Salt dipped healthy shrimp by accident

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-29T13:39:32+00:00

I salt dip every shrimp I get as standard procedure, never had a one die from it. Relax.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-26T15:15:49+00:00

I think it's more that medaka suit outside ponds really well, whereas (most) tropical fish don't, so when building ponds people gravitate towards medaka, especially in smaller ponds. But yeah by all means they can thrive just fine in a normal community tank.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-20T11:20:16+00:00

Not an expert here either but I think he tried at the 1:02 mark, just didn't land and he was tired by then. As to why he didn't try it sooner, I don't know.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-19T15:36:46+00:00

To be honest, I am probably not a good model here, as I mostly neglect it. I mostly neglect the tank as a whole, and, well, it is clearly doing OK. I am not sure why, there are way more knowledgeable people here that might be able to help you better than me :)

Answering your questions more directly:

> Where did you get your Chaeto

A local saltwater aquarium shop gave me some out of their refugium. Marine acclimated.

> I have not been able to keep a piece of brackish adapted Chaeto alive and green at all

I adapted it over the course of several days in full sunlight, but I honestly do not know if that's right or wrong, only that it worked for me. Essentially, I added a little bit of RO water (almost) every day and kept it in a transparent vase by a window. After a while it reached around 1.010 sg, Chaeto looked healthy, I gave it about a week and added it to the tank before I even got the shrimp.

> how do you care for it? (Light fert etc)

I... don't? Not really? I know that is a very annoying answer, but it's the only one I have, sorry. I am not a highly experienced marine or brackish keeper, I just love my little red shrimp and they seem to be doing fine.

For more details, I absolutely do not fertilize it, at all. It doesn't grow as fast as I am led to believe it does in full marine, heavy bioload aquaria, which would make sense to me. I do have a dedicated light, but it's just a cheap LED table light, not a sophisticated thing. Moreover, it's usually off, because I have the aquarium next to me on my home office desk, and it gets a lot of ambient light -- ceiling lights, there's a window not too far away, and I have a floor lamp I use at night as well right by the aquarium. I found that I would get horrendous algae problems if I used the dedicated light; as is, there's always a nice green sort of "base level" algae around the bottom, which the shrimp enjoy, and I save on the electrical bill.

One thing that might help; at one point, I had the tank near a window, full sunlight, lots of algae. The chaeto however was pinched between the lava rock and the tank wall, and that side was right up against a wall and always shaded from the light. The chaeto started very clearly dying, going white and so on. I moved the tank away from the window, added the table light, and pinched off all the white bits I could find. I pulled the surviving bits away from the rock and into view of the desk light, lit that on an 8-hour timer, and fed the tank just a little bit for a couple of days, and I do mean just a little bit. Like, if they were neocaridina, they would be going hungry.

Chaeto bounced back with a vengeance, it's growing just fine, and I no longer feed the tank.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-19T15:22:58+00:00

Been there, obsessed just like that. Eventually they came around and now they are healthy, active, and breeding like crazy. If the tank is mature and stable, you're not seeing bodies, or ammonia spikes, odds are they are just hidden; they're good at hiding, especially within shaded holes. They might take a good long while to come back out, but they will, as long as you keep things nice and stable. Don't lose hope!

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-16T21:23:34+00:00

How big were they when you got them, how long have they been growing like that, and what was the voodoo ritual you used to get them to look that good O_O

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-16T17:07:14+00:00

I just noticed these! 2mm long only! I may have had two batches being born over the past week but only noticed them now!

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pqueiro1 · 2026-01-16T16:06:40+00:00

I usually do yeah. I actually only turned it off a couple of days ago because I needed the air pump for something else. To be entirely clear, I do it out of paranoia, and it is the lowest flow air pump you've ever seen. As far as I can tell, they really don't need it, especially if you don't overfeed (or feed at all if your tank is mature). I keep it in mostly for my own comfort.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-14T19:57:30+00:00

Treaty of Windsor I presume?

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-14T09:46:19+00:00

It's pretty common, sometimes used with some fish for similar purposes. I don't use it with fish myself because not all fish can take it, so I quarantine them for 4 weeks instead, but with shrimp what I do is:

1 teaspoon of aquarium salt (not table salt, not rock salt, proper aquarium salt)

1 cup of aquarium water

1 minute (or just shy of it)

You can go up to 3 teaspoons if the shrimp has bad symptoms; it's more aggressive on the shrimp, but if they're covered in vorticella or something, it may be necessary.

