I have four amanos in my 21g tank and was watching them last night and saw one clinging onto the heater and grabbing at the water's surface. My first thought was "Oh no he's dying" but he seemed to be feeding off the water's surface. When I popped a little food in sure enough he swooped down, picked up a bit and scurried away to eat.
I have seen my amanos swim up to the water's surface to grab a fish flake but i've never seen them hang out like he was when they hadn't been fed.
I saw a post previously on amanos feeding like fan shrimp but couldn't find it. Has anyone seen their amanos do this?
I've seen Neocaridina shrimp hanging from floating plants (mostly duckweed) and feeding at the surface quite often. It doesn't seem surprising than Amano's would do the same thing. Where there's food, there's usually a hungry shrimp as well...
ToddnBecka wrote:I've seen Neocaridina shrimp hanging from floating plants (mostly duckweed) and feeding at the surface quite often. It doesn't seem surprising than Amano's would do the same thing. Where there's food, there's usually a hungry shrimp as well...
Ya mine do that too!
They could be going after that oily film that some times develops.
My amanos seem to love that oily film. In my old tank, one of them used to regularly hang on to the thermometer and scoop it off the surface whenever it formed.
Thought I'd dig out this old post -- I got to watch one of my amanos filter feeding the other day. He was clinging to the silicone tank sealant near the filter outlet, performing exactly the same pose as a fan shrimp. They do indeed have tiny fans they can catch food with.
My tank's been overrun with tiny creatures lately. One of my rice prawns had a brood of eggs hatch. As a result, the cyclops population is rising steadily. I'm still hoping I might get a couple of baby prawns surviving amongst all the moss, but I don't really mind either way...