fett wrote:
I'm preparing myself to get flamed all to hell hehe.
This is definitely not a good attitude with which to start posting in this forum. In fact, you come here and insult me and everyone else by implying that we are closed-minded and do not accept "new knowledge" (Quote: "Aquarium keeping is largely a hobby of discovery, and
to deny new knowledge is to deny the essence of fish keeping.") and that we are hostile (see your above statement). Do you really think this is the right type of attitude, especially for someone who just made his/her first few posts? If anything *this* forum is open to any and all new knowledge, as long as it's credibly and verifiably presented. Actually, I would *love* to see someone present some real proof that they bred amano shrimp in freshwater. If the proof is there why should we not accept it? Nobody gets "flamed" here. Critical, scientific thinking is promoted, which some extremely sensitive people with obvious psychological issues interpret as "rudeness" or "flaming."
Before I reply to your claims I should say that I honestly think that these kinds of "claims" without any proof whatsoever are a total waste of my time as I have to give the exact same explanation that I gave others over and over again. If you had actually followed the rules and searched the forum (as I told you to do in my email reply to your claim) then you would have already heard the explanation.
Now to your claim. I see absolutely no proof whatsoever for your claims. None, zero. Do you know how many times I have heard both here in this forum and elsewhere: "I bought this and this many amanos and now I found another one so my amanos must be breeding in freshwater." I've heard the *exact* same claims about the asian and the african filter shrimp, too. It always comes from unexperienced shrimp keepers and they never have any kind of evidence for their claims. Same applies here.
The shrimp you are showing as "tiny" and claim to be a "young" is a full adult and not much smaller than the other shrimp. You obviously don't see this, but your "tiny" shrimp is a male and about normal size, whereas your "big" shrimp are all females. Male amano shrimp are *always* smaller than the females. It's very, very noticable. A shrimp at that size doesn't just suddenly (and magically) appear out of your java moss jungle. You would have seen it already much much earlier as a juvenile. As to why you think that you all of a sudden have a new shrimp in your tank, you might want to perform a search and read all the explanations I have already given to the other people who had the exact same claims.
Plus...let's see what you are actually saying above:
About a year ago I purchased about 5 Amano shrimp
Sounds like you're not even sure how many shrimp you actually purchased.
Warning sign number one.
I havent seen any larva,
Warning sign No. 2: Larvae are always visible even in freshwater. They will be around for a few days before they die off.
but I have a huge 1ft cubed areas worth of java fern, so its a good hiding spot.
Warning sign No. 3, and one of the most common claims given by uninformed people who have no idea about shrimp and larvae. Do you realize that larvae don't go hiding in java moss but float around in the water column?
There is no doubt in my mind that the extremely small fish have to be the progeny of the originals.
Warning sing No. 4: Blind faith. Since you obviously have not done any real research in these animals you blindly believe what seems to make sense to you. "No doubt in my mind" given the circumstances (lack of experience, lack of research etc..etc.) is a sign or real closed-mindedness.
They are much much to small to be the same ones.
I don't know what pictures you are looking at, but in the pictures above we all seem to see a bunch of adult shrimp in the pictures with just normal size differences between males and females. Did you even know how to distinguish between males and females (you would if you did your research by the way).
but I think they also bred for the first couple months
This is symptomatic for all the claims you have made so far. You "think", i.e. you're not even sure, if they had eggs or not. You also "think" that you had "about" 5 shrimp originally. Obviously you don't remember things all that clearly, but still you say "i have no doubt in my mind." Go figure....
Also, carrying eggs is not automatically "breeding." Animals only "breed" if the result of mating are offspring.
Plus...and this shows how much of a waste of a time this actually is...YOU HAVE A COMMUNITY TANK WITH A BUNCH OF
HUNGRY FISH (see pictures above)!! Who in their right mind would even think that *any* larvae, who obligatorily float in the water column would escapte the mouths of fish (like the Black Neon and the barb/rasbora like fish above) whose *natural food* is freshwater zooplankton such as shrimp larvae!! I.e. those fish are micropredators! But even micropredator or not, the larvae will get eaten!
So, still "no doubt in your mind?" Anywway, for everyone else, this person wrote me an email before already with a very "smartassy" tone (and no "hello" or any introduction whatsoever...just starts telling me that I am wrong and he is right) along the lines of "you claim these shrimp can't be bred in freshwater and unless my shrimp have shrinking abilities mine have!" I told him that I get claims like this all the time and to do some research on this topic first and then if he still think that he "bred" the amanos in freshwater to post picture proof and methodological proof in my forum. And here we are....obviously he has done absolutely no research, came here with an attitude, posted absolutely no proof and wasted my time, as many of his "predecessors" have done before. I even gave him the benefit of the doubt and believed that he actually had baby shrimp and said that he might actually have some other shrimp (like a Neocaridina sp.) instead of an Amano....and not even the "baby shrimp" story turns out to be true. He actually does have Amano shrimp, no baby shrimp and still "thinks" (actually has "no doubt" in his mind) he bred them.....
So, please...anyone who thinks that they have bred "amanos" in freshwater...please, please do some research first, read this forum, get some experience with shrimp etc...etc...before wasting my and everyone else's time.
