Amano Advice Please

[Fenrisulfer]

Hey, I could use some help regarding Amano shrimp. I absolutely love watching shrimp of all kinds, they're really amusing...Amano shrimp seemed to me to be the best suited to my tank, however this is my second try with them and they have died. I feel horrible about this and do not want this to happen again, but I am unsure of what is happening to cause this.

The tank is my smaller one, 6.5 gallons long. Its well planted with live plants and dense moss and is established. The water parameters and heat are appropriate, and in addition to the fallen food and algae (tanks by a window-sigh-) I also made sure that they got pieces of both types of sinking wafers too.

The other tank inhabitants do not even notice they are there, so I do not believe it is a case of predation, but they are a couple of guppies, an older betta, two juvenile corys and two juvenile otos.

Anyone have any ideas what is going on here? They just...die. The one today has been in the aquarium for almost two weeks and was happily eating this morning...this evening it was dead, bright orange in color and not touched by the fish. Other than appropriate conditioning for the water change I did two days ago nothing has been added to the tank and I only use invert safe products as I have snails too.

Also, I saw that there was a discussion previously on the board about putting shrimp in a tank with larger fish and it was suggested that perhaps-that being the key word of course-they could be kept if they were the bigger Amano shrimp and plenty of cover was provided. I have a 38 gallon that is planted and has drift wood and cholla wood...the only thing that would bother the shrimp is the angelfish. I fully understand that it may eat a shrimp when it is an adult, however has anyone successfully done this with plenty of hiding spots?

Thanks for any and all replies!

-Shayla

 

[MABJ]

Shrimp and angelfish will inevitably fail, I believe. You probably could try ghost shrimp with no guilty conscious.

Oh boy. Lots of comments on this tank.

2 ottos? Not a good idea in the edge, I don't think.

Algae is their main course. If you don't see a dent in it, I may suggest they aren't eating.

With 'tank parameters and heat are fine' we need to hear the actual parameters. We can't comment with 100% knowledge otherwise.

It sounds like there is a bit of uneaten food, so I would say your nitrates may have been high.

Past that, it sounds like they don't live through a molt. We need to figure out if you have enough calcium in your water. With a KH, GH and TDS reading.

Amanos are great shrimp, but even an old betta may harass them. You never know.

Orange is the color they turn when they die.

Keep us posted.

 

[absolutangel04]

I am just going to throw out there that I know plenty of circumstances where amanos and angels did fine together. As a mater of fact, I have never heard of it not working. The amanos get big and speedy enough to easily evade the angels.
We do need to know more about the parameters of the tank to be able to help you conclusively.
With 2 otos and an amano, I have doubts about there being enough algae to go around.

 

[MABJ]

I am just going to throw out there that I know plenty of circumstances where amanos and angels did fine together. As a mater of fact, I have never heard of it not working. The amanos get big and speedy enough to easily evade the angels.

Well look at that I've never personally kept them, and I tend to err on the safe side of things. It's good to hear that tho.

 

[absolutangel04]

To be fair, I am guessing smaller ones could eaten without adequate cover, but they get bigger than bite size relatively quickly.

 

[Fenrisulfer]

Thank you!

Sorry for the slow response time...there were issues which partial water changes and aquarium salt can't fix-stupid out of the aquarium problems! I very much appreciate the replies, and hope I'm not hopping over anything pointed in them in this reply.

On the subject of the potential feast of the angelfish, I'd thought such would be the case given the large size (relatively) of the shrimp...but I too like to err on the side of caution! I'd feel like a real jerk if I dumped a bunch of them in the tank and watched them be eaten. I'm adding more shrimp hiding places...if the loaches will give them up of course, and the tank is planted quite well and growing so I think its a go.

About the Otos...if I'm thinking right there are possibly more than one catfish referred as such, mine are the small otocinclus not the much larger ones I may be thinking of. They are very fat to be perfectly honest, and in further honesty the tank had much algae going on despite my cleanings so I presume this combined with everything else they devour is responsible for the chubby otos.

In addition to the freaky algae bloom (never, ever let other people watch your tanks...cool things like leaving the blinds open in mid day sun happen) I break off pieces of algae wafers and put them in the corners of the tank in the morning and at night. At night I also put a split in half sinking "catfish" wafer in too. The Ancient Angry Betta, as he's called now, prefers to take his pellets directly and gets three a day from my finger. Every other day they all get a little frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp (partitioned up, thawed and rinsed first). I don't ever feed them when I cannot watch them, for one thing its just fun and for another I can make sure there is not uneaten food in the tank. Anything that is left is netted out and trashed, but after a few months of experimenting with everyone's feeding habits this rarely has to happen.

Due to the algae growth issue that happened I've become freaky about testing the water, as I realize this can obviously cause some issues. I also write them down, and I'm pretty sure I found the one from the time period the shrimp died. I do not have a nice test kit, for the time being I use test strips and have a better test solution for the ph levels if they look suspicious on the strips to better fix the issue.

They were:
Nitate: ppm 10
Nitrite: "" .5 (may have been less, this was before I got new strips and the nitrite on the last batch was already vaguely discolored)
GH-200
KH-100-200
PH-7.2

Since this happened I've added some better aeration to the tank, I've no idea if that may have been affecting the shrimp or not but thought I'd mention that. The only major changes in the water as per testing done since is that the PH is slightly lower and the nitrites are 0. I've since read that the shrimp are more sensitive to temperature and ammonia than anything, the temperature in the tank stays about 75-78.

