Winged's Tanks

Today I spotted two shrimps that were berried. I'm not so worried about them anymore. :)

It's been two weeks since I upgraded the lighting and added some new plants to this tank. I've noticed significant growth in the Rotala indica and the stargrass. The other plants don't seem to be growing as fast as those two, but I can see some growth in the dwarf sag and a little bit of growth in all the plants.

I'm getting a bit worried about my shrimp though. I fed them today so I could count them. I think I have just over 30. What worries me is the fact that the females don't seem to be reproducing. None of them are saddled and none are berried. The last time a female had babies was three or four weeks ago. I checked the water parameters today. Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is about 7.5, and pH was about 8.0 (I've never seen it that high before).

Here are some pics from one of our saltwater tanks.

The clownfish in their finger leather:


The flowerpot (it wasn't too happy when this picture was taken as I had just moved it):


And the frogspawn:

My java fern has started looking really bad. There are holes in the leaves and places where the leaf seems to be disintegrating. A few months ago, there were places that started to look yellow, so I started dosing Flourish Excel, and most of those spots have disappeared, but now it looks worse. All other plants seem to be thriving (with the exception of my red rubin sword). I have several java fern plantlets. My original plant ceased to be after giving me so many plantlets.

I don't know what to do with my java ferns.

I'm a member of several aquarium forums, one of which is Aquaria Central. Recently, there have been a few controversial threads that I found interesting.

The first was started on the 31st of December 2009. It's about freshwater deep sand beds. I haven't completely read it yet, but what I have read has been interesting and really made me think. How Freshwater Deep Sand Beds Work

The second, started 26 January 2010, asks the question of whether water changes are necessary or not. Lots of discussion and disagreements in this thread, but what I've read, none of been bashing. I haven't had time to read all of this one either. It was started and before I saw it was already at two or three pages. It took off. Are Water Changes Actually Necessary? I'll admit, I don't always do water changes. I top of my tanks every week, but water changes aren't religiously done, especially in my planted tanks. I do water changes more often on my 45 gallon because it doesn't have live plants and I've had lots of trouble with it in the past.

The third, started last night on 1 February 2010, reached four pages just a little over 12 hours later. It's about flushing fish. Not dead ones, but live ones. I don't flush either, but some people flush dead ones, others flush sick ones, and there are a few who flush healthy ones for various reasons (tired of the fish, it's a livebearer who is having babies). CONFESSION! I FLUSH FISH!

This is my 10 gallon shrimp tank in my dorm room at school.



It has an unknown amount of red cherry shrimp. It is planted, no CO₂, no ferts. The light is this one, with the bulbs that come with it. I'm planning on replacing the actinic bulb with one more appropriate for a FW planted tank. Plants include Hemianthus micranthemoides (baby tears), Heteranthera zosterifolia (stargrass), Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag), Microsorum pteropus (java fern), and Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (microsword).

Here are some pics. You'll have to excuse quality as they were taken with my phone.