Shrimphaus

Aquarium

Shrimphaus was created from an ADA Cube Garden 22 litre shallow tank with bespoke slate hardscape.  Shrimphaus is a modified rebuild of the original concept Shrimphaus.  Shrimphaus was last rescaped in Jan 2025.

Shrimphaus uses hard, alkaline Cambridgeshire tap water that has been brought to low alkalinity with hydrochloric acid and had the copper removed using CupriSorb.  An airstone and high surface water flow keeps the water oxygenated.

Temperature is maintained at 22 C with an Aquael Ultra Heater.

Lighting is from a Week Aqua S400 Pro LED light.

Shrimphaus’ bigger high-tech sibling is the Fireplace Aquarium

Shrimphaus as of 25-Sep-2026
Notes: Caridina (and Neocaridina) are breeding well

Shrimp

Quite a good amount of wine red panda Caridina shrimp in residence along with two remaining Tangerine Tiger Caridina shrimp.  Lots of Caridina mischlings and Neocaridina davidi ‘Blue Velvet’ shrimp.

Plants

The Shrimphaus is a “low tech” non-CO₂-injected environment supporting submersed and emersed plants using a reduced strength Estimative Index fertilisation scheme.

Submersed

• Bolbitus heteroclita ‘Difformis’
• Cryptocoryne – kind of lost track of which ones exactly are still around
  • affinis
  • beckettii ‘Petchii pink’
  • crispatula
  • walkeri
  • wendtii ‘Green Gecko’
  • x willisii
• Helanthium tenellum ‘Green’
• Lilaeopsis novea-zealandia
• Monosolenium tenerum (Pelia moss) – hate this stuff, trying to get rid of it
• Rotala ‘blood red SG’
• Sagittaria subulata
• Staurogyne Repens
• ferns
  • Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ (Java Fern)
• mosses
  • Vesicularia montagnei (‘Christmas’ moss)
  • Taxiphyllum barbieri (Java Moss) – trying to get rid of this

Emersed

• Lysimachia nummularia aurea
• Riccardia chamedryfolia

See also:  Emersed plants of Sri Lanka

Floating

• Salvinia minima

Unwanted

• Black beard algae

Other current residents

• Assassin snails that are predating the…
• Unidentified freshwater snails
• Copepods

Previous Residents…

Usually these are ‘previous residents’ because something didn’t work out quite right…

Animals

• Chili rasbora (refugee from Fireplace Aquarium – didn’t work out)
• Bloody mary Neocaridina shrimp – lived long and happy lives and have now cycled out of the Shrimphaus
• Nerite snails – don’t seem to do very well long-term
• Crystal red Caridina – had a long and happy life

Plants

• Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’
• Anubias barteri nana ‘Pangolino’
• Anubias barteri nana ‘Pinto’ – couldn’t live emersed
• Anubias nana ‘Coin’– died immediately emersed
• Anubias coffeefolia – tried, but could not grow emersed without keeping humidity high
• Anubias gracilis – lasted a long time at a not-very-healthy steady state
• Bacopa caroliniana – emersed parts dried up
• Bucephalandra
  • kedagang
  • red
  • sintang
  • mini Catherine
  • dark Theia
• Bucephalandra pygmaea ‘Bukit Kelam’  – didn’t thrive emersed
• Calla palustris – Bog arum – grew a bit, then rotted
• Caltha palustris var. radicans – miniature marsh marigold – belongs in a pond – moved to pond
• Cotula coronopifolia – “Yellow buttons” – stems rotted underwater
• Cryptocoryne beckettii ‘Petchii pink’ – didn’t work emersed ok submersed
• Echinodorus Chrileni
• Echinodorus grisebachii ‘Tropica’
• Helanthium bolivianum ‘Quadricostatus’ – good one!  did well for a long time
• Hydrocotyle verticillata – long and stringy – moved to pond
• Iris cristata – couldn’t figure out how to plant this large rhizome!
• Limnophila sessiflora
• Lobelia cardinalis ‘Mini’
• Ludwigia palustris – got covered in algae
• Myosotis palustris – water forget-me-not – moved to pond where doing very well
• Pogostemon erectus – took a long time to die but didn’t thrive
• Pogostemon helferi – never really got going
• Ranunculus inundatus – never really got going either
• Rotala rotundifolia ‘Orange Juice’ – stems rotted
• Vesicularia montagnei ‘Christmas’ (Christmas moss) – did ok