Is my bamboo/wood/fan shrimp ok?

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I'd probably add more bamboos. They are generally quite peaceful and don't really move that much, that I observe. Mine tend to pick a spot and spend most of the day in that spot, rarely moving more than an inch or two from it. They will sit on top of each other and crowd as many of themselves into a choice spot as they can. They do sometimes swim, but not like cherry shrimp do, they're rather cumbersome and it's like watching a log swim, I think :).

It's true that shrimp have a lower bio load than fish do. They produce poop of course but where fish produce a lot of ammonia, shrimp not so much. Compared to a cherry shrimp, Bamboos certainly produce more poop, the amount depends on their size. Full grown ones will obviously produce more, being so much larger.

Fwiw, I just recently moved mine from a temporary 5G to a 10. They were in that temporary tank since April. It was seriously overstocked, and I won't bore you with the reasons, but I didn't have much choice unless I wanted to get rid of them which I did not. In the 5G, I had 7 bamboos, 3 of them at least 3 inches long. The others are about half that size, plus were about a dozen small Vampire shrimp, another fan shrimp species. Full grown they get to five inches or more, but the largest of these is only about two inches long at this time and they are slow growing. Eventually they will each need about a square foot of floor space, but that won't be for some time yet. Hopefully by then my problems will be sorted out.

Tank also had a lot of snails. A few red rams horns, hundreds of little Malaysian Trumpet snails, a few Nerites, maybe 8 Spixi snail adults, plus their assorted babies. Spixis are part of the apple snail family, full grown they're about a inch wide.

Also contained about 18 Strawberry rasboras, tiny things, .75 inches full grown, plus a couple of cherry shrimp.

Now all these are in 10G, and appear to be enjoying the extra space. But now there are about 15 adult cherries and at least that many younger ones of various ages in with them.

I have the second smallest model of an Aqua Clear, running, but I will be replacing it with an AC 50, which would handle at least a 30G. I won't have to clean it as often as I do the smaller one.

I keep a circulation pump running all the time, a few inches off the tank floor, which helps provide more current for the fan shrimp to feed in and I have a big flat sponge, suction cupped to one tank end, which the shrimp love to hang onto to fan feed. Cherries like to pick at the sponge too. It used to be a Lee sponge filter. Flat, clover leaf shape, two inches thick, with a big hole in the middle, which the Vampires just love to hide in.

It never hurts to have extra filtration, on any tank. Cheaper to buy used if you can though. Provided all the pieces are there, it's much cheaper, but if you need to replace any of the parts, forget it and buy new. New motors for ACs are all the same, only the impeller differs with each model, and they do last for a very long time. I've never bought a new one and out of six or seven Acs, only once have I had to replace a motor. If there is a club in your area, check it out. Many hold auctions, where you can often get gear at great prices.

Btw, if your tank is not covered in some way, it should be. Male bamboos have a habit, from time to time, of climbing out and going walkabout. If you don't find them soon enough, they're done for. In habitat, I suspect this behaviour is related to mating, as in, hoping for more opportunities or spreading the genetic pool wider. Either way, if they can find a way, they may get out. Need not be a glass top, it can be mesh or netting or something like that. I don't know for certain that females don't do this also, but so far, only males have done it to me. I've lost 3 to the walkabout urge, sadly. So I keep their tanks covered with mesh.
 
Interesting. You've mentioned having a circulation pump to provide current for your bamboo shrimp before. I'm interested in getting one for my tank. All my fish are mid to top dwellers so they shouldn't be too affected by it. Do you have a particular brand that you would recommend?

Unfortunately I don't have a local club and in my small town there is a scarcity of choice but I occasionally travel to the city. I could buy one there or I suppose I could order one online.

An extra filter will never hurt though I may have to rearrange my tank to accommodate. It's something to keep in mind.

I am interested in acquiring different kinds of shrimps. I find them very interesting though to be honest I don't think I could ever touch one. I'm a bit squeamish when I have to touch bugs and shrimp are essentially underwater bugs. Lol. You mentioned having vampire shrimp. I'll have to research them to find out more.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
It was interesting when you said that your bamboo tend to sit on each other and share the current. Mine seem a little edgy with each other, they tend to respect each other's space. Whenever I see them they tend to fan in different areas of the tank, the female up on a plant under the filter outlet and the male along the ground. They both hide out in the same large piece of DW, but it has so many nooks and crannies it's hard to see what they are up to in there.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
Maybe because mine are almost all female, just one male at this time. The other two having gone walkabout. I will try to replace one of them if I can.

