Crystal Shrimp Population continue to Bloom, had decided to reduce the feeding to see if it help to control the population. Opae Ula seem to be hiding during the cold thunder storm at the beginning of January, they only became more active when the weather became warm and sunny. The breeder told me that he notice that they are more active and breed more when the weather become cold during the end of the year, that is something completely different from Crystal Shrimp which seem to breed during mid year warmer weather.
Baby Cabbage is ready for harvest after a month, it had grow beyond our expectation. There seem to be always one vegetable which grow to a very big size in the large tray, the other one is Beet Root which Sixth Aunt give us last year. It was suppose to be Micro Green but it had grow into a normal plant instead, we harvest the leaves and bring it to Sixth Aunt house. She is very excited when she saw it as a bundle, she also measure the sugar content and the result is also beyond her expectation.
Never expect the Marimo Ball to grow in Blackish Water, it had become an obstacle for the Opae Ula to overcome as they doesn't seem to be able to see the fine thread and always got tangle in it. My mom had been very childish and went to my room without my permission to shake the bottle, she is unable to see the Opae Ula and try to make them swim out. She had been doing it for a few times until I got piss off when I discover that she had topple the Coral Fan and cause some damage to it.
Crystal Shrimp Mass Orgy
Opae Ula on Sea Shell
Marimo Ball Grow in Blackish Water
Baby Cabbage
Finally decided to get some Mini Mexican Crayfish, Sixth Uncle had given me a lot of Lava Rock. I was planning to use the tank for water conditioning as I start to find increase in fatality on Crystal Shrimp, I also change the Water Filter Element as it had been used for six months. I am not sure why but I found mosquitos breeding in the tank even though I had a sponge filter with air bubble to agitate the water surface. As I find it troublesome to pick out the larvae one by one to feed the fish, I decided to use the tank for other life form.
As I am worried that the Mini Mexican Crayfish will harm my fishes, I decided to get some Danio for matching them. As Danio swim faster, it became very hard for the Crayfish to catch them. The other fishes also seem to be lazy and like to lay on sponge filter, drift wood and pebbles to sleep at night. The Lava Rock seem to form a perfect environment for the Crayfish to explore and hide with a lot of hole and opening crack for them to wander around. But they also seem to behave like Crystal Shrimp and like to climb to high ground.
Manage to find Horn Nerite Snail and Rabbit Snail to help with cleaning the tanks, it will save me a lot of time as I had became lazy. Their cleaning abilities are beyond my expectation, at least they are more effective as compare to Otocinclus Catfish and Yamato Shrimp. I also decided to get more Yamato Shrimp to help with clearing the regrowth of Black Bread Algae, Siamese Algae Eater seem to become lazy after they grow big.
Found a Baby Rabbit Snail few days after, not sure if it was born inside the tank or came together with the bigger one. As I do not see any egg as shown in the YouTube Video, I am not sure if it is really born inside the tank. Horn Nerite Snail doesn't survive long, they start to die after few days. Not sure if it is because of the Hydra Removal Powder that remain in the tank that is affecting them, just hope that the Rabbit Snail will be able to survive longer.
As the snail will give off a lot of ammonia when they die and rot, it had cause a lot of fatalities in all my tank. I first notice the dead of two Otocinclus Catfish, then I also notice two Mini Mexican Crayfish are affected. There is one Neon Tetra also found dead but it had been very weak since before Chinese New Year so it should not be affected by the snail. The good thing is the Crystal Shrimp death seem to reduce back to normal as the snail did help with cleaning up the tank especially the sand and pebbles.
I will still have to clean the glass once in a while but it had help by reducing the amount of work for cleaning the substrates. To further make it easier to manage, I transfer the remaining Mini Mexican Crayfish and Danio to the Fish Tank. The Marimo Ball which had grown a lot had been clear up for the better living of Opae Ula, the additional growth seem to be like fine thread or candy floss.
Mini Mexican Crayfish
Horn Nerite Snail
Close Up of Mini Mexican Crayfish
Birth of Baby Danio
Baby Danio never survive, think they got eaten by the Crystal Shrimp. Within 3 days they reduce from 8 to only 1 or 2, then the remaining one survive for about a week before it completely disappear. Guess it is very hard to breed fish as I do not have enough tanks to isolate them completely, at least the Crystal Shrimp will not eat the young one so it is much easier to breed.
The good new is I manage to find another Baby Rabbit Snail clinging on to the Drift Wood while I am cleaning the Fish Tank. I decided to transfer it to the Shrimp Tank for easy monitoring, as the Fish Tank got too many Drift Wood blocking my view it is very hard for me to spot them.
