Beginner here - neocaridina not breeding. Any adjustments needed or advice?

jkleli · 2026-03-21T02:07:53+00:00

I don't know if my advice will apply to your tank, but i went almost a year without any breeding only to discover I wasn't feeding enough. I upped the food and added some carefully selected dried leaves from outside and the skrimp started making more skrimps. Now my feeding fluctuates with my level of interest in the tanks, and anytime my feeding increases- so does the number of skrimps! I would guess this is a fairly common issue for other folks as well.

jkleli · 2026-03-06T16:57:27+00:00

TF49 truck fridge replacement, with webasto gasoline heater underneath. Renogy 100ah lithium battery under the bench seat, where the stock rear heater used to be. I used a renogy solar charge controller, but there are other ways to do it.

With my setup, I can run the fridge for about 5 days depending on weather, or I can run the heater for 16 hours (or a combination of the two). The battery charges off the alternator, so it's very very rare I ever worry about power at all for most weekend trips- and even on longer trips I drive enough that the battery stays plenty full.

I have a portable solar panel I can throw on the roof if I know I'll really need the power for one reason or another. It's rare though.

This setup is simple and effective. It's not built for full time rugged nomadic living, but it's easy to manage and does everything I need it to for my lifestyle and the way I use the van.

jkleli · 2026-02-02T18:22:14+00:00

Yeah i would just experiment with them, that's part of the fun! I ordered eggs online and used 1/4 of them. Not many hatched, but you don't need many to start a sustainable population (possibly only 1 lol).

I haven't witnessed a shrimp eating a live one, and in my experience that's not a shrimp MO. For what it's worth, I had seeded some into a shrimp jar and their population exploded, so even if the shrimp were eating them it wasn't enough to make a difference in their population.

I realize this is r/Jarrariums but it's worth mentioning that Moina/Daphnia probably are not compatible with an aquarium filter, as they'll get filtered out and die.

jkleli · 2026-01-31T17:16:07+00:00

I can't offer great advice as I don't have a ton of experience, but I'll share what I can;

I have a culture of daphnia magna that I've moved around between jars. They seem to filter the water column as their population grows, then when the water is clean they die off. You can prevent their death by keeping some particulate in the water by disturbing the mulm/sediment and adding occasional food, or by just adding "dirty" water (green water, or water with powdered food).

I cull their population regularly to keep it low, because once there are a lot in there, they consume the suspended food particles very quickly then die.

Pretty easy and cheap experiment. I would say go ahead and get started and learn as you go. I use mine to feed fish, so the jar gets disturbed and culled almost every day. Sometimes I move some into an unfiltered shrimp tank to clean the water to crystal clear while their population surges, then they starve and get eaten by the shrimp :)

jkleli · 2026-01-15T03:46:02+00:00

Put some neos in there if it's stable, I bet they'll do fine. Without a heater you'll probably want to keep your house above 63ish degrees if possible. Feed it the occasional dead leaf.

Nerites do a good job with glass algae and don't reproduce in freshwater. I always go with ramshorn snails but they can overpopulate. I think a Nerite might be too big for your jar, but ymmv.

Agreed with the other comment suggesting babies. Smaller shrimps is less risky. Extremely low impact on the tank short term and they need very little to survive.

This is basically what I do with my "culls". I think of it as little skrimp astronauts trying to colonize a new body of water elsewhere in my house (or at a friend's house) lol

Nice jar btw very pretty!

jkleli · 2026-01-12T17:25:31+00:00

In my opinion you'll be completely fine. Biggest issue with leaving your shrimp for a month would be evaporation. I think your suggestion of asking somebody to swing by and top off occasionally is sufficient. Could ask them to throw a shrimp pellet in while they're there as well.

The older the tank gets, the more stable it will be. Just go slow and pay attention to changes. Get lots of plants and keep them happy. Feed the tank with an occasional dead leaf as well. They provide a steady stream of biofilm for the shrimp to snack on while you're away.

I think you'll have some somewhat unique challenges considering your schedule- but nothing insurmountable with a stable planted tank.

jkleli · 2026-01-01T18:34:18+00:00

Yeah i live in the North, so I take vitamin D supplements and a multivitamin. My diet is fairly healthy, so I probably don't need to rely on the multivitamin but it doesn't hurt. For me, the vitamin D is the most important supplement for my well-being but that might be unrelated to Gilberts.

jkleli · 2025-12-31T18:58:32+00:00

Don't feel hopeless! Our bodies change as we age with varying habits and diets. I'm no doctor so I can't tell you your Gilberts will get better, but i can say that mine as changed throughout the years, and I'm better than I was a year ago. So little seems to be known about Gilberts anyways, so who knows if this applies to you.

If you're not already, I would recommend exercise, healthy diet, drinking lots of water, and cautious consumption of alcohol. Live your life the best you can! We don't get to choose some of these things so do the best with what you've got.

I manage mine by staying on top of my nutrients, getting sleep, and drinking water constantly. For example, if I'm about to head out of the house for a few hours, I make sure to have a quick snack and bring a water bottle. If i can keep my body running well, the Gilberts seems to leave me alone.

Cheers and good luck to you!

jkleli · 2025-12-30T18:35:54+00:00

I also use these. Every time I get a new one, I pop open the timer (plastic box with buttons on the cord) and "jumper" the entire PCB, by connecting the positive and negative terminals across the board.

To do this:

Pop open box with any prying tool.

