Apr May Jun 2021 Ecologist Diary

 The Crystal Shrimp behave like Cat, they like to hitch hike and ride on Rabbit Snail like what cat did for Robot Vacuum. The Crystal Shrimp continue to breed, Summer seem to be their Mating Season. The older Shrimp are getting Bigger, they are about 50% longer than the previous limit.

Found another Baby Rabbit Snail crawling on the glass wall while feeding the fish one morning. The older Crystal Shrimp also have deeper color, they use to be yellow but now more like orange. Manage to find Baby Danio at the pail, must have transfer them accidentally when I did the water change.

I was surprised that they are able to survive a week without any food, brought some brine shrimp to feed them to ensure they grow faster. Baby Danio had grown big, now is about the same size as Crystal Shrimp. Three of them remain the original silver color with black stripes, one of them adopt the luminous green color but without stripes.

 

Found another Baby Rabbit Snail just a day later, this one should be the twin of the 4th one. They really like to climb wall, some time they would hide inside the Java Fern. They are very strong, sometime can see them hanging on to the leave and still be able to move side way without falling off.

The Rabbit Snail usually only breed one offspring per month, but seem like they are breeding one every two weeks in my Aquarium. The condition must be very good for them, and they must have found sufficient amount of food source in order for them to decided to expand their population.

 

 

Hitch Hiker

 

Pregnant Lady

 

One Big and One Small
 

4th Baby Rabbit Snail

 

Crystal Shrimp feeding on Spirulina Tablet

 

Baby Danio grew big

 

5th Baby Rabbit Snail

3 Baby Rabbit Snail climbing wall

 

5 Baby Rabbit Snail side by side from Big to Small

 

Baby Rabbit Snail hanging on

Starting to see a slight increase in population for Fire Red and Sunkist Orange Crystal Shrimp, I hope their population will thrive well to bring balance to the Yellow Bumble Bee dominated society. The Rabbit Snail had been chewing on the Java Fern Leave, I had seem a lot of holes on the Java Fern Leaves which I had never seen before until I start to keep Rabbit Snail in my Aquarium.

Passion Fruit had form a natural shelter over the Large Tray with the help of wire mesh I brought from online shopping website. Vegetables continue to thrive in Long Pot while new sprout is growing in Large Tray after recent harvest. The setup near to the lift lobby now become a mix of random plants, I had remove the old label to prevent confusion.

 

Fire Red Crystal Shrimp

 

 Sunkist Orange Crystal Shrimp

 

 Passion Fruit forming Shelter

 

Vegetables growing well

 

 

Mix of Random Plants
 

Found a Neon Tetra with swollen eye, did a search and found that it is Popeye Syndrome. Fluid accumulate behind the eye, it is not a serious case but the eye will become blind. Found another Baby Rabbit Snail when cleaning the Fish Tank, this will be the 7th one so far.

 

Notice that the Bak Choi had Flower, as my wife is busy with her work and my mom only harvest the Lettuce for cooking. The Bak Choi was left to grow until it start producing seeds. Another Baby Rabbit Snail had been found while cleaning Fish Tank, decided to transfer all the Adult Rabbit Snail to Fish Tank for Breeding.

I notice that the Java Fern at Shrimp Tank had been growing very well, so I decided to trim it and transfer some to Fish Tank. I went to the Aquarium Shop to get some Drift Wood for weighting down the Java Fern, when I was securing the water plant to the drift wood I discover another Baby Rabbit Snail at the Fish Tank. 

 

Guess the 8th and 9th Baby Rabbit Snail are twin like the 4th and 5th one, I think they should be from the same mother. At this rate I might continue to get lucky and breed a lot of Rabbit Snail, not sure if any of my friends or relative would be interested to keep them.

Found another Baby Rabbit Snail the next day morning after I transfer all the Adult Rabbit Snail to Fish Tank, guess this time round it is a Triplet instead of Twin. One of my Army Friend is interested to get some for his Nano Fish Tank, he will be adopting a few from the existing one which I had.

Give 4 Baby Rabbit Snail to my Army Friend, he actually only wanted 2. I convince him that my Rabbit Snail will continue to breed more and it will be better for him to have more for effective cleaning and breeding too.

Found another Baby Rabbit Snail the next day morning in the Fish Tank, the strange thing is that it is not active. Not sure if it is dead or just an empty shell, transfer to Shrimp Tank for observation. Actually since they had breed so much, it doesn't really matter whether it is successful or not.

Yamato Shrimp continue to have Eggs, most of the larvae that hatch had become food for the fish. The Opae Ula had not start to breed until now, pending observation of their breeding process to ensure success of the Yamato Shrimp breeding in the future. 

