My shrimp tank

[fatboy]

My first post. :)

Here's a snap of my shrimp only tank. I've got about 8 small cherry reds and 4 larger Amano shrimp in there. I'm getting some more cherry reds tommorrow and perhaps a filter feeding shrimp.

I'll be adding some moss and more dwarf hair grass. The cherry reds love crawling through the hair grass and the amnos have set up home under the wood.

I'm delighted to find this site. It seems a very friendly and helpful place.

http://www.fishystuff.co.uk/shrimptanksmall.jpg

[Robert]

Hi and welcome!
Your tank is really nice! How old is it? It looks very new and hopefully it's cycled well before you add the first shrimps.

To keep filter shrimps is not easy. They prefer a current and of course they like to filter their food out of the water, that's why they have these special pincers. That requires food which levitates in the water for at least an hour or more because they don't eat so fast. Life food like baby brine shrimps or cyclops would be the best. Cyclop-eeze is an alternative but you have to soak it with your fingers in the water before it stops floating.

BTW, which species of filter shrimps do you want to keep? Normally you get at least two different species in a LFS. The most common one is Atyopsis moluccensis, the wood or bamboo or Asian filter shrimp. Another common species is Atya gabonensis, an African species which is blueish as a juvenile and brown as an adult. I keep such a shrimp and it is not easy to keep. It's mainly active at night and requires a lot of food because it becomes quit large ( till 6'' / 15cm). My one is still a baby so to say with 3''.

best regards

Robert

[simcb]

Nice setup... i can't help notice something in your tank. Is your plants nearest to the light are infested with Black brush algae or my eyes playing tricks on me.

[Walter]

simcb, I think I noticed the same thing as well. And I agree that set-up is really very nice! plants are strategically placed and it is just so nice to look at. :D

[fatboy]

BTW, which species of filter shrimps do you want to keep? Normally you get at least two different species in a LFS. The most common one is Atyopsis moluccensis, the wood or bamboo or Asian filter shrimp.

It's the wood shrimp I was thinking about. The other one is almost impossible to find in England.

Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware the feeding was quite so specialised. a few people have saidd they'll happily eat stuff from the gravel but that is not ideal for long term health.

The tank is about 4 weeks old. I have another tank with Dwarf Puffers and I used the mature sponge to start a new bacteria colony. I've done water tests and it seems to be stable. The cherry shrimp are developing colour nicely and I'm using that as a sign they are happy in the tank.

That IS black brush algae. I might remove that plant because I can't figure out how to remove the algae from it. It was in my puffer tank and I never noticed how badly it was affected until I moved it to a taller, less planted tank. :(

I put it in because the shrimp in the puffer tank love it. The algae looks like public hair and traps so much dirt! when I'm at the fish shop I'll have another look for tall plants with plat horizontal leaves.

[NoDeltaH2O]

Filter feeding shrimp really do like STRONG current. I have a couple in my 20 gallon long tank which has a 300gph powerhead hooked up to PVC pipe which runs under the gravel the entire length of the tank and on the other end are two sponge ponf filters. I get pretty decent unidirectional current through this tank and the Bamboo Shrimp I have sit about 5 inches away from the powerhead right in the blast zone filtering away. I am honestly not sure how much food they are getting because my water is crystal clear and I don't have much of an algae problem in there. I also have heard that they will rub their fans along the gravel to pick up tiny microscopic foodstuffs but filters are there to filter, not to scrape gravel with. So can anyone give us a good idea of what and how much to feed these guys?