Inquiry about amano shrimp/shrimp in general

[dragon14]

Thanks Fishfur! I see no sign of Ich in their tanks at the lfs! We don't really have room for a qt tank unfortuntaely but I agree it is such a good idea and should be used. I do understand the risks though.


We have a few leafy fake plants, we have a cool fake rock with a bridge type thing going on (the catfish clean around on it sometimes), and they clean around on some fake plants sometimes too. I think the shrimp may be ok with this.


We did buy a nice piece of Malaysian driftwood with the catfish in mind, still need to soak it and put it in tank, but I think they would love it, and the shrimp would probably appreciate it too! I wonder how much it may lower PH. Ours is a bit high, so I doubt it would mess with it too much. I would just worry if it did lower it a decent amount, when we did water changes, I wouldn't want that to screw with the ph already in the tank. ::sigh:: lol

 

[Fishfur]

Given regular water changes, it should not have a drastic effect on pH.. it will, however, turn the water brownish or yellow, depending on the amount of tannins in it. Tannins leach out when wood is wet for varying lengths of time. They do no harm, many fish really like them, shrimp won't care about them much and will enjoy rootling around on the wood piece.

But if you really dislike the colour of the water while leaching goes on, you can use carbon in the filter to remove it if you wish. Carbon or no carbon, the colour will become paler with time. Some pieces can leach for years, but it fades a bit every time you change water.

You can speed up leaching by boiling the wood for as long as you can stand to do it, or by prolonged soaking in a bucket, with regular water changes. I have left buckets with wood soaking for months, in some cases. Extra pieces usually. Ordinary tap water is fine for this, no concern about chlorine. In fact, you can even bleach wood to reduce the leachate as well.

Bleach will really pull a lot of colour out, and it will fade the wood surface a bit.. every piece will be different in this regard. I used a 5G bucket, poured in 'enough' bleach.. [ didn't measure, probably a cupful or so] and let it soak for a few weeks. The bleach will prevent any fungal growth that often shows up on new wood too.

Then rinse it off & soak for a few more days in plain tap water. Then, if you wish to, another few hours or a day with some dechlorinator. That's mainly for peace of mind, the chlorine from the tap water soak will evaporate from the bucket's water all by itself, but because it's bleach, some folks feel safer using some dehclor' before it goes in a tank. Chlorine is very volatile, so it doesn't stay in water for long unless sealed off from exposure to air, as it is in water pipes, for example.

Once bleached, wood can appear rather white if it is allowed to dry out again, like old sun bleached driftwood on a beach. But wet, it'll still be pretty dark. I've bleached a few pieces and like the look. It varies the wood colours a bit so that a bleached piece stands out somewhat from other pieces.

 

[dragon14]

Thank you! That's very helpful in how to treat the wood

We have no chlorine in our tap thankfully, but if we did use bleach we'd use a dechlorinator for sure!!

 

[dragon14]

We now have two little Amano shrimps floating in our tank in their bag from the store. On the way home, one of them was running laps around the top of the bag. So cute!

 

[dragon14]

We acclimated the shrimp for about an hour, they hid when we put them in tank, and now they're in love with our fake bridge like rock

Yay!

And man are they hard to net. And boy can they jump!!

Thanks again for all your help!!!

 

[Fishfur]

It's surprising how well they can jump isn't it ? And they can be a real pain to catch too.. if you have to catch any more, try using two nets. One to catch, one to 'herd' the shrimp toward the catch net. Usually works pretty well, though stuff in the tank will always get in the way at times. I have the dickens of a time catching them in my planted tank.. the plants are too thick and they just vanish behind a leaf, which all catch in the net anyway.

One thing you can try too, is to catch with a clear cup of some kind. A deli cup works ok.. and you can use a net or your hand to 'herd' the shrimp into the cup and then lift it out, shrimp and water together. This can be much less stressful for the shrimp or fish too.

 

[dragon14]

It is amazing! Worse than a cricket!! Lol.

Thank you! We'll do that if we ever have to catch them again. And definitely a good idea for fish too!! We have three nets actually lol 2 are very gentle fine mesh, designed for shrimp. We thought they were kinder for fish in general too since they're so fine and soft.

 

[Fishfur]

Nah.. nothing's worse than crickets ! I have to feed them to my frog.. I'm really not a cricket fan.
I'm trying to design a better net myself.. I've a bunch of materials I want to try for the net opening and several more for the net body. I was thinking bamboo for handles.. they'd float if dropped in a tank.

 

[dragon14]

Hehe. What kind of a frog do you have?

Good luck! Bamboo sounds like a fantastic idea for a handle.

 

[Fishfur]

Asian floating frog.. aka Spotted floating frog.. Occidozyga lima is the species name. Bigger than dart frogs or the little African frogs, but not large at all. Body is maybe 1.5 inches long.. and as wide in my female.. the back legs are close to 3 inches long though.
She floats, never leaves the water, often sits on the bottom pretending to be a rock. Rather pretty markings, though not brightly coloured.. no two are the same. Eyes on top of the head, like alligators. Only time she moves with any speed is when she's after an insect ! When she was new, and less than half the size, she could scramble over the floating plants to get food, now she's too heavy and lunges from below instead. Ambush cricket hunter. I wish I could find her another boyfriend, truly don't know what happened to her boyfriend, he just vanished one day and hasn't been seen since. The room's been cleared so I know he's not behind or under something too. It's as though she ate him but they are not cannibals so far as I know.

 

[dragon14]

Aww I love frogs.

I'm sorry she lost her honey frog That's very sad.

I was thinking about getting an African Dwarf Frog maybe sometime in the future but I think we are set for now with fish and shrimp hehe.

 

[Fishfur]

It was sad. I wish I could figure out what happened to him.. they had been engaging in some mating behaviours, so I was kind of hoping I might get tadpoles. but no such luck. I'll keep looking, potentially she could live quite a few years so there should be time.

 

[dragon14]

Awww. That would have been great to get tadpoles.

Yeah I hope she does, and I hope you can get her a boyfriend again!

 

[dragon14]

I got worried for a second, I thought we lost a shrimp.

Nope, one of them shed a skin (or is exoskeleton the right term?) already. We've had them 4 1/2 days now.

I'll leave it in there a few days, I read shrimp eat their shed skin sometimes.

 

[Fishfur]

They nearly always consume their shells after they moult, to reclaim the calcium mostly. Best to leave shed shells in.

 

[dragon14]

They nearly always consume their shells after they moult, to reclaim the calcium mostly. Best to leave shed shells in.

Thanks for confirming! I am going to do that I left it in there when I found it earlier.

 

[evil Nick]

Get 2 amano. They are non stop algea machines, at least mine.
Ghosts are good bottom scavengers. Don't live long but cheap.
Cherries are okay. Im no longer going to buy them. You never see them in a larger tank and anything that can WILL try to eat them. My dalmation molly was going after one yesterday like mad.

I go off and on with getting a bamboo. I think I might.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[dragon14]

Get 2 amano. They are non stop algea machines, at least mine.
Ghosts are good bottom scavengers. Don't live long but cheap.
Cherries are okay. Im no longer going to buy them. You never see them in a larger tank and anything that can WILL try to eat them. My dalmation molly was going after one yesterday like mad.

I go off and on with getting a bamboo. I think I might.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

We do have two! We were considering getting a few more. They're so fun to watch. When I thought the skin was a dead shrimp, I thought I was going to cry. Thankfully it was a shed and not the shrimp!

I was thinking about Cherrys, but we decided against them.

There are so many different kinds of shrimps!!!! So cool they are.