The Importance of Aquascaping

.Some people know that I really love my Pinterest. I could sit for hours on the thing, pinning pictures and links (but mostly pictures). Once I got into the aquarium hobby, I found a whole other world of pictures just waiting to be pinned. These pins consist of useful links, fish compatibility charts and last, but certainly not least, aquascapes.

 

A floating island. I want a floating island.

 

One thing to be aware of with Pinterest is that many of the pins are there for the photography value, because let’s face it, they’re just downright amazing. Food looks amazing there (which is why I have a “Food Porn” board) and probably the most impressive thing about it is just the wall of colours about almost everything on it. But it’s these colours that bring me back again and again to the site. The child in me awakens everytime I use Pinterest, and I’m perfectly ok with that.

 

Photogenic fish are photogenic.

 

This post is, to me, about what aquascaping is and why it’s important for fish, shrimp, and for the creator of the scape as well.

First, think of a painting. Any painting. Maybe you’re thinking of the Mona Lisa. I personally thought about Salvador Dali’s painting with the Melting Clocks (Which I’ve just discovered is called “The Persistence of Memory”. Who says blogging isn’t educational?!), but I may have seen it recently somewhere. Anyway, think about the painting. Outside of your imagining of it, the subjects don’t move, they don’t breathe, they don’t react in natural time to the world around them. Word of advice, do not go to the Louvre and throw something at Da Vinci’s most famous creation to test that “not reacting in real time”, because I don’t think anyone would appreciate that.

 

Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory”.

 

But I’m rambling. My point is that keeping an aquarium and an aquascape is kind of comparable to keeping a Bonsai Tree or a garden. It’s a real living artform that takes time to develop. Many pictures of the scapes on Pinterest likely took months, if not years to develop. My favourite thing about it is that there’s real life going on in the confines of the tank. Real plants growing and changing as you watch, day by day. A living and breathing piece of art depending on you to keep it filled with the sustenance it needs.

 

Perhaps the best known Aquascaper for many is Takashi Amano. His scapes are imitations of nature, and he writes articles for some fishkeeping magazines. It really is a thing that you know you’ve hit the big time in the aquascaping world when they name a shrimp after you.

No, I wasn’t joking, this is the Amano Shrimp

 

So the easiest way here is to show an example or two of Amano’s work, I think. Including the floating island above, I have another one or two to share.

I personally think that the trees are a really fascinating design (It’s likely some driftwood set upright with moss attached to the end and it looks excellent), and just even something as simple as the rock setup is amazing. But I think it’s the simplicity that really makes it pop. It really does feel like Nature and that draws me in to the scape.

But moving on to Pinterest’s scapes (yes, the rest of this post will likely be picture heavy). I’m only posting a few of my favourites from my “Aquaria” board. If you want more please head over to my Pinterest page and check them out!

 

“Woodland Orb”

 

 

 

I love the Woodland orb because the driftwood shape is really unique, and I think there’s enough space left in it to balance it out. Due to the size of it (this is only 3 gallons) it is not really suitable for much other than a few small shrimp, but it is lovely to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This doesn’t have a name, but I think it’s really amazing because yes, it’s not full of plants, but it does a great job of drawing the eye to the wood shape. The plants make it look (to me) like some sort of safe haven in a little jungle pond or something. This doesn’t have loads going on like the woodland orb, but what really makes this is the fish and how it will interact with the environment.

 

 

 

 

Iwagumi.

 

 

 

Iwagumi refers to rock as being the only hardscaping material. This one is pretty cool to me. I feel like it could represent undiscovered lands or something like that, which is really interesting. Notice as well how lush the plants are. I think we can all tell that these are plants that are pretty well cared for. You can read up on Iwagumi at the Green Machine if you’re really interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then you have an image like this monstrosity, for the nerds in the house. It’s totally inspired by zombie flicks and that is pretty awesome. So it doesn’t have to be all about Zen and tranquility and whatnot, but I definitely prefer the more natural looking ones.

 

And this does more than look pretty. Such a layout is also much more natural for the inhabitants. Most creatures love having plenty of places to hide in. Their natural habitat is likely full of plants and plant matter and it doesn’t seem fair not to al least try to replicate that in some way. I have attempted to do so with my tank, it’s not amazing, but hopefully with time it will be a bit more grown out and naturalistic. With aquascaping, it’s not always the fish that is the centre of attention, usually it’s the tank as a whole, and I really like that. So hopefully with time my aquascaping abilities improve.

