# Invert Heaven journal



## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

Bought an used 75G tank from a member here. Decided it was time to do an invert only tank. The idea is to keep snails, dwarf crays and different shrimp and breed them.

The tank came with two strip lights that will give me around 80watts at most.
I kept the tank simple, added some low light plants and some driftwood. Decide to use Soilmaster Select for the substrate and put in some Aquasoil Amazonia in the front because i had some left of a different tank.

Plants:
Java moss
Mini Miss
X-mas moss
Ludwigia
Red Foxtail
Mermaid weed
Cambomba
Baby tears
Ranunculus inundatus
Bacopa
Java fern
Duckweed
Red root floater
Different Hygros
Egeria najas

Here is the piture of the tank when it was first set up.










Cheers,
Pedro


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

*New lights*

After seeing those lights in there and not liking how the tank looked so dark, I contacted nikolay(niko) about doing some cheap lights for the tank. Know I have 160watts over that tank and the cost was $40.00.

Here is the new picture:



















Cheers,
Pedro


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

*Inhabitants part 1: Cherry red shrimp*



















Cheers,
Pedro


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

*The dwarf crayfish*


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## JerseyScape (Nov 18, 2005)

Very nice. Is that a picture of the wild dwarf cray?


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## filipnoy85 (Jan 26, 2006)

Doesn't the crayfish eat your plants? I had one before at it tore up my wisteria and sword plant before I was able to give it away.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

No problems with the cray and plants...it is a orange brown one. Meaning it is a cross between a wild one and an orange one.

Cheers,
Pedro


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## vinnymac (May 4, 2005)

That looks like a great tank. I sure wish I had room for a couple tanks like that to increase my invert breeding space.

Can you provide some details on your lighting solution? $40 sure sounds like a great deal!


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

They are basically two 48" shoplights with 6500K bulbs found at homedepot. niko(Nikolay) will soon write an article or something about what we did with all the materials and stuff needed.

Cheers,
Pedro


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Cool! It looks nice! I definitely like the look better with the new light solution.

Those red cherries look good, too! Do you have the strain with the cream stripe down the back, and a darker maroon red color, or the non-stripe, more tomatoe-y red color?

Ah, so are you going to get some of those Orange crays? Ooooh, I've been wanting some of those for awhile. The prices are still pretty prohibitive, though.

It looks like a very nice invert home! Thanks for the picts!
-Jane


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

Jane,

These crays are orange-brown. They are a cross between the oragen ones and the wild ones. The next generation will split into 1/4 orange 1/2 orange brown and 1/4 brown crayfish. Or 1/2 orange + 1/2 orange brown, if you breed them with orange crayfish. Just like the Mendelian rules tell.

I have 3 females and two males of them...this is a cheaper way of having orange crayfish.  

Cheers,
Pedro


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

*Snowball and Ramshorn snails fighting for food*


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

I totally forgot about this journal! The tank currently has 8 subadults orange dwarf crays and 2 orange-brown. From these 6 are female and 4 are male.

The tank is also housing another species of dwarf cray that is from mexico.
These are very small and will not breed. Their tank will be setup soon

This tank has snowball shrimp. A couple of females are carrying eggs at the moment. The population is of around 50 of them. 

They get a varied died which consists of Hikari Crab cuisine, tetra color bits, various shrimp/snail foods I have bought in aquabid which they love, and some vegetebles. I also drop the occassional freeze bloodworm.

The tank has some dried oak leaves in them that the shrimp/crays/snails eat. I have read that microrganisms grow in them and the shrimp/crays will eat them. It is very popular in germany. 

I will see if I can take some pictures of the tank, crays and shrimp.

-Pedro


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## Neon Shrimp (Apr 26, 2006)

Thanks for the update and tips on how you raise your crays/shrimp. I am thinking about getting some dwarf crayfish of my own since I have been hearing good things about them. I look forward to seeing pictures of your nice tank


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

my dwarf cray took off part of my snowball shrimp's tail. he found a new home in my toadfish's stomach. maybe i had a behavioral dud.


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