So, I have this 45 gallon tank. I hate it. Since the first day I set it up, I’ve been planning to swap it out for a 38. It’s just too deep, and I can’t easily reach the bottom. I originally set it up with my Dream Blue Velvet Shrimp, and the colony went crazy right off the bat, ruining my plans to move them to another tank quickly (once there are tiny shrimplets, it’s impossible to find and catch them all). I decided to slowly move my Red Cherries out of my existing 38, and slowly move the Dream Blue Velvets there. Once the Dream Blue Velvet colony is moved to their new tank, I will tear down the 45 and replace it with another 38.

There were two additional things I wanted to accomplish with this reboot. The first was to change the substrate for the Dream Blue Velvets to a lighter color – I had them on black substrate, and I’ve read that they show up better on a lighter substrate. The second was to reset the colony. I had gotten a little lax in culling the darkest from the Dream Blue Velvet colony, and I’m seeing fewer and fewer of the brighter blue color I prefer.

I began today by moving all the Red Cherries from the 38 to a 10 I had ready for them. I had been culling heavily from this tank, as well as moving adults, especially berried females to another tank for a couple of months now, so I’m relatively sure there were not teeny, tiny shrimplets that I missed. Most auctions and swaps I go to recently seem saturated with Red Cherries, so it makes sense to move them to a smaller tank and keep a smaller colony of only the best colored shrimp. This way I can devote my bigger tank to something that is more in demand.

Next I emptied the 38, including substrate. I refilled with a lighter colored gravel I recently picked up, then set my decor and planted a couple of crypts and a baby Kleinar Bar Sword (not sure how this sword will do with regular gravel rather than Eco-Complete or Flourite, but we will see).

Here is the tank before the reset (set up for Red Cherry Shrimp) and after the reset, ready for Dream Blue Velvet Shrimp:

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You may note that I had two sponge filters running in the tank previously, I opted to use a slightly bigger size, and use only single filter now. This should be enough filtration for a shrimp-only tank; shrimp don’t have a huge bioload, and I do frequent water changes.

Now I will pull only the Dream Blue Velvets with the bright blue color I prefer to populate the new tank. The culls I will start to sell off. Once the 45 is empty and I can replace it with another 38, I plan to get some Golden Back shrimp for the new 38.

Happy fish keeping!

UPDATE: It turns out the Blue shrimp looked better to me on a black substrate as opposed to the light substrate – so I ended up re-booting this tank yet again in 2018.