I realize the coloration of the deceased shrimp probably sounded dumb, sorry! I just wasn't sure if that may have been any indication of a particular thing affecting it.

As for Angry Betta, though he is cantankerous at times and comes out of his cave to flare at the other fish, he really doesn't do much of anything these days aside from taking his food and either loafing on the plants or in his moss covered cave. He was actually kept with a smaller ghost shrimp a few years ago and never bothered it, it lived for a little over a year with him. With the amount of plant cover, wood, and hiding places in there I'd think they'd be able to easily hide from him anyway, since he's not only lazy he's an extremely long tailed veil tail who has issues moving very quickly.

Hope this helps, I'd really like to successfully keep these guys!

 

[MABJ]

Well. I hope your nitrites go down, those will quickly poison a tank.

Other than leaving a window open, an abundance of nitrates over time will give algae fuel for growth.

The easy way to trump algae, other than some CO2(no not a bubble stick) would be Marimo Moss Balls, other plants, and feeding less overall.

Do that and you'll see it decrease. I know I wish I had a little algae. For my shrimp and snails.

:/ lucky! And fat ottos are cute.

 

[Fenrisulfer]

Yes they will! They have indeed gone done post weekly water change. Coincidentally I bought two new Marimo balls today and put them in! I felt it was unfair to only have them in one tank haha! I'd not realized they were so useful. My not so fat otos and corys in the big tank love relaxing on them. I am always up for more plants! I'm working on getting affordable co2 for both tanks so that I can sustain more. There's about eight different kinds in the small tank, not enough I think!

The fat otos are very cute. Little pigs! Don't know how I ever got on without them. You could totally have some of their moss though I believe that whole situation is now under control. I'm sure that the lowering of the nitrates has helped! Geez I left for a week and my nicely balanced aqua-universe fell apart!

Thanks again, you've been immensely helpful!

 

[MABJ]

Yes they will! They have indeed gone done post weekly water change. Coincidentally I bought two new Marimo balls today and put them in! I felt it was unfair to only have them in one tank haha! I'd not realized they were so useful. My not so fat otos and corys in the big tank love relaxing on them. I am always up for more plants! I'm working on getting affordable co2 for both tanks so that I can sustain more. There's about eight different kinds in the small tank, not enough I think!

The fat otos are very cute. Little pigs! Don't know how I ever got on without them. You could totally have some of their moss though I believe that whole situation is now under control. I'm sure that the lowering of the nitrates has helped! Geez I left for a week and my nicely balanced aqua-universe fell apart!

Thanks again, you've been immensely helpful!

You're most certainly welcome . Keep in mind C02 will only do well if you have high lighting. Otherwise let nature take its course

If you want to fatten the other Ottos up, you could do Sake's patented sun algae soufflé. Safe rocks + bucket + water + sun.

 

[Fenrisulfer]

Thanks for the heads up on the co2, I'm just learning about it. I'm pretty sure I could use a better light I'll do some research on that too. Presently it is a 55,000 I'm pretty sure, will have to look at it again, that's brand is skipping my mind but its one of the zoomed plant lights. I'm not all that sure what lights are best I went with that one because, aside from being in my price range as a starving artist , it is the lighting brand I use for my leopard geckos with great success. I'm sure there is better! I'd love to have the same kind of set up with the lighting I did years ago with my 30 long; it had a high power plant growth light in the daytime and a fabulous night time light that produced no offensive lighting to the many catfish I had in there so that they could be viewed in their active times. I'll be doing some research and looking for deals as I've always loved planted tanks. The lighting in the small tank is a coralife one I was given that is 10,000 I believe. I didn't think it was necessary to get anything too strong since the tank is quite long and short and there's not much distance to get to the plants...and it has primarily low light plants and mosses.

The algae on rocks is a stellar idea too thanks! I have plans to collect safe rocks and driftwood as soon as I can walk-disability is so lame! And I have a great balcony for algae, even my outdoor plants will get it here in the jungle I live in if I'm not careful! So I shall be doing this for chubby otos everywhere!

Oh yes, and this morning I discovered that I did not lose all the shrimp...well, when I thought I did. My Cajun raised Pomeranian pointed out that there was a shrimp on the floor. It was seriously six feet away from the tank and had very recently died. I really thought it would be way too big to escape the tiny opening my lid but obviously not. Something else to consider now!

 

[MABJ]

Wow sorry to hear :/.

It may be my surgery recovering drugged state, but I don't know what you mean by 55,000 and 10,000

 

[Fenrisulfer]

I was sorry to find it...I feel very bad about this. I've no clue how it got out of there but I am duly horrified.

Its probably my consistently drugged state that causes my serious lack of full information, sorry! I believe that meant watts. I tried removing the thing to look however my idiotic joints have flared up and light removal is not an option. :/ Hope you have a speedy surgery recovery!

 

[MABJ]

I was sorry to find it...I feel very bad about this. I've no clue how it got out of there but I am duly horrified.

Its probably my consistently drugged state that causes my serious lack of full information, sorry! I believe that meant watts. I tried removing the thing to look however my idiotic joints have flared up and light removal is not an option. :/ Hope you have a speedy surgery recovery!

Oh boy! I don't think you've got a 55,000 watt light. But I also don't think you mean Kelvin lol. XD so that's why I was confused.

And thanks, I'm on my way lol.