So where do we start?  Well lets lay out the different options that need to be examined when planning a shrimp aquarium, remember that this aquarium is going to be about the shrimp, anything else kept, including plants, is secondary to this.

 Tip

The Tank

This is always going to be the first piece of equipment to be considered, it’s the tank that is going to influence your choices in the rest of the planning.

Now dwarf shrimp can be kept comfortably in anything from 24 litres and up, but as you are most probably going to want to breed your shrimp, I would suggest something a little larger.  This gives you more room both for the initial stock (larger groups are better as too small a group will limit the gene pool for your offspring, leading to more inbreeding and possibly problems in the future.) and for any offspring.  Also the larger the volume of water the smaller the impact of any changes in water quality or temperature.  Shrimp need stability, in quality and temperature.

I will be blogging about The Fluval EBI Nano Shrimp Habitat shortly.

Filtration

As mentioned before, dwarf shrimp need stable conditions, they also need very high quality water, with absolutely NO ammonia or nitrites.  A sniff of ammonia or nitrite can decimate your shrimp very quickly.  As such the filtration used needs to be  mature, with no risk of ammonia or nitrite spikes.  It also needs to have a good surface area for the filter bacteria to colonise, the bigger the surface area to volume ratio the better.  However it also needs to be ‘gentle’ as to powerful a suck can lead to young shrimp being sucked in and possibly turned into shrimp paste.

Lighting

Bright lighting is not needed for keeping shrimp.  As such low to medium lighting is prefered.

Heater

You can use any that is rated for your volume of tank, ones with electronic thermostats are prefered as they are more accurate and less likely to cook your shrimp if anything goes wrong.  You can also keep shrimp without heaters if their tank is kept in a heated room where the temperature is kept pretty constant, although if using smaller tanks I advise that a heater is still used as insurance against temperature swings.

Substrate

Any dark to medium coloured substrate that does not have a sharp surface and is calcium free can be used.  Size wise .5-3mm grain sizes are good.  Lighter substrates are a bad idea as they tend to make shrimp nervous and lose their colour.

Plants

Live aquarium plants are VERY important when keeping shrimp.  They provide homes, hiding places and also a site where the shrimp can feed.  However avoid planting difficult, demanding or high light requiring plants, and instead chose plants that can tolerate lower lighting and don’t need lots of nutrients or CO2.  As such mosses are absolutely fantastic for shrimp, they provide lots of lovely places to hide and act as a good place for tiny algaes and bacteria to grow on, providing food for both adults and  shrimplets.  I also like to plant the front of my tanks with dwarf grass, my shrimp just love to explore in it and feed on any algae growing on it.

Decor

Wood is very good for shrimp tanks, especially bogwood that has been well soaked to reduce any impact on water quality.  Again it provides places for shrimp to hide and for algae and bacteria to grow.  It also looks really nice with mosses and java fern attached to it.  You can also use stones that do not contain calcium in shrimp tanks, but try to at least put a bit of wood in with them.

Shrimp Species

Now you have your tank set up and matured, it’s time to add your shrimp (mature your aquarium and filter, you can use eco-complete for a ready matured substrate and use biological media from an already matured filter or the many safe start products for instant cycling).  So which ones do you chose?  Well in the UK usually the most readily available, hardy, and easy to keep shrimp are the Cherry Shrimp

Tip

Well The Tetra Aqua Art has been up and running for about a month now and I think the picture tells the perfect story.http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150496691049296&set=o.133846096635370&type=1&theater The T5 lighting unit has great benefit to the growth of the plants along with good fertilizer and daily carbon dosage.If you look at the picture on the original post you’ll get a better idea of the growth attained in a month.

I have carried out 25% weekly water changes and the quality of the water has been regularly tested with no sign of ammonia, nitrites or nitrates so the filter is working perfectly well. The temperature has sat constant at 24 degrees since it was set I have not had to adjust it so the heater is working perfectly.

It is now stocked with: 6 Leopard Danio, 10 Zebra Danio and 1 Redtail Shark which makes for great but exhaustive viewing.

I have had to lower the water level slightly (kept above the minimum marker on the heater and filter housing) due to one or more of the zebras jumping over the lip and getting stuck in the heater housing.

So one month on the Aquarium is thriving and I’m very impressed with it.

 Jennine

Now is the perfect time to take a look at the great range available from Claber through Paddock Farm.

Claber have very kindly sent us the following video which goes into a little more detail about drip irrigation, the needs and uses of the equipment.  Please see below for more details about how drop irrigation can make a huge change to how your garden grows as well as saving water.

You can buy a full range of irrigation equipment and accessories from Paddock Farm at amazing prices.  Visit paddockfarm.co.uk for more details.

