Wycco
08-27-2009, 6:57 AM
Finally- 5 months after getting ghost shrimp despite having constantly berried females I see my first baby ghost shrimp. Two of them right next to each other on some star grass... although if there are two there has to be more.
Tiny little things- less than a cm long. Hope they don't become fish food.
Couldn't get a photo I was running latish plus they were located at the back of the tank.
Why did I get eggs hatch to larvae and then to babies this time and not before?
The trick? Well, I can only speculate... but... I have naturally soft and slightly acidic water so I always add baking soda and liquid calcium to raise the KH, GH, and pH.
Early on during my water change last Saturday I ran out of liquid calcium and the stuff I ordered to replace it is still in the mail... knowing it's not the same thing- but at the same time wanting to compensate a little- I added a little extra baking soda to raise the dissolved solids in the water and raise the pH. I also threw a couple of extra crushed up PoP blocks in to help compensate lack of calcium.
That seemed to do the trick. Normally to get things where I want them (GH 7 or 8/KH 7 or 8/pH7.5 - higher is better but I've been trying not to change my water from what it naturally is too much) I added 1.5 tsp per 10 gallons of water changed instead of 1tsp... I only changed 1/3 of the tank water though this last time so the change isn't THAT dramatic.
Don't know if that's what did the trick... but for anyone trying to get ghost shrimp babies- they seem berried but not producing young- try upping the hardness of your water.
Hopefully by upping the baking soda I add at each water change I can continue to have little babies.
(BTW- I'm not recommending people just throw the stuff in their tank- especially if they don't have soft water that is naturally too soft for most inverts to begin with like I do)
Tiny little things- less than a cm long. Hope they don't become fish food.
Couldn't get a photo I was running latish plus they were located at the back of the tank.
Why did I get eggs hatch to larvae and then to babies this time and not before?
The trick? Well, I can only speculate... but... I have naturally soft and slightly acidic water so I always add baking soda and liquid calcium to raise the KH, GH, and pH.
Early on during my water change last Saturday I ran out of liquid calcium and the stuff I ordered to replace it is still in the mail... knowing it's not the same thing- but at the same time wanting to compensate a little- I added a little extra baking soda to raise the dissolved solids in the water and raise the pH. I also threw a couple of extra crushed up PoP blocks in to help compensate lack of calcium.
That seemed to do the trick. Normally to get things where I want them (GH 7 or 8/KH 7 or 8/pH7.5 - higher is better but I've been trying not to change my water from what it naturally is too much) I added 1.5 tsp per 10 gallons of water changed instead of 1tsp... I only changed 1/3 of the tank water though this last time so the change isn't THAT dramatic.
Don't know if that's what did the trick... but for anyone trying to get ghost shrimp babies- they seem berried but not producing young- try upping the hardness of your water.
Hopefully by upping the baking soda I add at each water change I can continue to have little babies.
(BTW- I'm not recommending people just throw the stuff in their tank- especially if they don't have soft water that is naturally too soft for most inverts to begin with like I do)