Hi! I'm new

Pea-brain · Post by **Pea-brain** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:14 pm

I had a pretty scary experience today. I decided to use some tetramin floating reptile pellets that I use for my frog tank and just crush them up into fine power for filtering shrimp. I add it and all my my ghosties spring into action, and I look at my filtering shrimp (which is for some reason hanging upside down under my spong filter. It's back is almost touching the substrate.) and its moving its feeding appendages.

so I stare at them a while, and eventually leave. I sit down and decide to surf the forum. About a half hour later it hits me like a brick! I remembered reading about reptile food often containing copper! I fly down the stair (the frog tank is on the second floor and I'm on the 3rd) only touching 2 steps the whole way down. it's about 13 steps. On top of that I have a low hanging platform on the stairs I sometimes bump my head on walking normally. I narrowly missed it (tho i don't know how) and tripped right before i reached the frog tank. BAM!. flat on my face! I get up as fast as I can and grab the food. I read it mumbling through the entire thing. I'm all tensed up ready to run up stairs and do a 90% water change if need be. I don't even see the word copper, or any other heavy metal on the entire package. My knees give way and i fall flat on my rump, allowing to hit my head on a shelf behind me. I got out of it with a bloody nose and a nasty bump on the head.

Keeping shrimp is a safety hazard! there should be a disclaimer somewhere!

That goes on my top 10 accident most prone days in my life, right after accidentally stabbing myself in the gut with a pencil in kindergarten and trying to see if I could knee myself in the air on a trampoline (I can actually do that quite well. I had a bump that lasted 3 weeks if I remember right) At least all my shrimp are alive. I don't know why my singapore flower shrimp is hanging out under my sponge filter though. I thought they like moderate-heavy currents. And I have everywhere from almost no current to high current in my tank where it could hang out. Why is it there?

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:35 pm

Pea-brain, before you do anything else you should down and relax. Also take care of your injuries because if you are not around, who will take care of the shrimp

Really, take care and get well soon

The shrimp is hanging there because it might be testing its new home and feel comfortable there for now.

Pea-brain · Post by **Pea-brain** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:10 pm

it wasn't that bad. minor injuries. I was more than due for my nosebleed and head trama for this month anyways

Honestly, I have been a little bit on edge lately (Just a teensy bit) And all this time I spend looking up shrimp stuff and messing with water testing has really distracted me from video game time. And I barely spend any time looking at the shrimp themselves. I guess I could stand to put a little less time into this. just gotta make sure I keep inspecting my shrimp tank parameters on a regular basis.

I think I've gotten a little obsessed though. My mom says she has a 20 gallon tank with no lid in storage and I keep thinking about asking her to get it so I could turn it into a breeding tank (maybe even for shrimp that need saltwater to breed) or another shrimp tank and I keep telling myself that I'm crazy and should wait till I'm more experienced to try that. I think I got myself hooked.....

On a side note I've noticed that my old ghost shrimp don't like to come out when the tank light is on and will hide while it is. It takes several minutes before they wander out in search of food when the light is on and then they usually drag the food back under something. my new ghost shrimp are the exact opposite and are voracious if food comes out. They don't care about tank lights. Do you think the shrimp that don't like the light are going to get enough food? Maybe they will get more daring as they get hungrier?

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:52 pm

I think it may be another case of being bitten by the shrimp bug

! Ghost shrimp will have different personalities just as any other animal, so just accept them as they are. drop some food in their hiding place

Newjohn · Post by **Newjohn** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:33 pm

Hi Pea-brain

A little obsessed is normal for Shrimp Hobbiest.

You know you need to seek help when,

You let one tank over flow durning a water change, while you are staring at another tank Looking for the newly hatched Shrimp.

Or

Over flow your container for R/O while catching up on the lattest post in this Forum.

Or

Having Your Wife slow the car down, when you drive by a Yard Sales..
To see if the have any Aquariums.

Or

Asking your friends to pick Dandilion Greens out of there yard for your Shrimp.

and

If you can not hold a conversation with someone, with out saying any of these words.

Shrimp , Crayfish , Inver. , Aquarium, Tank , Gravel , Substrate, Leaf Litter , Sponge Filter , Air line , Heater , PH , Hardness , Larva , Post Larva .

As for you injuries.
Just set in front of you Aquarium, In a nice soft chair.
With your computer on , reading up on old post.
This should Help you feel better.