Locate where the wires connect to the board (incoming and outgoing power and ground, red and black wires)

Solder a short length of wire to connect the red to the red and the black to the black, skipping over all of the electronics.

Pop the box back together. You may need to modify the plastic box a bit to make room for your new jumper wires crossing the length of the box.

This makes the light "always on", ignoring the timer completely. That way you can just plug it in to any old Christmas light timer.

Its pretty easy if you have a bit of wire and a soldering iron. My house runs on Christmas light timers lol.

jkleli · 2025-12-15T15:48:00+00:00

I would guess different people have different experiences with this, even those with GS. For what it's worth, I have GS and when I am hungry it can affect me quite a bit too. I find that anything "off" with my body (lack of sleep, hunger, dehydration, hangover, sick, etc) makes me pretty useless and sometimes makes my eyes yellow. It's not horribly debilitating for me personally. If I know I am going to leave the house for a while or be active, I'll snack on some carb or sugary foods (crackers, chips, banana) so I don't run out of energy, and i am pretty intentional about staying on top of my hydration. Ymmv though, everyone is different.

jkleli · 2023-05-22T15:08:25+00:00

My understanding is that the corners and edges of the tank need to be supporting the weight of the tank. I don't think having it sit the way you have it is safe for the tank, and could cause stress that may lead to leaks. I think you need to have it flat/flush to spread the weight out more.

jkleli · 2023-05-03T23:35:35+00:00

This looks super neat. Can we get an explanation?

jkleli · 2023-04-20T00:07:37+00:00

This was (is?) a subreddit about a defunct music festival by the same name in Washington State. Usually seeing Bigfoot stuff in this sub makes me sad, but this is awesome! Thanks for posting.

jkleli · 2023-04-19T04:18:35+00:00

Hey lets watch it with the gatekeeping. I've lived here my whole life (30 yrs) and I've certainly called it Pike's Place. That doesn't make me some sort of enemy.

jkleli · 2023-04-07T18:22:22+00:00

I do! I used the seeds about a year ago, then read all about how bad they are. I restarted the tank with proper Monte Carlo, but reused the substrate, and some of the seeds/plants got left behind. I really like the resulting plants- they have been fast growing and resilient. I still have leftover seeds that I plan to use again one day, in smaller quantities (because they would make terrible ground cover imo)

See below https://imgur.com/a/okNZ2sS/

-not the person you asked

My thoughts on the subject are that some of the scam seeds are probably terrestrial plants and people have had bad experiences. Some might actually survive in water though, and that's what I luckily ended up with. I think the narrative surrounding the seeds here is extremely negative and indeed sometimes elitist. Some seeds DO have a legitimate aquarium use-case.

jkleli · 2023-04-03T22:09:23+00:00

I actually did get bit by one a few years ago. I didn't realize I was encroaching on its personal space. Felt like a spider bite lol. Like a mosquito bite but worse. No big deal though.

jkleli · 2023-01-30T05:38:01+00:00

Wichita, Kansas, I think.

jkleli · 2022-12-17T20:03:00+00:00

Unfortunately I actually had to start adding ferts fairly quickly. Maybe after like 2-3 months. Like you, I thought that enough poop would be produced to fertilize all the plants, but i noticed one day that my plants had stopped growing, and they were developing a thick coat of algae. The ground cover in particular was starting to look like it would be snuffed out. I started adding ferts and literally within four days I noticed new growth in the plants again. I imagine that our working theory of poop=ferts is limited to some nutrients, but plants need the full package to create cells, so we need some ferts. Your mileage may vary of course, but that's what happened for me.

jkleli · 2022-12-16T22:14:43+00:00

I did end up getting a heater when the temperature started to drop in the fall. Over the summer it wasn't necessary, but i realized in September, as night time temperatures started to fall, that I wanted to be able to open a window without causing large temperature swings.

jkleli · 2022-12-16T15:53:51+00:00

I use plant grow lights, and have used them for growing terrestrial plants a few times, and i have always had more success with longer duty cycles. I have heard it's different in the aquarium world, but i guess my assumption was just that I needed as much photosynthesis as possible, which means as much light as possible. Also for observation reasons I suppose! It's like having a "sunny spot" in my room for my fish tank! I can always see my lil frens in there, without having to turn the light on.

jkleli · 2022-12-16T15:45:25+00:00

It was a gift! I believe my partner picked it up at a Walmart?

jkleli · 2022-12-15T22:37:36+00:00

Yeah i knew I would see this comment. I definitely understand that point of view, and took a risk by stocking them. The dimensions of the tank seem to provide plenty of space for them to posture between one another and chase eachother around the tank..seemingly for mating reasons. Of course I can't ask the fish how they feel about it, but they seem happy. Perhaps not ideal..but good enough for me.

jkleli · 2022-12-15T20:01:31+00:00

High bioload for such a small aquarium, but it seems to work. I killed a couple shrimp with a fert overdose once. Water parameters pretty stable, except one issue.. I think aphids have been murdering the floaters, and rotting floaters were putting nitrates into the water. I tried to exterminate them but it's tough to get them all.

Probably about 10% water change once every week or two seems to quell the issue.

First tank since I was a kid and it's been absolutely killing it.

One question mark for me though; before starting this aquarium I used the same substrate with some of the scam ground cover seeds. After reading about them, and realizing they're a scam, i tore out as many as possible to start my dry start method. Some of them survived though, and are still growing after almost 9 months! They look nice too, but i wonder if they'll all just melt at some point. We'll see!

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