Massive Algae

My tank has been infested with algae in the last two months and they managed to consolidate in one rock which happened to be the lava rock with star moss (as can be seen in the last previous post). Today I decided that it has to go......

See how massive they look, I thought of rolling them into a ball like marima moss but decided that my tank should look pretty without their presence.

Now I can enjoy my other mosses clearer without them covered with algae.

A lazy owner's tank

I started with a litt bits of different flora here and there in my 1.5feet tank, and than let nature take its course in my low tech tank (no chiller, no chemical). Here is the end result...which look as good as a nice forest for shrimps and fishes.

Land on "Fire"

Few months ago, all my different shrimps were wiped out due to some careless mistake I made - specifically using chemical to clear cloudy water. Since than, I decided to have a homogeneous "fire-red" only tank. Thus I started with a humble beginning - 10 Fire Shrimps (as shown in the top photo - two of which were seen loitering in an empty floor).

Many months later, the few humble "sparks" of fire I have started became wild and "blazed" my aquarium into "flame" of red. (2nd photo) and so are the creeping plants that never want to lose out in the race. However, not many of the shrimps resemble their ancestor (large shrimp with intense red color appears in 3rd photo)....hmmm...

Birth Control? No such policy.

At least not in the shrimp kingdom. The above photos speak volume (literally).

Fishes in shrimp tank

The second photo is my favourite 5 pieces Harlequin Rasbora. I bought them because of their luminous orangy color. Ever since I kept them in my shrimp tank, they managed to eradicate the population of seed shrimps and tiny white worms. I hardly noticed any pesky planaria too. However, they do harm tiny shrimplets that swam (float) carelessly in open area unless those shrimplets hide in bushy mosses or walked next to the adult shrimps until they are big enough to appear alone before their shy prey. Any shrimplet that is bigger than its mouth will be spared as meal. As such, it is not advisable to keep too many of them even though aquarium hobbyist think 10 is an ideal number.

The top photo shows another type of dwarf Rasbora that loves to swim in group too. They are small and, unlike the Harlequin Rasbora, harmless to my shrimplets. If I have more spaces, I will definitely keep more of this fish. They feed on tiny tetra bits (sometime a little powdery form) which I fed to my shrimps. They do feed on tiny white worms if they spotted them floating around, not that such worms are common in my tank now. Unfortunately, the above fishes were not able to rid the button snails in my tank....hmmm so nobody is perfect in his world.