jcallesano
Non-member
Good morning BRS,
I posted first in the welcome section and told a little about myself.
I am a beginner and have always been interested and fascinated by salt water aquariums since a child. I finally spend a little money and got myself a 12g nano deluxe system. Its been running for a week or so. Purchased and installed, live sand, live rock, new heater, saltwater with no chlorine(used PRIME) correct salinity, pH.
I purchased a pH buffer just in case I need it, I have used a little to it so far.
I have a separate pH test and things are normal (I think) 8.3-8.4
Also purchased a 6 in 1 test kit that does the nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, hardness, pH, salinity.
My tank:
temp-77-81F*****
salinity-10.24
pH-8.4
*****this flucuates in the morning and when i get home from work its always higher. I use from water bottles that are frozen to lower the temp...is this ok. I cant afford a chiller, especially for a little tank.
As I am not very impatient, I know this is not a hobby to rush into. I waited to jump right in with inverts for days and got some critters yesterday from a fish store in Boston where I live.(skiptons on mass ave)
I purchased 3 hermit crabs, 1 cleaner/skunk shrimp, and 1 peppermint shrimp(think thats what hes called)
I put all the bags in an extra tank I have and tilted it up against the wall so the water was deeper for them. I put my hose in my show tank and began the drip acclimation process. I did this for about 1.5 hours. They were moving around the tank with this process was happening and everything seemed to be in order.
I put the hermits in first, as soon as they touched the sand they were off running around. This morning they are still moving and going through the sand.
The smaller shrimp was fine through the whole process and when I put him in the he tank he ran around the tank all night in circles and seems to fine.
Cleaner shrimp was skittish from the start. He moved away from the inmates in the tank during acclimation and didn't really move when I put him in the real tank. I tried to move him around a bit to see id he would get going but not too much happened. He climbed to a lower rock and stood there for a long time. I went to bed and could still see the little shrimp running around like a racecar. Woke up this morning to find the cleaner shrimp on its side behind the rock he stood upon the night before. I poked him and moved him around but no response.
So need less to say I got rid of him. I was looking online and some say that they play dead and get very lethargic in home aquariums. ??? And sometimes molt. But the unresponsiveness brought me to the conclusion that he was dead.
Now, Im going to feel like a real idiot if I got rid of a live animal that was just unresponsive at the time.
What do you think of all this? Even though it was not a 60 dollar fish, I still dont want to throw money down the drain, literally.
Thank you for taking the time to read this for I am still learning and reading all day long. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also interested in possibly having someone come to my place and show me a thing or two about my tank and give me the guidelines to follow.(after i meet some of you guys first)
Best,
Joe Callesano
I posted first in the welcome section and told a little about myself.
I am a beginner and have always been interested and fascinated by salt water aquariums since a child. I finally spend a little money and got myself a 12g nano deluxe system. Its been running for a week or so. Purchased and installed, live sand, live rock, new heater, saltwater with no chlorine(used PRIME) correct salinity, pH.
I purchased a pH buffer just in case I need it, I have used a little to it so far.
I have a separate pH test and things are normal (I think) 8.3-8.4
Also purchased a 6 in 1 test kit that does the nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, hardness, pH, salinity.
My tank:
temp-77-81F*****
salinity-10.24
pH-8.4
*****this flucuates in the morning and when i get home from work its always higher. I use from water bottles that are frozen to lower the temp...is this ok. I cant afford a chiller, especially for a little tank.
As I am not very impatient, I know this is not a hobby to rush into. I waited to jump right in with inverts for days and got some critters yesterday from a fish store in Boston where I live.(skiptons on mass ave)
I purchased 3 hermit crabs, 1 cleaner/skunk shrimp, and 1 peppermint shrimp(think thats what hes called)
I put all the bags in an extra tank I have and tilted it up against the wall so the water was deeper for them. I put my hose in my show tank and began the drip acclimation process. I did this for about 1.5 hours. They were moving around the tank with this process was happening and everything seemed to be in order.
I put the hermits in first, as soon as they touched the sand they were off running around. This morning they are still moving and going through the sand.
The smaller shrimp was fine through the whole process and when I put him in the he tank he ran around the tank all night in circles and seems to fine.
Cleaner shrimp was skittish from the start. He moved away from the inmates in the tank during acclimation and didn't really move when I put him in the real tank. I tried to move him around a bit to see id he would get going but not too much happened. He climbed to a lower rock and stood there for a long time. I went to bed and could still see the little shrimp running around like a racecar. Woke up this morning to find the cleaner shrimp on its side behind the rock he stood upon the night before. I poked him and moved him around but no response.
So need less to say I got rid of him. I was looking online and some say that they play dead and get very lethargic in home aquariums. ??? And sometimes molt. But the unresponsiveness brought me to the conclusion that he was dead.
Now, Im going to feel like a real idiot if I got rid of a live animal that was just unresponsive at the time.
What do you think of all this? Even though it was not a 60 dollar fish, I still dont want to throw money down the drain, literally.
Thank you for taking the time to read this for I am still learning and reading all day long. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also interested in possibly having someone come to my place and show me a thing or two about my tank and give me the guidelines to follow.(after i meet some of you guys first)
Best,
Joe Callesano
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When you go back to Skiptons talk to Ed, he's the go-to guy in the SW department (he'll be in on Friday if you head over). As for the shrimp- they can be a little sensitive, and you may want to hold off a little while until you try another one. Hermits are pretty hardy and you're probably going to want to get some snails in there as well. Good luck!
