Amano Shrimp Party

[NoDeltaH2O]

This tank has been set up for about 2 1/2 years now and has housed various types of shrimp for about 8 months or so. The tank is a 20gallon long, densely planted, community tank. It started out as a Hillstream Loach tank, but more fish, more fish, more fish, and then shrimp, more shrimp, and more shrimp.

I have DIY CO2, 90 watts of ODNO lighting, and do daily dosing of ferts to keep the plants growing and happy. Nitrates stay down around 10, often dropping off to ZERO, so then I add nitrate of soda to bring it back up for the plants lest they starve. I think the 4.5wpg keep the algae growing, which keeps the shrimp happy as they graze on it continuously.

Here is a pic of a few of my Amano shrimp hanging out on an algae covered rock

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_shrimpParty_May09_2005.jpg
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/AmanoShrimpCloseUp.jpg

This is the tank they're all in:

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/20gallonRiverTank2.jpg

and the other side of the tank, but an night:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/loachTankAtNight.jpg


I've got some Hillstream Loaches in there too:

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/CamoflaugedLoach.jpg


My favorite fish they are:

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_loachGrazingOnAlgae.jpg

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/HillStreamLoachOnRock2.jpg

Their oto tankmates:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/oto.jpg

[NoDeltaH2O]

Here is my Bamboo Wood Shrimp
He is a one-shrimp filtering machine
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_May06_2005%20017_BambooShrimp4.jpg

[NoDeltaH2O]

Here is another bamboo shrimp that didn't make it through the QT process

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_May06_2005%20017_BambooShrimp3.jpg

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_May06_2005%20017_BambooShrimp.jpg

[NoDeltaH2O]

http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/_amano_party.jpg

Some more tankmates:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/GlassCatfish.JPG

Another shot of the tank at night. Notice all the CO2 bubbles coming out of the powerhead.
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/loachTankAtNightLeft.jpg

An Amano crawling across my algae infested microswords:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/AmanoShrimp.jpg

These loaches are camoflouge artists:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/HillStreamLoachOnRock.jpg


This is the ONLY tankmate that showed aggression toward my shrimp. It is a "wonder killifish", and he got removed and put in my 29gallon FW planted community tank which has no shrimp:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~ded2/aquarium/killifish2.jpg

[Robert]

Hi,
thanks for all these pictures! Looks like a well running community tank! To remove the golden wonder killifish (Aplocheilus lineatus 'Gold') was a very good idea because they are predators which would eat your shrimps if they would be slightly smaller. They are definitely no good tank mates for shrimps and also not for smaller fishes like guppies.

Your Indian glass catfish (?, that's the translation of their German name, latin name is Kryptopterus minor), white cloud mountain minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) and all the other fishes would be no problem for your adult shrimps but breeding would be hard because your loaches and the catfishes should be interested in the young shrimplets.

Best regards

Robert

[retardo]

This tank has been set up for about 2 1/2 years now and has housed various types of shrimp for about 8 months or so. The tank is a 20gallon long, densely planted, community tank. It started out as a Hillstream Loach tank, but more fish, more fish, more fish, and then shrimp, more shrimp, and more shrimp.


lol Isn't this how it all starts? I started when I saw a few ghost shrimp at the lfs. Picked some up and put them in a 1G tank. Very low maintenance and a few plants. Now I'm literally addicted. I have a bad case of shrimp collectoritis. If I had a bigger tank, it would do so much more harm, because then I think, ooo... more space=more shrimp, shrimp, shrimp... and maybe some fish and some plants. :x Thank goodness for smaller tanks!

You have some very nice pictures. Nice amano party. Mine only do that at feeding time. I suspect that how you got that snapshot. :)

[NoDeltaH2O]

I have no feeding time for the shrimp. I have enough algae in there that they live completely off of that, and whatever food scraps they can get that the fish leave behind. Don't worry, they are NOT starving, as they moult regularly. The flat rock became madly popular a few months ago. Every evening around 7pm they would all congregate there and pick algae for a few hours. It was like their little ritual, with no input from me at all.

[amber2461]

Your hillstream loach is beautiful, thanks for sharing!

[livionakano]

Your Indian glass catfish (?, that's the translation of their German name, latin name is Kryptopterus minor), white cloud mountain minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) and all the other fishes would be no problem for your adult shrimps but breeding would be hard because your loaches and the catfishes should be interested in the young shrimplets.


Hi Robert,

You were speaking regard the possibility of bamboo shrimps breeding, right?

I thought that Amano shrimps were low-order shrimps, requiring some special conditions to breed

Best regards,

Lívio

[Walter]

Wow! You got a very amazing set-up and running very well! Dream tank! :D Your fishes and shrimps in there must be enjoying themselves or they might even be thinking that they were released back into the wild :joking: lol

One of the best planted set-ups I seen I would say, the plants are well placed and flourishing.. Keep up the good work! :D

[NoDeltaH2O]

Wow! You got a very amazing set-up and running very well! Dream tank! :D Your fishes and shrimps in there must be enjoying themselves or they might even be thinking that they were released back into the wild :joking: lol
One of the best planted set-ups I seen I would say, the plants are well placed and flourishing.. Keep up the good work! :DThanks Walter. This tank has been an experiment for me over the past 2 years it has been set up. It is my 2nd planted tank and I am forever hooked. For about 8 months I purposefully did no water changes, only topping off for evaporation and adding NPK, iron, and traces. I wanted to see how long I could go without WCs and I really think the answer is indefinitely, given good strong plant growth. During this time I learned a lot about water chemistry, plant needs, and waste and chemical removal. For instance, some types of plants remove carbonates directly from the water, thus helping to keep KH values down; the process is called biogenic decalcification.