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Amano observation

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:00 am
by Shrimp&Snails
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. :roll: Has anyone seen their amanos do this?

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:23 am
by badflash
I've seen amanos hang out at the surface. I've never seen them sit and filter feed, but I have seen them use their fans as a scoop to get moina.

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:15 pm
by ToddnBecka
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... :lol:

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:44 pm
by TKD
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... :lol:
Ya mine do that too!

They could be going after that oily film that some times develops.

TKD

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:19 am
by Invader_Xan
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.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:19 am
by badflash
I'm pretty sure that is protien in that film.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:22 am
by Shrimp&Snails
The thing is I don't have a film on the surface.....

Perhaps I need to feed my tanks a little more often.

Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:42 am
by eklikewhoa
Mine do it all the time and will even float around when I feed the tank to catch any unsuspecting piece of food.

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 4:08 am
by Invader_Xan
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...