I recently restocked an empty aquarium a few weeks ago with two small cory cats, three asian filter shrimp, and two Amano shrimp. The tank had been running for a year empty as a bulb had burned out on the light fixture (t5 10000k daylight 24 inch) and couldn't find a replacement locally, and a powerhead had gone south (I use two Penguin 660 power heads in reverse flow).
Three weeks later everyone is healthy and the plants are growing well (one Anubis Bartera, Cardinal plant, two Madigascar lace, two Amazon swords, and two Moss balls). I did have java moss, but it gets into the power heads and wraps around the impeller shaft and causes damage to the power heads, so I don't care for it.
Now to the fun part which is I won last week a bid for 100 cherry shrimp which I will be putting in that tank, and cross your fingers I win a bid for 10 Sulawesi Cardinal shrimp.
Dave
Shrimp I currently have
Moderator: Mustafa
Re: Shrimp I currently have
Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum! The one problem I see with your setup is that the shrimp will probably get sucked into your powerhead, unless there is something preventing it. Simple sponge filters are usually the best solution, unless you can somehow rig your powerhead to be shrimp-safe. I'd stay away from the Cardinal shrimp for now if I were you. They are most likely wild-caught, and even if they are not (which is super rare), they are very sensitive and die at the slightest mistake you make. I'd stick with the red cherries for a while before getting into other shrimp. If your red cherry shrimp survive and reproduce for multiple generations, then I would look at other species.
Welcome to the forum! The one problem I see with your setup is that the shrimp will probably get sucked into your powerhead, unless there is something preventing it. Simple sponge filters are usually the best solution, unless you can somehow rig your powerhead to be shrimp-safe. I'd stay away from the Cardinal shrimp for now if I were you. They are most likely wild-caught, and even if they are not (which is super rare), they are very sensitive and die at the slightest mistake you make. I'd stick with the red cherries for a while before getting into other shrimp. If your red cherry shrimp survive and reproduce for multiple generations, then I would look at other species.
Re: Shrimp I currently have
Thanks Mustafa,
I have been reading this forum and other fish keeping forums for some time (was even a moderator at Tropicalfishforum.net before the owner sold the forum to persue other interests... forum is no longer active and is read only).
What I do for breeding the cardina/neo-cardina type shrimp in the tank with reverse flow is to put women's knee high panty hose over the sponge filters, and I have changed the type of sponge filter to a Hydro-Sponge III for more surface area (I may be trying media bags for a sump over the sponge as they may last longer than the nylons). I only ever had trouble with juvenille shrimp getting sucked into the sponge, but lost the colony due to my ignorance of rinsing sponge in chlorinated water (I now take and squeeze the sponge into another cycled tank so no chlorine or chloramine gets in the tank... I take my tank top off water (which runs through a solid carbon block filter as it is also our household drinking water) and put it in a five gallon bucket with stress coat for a few days before I add it to the tank).
The Cardinal Shrimp are in another tank with black gravel substrate, lace rock, and lava rock with an artificial rock cave that was covered in algae and other detritis from another running tank with a Hang on Back filter using a double layer of nylons over the water pickup tube (right now I have about 35 as of yesterday afternoon when the mail came 13 Jun 2012).
I have two varieties of rabbit snail comming six each of the golden spotted and white spotted, and the cherry shrimp which will go in the tank of the original posing of this thread will be here tomorrow.
I am also setting up a 75 gallon fish tank that will not house any delicate inverts that could get eaten by the fish that will be going in there (a Raphael Striped Catfish three years old who is outgrowing the 20 gallon tank as he is now six inches long, an albino rainbow shark missing a gill plate that is six inches long and three years old) and any other fish we will add (angels maybe, tetras, butterfly fish?) and it will be a planted tank.
I'll get some pictures up soon
Dave
I have been reading this forum and other fish keeping forums for some time (was even a moderator at Tropicalfishforum.net before the owner sold the forum to persue other interests... forum is no longer active and is read only).
What I do for breeding the cardina/neo-cardina type shrimp in the tank with reverse flow is to put women's knee high panty hose over the sponge filters, and I have changed the type of sponge filter to a Hydro-Sponge III for more surface area (I may be trying media bags for a sump over the sponge as they may last longer than the nylons). I only ever had trouble with juvenille shrimp getting sucked into the sponge, but lost the colony due to my ignorance of rinsing sponge in chlorinated water (I now take and squeeze the sponge into another cycled tank so no chlorine or chloramine gets in the tank... I take my tank top off water (which runs through a solid carbon block filter as it is also our household drinking water) and put it in a five gallon bucket with stress coat for a few days before I add it to the tank).
The Cardinal Shrimp are in another tank with black gravel substrate, lace rock, and lava rock with an artificial rock cave that was covered in algae and other detritis from another running tank with a Hang on Back filter using a double layer of nylons over the water pickup tube (right now I have about 35 as of yesterday afternoon when the mail came 13 Jun 2012).
I have two varieties of rabbit snail comming six each of the golden spotted and white spotted, and the cherry shrimp which will go in the tank of the original posing of this thread will be here tomorrow.
I am also setting up a 75 gallon fish tank that will not house any delicate inverts that could get eaten by the fish that will be going in there (a Raphael Striped Catfish three years old who is outgrowing the 20 gallon tank as he is now six inches long, an albino rainbow shark missing a gill plate that is six inches long and three years old) and any other fish we will add (angels maybe, tetras, butterfly fish?) and it will be a planted tank.
I'll get some pictures up soon
Dave
Re: Shrimp I currently have
Hi Dave,
Looks like you're building up quite a collection there. By the way, rinsing a filter under tap water won't usually do much to your bacteria, although that is widely claimed. At least that's the case with chloramines in your water as opposed to straight chlorine. I rinse my filters all the time with tap water...no problems at all. Something else may have wiped out your colony. By the way, I have 4 species of Tylomelania (rabbit snails) and they are pretty awesome. The young take an eternity to reach full size, though. I have some year-old "juvenile" golden/orange Tylomelania which still have not nearly reached full grown size (about half that now). That probably means that this species has a very long lifespan.
Looks like you're building up quite a collection there.
By the way, rinsing a filter under tap water won't usually do much to your bacteria, although that is widely claimed. At least that's the case with chloramines in your water as opposed to straight chlorine. I rinse my filters all the time with tap water...no problems at all. Something else may have wiped out your colony. By the way, I have 4 species of Tylomelania (rabbit snails) and they are pretty awesome. The young take an eternity to reach full size, though. I have some year-old "juvenile" golden/orange Tylomelania which still have not nearly reached full grown size (about half that now). That probably means that this species has a very long lifespan.