there is a shrimp in my tank!

One, at least. I found it by accident while cleaning the tank this morning- lightly siphoning over the substrate, swirling it a bit to stir up loose debris and I thought it was a leaf- clear part looked just like a dissolving leaf with a pale patch- that was the stripe on the shrimp's back. I thought my suction was failing, why wasn't it picking up this leaf? then it scuttled away and I saw the shape of the tail and realized: it's a shrimp! Bigger than last time I saw them, almost as big as my smallest barb.

I should have realized, because in spite of all the decaying plant matter from melting leaves, nitrates were at a normal level this week. I had seen thread alage on the fissidens and java fern, was planning to pull it off today but then couldn't locate any strands. And when rinsing out the sponge prefilter I was surprised to find a ton of fine, dark pellet-shaped debris. It looked like nerite snail waste, but somewhat different. I should have known it was shrimp poo! Later I saw the shrimp again, on the driftwood serenely picking at things. I don't know if there are more. But I'm sure glad at least one is still in here. Seems to be doing good work!

In my tenner, a not-so-exciting discovery. Apparently I still have some common duckweed in here. I thought I saw last week, a few pairs of leaves smaller and narrower than the spirodela polyrhiza. This week I methodically picked them all out- definitely looks like the common duckweed. I must have missed a piece or two stuck under the rim, and it finally got dislodged into the tank and started multiplying again!

Some of my buces came loose from their spots glued on the log, I didn't bother reattaching them that way. Fastened with tiny rubber bands onto large pebbles for weight, and arranged them on substrate. Hygro pinnatifida in here melted all at once- the stems are completely bare except for a small sprig of young leaves on terminal end- so it looks rather bald right now. Leaves are dying off more rapidly on the ludwigias, and the wisteria is looking really pathetic, so I gave both those plants a root tab today. Dosed normal amount on the macros, 10ml of micros to see if that helps. Crypt parva is doing better in this tank than in the thirty-eight, and so is the marsilea hirsuta- that plant is gradually decaying in the main, and I have started pulling out the worst-looking clumps. I think because the kuhlis dig too much around them, not getting a chance to put roots down.

Smaller pieces of asian ambulia came loose in the thirty-eight again, too. I trimmed them some and replanted just the tops. The bigger stems actually have roots, but I am still not pleased with their appearance- they continue to look a bit ragged. The main tank got root tabs today, also.