a kind of late night zen thing.
Given how well the shrimp are doing, I'll either stop using it for livebearer newborns, or shift them on to the growout quicker. (I keep the two stage thing for young fry, with a first cull / selection before moving them into the larger growout - that means leaving them in the first tank long enough to make a judgment on colour etc.)
Problem is cleaning & water changes. The floating stuff makes it hard to do that without picking up the odd shrimplet. If I want to thin out the duckweed / rrf, same problem. I'm wary of using the dip tube because it's so hard to make out young shrimplets, who seem most attracted to the gungiest substrate. I'm reduced to clumsy guddling between small jugs of mixed duckweed, substrate and snails, plus a couple of shrimplets, trying to decant rubbish without losing shrimplets.
Any ideas on managing this? Ditch the duckweed (will take forever!) and go for a chunkier floater (Limnobium?) .. rely on the shrimplets to get themselves out of the way if I'm simply thinning out duckweed? .. accept the odd shrimplet loss? Refine my method for decanting shrimplets from changed water / skimmed duckweed? I'm reluctant to lose the duckweed as it works so well in every respect apart from physical management. In any case, how do people do even minimal water changes in tanks with shrimplets without catching them in the process? Any specific version of the various syphon / gravel cleaner / water changer thingies particularly good for small tanks? Dennerle nano?
Couple of pics of the tank. Going for a bit of an Alexander Williamson vibe.
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