Malaya Shrimp and the new guy....

[southerndesert]

Hi All,

Well I joined this forum a short while back after trying out some shrimp in a community tank... Naturally this lead to 2 more tanks set up in my office one a 20 gallon long with a new and happily breeding RCS colony, the other is a 15 gallon tall that has been cycling with the help of water from my other tanks for quite some time waiting for me to decide what other type of shrimp to try my luck at. The 15 gallon is set up per methods read about in the articles section of this website, no live plants, leaf litter, correct water parameters, etc.

There are plenty of opinions out there on how to keep Dwarf Shrimp, but makes sence to me that if a person is successful with a given varity few others are currently raising...well...that should be the advise followed

Today in the mail I recieved 10 Malaya Shrimp that as a new shrimp addict I will try to raise as well as breed. I will share my experiences as well as gladly accept all advise/criticism as I move along....

All shrimp arrived young, alive, well packed, and healthy and began eating and seem quite happy in their new home. The only tank mates are some Blue Ramshorn Snails and other small critters that tend to "show up" in a predator free tank.

Now we will see I guess if someone new to the hobby can "get er done" so to speak, but with all the info supplied here and at other sites it should go fine....I think I am judging by their age/size that it will be a spell before I'll have much to add as long as all goes well.

I love a challenge large or small, Bill

[Mustafa]

I, for one, am looking forward to further updates.

[southerndesert]

Hello Mustafa and All,

So far so good and the shrimp seem to be doing fine. I don't see them much as there is plenty of cover under the leaf litter in the tank and they spend most of their time there. They are however fond of picking at the sponge filter and there were 7 on it this morning so I assume all 10 are doing fine.

They don't have much interest in other foods and seem content to just forage in the leaves or on the filter totally ignoring any of my offerings so far.

A side note for Southwestern shrimp folk is that of all the various leaves I have tried here in my shrimp tanks AZ Mullberry is what my shrimp seem to prefer over anything else I have used. At least in my RCS tank and the Malaya spend more time on them as well over the Ash and Oak leaves also supplied in both tanks. They are plentiful here as shade trees in yards although not native.

Bill

[Mustafa]

Hi Bill,

How many leaves do you have in there? I would not put in more than 1-2 leaves at a time as too many leaves can compete with the filter bacteria for ammonia (thus starving them out over time) and with the algae/biofilm for nitrate (and also ammonia/nitrite etc.). But the biggest danger is that you may get a bacterial bloom with too many leaves that depletes your tank of oxygen. Leaves are nice to have and are part of the natural habitats of most dwarf shrimp, but I have found that they are not really all that necessary in a shrimp tank. If you have too many leaves, make sure that you don't take them out all at once, which could disturb the ecological balance in your tank and cause deaths. Just take out one leaf every 2-3 days and things should be fine.

Also, if your shrimp are not interested in food that means that there is enough food for them to eat. Make sure you take out all food if the shrimp show no interest within about 10-15 minutes. As long as the shrimp are picking and their intestinal tract is filled (the dark line running down their "backs" inside their bodies) they have enough food. If you have enough visible algea (and along with it invisible biofilm) growing on the glass and rocks you're fine.

If the shrimp like their environment, most of them will be visible pretty much all the time grazing. In such an enviroment they will also grow much faster and be mature much more quickly. The shrimp you got would mature (i.e. carry eggs) in 4 to 6 weeks under good conditions. It takes much much longer if the conditions are not quite to their liking.

The above applies to all species of dwarf shrimp, by the way, not just to malaya shrimp.

[southerndesert]

There are 3 leaves in the Malaya tank and I will remove one of them... The RCS tank has 4, but they seem to go through them pretty quick with about 60 shrimp in there.

They (Malaya) seem to like working the underside of the leaves for some reason. They seem plenty active, but stay under or on the leaves most of the time (at least when I am at home and looking).

I hope this shy seeming behavior is not a sign of trouble and I'll be keeping a close eye on my water and other factors possibly involved....

Thank you for your help and input, Bill

[southerndesert]

Well somehow I blew it.... Water tested fine through the last time I saw a shrimp a couple days ago and I think they are now all gone.

There were both alge and a couple leaves (Mulberry as they seemed to spend more time on them after trying Oak and Ash) and other food was never left in the tank for more than a couple hours. There are also a good number of other little critters living in the tank and they were not affected by whatever killed the shrimp.

As I mentioned in another post the shrimp were hiding most of the time and Mustafa indicated then that there may be something amiss....

I put 2 male RCS into the tank yesterday just to see if perhaps there was another source of poisoning I was missing, but so far they are alive and well. Now I am left wondering just what I did to kill my Malaya Shrimps.....

Thus far I have not had trouble in my other 2 shrimp only tanks, one housing CRS and the other RCS and Bee shrimp.