The previous Baby Rabbit Snail is a failure, but I manage to find another one few days later. Also manage to see two Rabbit Snail acting weird which seem like Mating to me.

 

Rabbit Snail feeding on Spirulina Tablet
 

Neon Tetra Right Eye Swollen

 

7th Baby Rabbit Snail
 

Bak Choi had Flower

 

8th Baby Rabbit Snail
 

9th Baby Rabbit Snail
 

10th Baby Rabbit Snail
 

Baby Rabbit Snail in Shrimp Tank

 

11th Baby Rabbit Snail

 

Two Yamato Shrimp having Eggs
 

12th Baby Rabbit Snail

 

Rabbit Snail Mating
 

Oct Nov Dec 2020 Breeder Diary

 The breeding of Yamato Shrimp had failed, the salinity of the water is very hard to maintain at a stable condition. After much thought I decided to let the fishes had it as food. Wife finally decided to move the two Neon Tetra back to the Fish Tank after seeing them eating the Baby Crystal Shrimp.

Not sure what actually happen, but a lot of plant seem to start blooming flower. The first one is Kai Lan, then is Chilli, and even Kang Kong which had been harvest a few times also start to bloom flower. My wife decided to keep the Kai Lan growing to harvest the seeds.

The Passion Fruit and the Kaffir Lime which fail previously also start to grow well, maybe the Autumn Season is a very good time for growing vegetables and fruits. Finally brought a Aloe Vera from the Flower Shop nearby, had been trying for few times but fail as it start to rot before the root sprout.

 

 21st Oct 2020 Kai Lan Flower Bloom

3rd Nov 2020 Chilli Flower Bloom

7th Nov 2020 Kang Kong Flower Bloom

 

Chilli had grown, but Cactus take long time to grow. Crystal Shrimp population also start to bloom after the Neon Tetra are transfer back to the fish tank. Passion Fruit also start climbing the steel rack, but we are not sure when we will see it bear fruits.

 

15th Nov 2020 Chilli had grown

15th Nov 2020 Cactus take long time to grow

 

Finally start to see Broccoli Flower Bloom after three long month, we are not sure when it will be ready for harvest. Crystal Shrimp population continue to bloom out of our control, guess large living space and plenty of food contribute a lot to their breeding. The Asparagus look very thin to me, I doubt my wife when she told me they are actually Asparagus.

1st Dec 2020 Broccoli finally Bloom Flower after three months

 

 Crystal Shrimp Aquarium

Crystal Shrimp Feeding

 

Asparagus 

 

 Had been wanting to try Opae Ula aka Wonder Shrimp for a long time, I finally pick up the courage to explore the possibilities when they announce the starting of Phrase 3 in two weeks time. It is the easiest to maintain pet as it does not really need much care, they only need to be keep in a small bottle and feed on algae to survive.

As I am planning on letting the population to thrive, I am using a 5 liters big glass bottle instead of the usual 1 to 2 liters small glass bottle. I already got the sea shell and the crystal glass pebble, so all I need to purchase is the Coral Fan and the Marimo Ball.

The Coral Fan is 5 cm wide and 10 cm tall, it cost $11.50, I got to choose the better looking one and happen to get two pack in the same bag. The Marimo Ball is about 5 cm diameter, it cost $5 and I also try to choose the biggest one.

I brought the salt mix for $10, it will be mix to the salinity of 1.018 with the distill water I brought from the supermarket. I brought 10 Opae Ula Shrimp as it will be cheaper by $10 at $70, if I brought 5 instead it will cost $40. The website only cheaper by $5 at $75 for 10 of it.

 

Opae Ula Glass Bottle Setup

Close Up Shot of Opae Ula aka Wonder Shrimp

Another Close Up Shot of Opae Ula

 

Another Close Up Shot of Opae Ula

 

Black Beard Algae start to appear on the Spider Wood in Fish Tank, after doing some research on the internet I decided to use the most natural method of removing them. I brought 10 Siamese Algae Eater for $8 at $0.80 each. If it is not successful, I will try using boiling water before I go into chemical treatment.

The only thing I doesn't like about Siamese Algae Eater is that they can grow into a very big size of up to 15 cm. But I already had plan to release them into the river at Cousin Iris house to help with the cleaning of Algae when they grow big. The worst case scenario would be buying 100 Feeder Platies Fish and 50 Feeder Ghost Shrimp for the Event.

