newly purchased bamboo shrimp - looking for tips

[cj2379]

I recently purchased 3 bamboo shrimp for my 20gal tank. Judging by the shrimp I have seen in pet stores they are about medium sized. They are currently living with 4 long-finned blue danios, 1 leopard danio, 2 blood-fin tetras, 1 lemon tetra, 6 buenos aries tetras, a Chinese algae eater, a clown loach, and a blue lobster/crayfish. They seem to be doing well and are spending their time sitting in the current created by my filter (I have an Eclipse system) or sitting on the filter itself picking off/catching particles. All 3 of them seem to have settled in well. In the past I have only had ghost shrimp and so was wondering if anyone had any advice or tips for keeping my bamboo shrimp happy. Thanks a lot!

[TKD]

Please use the seach button and look here
http://www.petshrimp.com/bambooshrimp.html

TKD

[cj2379]

Thanks!

[Shrimp&Snails]

The clown loach doesn't sound like a good idea.

[Baby_Girl]

with 3 of them in 20 gal, I think you're going to have to supplement your bamboos with food. Some people use crushed flakes, but I personally am going to go with some invertebrate filter-feeder food (plankton).

Also search the forums for "bamboo shrimp", like I have a thread about feeding them from about a week ago.

[cj2379]

One person has mentioned that my clown loach might be bad company for my bamboo shrimp.....so far I haven't had any problems and when I had ghost shrimp before the clown loach never bothered with them. Does anyone else think that I should worry about my clown loach? I guess I hadn't thought of it being a problem before.

[badflash]

As a matter of rule, I never keep fish with mouths capable of taking off a piece of the shrimp, such as a leg or antenae, even if they are smaller than the shrimp. Even if they don't directly attack the shrimp, they will stress it out and that is not a good thing.

Things can go fine for months, then suddenly you have a legless or missing shrimp. Bamboos will leave the tank if they don't like it or feel threatened. This is especially true when they are ready to molt.

[NetsuaiAngel]

I help my boss with a company tank and have witnessed a clown loach kill and eat a ghost shrimp.

I think your main concern would be the electric blue crayfish. If he feels like it, he will attack and eat anything that will stimulate his preying instinct. I use to have one and placed a baby arrowana(sp) in the tank. In less than five seconds, the crayfish bolted up to the top of the tank and grabbed the arrowana. By the time I was able to stick my hand in the tank, the crayfish had already ate half of the fish.

I'm really surprised your smaller fish are not threatened by the crayfish. The bigger that crayfish gets, the more risk for your smaller fish.

What decor do you have in your tank?

For their safety be sure to have cave, rocks, and such for them to hide in when it comes time for them to molt. Mine would hid behind my driftwood or in my slate caves to molt.

Fish will stress shrimp out. I have three rosy barbs and they stress out my amanos and bamboo shrimp. Unfortunately my bamboo were so stressed out that they did find a way out of my uniquarium (to give you an idea of what means they will go through to escape an unhappy home).

- Angela

[Guybrush]

They may be okay for now, but the clown loach and the chinese algae eater could become a problem when they get bigger. The chinese algae eater especially, since I've read that they get more aggressive as they grow.

You'll probably have to move them both out eventually anyway, since they will definitely outgrow a 20 gallon tank.

[cj2379]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on what is going on with my shrimp and the other fish in my tank.