Costing just 30p admission, the show promises to be not only a great success, but also a wonderful day out for all.

Open Show

Benching 10.00am – 12.00pm
Judging 12.30pm
Fish Entries 10p up to £2.00, then free

Auction

Booking in 10.00am –  11.00am
Starts 11.00am
Commission 20% to BAS

You can contact the secretary, Mr R Flinn, by emailing ronnieflinn@talktalk.net or calling 07944 539086.  The show will be held at Barley Mow Village Hall, Bedford Ave., Barley Mow, Birtley, DH3 2AJ (Behind the Barley Mow Inn).

We hope you’ll consider visiting and showing your support for this event.

Welcome to my review of the new Tetra AquaArt aquarium this is the first part of the review as I follow it through to maturity.

First impressions are of a pleasant aesthetically looking tank very clean lines good viewing area and a streamlined lid, all in a silvery grey plastic.

What’s in the box? Tetra provide everything with this tank to get you up and running it comes with a T5 light fitted in the lid, a housing which contains the filter and heater. 3 x 100ml bottles containing Safe Start, Aqua Safe and Easy Balance, they also give you a tub of Tetra mini flakes and a few booklets .You also receive 2 of the Tetra Easy Crystal filters.

Straight out of the box.

(See Paddock Farm Facebook Page For Picture)

The Lid

This is a pleasing and user friendly lid comprising of the housing for the T5 light which is nice and illuminating on a tank of this size. You also get 3 opening hatches there is one at the front which is the full length of the hood and two at the back enabling access to the housing for the filter and the heater depending on which side you wish to place the housing. This enables you to adjust the temperature and change the filter without getting wet. I found it was easier to place the housing on the right as this is the side where you also have a number of cut outs to feed the wires through.

The Lid

(See Paddock Farm Facebook Page For Picture)

The Filter & Heater Housing

So the tank as I said comes with a heater and filter this is all contained in a black plastic housing and on the back of the tank there is options to fit it to the left or right below the openings in the lid. There is mounting brackets which the housing clips into. The heater a Tetratec HT50 just slides neatly into its aperture next to the filter which is the Tetratec Easy Crystal Filter box 300. The filter it should be pointed out is of the overflow type so it does not provide a powerful circulation of the water.

Initial Set up

The initial set up could not be easier the tank comes complete so decide which side your going to house the filter on, insert a filter cartridge set the temperature on the heater. Then all you need to add is the substrate that you require add the plants and water connect the three plugs to the mains and that’s it basically.

Initial Set Up Day 1

(See Paddock Farm Facebook Page For Picture)

Overall Impression

I would say this is a very nice tank well put together and easy to set up. For a novice fish keeper this is an ideal 60L aquarium with everything you require to get you up and running It is also a good choice for anybody who is looking to change their current tank to a newer model.

In comparison to the aquariums I started out with many years ago it is head and shoulders above those, when comparing it to other aquariums on the market now of the same size it is vary favourable It may come down to your budget to decide if this Tetra AquaArt is the right one for you.

For some Aquarium keepers they may not like the fact that the filter is of the overflow type personally I think I will upgrade the filter depending on my choice of stock at present it is home to a shoal of Leopard Danio’s and the filter type is fine for them and other community fish.

So at this moment in time I would say It’s a very good aquarium for the RRP of £120.00 (the stand is extra) and I would rate it 9/10.

I will update the review over the coming months.

Jennine

December

Saturday 24th 2011: 10am – 4pm
Sunday 25th 2011: Closed
Monday 26th 2011: Closed
Tuesday 27th 2011: Closed
Wednesday 28th 2011: 10am – 4pm
Thursday 29th 2011: 10am – 4pm
Friday 30th 2011: 10am – 4pm
Saturday 31st 2011: 10am – 4pm

January

Sunday 1st 2012: Closed
Monday 2nd 2012: Closed
Tuesday 3rd 2012: 9am – 5:30pm

If you require service outside of these hours, please email helpdesk@paddockfarm.co.uk for out of hours support and service.

I’m a regular customer of Paddock Farm and have just set up a new tropical tank. Although I’m by no means a fish expert, I thought it would be useful for anyone thinking of setting up an aquarium for the first time to see how I went about it.

My tank (a 65-litre Juwel aquarium) is themed around a tropical, freshwater stream with mainly brightly coloured tetras, plecs and shrimps. You don’t need a big tank for this kind of set-up, as these fish are small and have few requirements – making it a perfect choice for beginners.