I hope you feel Better Soon
John

Pea-brain · Post by **Pea-brain** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:35 pm

O I just remembered! My friend, chris has a community fish tank and offered me 3 axelrod rasboras. He says they are pretty small (not grown yet) and that He didn't want them anymore because they got bullied by some larger fish and "pissed him off". He says that if I don't take them they are septic fishies. He's not exactly the patient type.....I looked them up and they seem to be compatible with my shrimps. they only get 1 1/2 inches long and his are a little less than an inch maybe. I've seen them before. I don't think that they pose a threat to my adult shrimps, but definately to baby shrimps. I still have no plans to breed them (at least not for a month or two) and can stick pregnant females in that 20 if i do decide to breed them. I know the rasboras are in good condition. While sometimes he doesn't exactly agree with some fish (he doesn't usually give a better reason other than "they annoy me" or "they piss me off" or "I don't like them" or something else that doesn't make too much sense) He really takes excellent care of his aquarium and is really good at keeping his water just right....anyways what do you think? I'd like to know if they pose a threat to my shrimps.

Also my singapore flower shrimp (or bamboo shrimp, or asian shrimp or whatever you want to call it) has gottan settled on the bottum of the sponge on my power filter. I figured it would go there because it has a nice current and there Is lots of detritus to pick off the sponge....

Pea-brain · Post by **Pea-brain** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:12 pm

One of my ghosts is carrying a whole bunch of little pale green spheres near her tail! Berrying is the correct term I think. That means my water quality is good enough for that. still very low nitrates, 0 nitrites and a barely detectable amount of ammonia. I will probly keep adding well crushed frog pellets and hope some of the little ones survive. I might get lucky. My singapore flower shrimp is officialy missing. location unknown, no corpses to report. probably hiding somewhere right in front of me. I am going to pick up the rasboras tomorrow, unless someone thinks its not a good idea. I know that GREATLY reduces chances of any babies growing, but like I said I have no plans to breed just yet. Just thought I'd update. I think I'm getting a little used to this shrimp thing so this topic will probly die soon. Just a few more worried updates and some more newbie questions and I think I might be able to handle myself unless an emergency comes up

Neonshrimp · Post by **Neonshrimp** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:08 pm

Hi Pea-brain, I will tell you just in case no one else does that keeping your shrimp with the fish you are thinking about is not a good choice. Keeping fish other than Ottos and other herbivores with modified mouths can also be bad for adult shrimp also! The fish may pester or attack the shrimp, stressing them to the point where they hide most of the time or worse. Sometimes we have the difficult choice of choosing what is best for our shrimp or fish, I know this feelong well myself since I raise both. I keep a large community fish tank were all fish but my Ottos live, and then I have my shrimp tanks. If you have them together then the dwarf shrimp will suffer most of the time. I know you are new and learning the shrimp hobby and that is why we are sharing what we have learned so you do not have to go through to much of the Bad of this new but great hobby.

Pea-brain · Post by **Pea-brain** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:49 pm

I've watched them in his tanks and they mostly hover near the surface, darting around. If not doing that they usually hide under his big cave decoration. I've watched his fish tank for 20 minutes at a time and they don't seem to be between hiding or swimming. I asked chris and he said that thats all they ever do. eat, hide, and swim. They don't even interact with anything else but each other unless a larger fish bugs them. If you really think It's a bad idea then i won't do it, but I'd peronally like to put them in and observe them closely and see what happens.

I was mistaken when I said I ordered 4 new cherry shrimps, but I only ordered 1 extra 1. I remember wanting to order at least 4 more, but I didn't because they cost too much money and I just ordered them because they were compatible and colorful. They weren't meant to be the center of the tank like some people have. So I decided to save the money instead incase An shrimp emergency comes up. So i only have 2 little cherry shrimps to worry about, and they spend most of their time on the sponge filter or hiding in the najas.

I would like to see if some1 agrees with you. i have trouble believing that these fish could hurt a shrimp if it wanted to. His fish like to stay in the part where there is high current from his filter. i think they are a stream fish, so they would stay in the high current area usually, and my shrimp mostly stay away from the left side of the tank, where there is a strong current. the only exception to this is the asian filter shrimp which someimes stay on the power filter sponge and doesn't move much. It's gone back under the sponge filter again by the way. And the mouths of the fish are so small that he has to crush the flakes so they can eat. If you are absolutely positive this is a bad idea i won't take the fish, but i think it would work out, or at least be worth the try. The absolute worst that can happen is they bug the cherry shrimp, and I have to get rid of them, right? because they couldn't fit any part of any of my shrimps in their mouths, except a leg, which would be really hard to get ahold of off a cherry shrimp. I won't do anything until I get an anwer, so there is no hurry. He says he is flushing on monday, so there is more than enough time to reply, and even discuss the issue if anybody wants to.