User:Hida Atarasi

Greetings. I am biome-building aquarist, both to create a more realistic environment for my specimens, as well as creating lower-maintenance setups. My crowning achievement so far had been a 5-gallon with feeder guppies, little river snails (I call 'em plague snails) and a (usually) lone red crab. It featured live plants, one of which had bloomed, and countless generations of denizens, with the exception of the crabs. Later it sucessfully bred ghost shrimp. It was an extreme-low mantainence setup, with no filter, and no gravel cleaning, nor even feedings; only a heater, air stone, and occasional water changes. The first guppy batch perished to a disease introduced via wild collected plants, little red spots, the second major crisis involved a crayfish eating the live plants and terrorizing the crab before being relocated, followed by a wild crayfish, who repeated the chaos, only this specimen had laid eggs as well. I don't remember the fate of the final guppy population, but the breeding ghost shrimp population got caught in flea bomb fallout, followed by a complete teardown. The tank itself later was destroyed by my cat jumping in it, knocking it over, and shattering one side.

I specialize not in individual specimens, but breeding populations, both to create functioning ecosystems, and to feed my red-eared slider.

Current project

Repeat of guppy population, as well as new (3rd!!) wild crayfish specimen female with eggs, attempt to maintain self sufficient population.

Setup:

• 45 gallon tank, 1/3 fill
• undergravel filter with attached sealed water pump, to prevent fry/larvae intake, create waterfall effect to increase gas transfer surface, as well as biological filtering
• water heater

Specimens:

• Crayfish (later discovered to be female)

Wild collected specimen, later turned out to be yet another female with eggs. I've caught more females with eggs than not. Another goal is learning to sex them properly.

• brood

To reduce cannibalism, many many specimens were removed from birth tank and separated. For novelty, fitst batch was moved into a sea-monkey enclosure. Outgrew quickly and moved into wide but shallow fishbowl-like enclosures, using gravel, slate, and play-sand. Second batch (4) perished due to unnoticed tar on slate pieces. Subsequent batches (qty 4 each) using clean slate proved successful, however. Specimens exhibited strong burrowing tendences at earliest opportunity. Feeding was sinking shrimp pellets, supplemented with grassy algal growth from imported stones. Much "mowing" ensued.

• live plant bulb

Didn't last a full day. Though buried, no traces could be found next day.

• live plant bulb