New fish questions

[Platiesareawesome]

Hello! I just recently gave away my 3 balloon mollies, but today I got 3 ember tetras (I know, they school, I'm just introducing them slowly) and two cherry shrimp. I just had a few questions about my new fish.

1. What should I feed my shrimp? (I use new life spectrum, small fish formula)

2. Is it possible that my filter (hob) creates a current that's too strong for the ember tetras? (They look like they are struggling to fight it, but they could be swimming in place)

3. I asked this before, but there is a clearish white gel that has developed on my heater and it seems to grow. What is it?

4. I spilt a little water from the fish store into my tank. Is this okay?

Thank you!

 

[bettaowner]

You should feed the shrimp mini sinking pellets or hikari shrimp food. A little water from the store shouldn't hurt unless there were dead or sick fish in the original tank.

 

[Mebbid]

Hello! I just recently gave away my 3 balloon mollies, but today I got 3 ember tetras (I know, they school, I'm just introducing them slowly) and two cherry shrimp. I just had a few questions about my new fish.

1. What should I feed my shrimp? (I use new life spectrum, small fish formula)

2. Is it possible that my filter (hob) creates a current that's too strong for the ember tetras? (They look like they are struggling to fight it, but they could be swimming in place)

3. I asked this before, but there is a clearish white gel that has developed on my heater and it seems to grow. What is it?

4. I spilt a little water from the fish store into my tank. Is this okay?

Thank you!

1. All of my shimp get fed sinking algae wafers. They seem to like it a lot.

2. No, without some serious effort on your part the flow is fine. Unless the fish are uncontrollably getting blown around the tank the flow isn't too high. They will hang around a spot of lower flow if they are uncomfortable.

3. Most likely it is a form of bio film that found an anchor on your heater. It should be harmless, just clean it off when it gets bad.

4. It's fine. Anything that is in the water is likely already present on the fish.

 

[candacecook1025]

All your questions were answered, but I just wanted to chime in on what I feed my shrimp. They get fed a variety of foods, including sinking shrimp/bottom feeder pellets, sinking algae wafers, and lots of different blanched veggies. Mine like peas, carrots, and lettuce and hate zucchini, but I know lots of other people swear by the zucchini. They will also eat any leftover fish food in the tank (flakes, brine shrimp, etc.) so they are great cleaners. They are also awesome at eating up the algae. You only have two right now so I really wouldn't worry too much about feeding them. They eat very little so throwing in half a pellet or wafer every other day or so should be fine. Once you decide to get a bunch more, then I would make sure to put their diet in the rotation as well. I started off with just 9 and never really fed them anything specific. Now I have about 70 or so in the main tank and they eat what I listed above, as well as whatever the other fish leave behind. Good luck to you, you will really enjoy these little shrimp!

 

[azmodan]

^Definitely agree. Once you get a good colony going you'll want to feed a nice variety of foods. In the beginning I'd aim to bump the starting colony to around ten as RCS sometimes will randomly die in the beginning too, but once they're established they'll be reproducing like crazy!

 

[Cactuspixie]

I'd like to know how you go feeding your embers, because they have such tiny wee mouths! I feed micro pellets (fry food) and chopped frozen blood worms, and chopped, soaked freeze dried blackworms. To be honest I can't tell how much of it they actually eat, but they're still alive and kicking my shrimp clean up uneaten food, so they get a varied diet. I have found with embers, the more I add to the school the more active they are. When I only had half a dozen, and not much current, they permanently hung around in a bush plant. At a dozen and more they became more adventurous, but more noticeably so since I started up an air curtain that provides quite a strong current (initially installed when I was treating a sick ember)

 

[Cactuspixie]

Oh, and that clearish white gel- that sounds like what I get on my airline tubing. No idea what it is- no one here knew either.

 

[Mebbid]

Oh, and that clearish white gel- that sounds like what I get on my airline tubing. No idea what it is- no one here knew either.

Without looking at it under a microscope, that white schmutz is most likely a colony of bacteria. They are a huge pain for hospitals because of how difficult they are to eradicate.

 

[Platiesareawesome]

Thanks for all your answers! I just have two more questions. I just fed the fish for the first time today, and my fish food's pellet size is 0.5 mm. The fish attempted to eat it, but it was just too big for them, and they would just spit it out! What should I do? Also, some of the nls sunk all the way to the bottom of the tank. Will the shrimp be okay eating this for now as I don't have shrimp pellets or algae wafers yet?

 

[Mebbid]

Thanks for all your answers! I just have two more questions. I just fed the fish for the first time today, and my fish food's pellet size is 0.5 mm. The fish attempted to eat it, but it was just too big for them, and they would just spit it out! What should I do? Also, some of the nls sunk all the way to the bottom of the tank. Will the shrimp be okay eating this for now as I don't have shrimp pellets or algae wafers yet?

The shrimp will be fine. They are scavengers and will eat most any kind of food. As for the food size being too big I would suggest either using a flake based food or freeze dried cubes of food that will crumble to a dust.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Without looking at it under a microscope, that white schmutz is most likely a colony of bacteria. They are a huge pain for hospitals because of how difficult they are to eradicate.

Eww! This is on its way to me:
http://www.esold.com.au/usb-digital-microscope-500x-magnification-p370630

So hopefully I'll be able to post pictures!

 

[Mebbid]

Eww! This is on its way to me:
USB Digital Microscope 50 Magnification | eSOLD

So hopefully I'll be able to post pictures!

Sadly, you will need a much stronger microscope and staining chemicals to see bacteria. Not to mention bacteria is really really boring to look at. Being able to look at eukaryotes is where it starts to get fun

 

[Platiesareawesome]

The shrimp will be fine. They are scavengers and will eat most any kind of food. As for the food size being too big I would suggest either using a flake based food or freeze dried cubes of food that will crumble to a dust.

Could I crush the pellets into a powder?

 

[Peteostler43614]

Crushing works, but if you have a mortar and pestle that will get it smaller.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Could I crush the pellets into a powder?

My embers won't eat from the surface. What you could try is per asking the .5mm pellets- I have soaked mine in garlic guard. They spit less (but still spit) probably because its easier to eat when it's soft. Trouble is it sinks quicker and embers don't seem overly concerned with chasing after food. I've given up worrying about them- they're as bad for feeding as the bumblebee gobies they live with! The worms seem to be their preference though. Trouble is you chop up what are already tiny blood worms, and when they're in the tank they still look huge next to an ember's mouth!

 

[Cactuspixie]

Sadly, you will need a much stronger microscope and staining chemicals to see bacteria. Not to mention bacteria is really really boring to look at. Being able to look at eukaryotes is where it starts to get fun

Ugh! I suck at science anyway :-( it's all so... PRECISE and everything!
Well I'll find SOMETHING to shove under that darned thing now I've bought it!
It might come in handy for reading the dosage instructions on the 5 gram kanamycin tubes

 

[Cactuspixie]

that would be SOAKING the pellets, not ASKING them!