It's been two months since I set up the nano in my office, and nothing has died yet.
That's always a good sign.
I'm glad I waited all this time to finally add some shrimp. It helped me make sure that I knew what I wanted and could find a good deal on what I wanted. I knew I was going to be out of the office all that time, so it was not a good idea to introduce any live animals to the tank anyway.
Instead, I just dropped in a couple of times during my vacation, just to make partial water changes and top off the tank. The plants suffered a bit when the water level dropped after the first three weeks, but I was surprised to see they all survived with just a 15 watt incandescent bulb over the next several weeks. I even got some algae to deal with! Go figure...
I really have to get some better lighting soon, as can be seen from the leggy growth (the distance from one leaf node to another) on the staurogyne repens in the foreground, but to their credit, they are alive too! They aren't thriving, but they are definitely surviving even without strong lighting, which I expected form the other plants but not really from staurogyne repens. I trimmed the dead anubias leaves when I got back from summer vacation but left a little debris for the shrimp that I knew I would soon be buying.
I received them a couple nights ago and brought them to my office the next morning, acclimated them, and transferred them to the tank using a net (to avoid contamination from their water). All seven shrimp survived the trip and seem to have settled in nicely now, grazing on the plant leaves and the little bits of debris that have collected on the sponge that covers the filter inlet tube.
They looked so nice when I came in this morning and saw the tank, that I felt inspired to make a little video of them as an update. Enjoy the scape, listen to some dope beats, and relax.
Thanks for stopping by!
Peace!