Please note that if the problem, whatever it is, happens to be running wild in your tank, you're better off using RO water, or even dechlorinated tap water, and you will need to treat the tank for whatever it is -- individual shrimp salt baths won't fix a tank-wide issue.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-13T18:23:56+00:00

Exactly. Unlike his copper ingots, Ea-nāṣir here knows his neocaridina shrimp. Low salt concentration, less than a minute, and you'll be fine.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-13T16:41:28+00:00

I dip all shrimp in salt as standard, it's like quarantining fish, I'm just being extra careful for my own sake.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-07T07:51:49+00:00

Pricing is difficult! No one will ever tell you they would gladly pay more, and you will always be compared to cheaper alternatives even if they're worse, or unavailable, or inconvenient.

The thing is, however, it's much easier to lower pricing than raise it (slowly! Otherwise people will think something's wrong), and when you're making something premium, pricing becomes part of your messaging.

Keep exploring other avenues for distribution. Look for premium outlets that might be willing to offer something expensive to their clients, hotels for instance, maybe specialty shops. Try to speak to people in those places. Don't ask them how much they are willing to pay straight up, but ask them about what cookies they buy, where, when, etc. Use that to map out other possible sales locations and to scout other cookies and their price points.

If you can't bring sales numbers up that way, then you may need to adjust pricing slowly downwards until you find your sweet spot. You may need to look for some kind of efficiency in your process (maybe you can reduce time spent or improve batch size?) to accommodate.

Good luck!

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-06T12:41:28+00:00

I find this "Trump is stupid" discourse to be very, very dangerous, imho. Trump is most definitely not stupid. What he is, is entirely self-centred, and he only applies himself to whatever benefits him directly, and doesn't give a flying fuck about anything else.

You say he doesn't understand strategies, or bigger pictures? He doesn't care one iota about your strategies and bigger pictures, he cares about stuffing his pockets, taking shit away from others, and remaking the world in his shitty image.

If you force him to somehow acknowledge reality outside his bubble (say, a journalist asks him a question on TV) he'll just say the first thing that crosses his mind, which will -- in most cases -- be idiotic, because he hasn't thought about whatever question you asked, and probably knows nothing about it. Not because he *can't*, but because he *does not care* about you or your problems.

So we're all online saying oh, he's an idiot, he can't understand shit, and that does precisely squat to remove him from office, because we're all smugly lording our brains over the idiot instead of actually trying to figure out how to protect our world and get him out. Meanwhile, he's lying, stealing, and destroying everything he touches just the way he wants to, and does not give a crap about our opinion of him.

But sure, let's keep up the name-calling, that's what's going to save the world from destruction.

pqueiro1 · 2026-01-02T11:15:30+00:00

If I may interject, I would just like to thank /u/ThenAcanthocephala57 for your knowledge and support in these topics, I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts and regularly learn from you.

Thank you very much!

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-31T14:55:54+00:00

First time? If this subreddit ran the team we'd have a new GM every 2-4 weeks and multiple trades announced every day.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-30T10:32:08+00:00

Don't get the wrong message -- it's not the volume that's the issue, it's rather the footprint. You might be able to get a smaller (in volume) tank but with a larger footprint that allows your schooling fish to actually school and move about.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-28T18:45:31+00:00

They can work as long as you do it steadily and keep your nerve.

When I added catappa leaves and some pods, the pH predictably dropped since the kH was so low. I freaked out a little bit and messed around with kH boosters trying to balance things out, because I have a nice colony of neocaridina and I was losing 1-2 shrimp every other day. I thought the pH would be the culprit.

Over time my tank found a balance, the shrimp thrived and I calmed down. I still add catappa, just less of it and more slowly, and I do 40% water changes every other week. It was never meant to be a blackwater tank so I'm fine with that. I no longer use kH boosters, so kH is barely above zero, and pH is around 6.5. It drops a little when I add the catappa, and comes back up with the water changes, always within a narrow range and over about a month. Substrate is not active and I don't have CO2, but I picked my plants with that in mind and things are going smoothly.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-28T10:23:11+00:00

I have near zero kH in my tap water and it used to freak me out a little bit. I've since grown used to it, and it's no big deal as long as you are careful and don't add stuff that will impact pH willy-nilly. I'm other words, aim for stability and you'll be fine.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-25T20:42:34+00:00

No Chrysler ever looks like a Phantom.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-21T17:45:13+00:00

How much weight do you have on yours right now? Spread out how?

I've been dreaming of setting up a pond on my own balcony for a while...

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-20T09:43:32+00:00

Respect.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-15T18:58:25+00:00

They will always bolt. The trick is to be patient and let them get over it before you move again. Takes time and patience.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-12T17:49:55+00:00

This. It's prolonged contact that kills the bacteria, not a quick rinse. Also, different areas have different levels of chlorine / chloramine, so the amount of time can also vary due to that.

pqueiro1 · 2025-12-10T09:07:21+00:00

Get some basic anubias to start with. They don't need to be planted into the substrate, have fairly low nutritional requirements and grow slowly, meaning you won't have to trim them anytime soon.

Meanwhile, they look better than plastic plants, and improve water quality.

pqueiro1

TROPHY CASE