Planted Apothecary Jar RCS

I am going to start a 5 gallon apothecary jar Red Cherry Shrimp 'tank' for my mother inlaw. Its just one of those walmart all glass jars with lid. I am looking for any tips or suggestions you all may have.

Will be using a small portion of healthy substrate (eco sand[forgot brand] & gravel) from another tank with white sugar sand layered on top - 40/60 healthy tank water/spring water.

I am still debating what plants to go with, as I do not have many available. Possibly baby tears across the bottom and for sure some nano marimo balls. And since I have such small amount of plants available, I figure I will just end up using a little bit of anything I can propagate.

Any tips on keeping this healthy, as there will be no aeration or filtration. I figure if I plant properly, they and the shrimp will take care of any mess. I will be using small bits of algae wafers I figure, occasional blanched squash or what have you.

Would it be a 'bad' idea to toss an MTS or two in there? Or would those horny little trumpet snails take things too far and wreck havoc?



edit: Looking closely into my shrimp tank, I noticed at least 1 deep red large shrimp with what appears to be green stuff on her belly - looks just like the web pics of their eggs. !!!!! Hoorah!

Its a bad cell pic and the water is still cloudy. Also, the plants are cuttings so it will take some time to grow in. I will be using a 6500k spiral cfl with aluminum reflector that fits perfectly on top at least for the time being to get the plants going strong then hope to have it by a bright window after that.



5 gallon - a bit less than 3 gallons in there though.
1 ?? grass species that came with an order of RCS.
1 ?? but possibly Didiplis diandra came with same RCS order as grass above.
2 Hygrophila difformi cuttings.
2 Acorus gramineus 'dwarf ogon'.
3 Nano 'Marimo balls'.
5 Red Cherry Shrimp.
2 Freshly dried, washed then boiled Magnolia leaves.
1 guppy fry that is only in there temporarily then moving back to its home tank.
Same substrate/water/etc. as listed below.


Would adding MTS be a bad idea?

That is really cool. It looks great

I must warm you though- I had one of those once jars and had it set up similar to your and then I made the mistake of trying to move it (since it was small enough)- the thing cracked in half. It is smart not to put more water in it- I don't think they are dsigner for much weight. If you must move it- I suggest you take out a bunch of the water

Julie

I would not put MTS in any tank . I made that mistake as a "Newbie " several years ago ! I still have a couple of tanks that are basically over run with them . Even more than a dozen assassin snails can not keep up with them !
Ray

Your RCs and you mts basically do the same job clean debris from the tank...if you want a snail try a nerite since they do not breed in freshwater. Nice looking nano set up

I noticed at least one MTS in there already, as they are in my RCS breeding tank. I have been picking them out of the breeder tank (my first attempt) one by one dropping them in with the corys/loaches.

Thanks. I will try and get a better pic with a real camera once the water settles out and the plants grow in a bit.

Very nice! I'm inspired!

I'd get rid of those snails and get one of those spiked Nerites. They would do the job and really make it look prehistoric along with the shrimp.

Of course, being the moss conesiour - I'm going to recommend some mosses. Weeping moss would stay low growing and make a nice low maintainance carpet that your shrimp will absolutely LOVE!

All the shrimp died and some 'white hair mold' UNDERWATER looking stuff decided to rent some space out. But it has thus since died off and is dissipating. Not sure what it was, but I am going to let it go for a few more weeks with just the snails/baby guppy and plants, then add another round of shrimp later. Hopefully it works out haha, as I have had a lot of friends/family ask me to make them some as well. I would like to be able to give them gifts that would not die in a week. haha Practice practice practice!

keep tryin and let us know what tweaks you made. I think we're all waiting to hear about it; it's quite inspiring!

Added 1 male and 1 female RCS last week. So far, so good.

And the RCS in my other tank are mating like crazy! Babies all over!

The water is staying extremely clear, the white 'mold' stuff is gone and I added a 'lucky bamboo' Dracaena, I will try and get a new pic in the next couple of days.

They did not make it. I do not understand other than there is ONE MTS in there making babies. Does there gel egg sacs kill other creatures by sucking up nutrients or somehow blocking oxygen? The water is extremely clear but is 'thick' now, things 'float' that should not float.

question: have you checked your temperature in the Jar water? My shrimp 5g tank with one spiral lite heated the water to 90deg... plus, if water is too hot... havoc can be seen quickly. I lifted the lite off the tank and it has worked better for me. Now i am able to keep the temps around 79d....

MTS snails are live bearers . So , no is the answer to that question .
Sorry for your loss . Ray

There is only filtered sunlight through a West facing window. House temps in the 60s-70s. I have not checked the water temp though.

I wonder what kind of snails these are then. ONE made LOTS of gel blobs all over the place and is getting much larger than the other snails in the main shrimp tank. They came in plants so I have no clue what they are at this point. It likes to float upside down on the surface tension of the water and open its weird looking mouth making little bubbles.

Google " Ramshorn snails " And " Common Pond Snails "

Definitely not ramshorn. Pretty sure it is that common pond snail.

In the last 3 days, the plants have all started dying and lots more gel egg sacs. Time for a redux I guess.

Thank You so much for your help.

I killed off the whole dang thing. I put it outside in the sun, then got sick and left it there. The Acorus did not even live as its been 95 degrees. Well, now I have a snail free jar to try again! :D

lifeisgood wrote:

I would not put MTS in any tank . I made that mistake as a "Newbie " several years ago ! I still have a couple of tanks that are basically over run with them . Even more than a dozen assassin snails can not keep up with them !
Ray

mts are livebearing snails. and other than being an aesthetic nuisance and occassionally clogging a filter they are rather harmless. perhaps its another problem

I might agree with you except it is only in 2 out of 44 tanks that have the over population problem.

wow how packed IS your tank for that to be a problem?

One is a 30 long with a breeding colony of Neolamprologus multifasciatus (and about 30 Assassin snails ), and the other is a 55 with 7 juvie Albino Carolina Swallowtail Peacocks . ?????