vampire shrimp!!

[hippy guy]

Cuttlebone in filter? Is that ok, will it damage any bacteria, substrate better?

 

[alLexX]

Cuttlebone in filter? Is that ok, will it damage any bacteria, substrate better?

its fine,its just a fish bone

 

[siva]

Huh that's interesting, I've never heard of putting it in the filter. Doesn't sound like it could be harmful though. It might be better though to fill any extra spaces in your filter with extra media and put the cuttlebone in your substrate. If I've got even a fingers worth of room in a filter I cram a nylon bag of filter floss and porous ceramic rings in there...you can use any type of media. The more media for bacteria to grow on the better, and the easier to change out some of your media without changing all of it at once. Just an idea

 

[hippy guy]

Well ii figured since this tank is currently triple filteres, one of which has a "specialty bag" that it be straight to just do that, I may move it to the substrate though (sand 1 in.) And prolly add some more bio space...lol couldn't hurt, right?

 

[siva]

Three filters on a 10 gal? Wowza!

 

[hippy guy]

Lol it was an accident. At first I was helping to seed a filter for my 5 gal, but then we got a different filter and went for fishless cycle the old fasion way,. Current I have a penguin, the smallest bio wheel one, an aquaclear 10-15, and a tetra whisper (this one is an airstone powered filter, I submerged it and made it an underwater biofilter only setup) my tank is crazy clean. (Also, all filters have current blockers, to keep the betta happy

 

[hippy guy]

And today, I'm going to get some food for the shrimp other than fish food flakes crushed up. Any searchem reef food products that would work?

 

[siva]

Ok..that sounds awesome in general...but not perfect for the vamp. You want good particles around for him to filter, and he does this best in a stream of strong flow. My bamboos spend their entire day in the rushing flow of the double sized filter on their tank. I also have a betta in this tank..he has some impressive finnage even..and he does fine in this flow. I also have bettas that would be really bothered by the flow. I would try to not baffle one of those filters that has a good flow for the sake of the vamp, and see if it seems to really bother the betta.

I'm not sure about that...I just use Hikari First Bites. My bamboos go crazy when it hits the water.

 

[hippy guy]

I left the flow guards off the tank last night (have done this before to "beef up my betta haha") question about this though.. would that much filtration just filter all the food out of the water column? Yesterday, I fed him powdered flakes, and killed the 2 smaller filters, and just kept the penguin going for about 20 min... not sure if that was neccisary though.

 

[siva]

I left the flow guards off the tank last night (have done this before to "beef up my betta haha") question about this though.. would that much filtration just filter all the food out of the water column? Yesterday, I fed him powdered flakes, and killed the 2 smaller filters, and just kept the penguin going for about 20 min... not sure if that was neccisary though.

Yeah I think that is a good idea. I was worrying about everything getting filtered out before he could get enough.

 

[hippy guy]

Yeah, while I wasn't 100% versed in these massive shrimp, there was some research prior to obtaining this one... I may try different time, 10, 20, 30 min, and see how much time he takes to get a good meal. Would doing this once a day be good, or teice since he's so big?

 

[siva]

Well it's hard to say. What's his behavior like so far..is he posed with his fans open most of the time? Has he been picking at anything with the fans?

 

[hippy guy]

I was at work most of the day, but what I've seen is him fanning sometimes(moving fans at a good speed id say) I haven't seen him pick up anything of the floor since he's been in there. Twice a day I put food dust (flake crushed up) into the water for 20 min or so, then cleaned out some of what was left. Lol right now he's up against a rock fanning behind a big rock (it has food flow speed, as the undercurrent sorta pulls food and such between the rock and my tank, and up behind the back, its pretty cool

 

[hippy guy]

From what I read, I will alternate each 4 dayss of so with crushed flake, then super finley ground algea tabs, and brine shrimp (frozen or some that I already do every so often for my neons, and a baby platty and neons in other tank. Betta likes em too lol.I also read that vampire shrimp poo has a bacteria that gets into filter over time, and grows with pre existing bacteria, and that will be his main food source. Any word on the legitamacy of that? I really want him to be happy so I can do whatever, and I could take him back if it comes to that, but id rather keep him if I can properly do it. He's pretty cool

 

[hippy guy]

He's been chilln up in the java fern roots under my driftwood, he seems happy

 

[siva]

Oh wow lol I never heard that about the poo! I haven't seen my bamboo's be able to filter any brine shrimp out...I'd like to try some baby brine shrimp and see if that works better. That's a good idea to grind up some algae wafer..I'm going to start doing that as well.

With the precautions you're taking, I don't think you'll need to take it back. Especially since you plan on upgrading it in the future.

Wow he sure looks cool! Positive creepy..but cool!

 

[hippy guy]

Yeah he's a great addition, and the baby brine worked for someone on another forum. The bamboo seem pretty neat, especially with the different color variations they can have

 

[siva]

You know what's interesting...I purchased two that were very different in coloration and they gradually became the same. I was a bit bummed, but they're still cool One just molted and hid for quite a long time..I was a bit worried but it's finally re-appeared. They're really cute when they're babies..I wish there was a filter feeding shrimp that stayed smaller.

 

[hippy guy]

Oi think they can actually slighty change depending on surroundings.... there pretty cool, but I never see them in ky. The vampire shrimp was a rare find haha

 

[siva]

You know they were actually illegal in many states and the ban was just lifted so you might be seeing them more now.