# Marine fish bowl.



## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

Don't get all angry at me, I'm not putting corals or fish in it. I really just want to use it to breed amano shrimp and nerite snails.

Anyone have any advice?

I was thinking about using marine plants....
The water parameters are sure to fluctuate slightly, so what would be safer- plants or live rock? Plants I'd surmise.

Any ideas for decorations and filtration? Would plants and an airstone be sufficient? Do marine plants convert CO2 to oxygen the same as freshwater plants, and if so, would they produce enough oxygen?

Do I need to buy special marine food for the nerite snails, or do you think freshwater food would work? Or spinach?
(I plan on letting natural "green water" grow in the bowl, and they will be food for the shrimp larvae.


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

I have no experience in this area. Sorry.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

search PICO type and you will see a TON of ideas... for this i would go with 2-3 pounds LR (room permitting) and a HOB filet running a bag of chemi-pure..... thats is really if you cannot get a HOB to fit a custom canister typw with only the chemi-pure would work also (BTW this stuff lasts for 4-6 months in larger tanks for this one you could get a year easy!!)


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Very interesting idea, i dont think ive ever seen a marine fish bowl. If you do this, please keep us updated.


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## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

Well I really only want it to grow nerite snails and amano shrimp larvae...

Would live rock be neccesary?

I think I'm going to experiment with an airstone and some chaeto first... Maybe live sand or live rock rubble if I can find a small enough amount.

My only issue, is I want "green water" algae in the tank... The amano larvae are filter feeders...

Think I could use frozen food designed for filter feeders?


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## small fry (Oct 14, 2010)

I tried to ask a similar question on FF (which I don't use often, TFK is the BEST), and they (rudely) told me that the water would evaporate to fast, it being saltwater. I don't know, that's just what they said. 

I find it hard to belive because I used to keep a betta and that water didn't evaporate 1/8th of an inch between the 2 days I changed it. I am not on FF much so I don't know how reliable the users are.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

lets hit this all shall we?

first in such a small system your LR is your filtration - often LFS will have ruble in there tanks and if you ask they may either charge less or even give some to you if they are a good store LOL other wise ask some one you know with salt water and often they got some hanging around.

now for the green water it would be ok to use frozen but bottled phytoplankton is good and if you research you could even grow your own (then ship me some of the extra LOL) 

now with evaporation this very much depends on how you heat and what light you are using... but i have seen the coolest auto top off set up made from a water bottle and piece of tube.. so that would really not be much to deal with...

have you looked up Pico tanks yet?? there is a ton of information out there


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## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

Interesting..

I had ruled out live rock due to what I expected to be 'inherent instability'. I guess I could use some LR after all.

The difficulty is in buying such small quantities of live sand and LR.

I may have to set up two. 
I found the link for a guy's Amano breeding setup-

He stirs it once a day with a spoon, but other than that, he "grows them with his arms crossed."
No frequent water changes, no filtration (just an airstone), no feeding. He stimulates an algae culture, and lets it act as the filtration.

Very peculiar, although it's ugly. 
Caridina Japonica Online

I don't think I should keep nerites in there though... The phytoplankton will settle on the ground and the nerites may eat it.... Plus they might not have enough food.


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

now i see what you are attempting to do !!! so i would simply copy his method if that is what you are growing (fesh water shrimp) i was under the impression that you were attempting a simple shrimp Pico tank....


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## redchigh (Jan 20, 2010)

Well now I've decided to do both. 

I expect a bumper crop of Amanos and Nerites will pay for the pico-reef. 

He used no filtration whatsoever... I was thinking that some Chaeto or LR to lower nitrates might increase the survival rate...

I doubt live rock would survive in that setup, so I was going to use plants... Perhaps chaeto..
Is shaving brush plant a bad idea?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

LR will do fine in there but if you dont want to use it thats fine also... not familiur with that plany will look it up and see what i can find for you ...


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