 

So until next time, thanks for reading!

Trying to downplay my excitement. and Failing.

I’m not sure how exactly to get into this, I couldn’t think of anything quirky or exciting to put here really, other than “They’re Heeeeree”

No, not them. Thank God.

I’m talking about the shrimp, of course!

 

So it was a long and arduous journey on the bus to the local fish store and back. I’d say easily an hour and a half including bus waiting times and whatnot. Grr. Anyway.

 

So once I got them home it was straight to the tank to acclimate them. This is a simple procedure, basically meaning that they are left in the bag floating in the tank water, with a small amount of tank water added to their bag every ten or so minutes to allow them to grow accustomed to the tank water. I cut their bag open and turned the lip over a couple of times to allow easy access to the bag. This allowed me to add water to their bag without hassling them too much, which is a good thing!

 

The tank, with the bag in during the acclimation.

Look at them all! They’re just so adorable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following this acclimation (for about 1 hour, adding water every ten minutes or so) I picked them up in a net and transferred them to the new tank! Then it’s just a case of leaving them to settle in and everything should be fine. Just leave all lights off for a few hours and leave them alone to settle in, they should be fine!

 

And that’s that! So far, I managed to get a couple of pictures of them doing shrimp things like climbing on things and eating a little bit, and I also have a short video!

This is probably the one I’ve seen most. Pretty sure it’s a she, and that it’s the biggest one.

Climbing on the lava rock.

That moment when you know you’ve come to the wrong neighbourhood. Nah, I’m kidding. They’re just eating!

The female one, again.

 

 

 

So that’s it for now!

 

Next post: Aquascaping, and why aquarists should get involved.

Package Arrived!!

So I bet I kept you all wondering about what was going to come up in today’s post. No? Alright then.

 

Any of you who follow my Twitter or Facebook pages (cue shameless advertising) would have seen the picture teased there yesterday. This was the package which I mentioned in the last post. And this package is what I’m going to discuss in this post.

 

The package has arrived! If you’re not caught up, check out https://t.co/XkaGqJHMcu #aquarium #shrimpkeeping pic.twitter.com/oNgTyTLl1X

— Cliona (@CliCliW) April 27, 2015

“What’s in the box!”

So I ordered a bunch of stuff from a business known as Aquascaping Desire. This consisted of plants and fertilisers for making the tank look pretty! My first impressions when I got the package were that they put a lot of care and effort into making the packaging as secure as possible. I’ve seen laptops packaged and posted that have less effort put into them than this, and it’s amazing to see someone care about their service so much. It’s really very inspiring! The plants came in little ziplock bags to ensure they retained their moisture and didn’t dry out in transit, which was also excellent given Ireland’s sometimes lack-a-daisy postal system.

They also had a neat little business card included. Colour me impressed!

 

So what did I pick up exactly? I’m so glad you asked (or rather, I’m so glad I put the question in your mouth-erm head? You get the picture anyway).

 

I got two plants that should be easy to grow and maintain, and some fertilisers to aid their growth. The plants are a Marimo Moss Ball (the green ball that looks like fluff) and a lava rock with some phoenix moss attached to it. I chose these as with my limited experience in plant keeping, I wanted something simple to grow and keep but that looked nice, and following a little bit of research these were exactly that! But the plants are such a vivid green colour, it’s scary. It really is inspiring to see plants so well tended to and to see how they should look being happy and healthy.

 

Marimo Moss Ball removed from the bag. So Fluffy!

Phoenix Moss tied onto a Lava Stone using clear thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would also like to mention the fertilisers. Now I’m just going to say this here: I have never had any luck with fertilisers, but I’ve never used much either. One issue I have with the dosage on the bottle is that they can be a bit difficult to gauge for a smaller tank like mine, but I have some syringes to dose them correctly. What I was recommended by Aquascaping Desire was a brand known as VIMI, with the types “Micro” (containing any nutrients the plants may need) and “Accelerate” (Liquid Carbon Dioxide to speed up plant growth through photosynthesis). So I’ve got them, they were very cheap and in quite a big bottle, so I will be using them for quite some time to come.

 

VIMI Fertiliser. I’ll find out what this is like in months to come!

The business was very forthcoming and generous, answering all my questions with plenty of patience and suggestions. It’s clear from this conduct that the business really has passion in their hobby and wants to share it with other people, and it is exactly this kind of outlook that is simply inspiring to others wanting to get in on the hobby. They even included some root tabs in case I get rooting plants, but unfortunately I might not get a chance to try them.

