shrimp and snail jars

Tidied up my shrimp jar again. Overhead shot. Once again, all my floaters have gradually died off. I really thought the frogbit was going to make it this time around. Nope. Maybe it's something about the substrate I use. Or lack of nutrients, as there's so few shrimps now . . . 

Just two amanos. 

Removed most of the algae-marked anubias leaves.

Mermaid weed was all bare on the lower stems. So I cut them both back and replanted. Quite short now.

It might be my imagination, but I think the twisty vals are doing better.

Ramshorn snail.

Still not thrilled with the other jar. I think if the crypt undulata grows out enough in my 33, I'll transfer some into here. It might give more plant height.

all the jars-

well, the newest one is a vase. This same vase. Now I have it with crypt balansae, which I couldn't bear to throw away when emptied the 20H. Keeping it in here for a few months, hopefully then whatever pathogen killed my angelfishes, will have died off, and if the plants are still alive I might move them into the 33L.

It's so strange to have an empty tank in the room

and houseplants moved into its spot.

But I've still got my jars- this one 

with two shrimps

the anubias need older leaves with algae trimmed off again, but the buces are all nice

I hadn't noticed it until today, but my little patch of corkscrew vals is getting thin. Some of it's been dying off. I think I need to add a few more shrimp to make waste, or put plant food in (haven't done that in a long time)

The mermaid weed is rather small, too. Looks wavy in this picture from the old thick glass

which also blurs out the snail I tried to get a closeup of.

My other jar has less variety of plants- just anubias, crypt beckettii-petchii, 

a few buces. Nothing tall, so it doesn't even start to fill the space

It does look nice from above, though. Only snails live in here, most of them ramshorns.

the shrimp bowl

got a bit of plant added- parrot's feather from the 33L

and pieces of small buces that weren't doing well in the other tanks (after I cut the algae-spotted leaves off)

I trimmed and re-tied buce 'selena' where it was trailing off this rock

which I just realized looks rather like a potato in there

On the other side, anubias is still the focal point

However I have new thoughts about the bowl- because I just got a second one! Found exact same 1.5 gallon at a thrift shop yesterday, and now I'm imagining how I could rearrange a select group of plants in each . . . with just a pair of shrimps per. That seems to continue well here, while two amanos remain in the 10gal with the guppies.

the shrimp bowl

It's been kinda boring. Nothing tall but that one piece of mermaid weed.

I moved two of the amano shrimps in here a while ago. They seem to do fine so far without an airline. 

Anubias is doing great-

has a new leaf shoot

Small crypts I planted in here are doing well, too

What's not is the bolbitis fern (against my expectations). And I'd rather have more tall, ferny stuff like the mermaid weed. So I pulled out a piece of the bolbitis on wood, and planted in here a few stems of the scraggly parrot's feather, taken out of the 33L. This pic before that- a bit of duckweed stuck in the mermaid weed. Thinking of composting all the greater duckweed and trying frogbit as floaters, instead.

Due a bit of a rescape, maybe- which would just be shifting the rock that has buce on it, to clear out the cave space for the shrimps, and pulling more bolbitis to make room in the center for more parrot's feather or mermaid weed stems. As those aren't doing great in the 33L anyway, and removing them from there will make room for the temple compacta, which is nicely coloring up now, I've been trimming/replanting its tops...

more tank pics

Details, because I did stuff in the 33L during most recent water change. Regrouped a few of the buces in this corner to be closer together- and planted in their midst some that I trimmed out of the 10g.

Added a buce 'selena' trimming to this group in center:

Moved a small one over to join two next to the dwarf sword (which I'd like to get a few more of...)

I always have to replant a few of the buce 'green wavy' in this line-

Trying to get another of the anubias 'pangolino' to grow on this rock but it keeps floating free. Pinned it down w/a pebble again. Don't want to lift the rock out to tie it on yet, because I know it will kick a lot of mulm up into the water column. 

Vallisneria still here. Not great, but slowly growing a bit taller I think

Behind them- I've trimmed and replanted one top of the temple compacta, and a few of elodea-

When I put a background panel up, can see a bit better the fine tufts of parrot's feather- and mermaid weed next to it is still a single stem

Hornwort still dominates the center. But as summer winds down into fall, it's getting less light, so I'm slowly thinning it out. Just tossing the stems as they come loose of their own accord.

My other favorite spot in this tank is the bolbitis fern clump-

This corner is starting to look a bit nicer too-

and the subwassertang clumps on this side of the tank have a different growing habit which I never saw in my tanks before- not light and fluffy but kind of layered-

Two mature crypt moehlmanii on the other side of the tank- 

and looks like now there will be a third. I almost didn't see it among the anubias- it's coming up under and just in front of the bolbitis driftwood arch- where I don't think there's room!