First I placed about an inch of white sand in the bottom and spread it fairly evenly but leaving a few natural looking contours. (If the sand is too thick, it is hard to clean and becomes dirty quickly.). Then I filled it to just below the brim with tepid water treated with water conditioner, which removes the chlorine from tap-water making it safe for the fish. If you are using bogwood then it is a good idea to have had this soaking beforehand in a bucket for around two weeks. This gets it totally saturated so it does not float to the top of the tank. I then arranged a mixture of natural looking plants in and around the wood. These create essential hiding places for fish, help establish a healthy ecosystem and – all importantly – makes the tank look good.

Next, I placed the heater and filter in one of the back corners, disguised as much as possible by the plants. It is necessary to have a powerful enough filter to get a good current going in order to keep the fish strong and well exercised, while at the same time adequately cleansing the water. The temperature for a tropical freshwater tank should be around 25-26°C. For advice on filters and other accessories, ask the staff at Paddock Farm, I have always found them really helpful and knowledgeable.

Now comes the hard part, you have to leave the tank for two weeks before introducing your first fish, as this allows enough time for the bacteria in the water to reach the correct levels and the eco system to establish itself. Don’t be tempted to introduce all your fish at once. Bring them in in groups of three or four with two-weekly breaks in between. Any shrimps should go in last, as they are the most sensitive and benefit from an established environment. My tank will hold about 25 small fish. (shrimps and snails don’t count in your final quota because they don’t use the same oxygen as the fish). The whole process can take up to 4-5 months until you are at full capacity but it is worth the patience.

Good luck. It’s great fun!

For Koi lovers, you’re going to love the new layout.  The Koi run remains, but we’ll be opening two show ponds for next year.  Goldfish fans, fear not, your friends have been relocated into display tanks and will be brought down into the new section within the next few weeks.  This allows us to show them off in a new way and we’re sure you’re going to love it!

We’re not forgetting about the garden lovers out there, we’re going to keep it a surprise for now, but we’re hoping you’ll be as excited as we are with the result!

If you haven’t been to see us for a while, now is a great time to come and visit.  As we’re moving over the Koi, we’re running promotions where you can Buy One, Get One Half Price!  This will run until we’re ready to move them, so don’t delay!

There’s lot of changes planned for the Water Gardens and the rest of the site, we’ll be working on those over the coming weeks ready for events planned this year!  This is a very busy time for us and we’re working non-stop to make these improvements for you.  Of course, we appreciate your patience during the noise and mess, but we know you’ll love the result!

Stay tuned for more news!

First impressions of the fish feeder were good.  It had a clever design that allowed both flake and pellet to be fed to my Tanganyika aquarium fish.

Batteries were supplied and were easily installed.  Setting the amount of food to come out of the feeder was easily done over a container by holding different buttons down (one for each tube).  I eventually settled on 3 turns for the flake and 1 for the pellet.  The display on the feeder was not clear at first, where there was three feeds per day (the left side for the left feeder etc) Left and right feeders could have been displayed on the LCD display to clear this up.

Once set up, the feeder was positioned over the tank, but I had to slide the lid half on and half off, as the feeder did not come with any type of clip for the side of the tank which i was very surprised at.  So it was balanced at the edge of my lid as there was nowhere else to put it!

I went on holiday for 10 days, and no fish had died, which I was very pleased with so the feeder did its job!  There was however one problem that hadn’t been taken into account when designing the feeder; the condensation build-up.  If used with a tropical/warm tank the condensation will inevitably build up, which it did under the delivery tubes.  On my return i did find wet food stuck to the edges, which could have prevented any further food coming out. I’m not sure when this occurred, and possibly didn’t affect it when i was away, but for longer periods might be an issue.

Overall I’m pleased with the product, but does need a clip for the side of the tank or a funnel shoot to direct the food to a specific area of the tank.

If you would like to write articles for Paddock Farm, simply register for an account up in the top right hand corner of this page, drop us an email to let us know your details and you can start writing.  Your articles, experiences and any product reviews you do will be shared with the Paddock Farm audience on this blog, via our Twitter feed and on our Facebook Page.

You also get to keep whatever you review…for free!

So, why isn’t this a good idea?

Mains water contains chlorine, in fact it’s this chlorine that makes the water safe for us to drink.  The chlorine kills bateria that otherwise may prove harmful to you or I.

This same chlorine is indicrimate in which bacteria it targets and will happily kill off the bacteria that is living in your filter media…that’s right, the same bacteria that is helping you get rid of all that nasty ammonia and nitrite.

So how can you avoid this?

When cleaning your filter sponges or other media, do so with the water from your source (pond or tank), collect some in a bucket and use that to clean off the media .  This cleaning process helps to reuce the amount of physical waste in your filter, while preserving the bacteria that is oh-so-essential for it to work.

Remember that when adding water to your pond or aquarium, the use of a dechlorinator is helpful to nutralise the chlorine.

For tips like this, and other great advice, come join Paddock Farm on Facebook and Twitter.