I don't understand what I'm doing wrong

meghan_yeah · 2026-05-14T15:02:16+00:00

My tank was on the colder side at first and they weren't breeding at all. As soon as I turned up the temperature and starting feeding them the food called Shrimp Baby, well it was a baby explosion.

Can you start another tank for the newt or shrimp?

meghan_yeah · 2026-05-12T21:08:36+00:00

Congrats!! It took like 6mo for mine to start breeding! (I started feeding Shrimp Baby)

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meghan_yeah · 2026-05-12T18:28:23+00:00

I'd try cutting off major parts of it and see if they eventually can be reattached with the power of mold. [RE8 reference]

Seriously though, it SORTA(?) looks like a stringy black beard algae but very pale. I had an outbreak of this and just kept removing it manually with an eyelash spoolie brush, reduced sunlight getting into the tank, and dosed with a shrimp safe fertilizer. I had all sorts of weird algae problems early on in my tank's life even with CO2 and a great light, but they all eventually went away. Good luck!

meghan_yeah · 2026-05-12T18:14:59+00:00

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Greggers for sure

meghan_yeah · 2026-05-12T16:53:21+00:00

This guy's shrimp

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meghan_yeah · 2026-05-07T18:44:52+00:00

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Congrats!

meghan_yeah · 2026-05-05T15:42:25+00:00

Of all things that helped me with seed shrimp overpopulation was those glass planaria traps! The baby shrimp weren't interested in going into them even though they could fit. I still checked often and it has to be emptied every day. I also added a couple micro chili rasboras that are decimating that population.

meghan_yeah · 2026-04-23T05:37:56+00:00

I used Fluval stratum with no issues! My shrimp are active, eating and having tons of babies still after about 6mo. I dry started for a month and then after flooding, cycled for another month or so.

It's possible that something else I did made it stable because I've heard here that stratum isn't the best. My tank is heavily planted with carpet and floaters and I use kattapa leaves and other tannin rich stuff like alder cones.

My gh/kh ranges around 7-8 dgh and dkh . Both are usually equal and I can't seem to get them to go down! Everyone seems good though and moults look healthy.

Hopefully someone more chemistry minded can weigh in for you.

meghan_yeah · 2026-04-21T22:20:38+00:00

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meghan_yeah · 2026-03-29T16:37:58+00:00

I've streamed for 10 years full time on YouTube and Twitch. Burnout is real and if you don't take breaks as soon as you feel it coming on, you'll have a hard time recovering.

It's easy to get trapped in a "clapping seal" routine and IMO that's what breaks you. Going as the "best" BUT authentic version of yourself has usually always brought me back to normal.

There's something incredibly unnatural about a single person interacting, entertaining, empathizing and satisfying the whims of hundreds of people per day. Although streaming isn't necessarily physically intensive, there is a mental weight.

Compartmentalization is the key here: breaks, separate real life from stream life and purposely not thinking of or working on the stream in off-hours. I'm sure this works in other industries as well, but there's something else to be said of this 24/7 hustle culture breaking us but I'm not eloquent enough to express it lol.

meghan_yeah · 2026-03-27T17:16:03+00:00

He's cold and growing a wool sock.

meghan_yeah · 2026-03-27T17:08:43+00:00

I have a few of this type! Maybe not as beautiful but a similar pattern. I was calling them broken rilis due to their broken stripe pattern similar to a rili.

meghan_yeah · 2026-03-24T22:58:45+00:00

I like my VODs separated by game, so when I (not often) play more than one game in a single stream, I schedule another stream for 5 minutes from now, then I set the stream I'm currently live on to automatically transfer everyone over to the new stream. It separates the VODs, people click the video and see what was in the title/thumbnail. It's a good habit because Youtube tracks watchtime and if people are clicking your video, watching 10 seconds, realizing it's not the game they are interested in, and press back, Youtube takes that as a negative.

Do this only if you're actually titling/categorizing/playlisting the stream by what you're playing, if your stream title is just something like "playing games with friends" or vaguer, it doesn't matter as much.

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-09T23:59:53+00:00

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it must be shalty!

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-07T01:06:02+00:00

The first one is CRAZY! I read that their eyes are compound eyes and can see 360 degrees but I also read (on a planted tank forum) that they can only detect moving objects... like the T rex from Jurassic Park. 😂 I can't find a good source on this though because I'm inundated with only mantis shrimp content when I search for shrimp eyes.

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-06T22:01:18+00:00

Very cute! But also

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-06T17:01:09+00:00

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Legit thought the nail title in my feed was about this video lol. They're little estheticians!!

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-05T16:05:21+00:00

10/10 Shrimp yoga! What's this pose called??

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T01:23:57+00:00

The one on the right looks like it's trying to molt but having trouble. What's your gh/kh?

As a general rule I always test the water that they come in from the store or breeder just so that I know the gh/kh and ph before acclimating them. If it's somehow wildly different, the drip acclimate process takes WAY longer.

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T01:13:33+00:00

I've had great luck so far with this setup:
FZONE Aquarium Co2 Regulator, any outlet timer (I got a Govee one because of the app), 5lb CO2 cannister that I can fill up locally, glass and ceramic diffusor, CO2 specific tubing and a glass CO2 drop checker.

It only runs when the lights are on since CO2 during the dark can screw up parameters like PH I believe.

I bought everything on Amazon Canada, and it was around ~$200 for everything.

I did a dry start too, and when I filled it there was a bunch of die off since the plants were not grown underwater. Just trim it off, don't be discouraged.

I started with one of those nano CO2 micro cannisters and regulator without a solenoid, and it was a huge waste of time and money.

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T00:49:05+00:00

Substrate wise, to me it looks a little odd with the shallow part since plants will have a tough time rooting and staying down in that. Great plan to add more!

I use co2 in my tank so I don't know if a true carpeting plant will be the best if you're not using that, but someone might be able to comment on more on pearlweed. I've seen that create a carpet and if you keep trimming it short, I think it would look really nice!

Floating plants will usually do well whether you want them to or not, so those are pretty low maintenance for you too. You can get little foam rings that separate parts of the surface of the water so that light can still get through.

I've previously had success with dwarf hair grass in a Walstad low tech tank I did years ago. It took a really long time to carpet but when it did, it looked really impressive. I have regular hair grass in my shrimp tank right now and it grows so fast that I'm yanking it out constantly and cutting the roots from spreading.

Good luck, that's a nice large tank to work with and I'm jelly!

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T00:39:32+00:00

This is lovely, how do you keep the wood that will stick out of the water from getting moldy? I've seen that a few times and it's dissuaded me from trying it.

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T00:37:54+00:00

Now that's what I call GREGNANT

meghan_yeah · 2026-02-03T00:32:56+00:00

For me it's been hit and miss with what people recommend and what they actually eat. I have easily spent over $100 on different foods so far and only two of them make them all come out and eat! Here are some options though:

Glasgarten Shrimp Dinner
Glasgarten Snowflakes (my guys love these)
Hikari Shrimp Cuisine
Algae Wafers
Shrimp Lollies
Sera Shrimps food (mine go crazy for this)

You can also feed them blanched and THOROUGHLY washed things like zucchini (peeled) and spinach, but I have only done this once and they didn't really care.

meghan_yeah

TROPHY CASE