CRS destorying my HC carpet

[Ingen]

Hi,

Anyone experience similar issues before? I recently introduce 20 CRS to my wall mount with established HC carpet, and now I have patches of HC pulled out and I noticed they are digging into other areas and uprooting other parts as well . Took me awhile to grow the carpet and seeing it getting torn out bit by bit is quite disheartening...

Any brilliant ideas on how to reduce or prevent them from digging further without having to removed the shrimps from the tank hahha?

[Ipit]

i noticed similar issues when i added Malayan Shrimp in my Glosso carpet tank as well. They are actually not digging the soil literally but the picking up and putting asside resemble as though they are indeed digging. The Malayan crew did uproot some Glosso but i don mind as long as it does its job to clear the algae issues im having.

[Urban Aquaria]

I experienced that too... small carpet plants are very susceptible to getting picked at and plucked out by shrimps. Luckily you are using on CRS shrimps which are small... the larger yamato will pretty much uproot entire carpets of HC.

Though actually the shrimps are just doing their jobs, the picked out HC are usually those with weak or rotting bottoms, so they will eventually detach anyways. The shrimps just accelerate that process. What i did was just trim off the dead floating portions and replant the healthy parts.

[milk_vanilla]

+1 with urban,

If your keep your plant healthy, the growth should faster than what would be uproot. However in the other side, if your plant dying and melted , it's their instinct to make it faster demolished. While taking consider the size and amount of your shrimps colony too.



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[Ingen]

I see. I should trim it soon and hope for the best.

[felix_fx2]

best method is keep on planting.
once have a foothold, things will be better.

what urban mention is right, yamato is worse... 1st hand experience...

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[qngwn]

Competition between whether you can replant faster.. Or the shrimp uproot faster..

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[Dodofish]

Competition between whether you can replant faster.. Or the shrimp uproot faster..

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this reminds me when i just planted glosso and insert an army of 100 malayan shrimps.

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[Ipit]

Glosso roots is rather deep. I suppose if its planted for quite some time it should not be so much affected.

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[Dodofish]

Glosso roots is rather deep. I suppose if its planted for quite some time it should not be so much affected.

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Yes i thought so too. But i only realized its hard to removed glosso when they start to intervine each other when they spread. The intercrossing nodes make them strong. I think their roots are also very fragile.

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[mukyo]

just checking, if it was tied to mesh and bury the mesh, it will be stronger ya?

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[Ipit]

I suppose its like sticks.. single easy to break intertwined harder. From what i observed with my glosso that is at the front. The roots really go all the way to the full depth of the soil and if pulled out it will pull out some grains of soil along.

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[Dodofish]

I suppose its like sticks.. single easy to break intertwined harder. From what i observed with my glosso that is at the front. The roots really go all the way to the full depth of the soil and if pulled out it will pull out some grains of soil along.

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Yes. And with the lawn inter crossing each other they somehow become a piece. I think this makes it harder for shrimps to pull them out. But anyway just keep planting, it just remind me of my folly to insert a big army. But yours is crs so it should still be manageable. Maybe you can also consider getting a internal breeding box with holes to keep your shrimps while you wait for hc to root.

[Ingen]

I'm pretty much giving up in the HC carpet. Came home and saw a new patch exposing the soil. Give them a week or two and I think it will have more soil than HC left hahah. I have decreased the co2 due to the shrimp thus I doubt the HC can grow faster than being uprooted.



What other carpet can I attempt in a shrimp tank?

[Urban Aquaria]

I'm pretty much giving up in the HC carpet. Came home and saw a new patch exposing the soil. Give them a week or two and I think it will have more soil than HC left hahah. I have decreased the co2 due to the shrimp thus I doubt the HC can grow faster than being uprooted.

What other carpet can I attempt in a shrimp tank?

Maybe try Tropica Eleocharis sp. 'mini'? I've had good experience with it so far as a main carpet plant.

Easy to plant, easy to grow, stays nice and short without requiring constant trimming, looks like a neat grass lawn... can be planted deep in the soil and grows underground runners, so even when newly planted and growing, shrimps can't pull them out.

[felix_fx2]

Moss, riccia, E Tennlus, hairgrass.

Ingen, in my own words. you should have grown the HC before adding shrimps. If the carpet getting "mole attack from shrimps" tear the carpet and replant. Insert deeper so only abit of the HC protrude. They will still dig out some, but not as badly...

[Ingen]

Moss, riccia, E Tennlus, hairgrass.

Ingen, in my own words. you should have grown the HC before adding shrimps. If the carpet getting "mole attack from shrimps" tear the carpet and replant. Insert deeper so only abit of the HC protrude. They will still dig out some, but not as badly...

My HC carpet is at least 6-8 months old and is rather dense with a uniform one piece throughout. However, its currently being ripped of patches by patches. The shrimps start from corners that are near the rocks or glass panels and tunnel in slowly. Once they managed to tunnel in a space opening, reinforcement from other shrimps will bulldoze and big chunk of HC will be lifted up daily.

Sad, but perhaps they are giving me a reason to touch the scape which i have not changed for the past 6-8 months.

[Ingen]

Thinking of converting it to a low tech tank if the HC are gone, better for the shrimps too. The rest of the plants I have inside are US Fissidens, Flame Moss, anubia petite and some unidentified mosses probably Java and christmas.

Hairgrass, E Tennlus and Riccia hard to grow in low tech tank?

[felix_fx2]

My HC carpet is at least 6-8 months old and is rather dense with a uniform one piece throughout. However, its currently being ripped of patches by patches. The shrimps start from corners that are near the rocks or glass panels and tunnel in slowly. Once they managed to tunnel in a space opening, reinforcement from other shrimps will bulldoze and big chunk of HC will be lifted up daily.

Sad, but perhaps they are giving me a reason to touch the scape which i have not changed for the past 6-8 months.

that's the famous mole attack I mention...

same thing happened to me before, when I got lazy to trim and yamato started "moling".... ended up replant with daily floaters...

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[Ingen]

Hahahah, same same, I got lazy to trim two months back... If only I knew... hahah.