I picked up some banded panchax, also known as clown killifish, for the Fireplace Aquarium. The local fish store (LFS) only had four of them and they were all female. This is because the males have showier fins so mostly that’s what people buy. Nevermind – I think the females look great. Friendly LFS person […]
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Aquarium animals: fish, shrimp, snails and other livestock—species notes, behavior, compatibility, and care.
Shrimphaus has always had neocaridina shrimp and more recently after switching to low alkalinity water there are caridina shrimp too. I noticed a berried female and started a ‘baby shrimp watch’ to see what would happen. Timing of shrimp baby hatching The new batch of stripy caridina arrived in the Shrimphaus on 4-Sep and I […]
Read more →‘Crystal Red’ caridina shrimp: top-down view on the edge of the river Bloody Mary shrimp (Neocaridina davidi) have been living in the Shrimphaus for a couple years now and are starting to get a little long in the tooth. Their solid dusky red colour also makes them difficult to see against the dark aquasoil and […]
Read more →Ember tetras are a great little fish with lots of colour and activity. They are a ‘shoaling’ fish which means they like to stay together in a loose group – this is different from ‘schooling’ fish which exhibit a tight formation with highly synchronised movements. Filed under “there’s always one”, we have this one ember, […]
Read more →Well crap! I had high hopes for the chili rasboras. When I purchased the initial 8 of them I specifically asked the person at the local fish store whether rummy nosed tetras would eat the chili rasboras and was assured that they would not. Then I put the chilis in and only counted 7. I […]
Read more →Chili rasboras There’s a new addition to the Fireplace Aquarium – chili rasboras! I’ve been thinking there’s room for some more fish residents and the chili rasboras at LFS seemed to tick all the right boxes.
Read more →To help promote genetic diversity I acquired some bloody mary shrimp from Best Aquarium Shrimps UK to supplement the existing colony in the Shrimphaus. They arrived happy and healthy in a plastic bag filled with water and a bit of plastic mesh for them to climb on. How to successfully transition them to their new […]
Read more →It’s been 10 weeks since the tear-down and rebuild of the Shrimphaus. One of the things that surprised me in that process is there turned out to not be very many shrimp in the Shrimphaus, and mostly not any small ones. This suggested that things in the previous build were not as they should be […]
Read more →Filed under “how are we doing with this AI thing” and just for funzies, I asked ChatGPT to help us out with bloody mary shrimp, the main feature of the Shrimphaus. First attempt: write me a 500 word blog post about bloody mary shrimp Bloody Mary Shrimp is a delicious and unique twist on the […]
Read more →It’s been more than four months since the Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ got planted in the Fireplace Aquarium, and whilst it seemed to be doing well initially, after 11 weeks things weren’t looking so great. I thought lack of light from overgrowing Bucephalandra caterina might have been contributory, so I did a massive epiphyte trim to […]
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