1ft cube Endlers' and shrimp tank

**Justikanz** · 9th Oct 2005, 18:50

Hmm... Couldn't find nice wood, so spent time on this instead of my 4footer...

Specs:

1ft x 1ft x 1ft tank, no CO2, hang on filter
Lighting was for a 16" tank but will be using a 9W PL light soon
Using Seachem Flourish, Seachem Potassium and Tetra Florapride as initial fert.

Flora:
Limnophilia sessiflora
Hemianthus micranthemoides (MM)
Hydrocotyle leucocephala or Cardamine lyrata(pennywort)
Eleocharis acicularis (hairgrass)
Elatine triandra (APP)
Echinodorus tenellus
Pelia
Java moss
Marimo ball
Limnobium sp. (Floating plant)

Thinking of adding Bacopa monnieri...

Fauna:
Endler's livebearer (currently 2 pairs and 6 babies of Orange Chest strain)
Red-nose shrimps (~3x)
Cherry shrimps (~15-20x)
Snails (2 x horned and 4 x red ramshorn snails)

There are some baby normal ramshorn and pouch snails that I am trying to get rid of...

**lorba** · 9th Oct 2005, 22:44

With the lightings, i think you can forget about the stem plants.

The rock placement seems nice, just bring them a little forward and out of the back left corner.
The wood do more harm then good in there.
Remove the floating plant as the long furry roots mess up the view.

**Justikanz** · 9th Oct 2005, 23:57

Is it too weak or too strong? I was using the same light for these plants earlier leh... Quite lush growth then...

Hmm... Maybe I can remove the wood to my office female betta tank then...

The floaters are to provide 'safety net' for any new Endler fries... The females are pregnant again... Maybe I can trim the roots short? Or try to 'herd' them to a corner?

**Justikanz** · 13th Oct 2005, 23:32

Updates:

Added 2 fans... tank water temperature now dropped quite a lot... Last time when I returned home at almost 8pm, the tank water is 30C (can you imagine the temperature at noon time??

). Now the thermometer reads 26C!! Before I switch off the fans when I sleep, it reads 23C or lower!! But the water evaporates quite a lot!!

Added cherry, bee and red-nose shrimps... Some died before I install the fans... Population stabling now...

Endler's population expanding...

Found some new babies... But very few, found 3, 4 only... Hope I will find more hiding among the roots of the Limnobium sp later...

**Thirteen** · 16th Oct 2005, 18:17

try remove the floating plant like mentione, and the green tape-like plants on the RHS..perhaps adding some moss will be great.

**kpeck** · 16th Oct 2005, 22:13

A bit messy for my liking...

**plumboy21** · 17th Oct 2005, 16:33

I likes those rocks of yours. Where did you bought them?

Do rocks blend in well with DW?

**Justikanz** · 17th Oct 2005, 16:40

Thanks... When I woke up this morning, all my Endler's were gone!

Like the entire family all had decided to pack up and leave overnight! Only 1 female body left... 2 males, 1 female and about 8-10 babies missing!!

The tank is ONLY 1ft long, tall and wide... Where could they all be???

There were no bodies (except for the female mentioned above), either in the tank or outside... How can all 12-14 fish all disappeared overnight??

There was nothing changed, I only added some crystal shrimps and Seachem Excel... I am extremely upset now...

Anyway, think will thin the frogbits... And up the Java moss... since I just have a lot of shrimps now... *Sigh*...

**plumboy21** · 17th Oct 2005, 17:01

Perhaps the liquid fert affected them? Then their bodies were consumed by your shrimps in return? I overdosed on liquid fert yesterday, one cherry shrimp nearly died, but fortunately i scooped it up in time. In fact some of my cherries also went missing & cannot be found. I felt that it could be the higher temp that leads to their fast decomposite. Sound like criminal case...

**Justikanz** · 17th Oct 2005, 17:27

The shrimps inside are ok leh... Endler's are so much tougher than shrimps leh...

**Thirteen** · 17th Oct 2005, 19:17

crawled out??

