I Built an Ecosystem for Rare Shrimp & Tiny Fish (30 Days)

30 days ago I set up a tiny ecosystem that surprised me. It exploded with life, rare creatures, strange behaviors, and moments I never expected. Now let's go back to day one. The reason I wanted to build this tank is because I work from home and honestly throughout the day I get pretty bored and kind of down because I have nothing to look at. But then an idea came to me. If I wanted to cure my boredom, I had to set a fish tank up right next to my desk that I could see. Then I wanted to fill it with rare shrimp that could graze on the plants and algae. And I wanted to get a cute tiny little fish to swim around in the tank that would be happy and get along with the shrimp. To start I have this five gallon cube tank that I will be using because I think it looks really sleek. I don't want to bore you with the details but basically I'm going to add some rocks in the back and then fill pantyhose with old fish tank gravel and tie them shut to build a slope. I'm not actually going to show these in the final build as you already saw, but it's a cheap way to just kind of add some depth in the tank without using all the expensive aqua soil. I'm going to arrange them higher up in the back and then slope them down to the front of the tank almost like a mountain. Now that that's all situated, I've got these siryu stones I want to use for the centerpiece. This one right here looks like a mountain so I'm going to make sure that's front and center. Now that all the rocks are in, I'm going to add on this light so we can see the build better. After that I'm going to take some toilet paper and super glue and wedge them in between the rocks and glue them together so they don't fall and break the glass. This is safe for all fish, plants, and shrimp. Now I'm going to add in some aqua soil because it's full of nutrients for our plants. Now that the tank is full of aqua soil, it's time to add in our plants. The goal here is to spread these plants evenly throughout the tank so that they spread out and fill in all the space. Now that the hardscape is completely done, it's time to fill it with water. After filling this tank with water, it's time to let it sit for a few weeks. Is what I would have said. When I woke up, half of the fish tank water was on the floor and I realized there was a leak in one of the seals, so I had to drain this tank and restart from scratch. I removed all the plants and all of the hardscape and then hopped in my car to go to Home Depot to buy some aquarium safe silicone. Then I resealed the tank, let it sit for a couple days, and checked to make sure it wasn't leaking again, and after it was all good for a few hours, I figured let's rebuild this tank. I put it back together and made it look identical to the first time I built it, and that puts us back where we left off. On day 14, the tank was fully cycled and ready for life. This was perfect timing because in the mail that day, I got this tank's expensive and rare inhibitants, crystal red shrimp. These guys are very sensitive, so I set up a drip acclimation for them. As I was waiting for the shrimp to be ready, I looked inside of the tank and saw a couple of bladder snails, and when I was editing, I realized that you could see this guy's heartbeat. There was also this tiny guy, who must have hitchhiked on a plant as well. Speaking of tiny guys, this is a sparkling gourami, and he's going to be the fish we add into this tank. He's super tiny and perfect for this build. Since I didn't buy him online, but I got him in a pet store, he acclimated a lot faster than the shrimp and was the first into the tank. He was very shy at first, hiding underneath plants and staying away from the light. After about an hour or two, he was a little more comfortable, and it was time to add in our shrimp. Unfortunately, I forgot to film the release, so here's a release from another video I did. I think these guys worked up an appetite on their travels because they immediately started grazing for food. I think they were all a little bit scared still though, because they were still practicing strength in numbers, and the gourami wanted to take part in that too for a little bit, until he got spooked away. After a while, it was time for everyone to go to bed, but not before a midnight snack. The next day, I decided to add in some of these Indian almond leaves. These are super beneficial for the shrimp. They're a natural water conditioner, they reduce stress, and they also grow biofilm which is a key food source for shrimp. After adding in the leaves, this guy came out of his hiding spot to check it out. I thought that he was going to head right towards this leaf and start grazing on it, but I think he just wanted to check out a new cave. None of the shrimp really seemed interested in the leaf at first, but after a while, the four shrimp leaders came together and agreed that the leaves are safe to graze on. After the okay was given, all of the shrimp immediately started to On day 20, we ran into our first major issue. The sparkling gourami was nowhere to be found. All of the shrimp spread out and started covering as much ground as physically possible. This shrimp even crossed one of the most deadly valleys in the tank, risking his own life to save his friend, the sparkling gourami. We even set up a two man search party to check out the caves. This brave shrimp wandered into uncharted territories and eventually found the victim. He was so excited that he immediately tried to jump on him and give him a hug, but I don't think the gourami actually wanted to be found after all because he immediately went back into hiding. Either way, the shrimp deserved a treat for all of their hard work, so I bought them some shrimp lollipops. It even came with this little cute stand. When I dropped it in, all of the shrimp immediately started coming to the front of the tank, and this was our first guy to give it a try. All of the shrimp started to freak out, and this one even learned parkour to get his fix. After that shrimp did his parkour, this one wanted to prove that he was the true king of the tank and climb to the top of the stick. After his fear of heights kicked in, he came down from the lollipop, and I removed it so that the water didn't get gross. On day 30, I felt like something was still missing from the tank, so I got this driftwood and boiled it to remove any bacteria or anything I wouldn't want in the tank. I wanted it to go in the back corner and overhang some of the rocks with the long branch it has, it kind of looks like a dead tree, and it has a good look to it. I wasn't sure if the shrimp would like this addition or not, but the results speak for themselves. Within 30 seconds, almost all of the shrimp had came over to check out the new driftwood. Maybe the pot that I boiled the driftwood in had leftover food in it or something, because all of the shrimp were trying to eat the wood, and pretty soon after, so were the snails. This was the first time I'd seen a shrimp and a snail interact in this tank. This guy's not on the driftwood, but he did something immaculate. He started to dance, and show off, and honestly, I think the shrimp got a little jealous. Now that it's day 30, I think I achieved what I set out to do. I wanted to build a tank that would keep me motivated and stop me from getting bored while I was working, and multiple times while I was editing this video, I kept coming over and looking at this tank, and I was super happy with how it turned out. I hope you guys liked this video, please comment down below, and subscribe to my channel. I have a ton of cool builds that I'll be posting in the future, and I also have a few cool builds that I've already posted, so go check those out. If you watched to the end, I seriously appreciate you so much. These videos take a lot of work, and it means the world when people watch to the end, so thank you for that, and we'll see you guys in the next one. Peace!