Our shrimp community is already a couple of years old. The shrimp are thriving, and they look happy in their habitat. They have lots of decoration they can play with. Huge shells we found at the ‘la Laja’ beach, nice stone pillars we found during a track we did in the center of gran canaria. Together with lots of plants and pump with some light. To top it all off there are lots of little plants floating on the top of the aquarium. We found these in the ‘Jardin Canario’.

To sustain a bigger community of shrimp I feed them a little every now and then, but when we leave our home they are perfectly adopted and will survive for months at a time easily. The problem with leaving them for a few months is that there is a lot of water vaporizing, which leaves the tank halve empty/halve full.

We started out with a couple of colored shrimp. Some were blue, some red, and two yellow ones. Over the years the colors have mixed, and it is now like a living genetic experiment. Some shrimp are pitch black, lots are semi transparent, en some are multicolored. The latest generation of shrimp has one very noticeable shrimp. A transparent shrimp, with a white spot on its back, and very red legs. A beautiful shrimp we named ‘Roodpoot’.

I started out with a simple big glass jar, with some rocks in it, some waterplants, and a couple of shrimp I bought in the shop. They survived for a very long time, and I spend more and more time simply zoning out, and watching the shrimp. Just 5 minutes of shrimp watching a week works wonders to relax your mind.

After a long time I encountered a very nice square aquarium in a pet shop, and I just went for it. I bought the square aquarium and some plants, a bag of little rocks and a bag of soil, and started preparing the move. Setting up the new aquarium was easy. Soil, rocks on top. A bit of water and add the plants. A few big rocks and some big shells as decoration, and flll up the aquarium to have it half full. Wait one day, and finish the aquarium. Add the original shrimp water, add the shrimp, test the pump, test the lighting, and done.

Our shrimp are flourishing. Since I have been giving them some extra fishfood to eat, they have exploded in number. There are now around 60 shimp in the tank, and I give them new floating plants every couple of months, which they seem to love. In addition they sometimes get some dried leaves, of small pinecones, or even small squid skeletons (for the calcium).

An eco system is a collection of things that together can form a balance and survive without outside help. This collection of living things will work together to florish. Making a small eco system is easy and very educational. The small contained eco systems are called eco-sphere. You can make one really easily and it should require very little maintenance. I did this the following manner:

Put your eco-sphere in a nice place where they will have daylight. This is needed for the plants to make oxigen and to grow. Do not place the eco-sphere in a place where it will be hit directly by the sun. This will heat up the water way to much and you will end up with cooked shrimp. It there is to much light entering your eco system you should notice an abundance of green or brown algea. This tells you you will need the eco-sphere to a place where it is a little bit less bright.

The shrimp can eat the algea that will grow in the eco-sphere. The snail(s) will also eat the algea and everything else they can find. The snails should also keep the glass clear. The poop from the snails and shrimp should function perfectly as food for the plants, and thats it. You just made yourself a really nice eco system!

Dry?

You can also try an eco system without so much water. You will then need to add some dirt and some plants. I tried this a couple of times, but after a while the plants just got to big or simply died. Making a water based eco system is much easier.