FreshlyGettinSalty
New Member
What is a Biotope?
Coming from 10 plus years of freshwater planted tanks and biotopes I noticed the severe lack of biotope style aquariums in the salty side of the fish keeping hobby we all love so much . Biotope style aquariums are designed to replicate a specific environment mimicking the features found naturally in the area to promote the most natural behavior patterns for the species who will inhabit it. For example a biotope of the Amazon river basin may feature lots of driftwood, leaf litter and botanicals or if mimicking the Great Lakes of Africa the tank would be scaped with lots of rocks and stones of varying sizes forming caves and crevices the fish would use for refuge and breeding. Some people even go as far as only using plants and hardscape only found in the area they are replicating, this isn’t necessary but is a fun route you can go on if you are a research lover and don’t mind sourcing those niche items . I found that biotope aquariums are looked over so much in saltwater yet are a staple in fresh water. So after starting this yee pico craze I knew whatever i decided to stock the tank with I wanted it to be a biotope for an invertebrate common to many in the salt water hobby . The Pistol Shrimp .
Why a Pistol Shrimp
Being new in the salt water hobby and doing plenty of research there were two critters that were recommended on basically every beginner critter list . The Watch Man Goby and Pistol shrimp . The two come from a very easy environment to replicate in home aquaria, the rubble zone. A reef rubble zone is a microhabitat of broken coral and rock fragments, found naturally on the seafloor corals are very sparse here and so is shelter leading to the evolution of various burrowing species. After watching videos and reading on the symbiotic relationship between the two I couldn’t help but be intrigued. I quickly noticed a love hate relationship between the two and most hobbyists, with the pistol shrimp receiving most of the hate . It’s understandable why they’d get the blunt end of the stick, they eat , sleep , and breathe to dig. The pistol shrimp is constantly excavating and renovating its burrow and in most cases this isn’t the best for having a beautiful mixed reef display tank but would be perfect for what I was beginning to imagine.
Tank build
I started the tank by lining rocks along the middle in attempts to promote an ant farm effect while the shrimp constructed its burrow. The substrate I used is the caribsea oolite sand. I had lots of small pieces of crushed rock from different aquascaping attempts and I mixed this into the sand. I poured this mixture around the larger rocks I lined up in the middle . Since the Yee tank is only 2.3 gallons I opted out of adding the Watchman Goby because after providing the deep sand bed you see in the pictures below the water volume is maybe a gallon. I added some small pieces of rocks and shells on the surface to imitate the protruding rocks and various other debris you see in rubble zones in the ocean . I added the treasure chest decor for fun , the “gold” bars inside are light and I’m curious to see if the pistol shrimp will use any of them during construction.
What equipment are you using?
The tech in this tank is super simple. I upgraded the stock pump to a sicce nano pump currently being ran on the lowest setting . I’m using a sponge and filter floss in the filtration area to help with the constant particles that will be present in this tank from the pistol shrimp moving sand . I’m using a 10 watt aqueon heater preset to 78 degrees. The light you see being used is the stock light that came with the Yee peninsula. It’s an adjustable spotlight that produces a decent shimmer. It’s not very strong but illuminates the tank enough for me to see what the shrimp is up to and probably will be enough to grow the corals you see in the tank lol. I plan on adding an ato as well.
What type of pistol shrimp did you choose?
I decided to go for a tiger pistol shrimp due to them having a larger size and being a bit hardier than others from research I’ve done . I may add another in the future to try to get a pair but that may be wishful thinking as i haven’t seen any way to sex them online .
Maintenance issues?
Maintenance should be very simple, scrape the glass here and there , clean the pump and sponge , replace filter floss , and drop a pellet in to the shrimpd burrow every couple days . I think I can remedy the spots in the sand that have air bubbles but just prodding the sand with something occasionally but the longer the shrimp is in there I’m hoping during his excavations he will be stirring up the sand enough to avoid to many air pockets and what not .
All in all this was an extremely cheap setup most of the Aquascape and filter material I already had on hand but even if you didn’t I think this setup can be done for under 100 dollars easy shrimp included . In the future I may take out the current substrate and mix in some miracle mud to add more variety for the shrimp to really go crazy with their burrows but for now I am satisfied with my budget biotope build .
I will be uploading this to reef2reef with updates and hopefully others will join in to share their yee creations !