For the 10 I'm using a small fountain pump. It works fine, but needs fairly constant unclogging, as it does get stuck full of baby snails and detritus from plants. Easy clean, just a bit of a nuisance at times.

For my 30 G tank I used a Hydor Nano. Love it.. stays in place with internal suction/external magnet, can be aimed, I bounce the current off a nearby sidewall and get a resulting current the bamboos really seem to appreciate. Widely available online, often on sale, not the cheapest pump, but worth it, for this purpose. More often used by salties for salt tanks but they sure make the filter feeders happy. I forgot to say, I also have two small golden Asian clams in with all the fan shrimp et al. So far they seem to be doing ok. They need really fine foods, 5 microns and smaller, which also suits fan shrimp.
 
Cool! Thanks I'll check out that pump. For my tank I'm really trying hard to stay away from snails, mostly because they breed so much. I have a nerite snail in a 10 g, leaves white eggs everywhere. I did find a assassin snail in the 24g, must have hatched from an egg, but I let him live. Not sure what he's been eating but it seems to be working for him. I only found him once, he's back to hiding in the DW.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
Not suggesting you get into snails ! I know not everybody likes them as much as I do, but they have a much higher bioload than shrimp, so having as many as I did in just a 5G meant the tank was overstocked.

But because most of the inhabitants were shrimp, I still didn't need to do extra water changes or filter cleaning, and didn't have problems keeping the water quality decent, because the shrimp don't create so much bioload. But all the critters from the 5G are far better off now in the 10 G than they were in the 5, simply because they have more space. Once I get my main tank back in place they'll have a 33 G to roam around in, but the fan shrimp will still spend the majority of their time in a fairly small area, that's closest to the prime feeding spots.
 
Snails are pretty, but also very promiscuous!

I bet your 33 g will be beautiful when it's all set up. In the future, when I have a bigger space, I want to set up a large tank. I could spend hours watching my fish sometimes!


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
It's a been a long haul without it. Darn landlord doesn't want to fix the rad, and I can't put the tank back until they do. I think we're going to court over it.
There are some snails that don't overpopulate or even lay unsightly eggs. I have two species of Faunus, which need salt water to reproduce. Because they are live bearers, there are no eggs, no kids. They survive well in fresh water just don't reproduce.

The Devil faunus are enormous, 3 inches or more in length. Slow, but very pretty dark shells with copper or bronze highlights on them. The other species has a bicolour shell, less than half the size.

I've also had Poso Rabbit snails, which have one live baby every few weeks if you have both sexes and there are other snails with similar breeding habits from the Sulawesi area. Sadly, Rabbits tear through the substrate uprooting plants and trimming leaves off some of the sword plants, among others.

I sold mine finally, they were just too disruptive. But they're interesting creatures to watch, with some interesting behaviours. May one day I'll simply keep a tank for them without plants so they won't wreck it.
 
I had no idea that there are snails that are live bearers. Interesting. Do the Faunus snails eat plants? They sound pretty cool.

I'm sorry to hear about the landlord situation. It's always difficult when your landlord is an ***.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
Those little MTS are live bearers too. Just they have about six at a time ! Faunus, so far as I can tell, couldn't care less about plants. They spend a bit of time almost under the substrate, more of it just on top. Slow movers but every time I put some algae pellets in, they all come to get some. They seem to prefer a very finely textured food.. the pellets I feed are made by Cobalt, it says they have probiotics, not that I think that matters so much, but every snail I have loves the things. Just a simply extruded pellet that sinks like a rock and dissolves to fine powder very, very fast. Even some of the fish like it.

I've only had the Faunus for a couple of months but I have yet to see one even near a plant.

My landlord is renovating. Because I won't sign a new lease and pay double the rent, I don't exist.. they are really ****** !!
 
It seems that they are trying to get you to move out so that they can get a new tenant who will pay more rent.
Be strong.

I googled some faunus snails. They are pretty cool looking. My substrate is larger rocks with some finer gravel mixed in. It doesn't sound like they would appreciate it very much. I'll keep it in mind for my next tank set up.


Enjoy the small moments for they comprise life.
 
I have mine on a pond substrate. Schultz's Aqua Soil. A baked clay product, looks not unlike clay kitty litter but does not break down. They don't seem to object to it, though I suspect they'd spend more time underneath it if it was softer. Sand would no doubt suit them better, but so far, they appear healthy enough. I have four of them, I was hoping they'd breed until I learned they need to be kept in brackish water to reproduce. Still they are interesting and attractive. Maybe one day I'll be able to set up a small brackish tank and take a shot at breeding them. Meantime I'll enjoy them as they are.
 
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