 

But following adding all of these to the tank, I’m in great form to get the shrimp! *excitement* I will probably pick them up very soon, so expect to see them in the next few days.

 

The tank as is now! Finally coming together!

Anyways, that’s all I can do for now. If you’re interested check out Aquascaping Desire’s Facebook page and see some of their work. And remember to stay shrimp… or something…. Bye!

Actually Doing Stuff Now!

Hey guys!

 

So we’re now into post #3, following a brief introduction into me and my previous experience of keeping aquatic pets, and getting everyone familiar with some of the terms which I might be using and will affect my conduct in this venture. So from there, the logical thing for me to do is get into my tank (not literally, I won’t fit!) and discuss how I’m going to work on setting it up.

 

This is where the disclaimer about bad photography will come into play. Please excuse it if you think it’s totally terrible. Anyway, this is the story of the shrimp tank……

 

So, as previously mentioned I am using a 23 Litre plastic tank. That basically means I can facilitate a decent amount of shrimp without problems with water quality (buildup of harmful ammonia/nitrites/nitrates in the water) and worrying about the shrimp being killed off due to water quality.

 

As I have a huge bag of play sand for fishkeeping purposes already, this is a good substrate for me to use. I could just as easily pick anything else; it’s all a matter of preference really. In terms of work, the sand will need to be stirred a little every now and again to prevent gas build up under the sand. Play sand is very fine and totally inert (it won’t affect the chemistry of my water, say through changing the pH or anything), being designed for children. This does need to be washed for aquarium use to remove any silt from it though. That’s not too troublesome at all. Put the sand into a bucket and then fill with water. Mix the sand around a little bit and the water should turn a fairly opaque brown colour. Pour out this water and fill the bucket, and basically rinse and repeat until the water runs clear. It took me about 6 tries for the container pictured. I did about a cupful of sand or two in a separate container because I was a little bit silly and forgot to take pics while preparing the sand for the tank!

 

Not that much sand, I know. But ideal for demonstration’s purposes.

 

Filling with water the first time. Imagine seeing that in your tank. Eeuch!

 

water addition #2. Bit better, but still a ways to go.

 

Several washes later…

 

Another three washes or so gave me this end result. All that’s left now is to add it to the tank.

 

Once the sand was prepared, I put it in the tank, the water was a little cloudy so I left it settle for a day or two and then got to changing the water, to take out any more cloudiness from the sand in the tank. Following that, I purchased some driftwood and a clump of moss from the local store, I boiled the wood overnight to remove some of the tannins from it (these will tint the water brown, while harmless, it’s a little unsightly). I tied some java moss onto the wood with some thread and placed it in the tank. And that’s where I am now. The water is still turning an unsightly brown colour so I need to keep on top of changing the water to make it look nice and pretty. But pictures! (And pictures of the tank so far!)

 

The Driftwood, with Java Moss attached.

Rock, with Java Moss attached.

The interior of the tank right now.

 

At this stage, I’m currently waiting on an order for a few more bits pertaining to the aquascape of the tank. They will hopefully be arriving tomorrow! So Excited!So there’s not a whole pile I can do for the tank right now. I’ve looked this up and down and I’ve decided the best way for me to go about getting the tank cycled is to just add a filter that’s been running in my Goldfish tank, thereby removing the long and arduous process of cycling and enabling me to write this blog in the span of a few weeks. It’s not ideal but it’s what I’m doing.

 

I’m not sure what the next post will consist of. I might wander away from the area of shrimpkeeping and venture into why I’m putting so much effort into aquascaping. I’ll leave it a surprise for now though. Hopefully that’ll keep us all in suspense.

 

So until next time, guys!

The entire tank pictured.

Exposition: Getting Informed about some ins and outs

 
Post number two of the shrimpkeeping blog, woohoo! I’m beginning to wonder whether or not I should also congratulate myself for totally decimating the fourth wall in my blog. I suppose it’s nothing too special so I won’t get to congratulating just yet.  
 
Anyway, you people don’t come here to read my rambling. Or, you do, but not about nothing in particular. So where was I?
 
 
Shrimp keeping. At this stage we’re past introductions, but still in the stage of getting a tank set up to actually be habitable for shrimp. Many keepers will make sure that everything in the tank is just right before introducing any critters to a new tank. To not do so is kind of comparable to moving into a new house that has none of the fittings necessary for life.

