cassandra87
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi - I am new to fish...
I have a 20 gallon high tank. After an unfortunate incident involving some goldfish brought home from the county fair (and subsequent purchase of tank), I cycled the tank without fish and with pure ammonia. Nitrite and ammonia are now consistently at 0ppm. I do about a 20% water change weekly. Three small live plants at the moment as well as some moss balls, hoping to switch out the plastic plants for live ones gradually.
I've had five bloodfin tetra for about a month, and a week ago got two male platys (there were three but one died the day after coming home) and two amano shrimp. Everyone seems well mannered.
One of the amano shrimp seemed to have some trouble with molting, but finally successfully escaped her old exoskeleton and is back to her old self. My water is hard, so I don't know that it's a mineral issue.
My question is feeding. The fish store told me that the shrimp would happily eat leftovers. Upon moving in, they pronounced the tank a mess, and things were spotless in a day (the driftwood was starting to look a little furry, although I wouldn't say there was an algae problem). I've been feeding the a pinch of flake food a day, having read about the perils of overfeeding; I upped the amount after the platys and shrimp moved in. Every other day or so I drop in a teeny bit of algae wafer (maybe rice sized?). One of the shrimps usually grabs it, although one day there was an epic battle where all the tank inhabitants passed the tiny bit of wafer around for a good 20 minutes. Should I be feeding the shrimp more? Or will they get enough with leftover food and detritus and biofilm? Do I need special shrimp food?
Sorry if this is an obvious question, most things I read about shrimp feeding focused on tanks without fish.
Thanks!
I have a 20 gallon high tank. After an unfortunate incident involving some goldfish brought home from the county fair (and subsequent purchase of tank), I cycled the tank without fish and with pure ammonia. Nitrite and ammonia are now consistently at 0ppm. I do about a 20% water change weekly. Three small live plants at the moment as well as some moss balls, hoping to switch out the plastic plants for live ones gradually.
I've had five bloodfin tetra for about a month, and a week ago got two male platys (there were three but one died the day after coming home) and two amano shrimp. Everyone seems well mannered.
One of the amano shrimp seemed to have some trouble with molting, but finally successfully escaped her old exoskeleton and is back to her old self. My water is hard, so I don't know that it's a mineral issue.
My question is feeding. The fish store told me that the shrimp would happily eat leftovers. Upon moving in, they pronounced the tank a mess, and things were spotless in a day (the driftwood was starting to look a little furry, although I wouldn't say there was an algae problem). I've been feeding the a pinch of flake food a day, having read about the perils of overfeeding; I upped the amount after the platys and shrimp moved in. Every other day or so I drop in a teeny bit of algae wafer (maybe rice sized?). One of the shrimps usually grabs it, although one day there was an epic battle where all the tank inhabitants passed the tiny bit of wafer around for a good 20 minutes. Should I be feeding the shrimp more? Or will they get enough with leftover food and detritus and biofilm? Do I need special shrimp food?
Sorry if this is an obvious question, most things I read about shrimp feeding focused on tanks without fish.
Thanks!
