I'm back into the hobby after 20 years and it's all because of Larry the shrimp. I thought this community would get a kick out of the story.
It all started when we purchased (eating) shrimp 2 hours north of us at an Indiana shrimp farm. When Larry and about 8 lbs of his buddies went into their 1 lb bags live, we were assured that they would die in 5 min.
5 hours later when we went to process the shrimp for the freezer, Larry came out of the bag alive. As in, really alive and flapping around. And he didn't die in 5 minutes. My friend couldn't dispatch him and we both felt that after being after 5 hours in the bag and still alive, he deserved a chance. So I quickly put together a plastic bowl with tap water** and pure salt water from the pantry. When it tasted like salt water, I put him in. I fully expected that he wouldn't survive. When he seemed to be recovering, I pulled my 2.5 g tank from the basement, mixed up a bigger batch of water / sea salt and a running filter and put him in. When he survived the night, I bought shrimp food, tank heater, air bubbler, Instant Ocean, and a hydrometer. After balancing the salinity, he was still doing okay.
The next morning Larry the shrimp was still alive. He has a 2.5 gallon saltwater tank with salinity of 1.025 and temps at 77. And he's eating. I added live sand, then live rock. Below is Larry's current tank. He's molted twice and he's thriving.
I used to have a 30 gallon long saltwater aquarium from 1992-1997 so I had experience keeping saltwater fish. I also have a biocube 29 nano tank that that I never setup. Larry will be getting upgraded tank when it finishes cycling.
So I'm back in the hobby and, boy, has it changed alot!
Debra
**My tap water is actually filtered using Aquasana's whole house Rhino with salt-free softener.
It all started when we purchased (eating) shrimp 2 hours north of us at an Indiana shrimp farm. When Larry and about 8 lbs of his buddies went into their 1 lb bags live, we were assured that they would die in 5 min.
5 hours later when we went to process the shrimp for the freezer, Larry came out of the bag alive. As in, really alive and flapping around. And he didn't die in 5 minutes. My friend couldn't dispatch him and we both felt that after being after 5 hours in the bag and still alive, he deserved a chance. So I quickly put together a plastic bowl with tap water** and pure salt water from the pantry. When it tasted like salt water, I put him in. I fully expected that he wouldn't survive. When he seemed to be recovering, I pulled my 2.5 g tank from the basement, mixed up a bigger batch of water / sea salt and a running filter and put him in. When he survived the night, I bought shrimp food, tank heater, air bubbler, Instant Ocean, and a hydrometer. After balancing the salinity, he was still doing okay.
The next morning Larry the shrimp was still alive. He has a 2.5 gallon saltwater tank with salinity of 1.025 and temps at 77. And he's eating. I added live sand, then live rock. Below is Larry's current tank. He's molted twice and he's thriving.
I used to have a 30 gallon long saltwater aquarium from 1992-1997 so I had experience keeping saltwater fish. I also have a biocube 29 nano tank that that I never setup. Larry will be getting upgraded tank when it finishes cycling.
So I'm back in the hobby and, boy, has it changed alot!
Debra
**My tap water is actually filtered using Aquasana's whole house Rhino with salt-free softener.