 

First thing’s first, what exactly is it that I’ll be setting up a tank for?

The Red Cherry Shrimp. Beautiful

This paragraph would sound awesome if either David Attenborough or Morgan Freeman would narrate it, but what can you do. Anyway.

Red Cherry Shrimp are a species of shrimp, popular among beginner fish and shrimp keepers due to their hardiness. As the name suggests, they’re generally red or clear in colour in the aquarium. They are easy to breed and care for and relatively cheap to purchase, making them ideal to keep. They can grow to about an inch in size, which makes them a “dwarf shrimp”. Very likely due to their size, these shrimp are peaceful and will not bother anything else you happen to have living in the tank with them, however they are also very likely to be eaten by some creatures in the tank due to their tiny size too. Some people see this as a handy way to control the population in the tank, as well as providing a good live food source for some fish, but we won’t talk about that here because I want to keep them as pets rather than a food source. As pets, their life span should be about one to two years. The ideal tank for the red cherry shrimp will have water that is roughly 21 – 26 degrees Celsius in temperature and should have a pH of about 6.5-8. Once pH is stable there should be no real problems however. A filtered and planted or mossy tank is ideal to ensure best shrimp growth. Further Reading: [1] [2]

 
 
Yeah, there is such a thing as requirements that your tank(s) should have in order to allow your critters to thrive rather than just survive. And I’m not just referring to the temperature either. So much of preparing the tank is about making sure the water is of an acceptable quality for the shrimp/critter.
 
 
This means that I’ll need to pay a lot of attention to getting my water up to scratch. Doing this will help to prevent death in the beginning. There are two or three really important points to note, which I’m going to discuss now. I’ll try to keep this short and not too information heavy, so as not to bore people who aren’t interested to death. By the way, see those numbers in brackets above? There are more of those to follow. They’re basically some of the sites from which I got my information; because I want to be sure I’m giving you the right information. If you’re gonna do it, do it right……. Right?

 
 
The Nitrogen Cycle:
 
This is basically a couple of groups of bacteria that convert harmful versions of nitrogen compounds into (at the very end) a less harmful one. This cycle helps to regulate the water conditions and makes the waste that is excreted by the inhabitants of the tank less toxic for them. So in general it goes like this (with a picture for understanding’s sake!):
 

Petsmart’s easy-to-follow diagram of the Nitrogen Cycle

1. Excreted waste, uneaten food lead to ammonia/ammonium buildup. Ammonia can be harmful to fish/other critters, so this is a problem.
2. Bacteria will build up that consumes this ammonia. Nitrites are produced. These are also harmful to critters.
3. Another type of bacteria will build up which will convert these harmful nitrites into nitrates. This is not as harmful in smaller amounts like the previous two are.
4. This nitrate buildup is controlled partly by having plants present in the tank (which I intend to do), but mostly through changing some of the water in the tank regularly.

 
These bacteria live mostly in the filter. This is why having a filter (for the majority of things) in the tank. No filter = no cycle, more or less. This nitrogen cycle can take a couple of months to establish, and it does take good attention to detail so patience and time are of the essence. I am lucky in the respect that I have the filter I intend to run on the shrimp tank consistently on a goldfish tank (and have for the last 3-4 months), so that will be fully cycled for the shrimp tank (yay!). If you are cycling naturally, there are a range of products to help you on your merry way, such as bottled bacteria and testing kits, but we won’t worry too much about them here. Further Reading: [3] [4] [5]

 

Dechlorinator/Water Conditioner

Stress Coat Water Conditioner

No, water conditioner does not make your water or critters sleek, voluminous, shiny and soft. Actually, water conditioner will balance out the chemicals in the tank. Most tap water is treated with chlorine/chloramines in order to kill off bacteria for human use, but if you read the section on the Nitrogen Cycle, you’ll begin to join dots and realise why non-treated water isn’t good for your cycle, but it’s also quite harmful to your fish. In large amounts, it can cause “burns” to your critters. I’ve never seen these burns because as a beginner I wasn’t aware of what it would look like, and in the last 18 months I’ve always used a de-chlorinator/conditioner. Basically, this nifty little chemical does a lot of good things for your tank depending on which one you choose. My current favourite is Seachem’s Prime, which removes chlorine and chloramines, it detoxifies harmful ammonia and nitrites (mentioned above!) and it can remove heavy metals that would be harmful for your critters from the water. I don’t know of a serious fish-keeper who wouldn’t suggest a good de-chlorinator/water conditioner. They’re always a good idea for whatever you’re keeping! Talking to your local fish stores will be a great way to find a good water conditioner. Further Reading: [6]

Prime by Seachem. My personal favourite

 
 
I think for now that’s more than enough information about that stuff. All of the above means that it’s not as simple as just throwing water into a tank, putting in the animals and plants and whatever and hoping for the best, unfortunately for the people who wanted an easy pet to care for (sorry to disappoint you guys).
 
