Sorry for the long absence in posting, I have been very busy with work and return to the states on tuesday after spending the past 2 weeks in Europe. I can only hope my instructions were followed and my shrimp tanks are doing well.
I feel like I need luck and fear that my younger brother may not have been able to follow the simple instructions I gave him or improvised. I will update on how my tanks are doing next week.
I will update my initial review to 3/5 stars because they did attempt to reship a second time. That said the second shipping was only marginally more successful that the first.
There were broken bags and bags with 100% loss. Less than 20% of my order (dollar wise) arrived alive (about 60% specimen wise). None of the more expensive shrimp survived and the majority of the survivors were painted fire red cherry shrimp… not worth paying the 70 dollars shipping twice.
I would suggest that if you even consider using this service (which I would strongly caution against) you specify that you are willing to wait until their next “transshipper” shippment as it seems to be the “safer” option. It will mean waiting 1-3 weeks before they ship out your order but it means that you are more likely to get live shrimp.
Initial Review
2 stars
I am very much pro buying local and this experience definitely made me re-affirm that stance. I figured 100 tiger shrimp for 40 USD was too good to pass up, even with the 70 dollars shipping, I decided to take a risk and give them a shot, I also figured that if I was paying for shipping I should add on some shrimp and make it worth the order, so I did just that and in the end my total order was 270+70 for shipping.
The order did arrive 4 days after the ship date (thank usps) which is not bad at all, however the shipper did not use any kind temperature stabilizer like phase 22 gel and also packed the shrimp 10 adults to 1 cup of water. Needless to say all the shrimp were dead on arrival and the seller said that they would reship if I paid shipping again. I had no intention of paying for shipping a second time when they said they would not include cold packs(I didn’t ask for cold packs) and didn’t know what phase 22 gel was.
They claimed it was a fluke but refused my offer to reship and I would pay shipping if it arrived alive (which I thought was fair).
In the end they refused to refund the cost of shipping even though it was their poor practices that cause the dead shrimp.
Lesson learned only buy from local breeders.
Additionally their communication was very slow, it took them several weeks to respond to questions.
Day – 6
Removed the heater last night tested this morning at 11am
Temp – 74 degrees Fahrenheit
TDS 172
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 0 ppm
Day – 5
No more addition of ammonia, but I did add 5 more ramshorns and 2 guppies last night
Temp – 83 degrees Fahrenheit
TDS 165
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 3 ppm
Day – 4
Yesterday (12pm) I raised the Ammonia level to 1ppm today at 10:30am these are the numbers.
I also added about 2 gallons of fresh R/O water
pH 5.6
Temp – 85 degrees Fahrenheit
TDS 188
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0.25 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 5 ppm
Day – 3
I added about a gallon of R/O water to compensate for evaporation yesterday.
Yesterday (3pm) I raised the Ammonia level to between 1-2ppm today at 9am these are the numbers.
pH 5.6
Temp – 81 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 160
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 2-3 ppm
Day – 2
pH 5.6
Temp – 81 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 165
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 0
Current water parameters – Day 1
pH 5.6
Temp – 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 157
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0.25 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 2-4ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 0
I wanted to raise the ammonia levels slightly to make sure the bacteria could continue to grow and thrive so I picked up some ammonia at ace hardware and dipped a qtip in the ammonia and then swirled it in the tank. There are about 10 ramshorns and 1 young guppy in the tank so I only wanted to raise the level to about 1 ppm and not to lethal levels for the inhabitants of the tank.
I was successful in raising the level to about 1 ppm and the nitrates test came back at about 1ppm as well.
Normally not something you would do unless you want to help a tank cycle or test a cycle or you were going with a fish less cycle.
The first thing to do is get a source of ammonia, while many different products will say pure ammonia or clear ammonia or only list ammonium hydroxide or ammonia as an ingredient most of the ones available commercially have surfactants if not other perfumes and what not. Even if you think something is just ammonia the easiest way to test this is to shake it. If it foams at all or if bubbles form and don’t disappear in seconds you have ammonia + a surfacant. () pure ammonia can be found at ace hardware, while there are probably other places you can find this, this is where I know you will get a pure ammonia.
Not to bad for a female I purchased online and had shipped several thousand miles while berried. Not like I will be giving away my excess anytime soon, so if you are looking to buy some check out my vendor reviews section of the buy link on the top right of the page.
I tried to get a picture but they are just specs.