Opae Ula are not so hardy as I had expected, 7 of them die within a day. As there are only 3 left, I decided to transfer them to a smaller 2 liters glass bottle. I brought some Coral Chip and Lava Rock from Shopee, I will use the 5 liters glass bottle to create an optimum environment over a two months cycle period before I continue with the remaining phrase of the project.

 

The project is actually still related to Yamato Shrimp Breeding, as Opae Ula breeding environment is very similar. So by ensuring Opae Ula ability to breed in their natural environment will increase the chances of my Yamato Shrimp Breeding in the future. Still trying to fulfill the dream of having thousands of Yamato Shrimp release into the river at Cousin Iris house to help with the cleaning of Algae.

 

 

Black Beard Algae in Fish Tank

Siamese Algae Eater

 

Siamese Algae Eater and Yamato Shrimp manage to clear the Black Beard Algae in a week, I did try using hot boiling water to treat the Spider Wood on second day. So I am not very sure if the Siamese Algae Eater and Yamato Shrimp are so efficient or the hot boiling water treatment also help in the process.

Black Beard Algae clear in a week

 

Saw a guy listing on Carousell for Opae Ula Shrimp by chance, it was remove after a day. I try to contact him a week later to see if it is still available and was lucky enough to be able to get it from him at a cheaper price of $5 per shrimp. I decided to get 20 of it from him to speed up the process of the breeding cycle.

 

As he had been keeping it for three years and most of it had been mature enough to start breeding. I do not have to wait for few years for them to be ready, so it kind of save me a lot of time. 

 

The 5 liters Glass Bottle which I had prepared a week ago is ready, the are visible spot of Algae grow on the wall. I think it is because I am using the media from the previous Crystal Shrimp Tank which still have some beneficial bacteria present in it.

Opae Ula Mass Orgy

Sep 2020 Breeder Dairy

 Yamato Shrimp start to have Eggs, they only breed in Salt Water but somehow the condition became suitable for them in the Fish Tank. Now I had to prepare for salt water habitat for the larvae to grow after the eggs hatch in about 5 weeks. It is still thousands of lives that are at stake, still worth the effort to give it a try.

 

Yamato Shrimp have Eggs

 

Spinach start to bloom flower, Sixth Aunt say it is Bolt due to hot weather. I thought it is Broccoli at first, but the Broccoli had been destroyed by my mom due to her impatient. She always want to eat the vegetables while they are tender, her disregard of respect for other had cause a lot of problem to the farm.  

Spinach Flower Bloom

Preparing for the Birth of New Yamato Shrimp. The Eggs will Hatch in about 3 to 5 weeks. The Eggs will Hatch into Larvae and being wash out into the Sea. The Larvae will Grow into Baby Shrimp in about 30 days and swim back to River.

1.020 Salt Water for Larvae to Grow for 30 days. 1.012 Half Salt Half Fresh Water for the Baby Shrimp to Grow for another 15 Days. Each Shrimp is able to Breed about 1000 to 3000 Babies.

I had two Yamato Shrimp having Eggs now and will be expecting their Eggs to hatch next week or next month. If I am successful, I might be the first person in Singapore to Breed Yamato Shrimp in Aquarium. 

 

 

Yamato Shrimp in Breeding Tank

 

1.020 Sea Water

 

1.012 Half Salt Half Fresh Water

 

First batch of Yamato Shrimp Breeding had failed, at first I thought there are insufficient food for the Larvae but later found out that the salinity of the water went above 1.030. Not sure if the Bio Film dosage had affect the salinity or the Mineral Supplement, I had been monitoring the water closely so it could not be due to evaporation.

The half salt half fresh water salinity also gone from 1.010 to 1.018, so I switch it to be use as Sea Water and try to mix another batch of half salt half fresh water. If this batch also fail again then I had to conclude that it is really hard to breed Yamato Shrimp, just had to let the Larvae to become Fish Food in the future.

The the third Yamato Shrimp also start to have eggs, what surprise us is that the first Yamato Shrimp which had just hatch the eggs had also start to have eggs after a few day when I transfer it back to Fish Tank. Not sure if I should start keeping Opae Ula Wonder Shrimp or Brine Shrimp Sea Monkey and use their salt water for breeding Yamato Shrimp, Marine Coral Aquarium is definitely out of the question as it is too expensive to maintain.

 

Okra is ready for harvest after a week from Flower Bloom, not sure why we were not successful in sprouting the plant in our previous attempt. We doesn't seem to have any luck with herb type of plant, not sure if it is due to the environment or got any relationship to Chinese Feng Shui. 

 

Okra Flower Bloom

 

Okra ready for Harvest after a week