After repeated struggles to grow emersed plants on the Shrimphaus river using a variety of substrate set-ups, I’ve switched over to actual LECA – lightweight expanded clay aggregate. For this experiment, I’m going with two reputedly robust to low(er) humidity emersed growth anubias: Anubias coffeefolia, and Anubias gracilis. This is the second attempt with Anubias […]
Read more →Author: Andy Pierce
Learning about planted freshwater aquaria and WordPress.
I’ve been looking for a red plant to replace the Ludwigia palustris mini ‘Super Red’ which is an awesome stem plant, but which comfortably exceeds 50 cm in length and so is really too large for the Fireplace Aquarium – keeping it trimmed was just too much hassle. Previously, I had a go with Alternanthera […]
Read more →There’s an interesting new inhabitant in the Shrimphaus, what looks like a spontaneous mutation in the bloody mary shrimp lineage. Bloody mary shrimp are generally a solid translucent red throughout but this little fella (I think it’s a boy) is mostly clear and colourless, except for a red head, red stripe just above the tail, […]
Read more →It’s been difficult with the emersed plants on the Shrimphaus shelf. Some descriptions of the tribulations below. Growing on the slate surface directly (doesn’t work) First I tried simply tying Chirstmas moss down in the flow on the riverbed to see if they would grab onto the river bottom, but that didn’t really work – […]
Read more →The airstone does a great job of keeping the surface of Shrimphaus clear from biofilm, but how it does that exactly isn’t clear. One idea is that when the bubbles break on the surface they fling water and biofilm in random directions, including over the side of the open topped tank. For sure this flinging […]
Read more →shrimp on the riverbank Particularly after a water change, the shrimp like to collect on the river run shelf. I’m not sure what they’re after here, but this is a consistent behaviour of theirs. This is the kind of thing you’re not going to be able to observe without a shallow flowing water component to […]
Read more →I’m becoming more fond of Cryptocoryne as submersed aquatic plants. They come in a wide variety of colours, sizes and textures, tolerate low light and are pretty much maintenance free. I always plant these after cutting off the emersed leaves to promote faster Cryptocoryne adaptation to submersed form growth whilst avoiding ‘crypt melt’. Cryptocoryne walkeri […]
Read more →Three weeks after the first sighting of a new baby shrimp we seem to have arrival of the next crop. These guys are really tiny which does suggest the earlier one had been hiding out for a week or so before debuting. There was a 50% water change today – the usual story with EI […]
Read more →Baby cherry shrimp and friends All those white things zooming around in the water column whilst the baby bloody mary cherry shrimp hangs out on one of the roots of the Java fern (Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ ) are copepods! Unintentional yet still welcome residents of the Shrimphaus, copepods are a form of zooplankton. Like their […]
Read more →There’s a new citizen in the Shrimphaus! Recently a juvenile bloody mary shrimp has started openly exploring. It seems strange that there is only one so far, but there was a mother shrimp that dropped most of her eggs and maybe this is one she held onto. The new shrimp has already successfully moulted and […]
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