Coming from 10 plus years of freshwater planted tanks and biotopes I noticed the severe lack of biotope style aquariums in the salty side of the fish keeping hobby we all love so much . Biotope style aquariums are designed to replicate a specific environment mimicking the features found naturally in the area to promote the most natural behavior patterns for the species who will inhabit it. For example a biotope of the Amazon river basin may feature lots of driftwood, leaf litter and botanicals or if mimicking the Great Lakes of Africa the tank would be scaped with lots of rocks and stones of varying sizes forming caves and crevices the fish would use for refuge and breeding. Some people even go as far as only using plants and hardscape only found in the area they are replicating, this isn’t necessary but is a fun route you can go on if you are a research lover and don’t mind sourcing those niche items . I found that biotope aquariums are looked over so much in saltwater yet are a staple in fresh water. So after starting this yee pico craze I knew whatever i decided to stock the tank with I wanted it to be a biotope for an invertebrate common to many in the salt water hobby . The Pistol Shrimp .
Why a Pistol Shrimp
Being new in the salt water hobby and doing plenty of research there were two critters that were recommended on basically every beginner critter list . The Watch Man Goby and Pistol shrimp . The two come from a very easy environment to replicate in home aquaria, the rubble zone. A reef rubble zone is a microhabitat of broken coral and rock fragments, found naturally on the seafloor corals are very sparse here and so is shelter leading to the evolution of various burrowing species. After watching videos and reading on the symbiotic relationship between the two I couldn’t help but be intrigued. I quickly noticed a love hate relationship between the two and most hobbyists, with the pistol shrimp receiving most of the hate . It’s understandable why they’d get the blunt end of the stick, they eat , sleep , and breathe to dig. The pistol shrimp is constantly excavating and renovating its burrow and in most cases this isn’t the best for having a beautiful mixed reef display tank but would be perfect for what I was beginning to imagine.
Tank build
I started the tank by lining rocks along the middle in attempts to promote an ant farm effect while the shrimp constructed its burrow. The substrate I used is the caribsea oolite sand. I had lots of small pieces of crushed rock from different aquascaping attempts and I mixed this into the sand. I poured this mixture around the larger rocks I lined up in the middle . Since the Yee tank is only 2.3 gallons I opted out of adding the Watchman Goby because after providing the deep sand bed you see in the pictures below the water volume is maybe a gallon. I added some small pieces of rocks and shells on the surface to imitate the protruding rocks and various other debris you see in rubble zones in the ocean . I added the treasure chest decor for fun , the “gold” bars inside are light and I’m curious to see if the pistol shrimp will use any of them during construction.
What equipment are you using?
The tech in this tank is super simple. I upgraded the stock pump to a sicce nano pump currently being ran on the lowest setting . I’m using a sponge and filter floss in the filtration area to help with the constant particles that will be present in this tank from the pistol shrimp moving sand . I’m using a 10 watt aqueon heater preset to 78 degrees. The light you see being used is the stock light that came with the Yee peninsula. It’s an adjustable spotlight that produces a decent shimmer. It’s not very strong but illuminates the tank enough for me to see what the shrimp is up to and probably will be enough to grow the corals you see in the tank lol. I plan on adding an ato as well.
What type of pistol shrimp did you choose?
I decided to go for a tiger pistol shrimp due to them having a larger size and being a bit hardier than others from research I’ve done . I may add another in the future to try to get a pair but that may be wishful thinking as i haven’t seen any way to sex them online .
Maintenance issues?
Maintenance should be very simple, scrape the glass here and there , clean the pump and sponge , replace filter floss , and drop a pellet in to the shrimpd burrow every couple days . I think I can remedy the spots in the sand that have air bubbles but just prodding the sand with something occasionally but the longer the shrimp is in there I’m hoping during his excavations he will be stirring up the sand enough to avoid to many air pockets and what not .
All in all this was an extremely cheap setup most of the Aquascape and filter material I already had on hand but even if you didn’t I think this setup can be done for under 100 dollars easy shrimp included . In the future I may take out the current substrate and mix in some miracle mud to add more variety for the shrimp to really go crazy with their burrows but for now I am satisfied with my budget biotope build .
I will be uploading this to reef2reef with updates and hopefully others will join in to share their yee creations !
