[abak]

Hi folks I'm new here allthough I've been lurking around the forum reading up on the natural planted tanks for about two months. Just wanted to share my Walstad experiment. Thanks a bunch for Diana for sharing all her knowledge about her methods! I don't think I would have been able to keep any live plants if I hadn't found her book! This bowl was inspired by her article on bowls for pet shrimp the best tank I've ever had so far!

It's about a 2 gallon bowl from the crafts department in Walmart. About 1 inch of earth gro soil with a 1/2 inch sand cap. Plants are some ludwigia, crypts, micro sword, hornwort, and Christmas moss and anubias nana on driftwood. I had a moss ball in there too at first but then removed it when I added the pannywort, ludwigia, and moneywort. For floaters I have frogbit and duckweed.
I just put in a tiny 5 watt heater in there yesterday. Will keep it in there for the winter since the temps where dropping to 67 at night I didn't like that.
It's home to 7 red cherry shrimp and a ramshorn snail that already laid a bunch of eggs. I don't mind the eggs tho as this snail is a cool color and I wouldn't mind more like it

Here it is at a little over two weeks since setup.

 

[abak]

Thanks guys. I tried to upload a picture of the first day of this bowl but my phone is messing up. Will have to try to figure it out later.

Michael I agree on the heater! I ended up taking it out since I had two casualties after putting it in! It warmed the bowl up to 76f over the night and two of my Sakura red shrimps passed away! There where fine until then so I'm pretty sure it's the sudden change in temperature since it's the only change.

What's the deal with that anyway? They were the only ones that where Sakura grade in there too. The rest of my cherries are fine but they are just regular cherry grade and I got them as tiny juveniles unlike the Sakura ones that came in larger adult looking size. Too much inbreeding?? I'm new to shrimps so i have no idea. Anyway I ordered some more shrimps cuz I think they were my last females and I'm down to 5 now I really wanted them to breed so I can add some to my other tanks.

Well lesson learned! If all looks fine then leave it alone!

 

[abak]

Does anyone happen to know if they reproduce at lower temperatures around 65-70??

 

[abak]

Finally uploaded the picture from the startup day. So here is day one.

 

[abak]

And today. Almost three weeks in. The hornwort has grown a lot. The pennywort has reached the surface and the anubia nano grew a new leaf this week and the little bit of green hair algae I had seems to have stopped growing. So hopefully it means it's all settling down and balancing out! I've started to see a lot of pearling the last two days as well. And the shrimps are a really nice red color

The big stem plants that are not in the first picture where added about three days later.

I must say I enjoy this bowl more then my 6 gallon guppy tank

 

[abak]

Thank you

 

[abak]

Thanks guys I'm not good at plant scaping but I kinda like the jungly mess

 

[abak]

Thank you Bbroush that's good to know! I guess I should have posted that question there or looked it up there my bowl has been in the 70-74 range lately so I think I'm good then.

Update, I got a new shipment of cherry shrimp yesterday. I added what looked like two males and two females to the bowl and the rest went into my 6 gallon tank. They are only 1/4 to 1/2 inch and It's hard to tell their sex when they are that small! Except for one of them that looks like an already adult male. But now that I look at my old ones and I'm pretty sure they are almost adult size now as they are much bigger then these new ones. And Now that I have an actual male to compare them too I think I had all females in there before lol im such a newb with these guys! But I'm starting to see what looks like ovaries in one of them! I'm so excited! I've been waiting for these guys to grow up for aver a month now! Hopefully I get some babies in the near feature!

Another thing I noticed is the shrimp in the 6 gal are a lot more active then the ones in the bowl. I don't know if it's because I have a heater keeping it at a steady 75 degrees or because it has some water flow. Or because there are other fish in there maybe. Either way they look happy

 

[abak]

I know what you mean! It's an addicting hobby

 

[abak]

This bowl turned one month on the first I've removed tons of frogbit and duckweed during the month. And I had to remove all but a tiny piece of hornwort a few days ago. It got too big and was blocking a lot of light for the rest of the plants.
All the shrimp seem to be doing good so far. I got them all as regular cherry grade but they all developed a pretty nice deep red color like the Sakuras. Can't complain

 

[abak]

When my frogbit roots start getting too long i usually just stick those into my bigger tank. for some reason it doesn't grow as well in that tank tho. But my guppies do like to pick on the roots..
I'm hoping to get rid of the floaters once the pennywort and ludwigia start growing emergent. They are finally starting to break the surface instead of growing around the bowl submersed. I'm pretty excited

 

[abak]

Figured I will post a two month picture of the shrimp bowl. Unfortunately I'm going to have to take it down in about a month due to moving. I'm hoping to save the plants and shrimp and use it to start a new 29 gallon tank at the new place. If my SO lets me get another tank if not then I'm gonna stick with my 7 gallon bow front for now. This was a cool experiment tho and I'm definitely making the new tank Walstad as well!

 

[abak]

Just another pic from the top. Love how it looks

 

[abak]

Thanks