The other berried female I got shipped is also in my satellite breeder she has about 15-20 eggs.
I finished setting up and filling the tank last night. I added the filter media from another tank to help the cycling process and about 10 Ramshorn snails.
Sorry for the grossness but you get the idea.
I also added a 2 drops of ammonia to help the filter element maintain the established bacterial colony while the ramshorns start doing their thing.
Good news on the filtration when I woke up this morning there was literally 0 filter media in the suction tubes and the filters are still pushing the same amount of water.
Current water parameters – Day 1
pH 5.6
Temp – 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 157
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0.25 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 2-4ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 0
Day – 2
pH 5.6
Temp – 81 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 165
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 0
Day – 3
I added about a gallon of R/O water to compensate for evaporation yesterday.
Yesterday (3pm) I raised the Ammonia level to between 1-2ppm today at 9am these are the numbers.
pH 5.6
Temp – 81 degrees Fahrenheit (28 C)
TDS 160
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 2-3 ppm
Day – 4
Yesterday (12pm) I raised the Ammonia level to 1ppm today at 10:30am these are the numbers.
I also added about 2 gallons of fresh R/O water
pH 5.6
Temp – 85 degrees Fahrenheit
TDS 188
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0.25 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 5 ppm
Day – 5
No more addition of ammonia, but I did add 5 more ramshorns and 2 guppies last night
Temp – 83 degrees Fahrenheit
TDS 165
kh – 0-1
gh – 4
ammonia 0 ppm
NO2 (Nitrites) 0 ppm
NO3 (Nitrates) 3 ppm
The OEBT tank has its first new life in quite a while. The mother is hatching more now. Very excited.
*I will be updating this post at various points throughout the day, feel free to follow along *
Today I am starting my Taiwan Bee Tank Setup. It is a 26 gallon bow front aquarium. And here she is
The obligatory before picture.
Unfortunately I had also ordered a under gravel filter (UGF) to fit the tank that I had ordered. 😦
Well that is no good but expected with the tank change.
This would reduce the effectiveness of the UGF
Granted if I had broke out my power tools I could of made the fit better but this is close enough, don't you think
I am kind of a big fan of Seachem products, and I wanted to use Seachem Matrix as part of my Under Gravel Filtration. After asking around to make sure it was shrimp safe I found I was not the first person to do this and it was completely safe for shrimp. I also found this thread (Shrimp Tank How to by Mordalphus) (also known as Liam from Aquarliam, the next part of what I did I got the idea from him. In addition to the Matrix I also wanted to add a bit of “substrate starter” if you will.
While I didn’t have time to order Liam’s proprietary blend for my substrate setup and my Mosura old sea mud didn’t arrive in time to use it I did the best that I could with what I did have available to me.
Here is what I used, Biozyme at 3x normal dosing, equal amount of Ken’s Freeze Dried Cyclops and a double dose of Ebi-ken Sose provided by Aquarliam
Africana finally arrived but it was missing 1 bag (ordered 5-3 liter bags, received 1-9liter 1-3liter) ADG was very fast to respond as they shipped all they had and offered to express ship another bag, was unneeded as the 12 liters was plenty. I will update with pictures soon-ish.
Substrate in, and some small decorations.
And the first of the water and the plants are added
Another Item from mordalphus goes into the tank, 1 package of Ebi-ken Shou. (it is only a half dose, I need to pick up another 2 packages)
Okay the tank is 1/3rd full and I have the aeration going. Also wanted to say thank you to OVT for the plants (TPT Thread)
Tank is setup and running, photos in the morning (left the camera on and the battery died)
I have all my plants, the tank, the filters, almost all my additives, (the Mosura Old Sea Mud got delayed ) all that is left is ups to deliver the Africana substrate.
I will be documenting the process and everything I used will be public. *Disclaimer I have never kept TBs before this is simply my attempt to setup an aesthetically pleasing tank for Taiwan bees.
As many of you know, I am not a breeder, I am a hobbyist. I don’t claim this will be the best possible setup or that it will even work. I don’t assume it will optimize breeding or that it will will be successful. I recommend if you are curious if my method works that you follow my blog and my progress for this tank before you attempt anything similar.
Also the tank is a 26 gallon bow front. I will be using Undergravel Filtration powered by HOB filters. If you have any specific questions or things you want me to show in my setup please add a comment.
The obligatory before picture.
Jason Wechsler
Orange Eyed Blue Tiger Shrimp Blog (OEBT) 