I will feel better if I can figure out what happened so I have at least learned from my mistake, but there wasn't even a nitrite spike to indicate a previous ammonia problem so I am thus far at a loss. Nitrates also have been in check so perhaps something else was to blame. I also use Prime with all water changes even though we do not have chlorine in our well water. I do also mix RO with the tap water as my water here is very hard with a PH at of above 8.0, tank PH is kept at or near 7.4

I was doing pretty well until this and it has taken a bit of the wind from my sails as these things tend to do, but I will not let it slow down my enthusiasm for raising shrimp. There is of course an answer to what happened, but inexperience has left me so far without a clue.

Bill

[southerndesert]

Well imagine my surprise when I arrived home today after work and was able to spot 3 of my Malaya Shrimp working on a leaf! Perhaps all is not lost and the others are still alive as well. They have grown and appear very healthy. They are still small enough to easily hide within the substrate and this is perhaps why I can't always see them.

Geeeeze it's nice to be wrong sometimes....

Hopefully more good news to follow soon.

Bill

[Neonshrimp]

Geeeeze it's nice to be wrong sometimes....

Hopefully more good news to follow soon.

I have to agree with you on this point! Good to hear things are not as bad as thought

[shrimpbaby]

Good thing that they're still alive.

I've done the same thing before.

[southerndesert]

Well my Malaya Shrimp now have 10 tank mates. The wife bought me 10 very small Indian Zebra Shrimp as a gift after seeing me looking at them last week. After putting them in the tank the once somewhat shy Malaya Shrimp are now quite active and being just a tad larger than the Indian Zebra Shrimp
perhaps they are more secure in the big tank.

Hopefully there will be no issues keeping the two together, but I had no where else to put them that was fully cycled except my RCS or CRS tanks (the wife had no idea about cycling etc.) and I decided the Malaya tank better since both are around the same size. I did read up on the two and it seems they will be fine together.

It's nice to see the Malaya more active now and they are doing well and growing....

Anyone see any problems here or should all be well until I perhaps separate them later?

Bill

[Mustafa]

I don't see any problems keeping them together for now. They won't interbreed or anything. At some point one species may outcompete the other but that's a long way down the road. Did you get to count how many malayas you still have? If you have not found any "bodies" they may have just been hiding the whole time. It can take some time for a tank to "break in" even after it has cycled, so that may be what's happening to your tank. Just don't make any drastic changes and things will settle in.

[southerndesert]

Hello Mustafa,

I have counted 7 out of my 10 and am guessing they are all still in there. I was watching them forage in and out of the substrate which is boulder size to very small shrimp and they are so clear at this young age as to render them almost invisible when in the gravel. Lots of goodies to eat in there for them as well. They will come out for food now as well making it easier to get a partial head count.

There have been several little molts floating in the tank over the last couple weeks as well and that was a welcome site after my earlier panic after they all hid out for a few days last week.

The tank as you mentioned is only 2 months old and very well could be a factor in their behavior. I do however keep a close eye on water and will just let nature and the shrimp take their course with a water change here and there. There is a happy colony of copepods in the tank and that too is a sign that at least my water is good for shrimp as well.

Up to 3 shrimp only tanks now and all are so far successful and healthy. Waiting on the Malaya to grow, the CRS to berry, and the RCS...well...they are a rapidly growing breeding colony now. Getting another tank going for the IZS to move into after they grow up as well.

Lots of reading and learning and crossing my fingers that I don't actually blow it somehow like I thought I may have done last week. Jumping in with both feet is fine and my way, but I see there is still allot to learn, just hoping none of my learning will be "the hard way" so to speak.

Bill

[Mustafa]

Hi Bill,

Glad that the malayas seem to be doing well. The other 3 may be hiding somewhere if you have not found any "bodies" in your tank. Just make sure that you don't overfeed them. You'll develop a feel for this in time to figure out a "happy medium" where you feed enough for your shrimp to reproduce but not so much that you kill your shrimp. It's hard to kill shrimp by "underfeeding" them...actually I've never heard about such a thing.

[Terran]

Hi Bill,
It's hard to kill shrimp by "underfeeding" them...actually I've never heard about such a thing.

Yeah I was considering starting a topic about this.
Or rather a poll of sorts....(but this seems as good a place as any)


I never feed my Shrimp(except the ones in my Marbled Cray Tank that tank is ridiculously crowded).

I have cherries in several tanks some large and some in 10 gallon...they are all housed with some slow growing plants and that’s about it....(snails of course)...
They seem to do just fine....yeah the population doesn’t explode or anything and they carry eggs less often and have young must less frequently ...but I always kind of liked the idea of an "enclosed
environment....the only thing going in an out is whatever comes in or leaves with a water change.....


Does anyone else have tanks that they do not feed but keep shrimp in them?

[badflash]

I have a 10 gallon tank that I add oak leaves too as they go away. I've added nothing else for 6 months and the amanos and cherries are just fine. I've also not done a water change in about that long too. Just added RO water for evaporation.

I'll be switching to hibiscus leaves shortly.