I had a few shrimps crawled out of my tank once

**Justikanz** · 18th Oct 2005, 00:00

*Sigh*

Found the cause... OVERFEEDING...

I had fallen to the common crime of overfeeding my fish... Tonight when I returned home, my tank was very cloudy!... Found some bodies (finally)... And also some uneaten food... *Sigh*... Last night, I must have accidentally overfed them when I saw the female Endler's eating my shrimplets...

Lost some shrimps too... including my diamonds, crystal-reds and red-nose...

Did a 20% water change... Dun dare to change too much cos still have some shrimps inside... Will change another 20% tomorrow and the day after too...

Have to let the water settle down and hope for the best...

*Sigh* Gek sim... $$ gone down the drain due to a common and stupid mistake that I should have forseen and avoided...

**Justikanz** · 21st Oct 2005, 15:42

Latest updates:

The cloudy water is clearing up... Shrimps are getting out to play but at the same time, discovered some more shrimp bodies...

Pelia was bleached out... Another expensive stuff gone down the drain... Frogbit roots 'burned' and a lot of the frogbits are dying...

Will be getting rid of almost all the frogbits and the pelia... Will be attemping a Taiwan moss lawn by laying the moss on the gravel and then using some gravel to hold them down...

**soulfinder78** · 3rd Nov 2005, 09:58

something not related to yr great looking tank. where can i get ender??? heard that they do fine with shrimps and shrimplets

**|squee|** · 3rd Nov 2005, 11:21

Sounds like something's really wrong with your tank. Good luck on solving the problem.

**Justikanz** · 3rd Nov 2005, 20:05

Problem solved... All Endler's dead, most of the shrimps survived... Cherries start breeding again... Wondering if I should re-introduce Endler's now... Cos they do hunt down shrimplets... Maybe I should wait till the shrimp population to establish... Introduced Taiwan moss and more CRS... Will post pics later... Trying to tie the moss to metal grids...

Soulfinder, Kingfisher (the shop) used to have Endler's on sale... but no more liao... If you are interested, PM me the price you wanna pay and I'll ask my friend who has stock and is complaining of overpopulation (but dun bear to sell)...

But do be aware that they do actively hunt shrimplets in small tanks...

Btw, would rice fish or lamp eyes be ok good with the shrimps in a 1ft cube?

**Justikanz** · 16th Nov 2005, 11:34

Hi hi... Made some changes since the Endlers gone to fish heaven...

Comments, please?

The MM died out in the massacre too, which I am now suspecting is caused by Excel OD rather than purely overfeeding... The Limnophilia sessiflora is doing VERY well... Using the cuttings to 'cushion' the back of the biggest rock...

Anyway, since the tank temp can reach 21C, I tot I'll let it remain a shrimp only tank...

Added CRS, Diamond, blue and bee shrimps to the cherries and red-nose. Ramshorns breeding like nobody's business...

Also have daphnia/water fleas inside the tank breeding... Maybe the moderators can change the name of the thread to 'Freshwater Invert Tank'.

Some pics:

And I love the Marsilea sp. in this tank:

**Fei Miao** · 16th Nov 2005, 11:51

Wow, 22.8ºC love that temp. How did you achieve that?( air-con room?)

Perhaps you can plant cyperus helferi at the back to hide the pipe. Your Marimo ball seems getting brown.. are you going to remove it?

**Justikanz** · 16th Nov 2005, 11:58

Tank only reach that temperature when I'm at home and on the aircon... In the day when I am at work, think can hit almost 28C!... There's also a fan blowing whenever the light is switched on...

Yes, will remove the Marimo ball...

Trying to see if it can pull thru... It also suffered badly during the Endler massacre...

Cyrerus helferi? Hmm... need to check on the plant first...

Was hoping the Java moss and hornwort can grow to cover... But moss seem to be turning brown also... Dunno if also due to that horrible event mentioned...

That little space on the left not covered by the moss will be planted with hairgrass... What do you think?

Thanks!