Canned Shrimp

[herranton]

I'm lazy. Much too lazy to take care of a tank. I'm also broke, and I don't have the time or space to have a tank. I have tried to escape reefing a couple of times. It never really worked. I always ended up trying to start another tank. It always ended in defeat. I would give up for whatever reason; not enough money/time/space/motivation. I finally thought I could get out. I started giving away or selling most of my equipment I had in bins and it was nearly all gone.

 

Sitting at work one day, I click on a thread in the biotopes section. The Jarquarium Challenge. A self sustaining ecosystem in a tiny container. Unfortunately, its perfect for me. Its a tank, well sorta, that requires virtually no effort, no time and very little money. I decided to take the plunge. After an intense internal debate over the size of the jar, I decided on these:

They are 1 liter canning jars from amazon. Link

 

The rest of the checklist

Substrate - crushed coral - I all ready have.

Bits of live rock with some sort of algae - from lfs

Chaeto/gha - from lfs

Shrimp - order online - Pet shrimp store

Lights - leds from dx - Blue leds White leds

Silly decorations - from lfs or Walmart

 

I ended up ordering the LEDs the same day as the jars. I have another project that I will need them for soon, so they will essentially be free for this project. That night I hit up a Petsmart, 4 LFS's and walmart. I came home with a good deal of junk. A couple of pieces of live rock(one with gha and some bubble algae), a couple aiptasia, chaeto, 4 gallons of 1.024 saltwater, 2 gallons of walmart distilled water, some aquarium silicon and some ugly decorations. Including the LEDs and the Jars, I was only about $130 poorer.

 

When I got home, I set up a temporary tank to let everything get stable. I had everything submersed in water on the way home so I shouldn't really see a cycle, but it doesn't hurt to let everything marinate in a tank for a week or so.

 

I ordered 7 shrimp on Friday, Feb 24th , they shipped on Saturday, I got them Monday. I set up the jars that evening. I set up two jars. one with Patrick, some shells, and a bit of LR that had GHA, bubble algae, a small aiptasia and four shrimp. The second jar had a very large piece of LR taken from my LFS's rock pool, a smaller piece with a bit of GHA and aiptasia, a bit of chaeto, and 3 shrimp. Both tanks have a thin layer of crushed coral at the bottom. They are lit by a 3500k(ish) 17 watt screw in CF lamp that is about 3 feet away. The lamp stays on for about 8 hours everyday on a timer.

 

The aiptasia didn't make it. I am not surprised, considering they are filter feeders. I'm pretty sure that one shrimp per jar has died. All of the remaining shrimp seemed happy as could be, as far as I can tell. They seemed to be doing shrimp like things and stuff. After three weeks, the jars look pretty good. There is a small amount of GHA growth and a bit of detritus, but they look pretty much the same as when I set them up.

 

The LEDs are still on a boat, probably somewhere in the middle of the pacific.

I have a some more pictures on my home computer, I will add them later.

Edited March 20, 2012 by herranton

[Whys]

Awesome! Thank you for this. I tried just live sand and my shrimp didn't do so well. Liverock was a good choice. :]

 

So am I correct that both jars have been sealed since February 27th and that the 2 jar photo is from today?

Edited March 20, 2012 by Whys

[herranton]

Awesome! Thank you for this. I tried just live sand and my shrimp didn't do so well. Liverock was a good choice. :]

 

So am I correct that both jars have been sealed since February 27th and that the 2 jar photo is from today?

Both jars were sealed Feb 27th, however, I am not sure when that pic was taken. The pics in this thread are from my phone. I will update the thread when I can get to the pics on my camera. I think that I have a fts about every four or five days since I started. I will have to check the exif data on the pics to be sure.

[Whys]

Anything to report?

[herranton]

 

 

Both Jars are still going. Patrick's jar has at least three of the shrimp left and the algae is growing very slowly. Some sort of something has developed on Patrick. Maybe likes the paint?

 

 

 

The other jar has at least two of the shrimp left and has developed some bubble algae.

 

 

All the shrimp seem happy as can be and are doing shrimp stuff constantly. I have yet to figure out why some of the shrimp are red and others are clear. They seem to be able to change when ever it suits them. I don't really care though. The jars may not be sealed all the way. I think the water level has dropped about 2mm since I sealed them, I am going to mark the water level and watch it. I might silicon the rims. I might not though, That sounds like maintenance and if I wanted to do that, I would have started a real tank. sorry about the big pics, I'm too lazy to change them.

 

Thanks for looking

[Whys]

Excellent.

[Whys]

Hey herranton, anything new? I know probably not, but could I get a more recent pic anyway? Thanks.

[herranton]

This little guy has been stuck in the little jar for 3 years 5 months. I feel kinda bad for him. He has a buddy in there with him too though. i just couldn't get a pic before my camera died. Well, I hope they are buddies, or they are probably really mad...

 

The second jar isn't doing so well, there is an algae infestation and you cant even really see through the glass. I will probably take it out of the light for awhile. I don't know if there are any shrimp left alive in there. I thought I got a pic but I guess not. Oh well, maybe in next years' update....

(not that anyone reads this, lol).

 

Also, I can't open the jars to clean them, I have no idea what opening it would do to the ecosystem after being sealed for over three years...

 

Also, also, I would like to nominate myself for TOTM.

 

 

 

 

 

[herranton]

Ok, so I don't check on these little guys as much as I should. I think they must like it that way. Or rather, half of them do. The compact fluorescent that was lighting them burned out at least a year ago. They are nearish to to a window so they get a bit of light. One of the jars is dead. It is covered in green algea. I'm thinking of putting it out of the light entirely. We will see, I guess. 

The second one is doing much much better. It still looks ugly and has some green algea growing around the bottom, the shrimp are doing phenomenal. I ordered a total of 5 shrimp (I think) and split them between the two jars. I don't know how many I put in the jar with Patrick, but there are at least seven in there now. At least. So they are making babies. You can see four shrimp in the pic for sure, and I know I didn't put four in there. Anyways, that is my three year update. See you in three more years.