 

A really really (I mean really) quick overview of the tank I’m using. It’s a plastic 23 Litre (6 gallon) tank. I will have a 25 watt heater in it and a sponge filter. I have chosen a sponge filter to ensure that the baby shrimp (fry) don’t get sucked into a high power canister filter and get killed. Fingers crossed that works to plan.
 
 
Also, I’m posting a disclaimer here: please excuse any of my personal photography because I’m not exactly well versed in it, but I’m going to try my best.
 
Anyway, I’m going to stop here to give your brains a rest before they go into overload. Next up will be a more detailed idea of the setup I’ll be going for, including preparing the things that I’ll be using for decor (plants, wood). Let’s hope for the best on that one….
 
 
 
References (numbered above):
 
On Cherry Shrimp:
 
[1] http://www.planetinverts.com/Red%20Cherry%20Shrimp.html

[2] http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/sept09/red-cherry-shrimp.htm
 
 
On the Nitrogen Cycle:
 
[3] http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

[4] http://www.myaquariumclub.com/the-nitrogen-cycle-for-everyone-358.html

[5] http://pets.petsmart.com/guides/fish/aquarium-water-care.shtml
 
 
On water conditioners/de-chlorinator:
 
[6] http://www.firsttankguide.net/dechlorinator.php

Shrimpkeeping: A New Adventure!

There’s not a whole pile of people in the everyday working world who wake up one day and think to themselves “Hmm. I’d really love to set up a tank for shrimp”. I can’t consider myself as being one either, as my love for the idea of keeping shrimp spawned from a hobby I fell in love with over the last year or two: Fishkeeping.

In essence, fishkeeping and shrimpkeeping are more or less two sides of the same coin;a wonderful coin submerged in a world of all things aquatic. There are some real differences between the two, specifically pertaining to care regimes, however not many people think of keeping little 10-legged crustaceans when they do consider starting up an aquarium.

In this blog I plan to explore shrimpkeeping as a viable option for aquarium enthusiasts and people looking to explore the possibility of keeping an alternative to fish. By no means am I truly experienced in this area. I have kept only a few fish in my lifetime and have only recently (in the last year) learned that, actually, I might not have been doing everything correctly. And I’m still learning. There’s a whole pile of fish that I haven’t even ventured into keeping yet (in fact I’ve only barely scratched the surface).

So I hear you asking, why shrimp? Well, there are one or two quite simple reasons. First off: Shrimp are not quite as demanding as fish are spatially. Typically, very few fish are recommended for a tank less than 5gallons (that’s 19 Litres), and most of those that are would be more for experienced keepers who are able to keep the chemistry in smaller tanks under control (chemistry discussed in a later post!!). While shrimp are the same to an extent, they can be kept in smaller tanks without many qualms. For this project, I’ll be using a 6 gallon (that’s 23 Litres) tank that I’ve had lying around because I hoard fishtanks like there’s no tomorrow I like to keep spares lying around in case anything ever happens.

Secondly, and probably totally irrelevant to many of you lovely people at home, is the fact that I find shrimp perfectly adorable. I’m a huge fan of animals in general, but I think shrimp are really fascinating. I’ve only really seen them in my Local Fish Store (LFS for short) in the tanks there, and what’s amazing is at first you see a tank full of plants and little else, until you look closer. Suddenly, there’s a whole world of little red shrimp, scavenging in substrates, chilling on plants and filters and just doing whatever it is that shrimp do, seemingly oblivious to the outside world. To me it’s almost akin to lifting a rock and observing this whole world living there that you wouldn’t even notice otherwise!

But anyways, now the journey’s begun, and the only way is forward. The next post will discuss my setup, come to grips with some basic terminology and things to know about aquarium setup and water chemistry, and maybe outline somewhat of a plan for the tank. No, I don’t have the shrimp yet, because there’s more to it than just diving in, but I’ll leave it till the next post. So here goes nothing!