Rainbow shrimp predator?

mikedmatthews · Post by **mikedmatthews** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:18 am

So my rainbow shrimp released last week and I removed some into 2 separate containers and left some behind in with the adults. both groups i removed seem to be gone now and the ones with the adults are mostly gone now. i was assuming most of the predation would come from the adults, but now i wonder if its not copepods. I have them everywhere and didn't really think much of it, but some of them got carried over with the zoea when I removed them and since there isn't anywhere to hide I now wonder if they ate them.

I don't know what these things are, but they are about the .15 cm at maximum size and mottled in color. the whizz around the tanks and i never try to get rid of them since they seem to help clean up an extra food and never bothered any fish fry. I first noticed them when i started feeding freeze dried tetra daphnia. After that they showed up in every tank i used it in and eventually they have spread everywhere. Non of my fish eat them.

So i'm wondering if I should start a new sterile tank and move the adults. I think this one is a lost cause and am just about ready to hit it with some bleach to clean it out.

mikedmatthews · Post by **mikedmatthews** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:24 pm

well, i am either blind or they were hiding behind the sponge filter, because the larvea showed up again today. i suppose the copepods aren't a problem after all.

TKD · Post by **TKD** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:25 pm

When your 2 or 3 mm it's very easy to hide.
You probably have a lot more then you think you do.

TKD

badflash · Post by **badflash** » Tue May 29, 2007 7:46 pm

Copepods are not the problem. The babies do not like your water parameters. What is your hardness, pH, etc.

mikedmatthews · Post by **mikedmatthews** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:22 pm

well, i'm going to sound like a blasphemer to some, but i don't watch water parameters, i just do my changes and get on with it. all of my water is hard and above 7 somewhere (soemthign like 7.6 i think). i have some dehumidifyer water and peat water i use with some killies, but everyone else gets the regular stuff, unless i'm tryign to do a rainy season thing with tetras or cories. pretty much everything i bring home breeds for me, so i suppose there's no complaints form the inmates.

they turned out to be ok though. found a whole swarm of them in there. i want to bump them up to a bigger container soon though. i don't want the waste production to sneak up on me.