First attempt at breeding Amano's

[Voo]

Hi Guys,

I bought some amano shrimp about 2 weeks ago, one of them was full of eggs, so i kept her seperate in a tank of her own. Overnight she dropped all of her eggs, a few hatched, but over a few days, more and more hatched.

These i added to salt water as 35ppt and added green water. However it went wrong and i can no longer see any life in this take.
Few things i can think of that i did wrong:
Added the shrimp too soon, they were just a few days old,
Adding too much green water, turning the water bad.

I've kept the tank running just incase any have survived and are lurking around the bottom.

The eggs, although loose on the bottom of the tank, kept hatching over a week. I did remove them twice, along with all the gunk on the bottom, and kept them in a jug. They still kept hatching...
Eventually, i started adding salt water to the freshwater tank i was keeping them in, slowly increasing the salinity each day. They hatched around 8th June, and today the salinity is around 29ppt. I'm trying to reach around 33ppt, so that even when water evaporates it shouldnt go above 35ppt.

Now for the questions:
1. I've added some green water to this tank, although it's only pale green in colour. Will this be enough for them to feed on? I am adding ferts for the algae.

2. There's a light over the tank 24/7, yet most of them seem to hang around the bottom of the tank. For this reason i havent been able to clear up all the waste, as i'm likely to suck up loads of the zoes. They also appear to be feeding off it, so what should i do? The bottom is going green in places with algae, yet there's a thin layer of waste all over.

3. Water changes. I've read that most of you recommend to use mature tank water for the water changes. I only have 2 freshwater tanks and 1 brackish. 1 freshwater i dose daily with EI ferts, the other has 2 plecs causing an enormous amount of waste that's causing an algae problem, possibly due to high nitrates. I'm unsure whether this water will be suitable for the zoes if they are sensitive to water conditions, so so far i've been using tap water to mix with marine salt. Should i use the mature tank water, or carry on with tap water? Also, how often do you recommend the changes?

4. At what time/ stage do you start to feed food other than green water? I've read of people using Golden Pearl food, yet i havent seen this in the UK and dont know what it is, so does anyone know of an alternative in the UK? Should it be marine food, or tropical fish food?

I'd really appreciate some help with this, see how many shrimp i can keep alive. Thanks in advance!

[mikedmatthews]

i'm in the same boat right now. water quality seems to take a dive and i get a die off. i switched over to the store-bought marine algea as the only food, but i'm afraid i'll have to start over with new water and another batch of larvae to get any babies.

i wonder if i could get any of the marine macro algae to grow in brackish...not sure if that would help anything or not.

[badflash]

If you leave the lights on 24/7 and use live marine algae, you should have no issues with water quality. The algae will improve water quality, not harm it.

[Voo]

I am using live marine algae, although im unsure how much i should add - how green the water should be.

Also, it says to keep the bottle in the fridge. How does this keep it alive? I thought algae would need light to stay alive??

I asked on another forum about culturing the marine algae. A guy who cultured it for marine tanks said i should be leaving the lights on for no more than 16 hours a day.

When should i be changing their food to something other than green water?

[badflash]

If it is in the fridge, it probably is not alive. This stuff I have needs to be in the light at least 1/2 the time, and I feed it ferts (Pro-Culture) every two weeks.

The proper amount is a light haze.