Shrimp Journal

This has been such an up and down since I started. It all started with a beta in a jar. As long as I can remember when growing up, my Dad always had one or more fish tanks. I always have been drawn to the water and the things growing in it; aquatic insects, fish, plants. I just love being by the water. I've had fish tanks on and off all my adult life. One of the first things I wanted when we moved out here was another fish tank. We got a 36 gallon bow front. I've had an assortment of bettas living in glass vases, with plant cuttings growing out of the top.

I'm also somewhat of a procrastinator. So the water levels in the vases and the fish tanks would drop. Algae grows on the sides till you can't see if there is anything still living inside or not. I'll admit it got a little yuck looking from time to time. I cleaned out the 36 gal, threw in some fake plants, refilled the water and let it go with occasionally topping off the water lever when the water got too low. The fish got old and died and I was left with three neons, and three white clouds. The vase with no fish, just some plants sat on the kitchen table. And then I discovered shrimp.

I don't know what made me get a wild hair up my ass and decide I wanted little critters in the water of the vase that I could watch while I sat at my computer. I think the seed of the idea got planted at Christmas this last year when I got Maria a sea monkey kit. I knew the irrigation ponds next to us would get all sorts of critters during the summer, including freshwater fairy shrimp. Mostly they come in clear-ish red, but I've seen some green ones and I decided I needed them. In the middle of winter. In Idaho.

So I tromped out to the irrigation run off pond next door and grabbed a couple handfuls of mud surely full of horse, cow, and whatever other kind of dried up poop and goop, and dropped it in the vase full of murky green/brown water that I hadn't cleaned out in ages. I knew the eggs dried up with the end of irrigation season and when the water came back in the spring, the critters would hatch. I ended up with a million almost microscopic daphnia, but no shrimp. Enter 15 tabs open across the top of my web browser, looking for where I can find these fairy shrimp. I didn't want sea monkeys, they're brine shrimp. And then I ended up on youtube, and found freshwater aquarium shrimp!!! 

Neocaridina Davidi, or Cherry Shrimp. They come in a whole skittles pack of colors!! I need these. I need a whole tank full. Reds and blues and blacks and yellows, and oh man, look at the green ones. So let the research begin. Cause I'm great at research and organizing and planning what I need. 

First off the fake plants need to go and I need to start doing regular water changes in my tank. I needed live plants to filter out the nitrates in the water that naturally occur from uneaten fish food, fish and snail waste, and decaying plant material. Annnd I don't want to spend a million dollars on plants so I can save money for the shramps!!! Where can I find aquatic plants in Idaho, in early spring, while we're still getting below freezing temps in the mornings, and occasionally snow? 

So I went hiking down to Ritter Island. One of my fav places to hang out. Natural springs, crystal clear water, waterfalls. It's so beautiful down there, and the water doesn't freeze where it comes out of the sides of the mountain. Honestly and excuse to go hang out down there is a good one. Plus, I found a you-tuber that did a few vids on using terrestrial (land growing) mosses underwater in his tanks. I was super excited. I got baggies and baggies full of mosses and plants growing under the water and rescaped   my fishtank. I found some pretty pieces of lava rock and cut a few pieces off my pothos (houseplant) that I knew could live under water. It looked so pretty. I bought prolly 20 of the little ghost shrimp you can get at Walmart for .39 cents a piece and chucked them in there.  If I could get them to live, I could start thinking of where to order my cherry shrimp. 

But the ghost shrimp died. A few here and there. So I figured they're kinda like feeder goldfish, bred in ick conditions, not expected to live long. I kept buying 5 or 6 more at a time. They're only .39 cents a piece. When I thought everything finally looked good, and was doing well I found cherry shrimp at Petco and bought three. They weren't super red, but I had SHRAMPS!! 

And then I found WORMS!!! Planaria. Little flat head worms that bite the shrimp and breed like crazy. I had them everywhere. They came from my plants I collected. They caused them to get bacterial infections and killed them. One of the red cherries died. Some of the moss wasn't doing well under the water, and the aquatic plants were disintegrating. It made the shrimp's shells turn white before they died. None of this short thick moss lived. Neither did any of the stuff that looked like little star flowers. 

I dosed the tank with wormer and took out the mosses that were dieing. Petco was having their dollar a gallon sale and Scott seeing how excited about the shrimps I was, bought be a 20 gallon long, a 10 gallon, and a 5.5 gallon tank. Once they were cycled, I could tear down the 36 and I could do everything right this time, including treating the plants before I put them in the tanks.