Shrimps with Axolotls

[morphyrichards]

Thanks for the filter tips! You have no idea how much of a cluts I am when it comes to making stuff, I would of been the worst blue peter presenter ever! I didn't realise that you could use something like that in an axoltl tank, I have an old throw over the side style one in my axolotl tank

I know it seems weird to have a filter like that in an axolotl tank. I used to have an internal power filter but during the last summer I was having so much trouble keeping temperature down I was looking for any ways possible to cut out heat and came up with that... never looked back :happy:

 

[morphyrichards]

Even if you are no good at diy im sure you could even handle one of these! (like that tank this is not my vid lol!)

Looks good and I think it would be perfect for a shrimp tank - only thing I'd worry about is that looks like the kind of sponge you buy from supermarkets for cleaning floors and they tend to leach out harmful chemicals into tank water.As long as you can get the right kind of sponge that would work well.

 

[DavidF]

G'day shrimp peps

A couple of comments for my two bobs worth -

- that planted tank looks awesome. I want one. The greens are so rich and the photo is awesome quality too.
- 18 deg C is way too low for general life and breeding. They wont die - plenty are in with my axies at that temp and I think one female is berried too. But, yes, the shrimp tend to jerk and lock when I put them in before they get used to it or succumb to the temp or swallowed.....
- re fully planted tank chewing up the nitrates - I have quite a lot of java moss and java fern but I found my nitrates were still high - around 20 and even up to 40 ppm every few weeks despite 25% PWCs each weekend. I've got a few shrimp and I feed them well so that is the issue with the ever present nitrates. Anyone with more ideas about this one? Maybe the faster growing plants soak up more nitrates. Java moss isn't that fast a grower I find.

I finally emptied my old shrimp tank last night and, despite a tonne of copper I put in there, I found a further 30 odd shrimp, mostly, females, still alive. (Don't get my wrong, plenty died too). I just netted them all and tossed them in with the rest of the saved shrimp. Now I've got to clean the old tank and the java moss I left in there and destroy the snails. Then start the cycling process again.

 

[dazkeirle]

wow, In my research on Shrimp I've come across some amazing specimens.

I thought the Crystal Red shrimp was the kind of the dwarf shrimp world, however I now realise they are the tip of the iceberg.

In the Shrimp scene there is such a thing as an Orange eyed Black Tiger Shrimp, they routinely sell on auction sites for $100 each!

 

[ted22]

Yeah the shrimp are facinating ive read so much about them there are some pretty incredible variations out there shame none of them are as easy to breed as the cherry shrimp, I think cherries are the only ones that dont have an annoying larval stage as shrimp larvae are pretty dificult to raise, its a shame they seem to be one of the smallest of the dwarf shrimp, Oh well they are very pretty tho! one of mine is proper dark ruby red she looks incredible! I wanna get an armoured shrimp for my guppy tank they grow about 6in and are filter feeders they are 3 for £25 or £9.50 each in my local with all things shrimpy considered it doesnt seem too bad, you get alot of shrimp for the money! Heres one, I love their fluffy hands!

http://www.aquaportail.com/aquabdd/photos/atya-gabonensis.jpg

As for plants some are better at absorbing nitrates than others, I think elodea is one of those nitrate absorbers! Found this........
Submerged aquatic plants, Elodea densa, were included in recirculating Macrobrachium rosenbergii culture systems to examine their ability to remove nitrogenous metabolites excreted by the shrimp. Shrimp were placed at two stocking densities in aquaria with new subgravel filters, with and without plants, and water quality (NH4-N, NO2-N, NO3-N and pH) was monitored for 28-day periods during the activation phase of the biological filters. Ammonia and nitrite concentrations were typically an order of magnitude less in systems with Elodea than without when shrimp were stocked at equal densities. Peak ammonia and nitrite concentrations reached 4.0 mg NH4-N/l and 5.7 mg NO2-N/l in systems without plants, but were only 0.2 and 0.4 mg/l, respectively, in systems with plants.

There ya go!

 

[morphyrichards]

Cool! Where did you find that info?
I kind of suspected that elodea must be a really good absorber of everything because it grows so incredibly quickly it must get all that extra mass from somewhere ...

 

[dazkeirle]

Well Ted you know I like to listen to advice and act on it so that's exactly what I've done.

I went to my LFS today and got a nice big bunch of Elodea Densa, nice stuff for £1.50

While there I got chatting to a nice lady, who worked there fanatical about aquascaping etc and explained about my recent introduction to the world of shrimp and we went and had a chat by the shrimps.

She said quietly, If you don't let anyone know I'll give you a good deal on these 4 remaining bee shrimp. I know they're not Crystals or anything but she gave me 5 (as we found a loan one hiding) bee shrimp at a really good price so I couldn't say no.

So now I have 9 Shrimp in total

I also added another Moss ball to the small tank, hopefully helping the nitrite situation further.

Ted, that Blue shrimp reminds me too much of my old Crayfish that got beaten by the puffers , he is awesome though, and would surely rule a shrimp tank like the guy with the big hammer in Res Evil...

Anyway here are some pics of my new additions:

 

[dazkeirle]

after a few Jim Beams I started thinking, I can;t have a filter in here, but Ted's sponge could work.

So Ihad a look in my draws and found an old single air pump. Took my Tank cleaning sponge, made a hole and hey presto, home made filter (so they say).

It certainly is adding plenty of O2 to the tank if nothing else.

Unfortunately I found one of the Bee shrimps dead. I hope thats the first and only.

We're down to 8 now in the worlds smallest Shrimp tank. lol

 

[ted22]

Startin to look like a nice little set up man, those shimp should be happy in there!

 

[DavidF]

Now that is a great idea Daz. One of your best. The Beam I mean. We are very similar in that I also have some of my most creative thinking after a few.

Seriously, I did a PWC just now and thought I'd post a few pics of the muck that comes out of the sponge filter - each week or so. Also, a pic of the amount of water flowing through the filter and out the spout pipe thing and might as well post an overall pic of my temp tank which is basically a 2ft tank with java fern (so easy to cultivate more of this plant), a few bits of driftwood with severely impacted anubias on them (I hope they live- I like them). Enjoy. I'm off for some creative thinking.

Re the bee shrimps, they look great and good luck with them. I'll be really interested to hear your comparisons in time of keeping them versus RCS. Just keep in mind that if they cross breed with your RCS then you may find yourself with new generations of shrimp with odd colour or washed out colours. I'm no expert on this but did read about keeping different species separately.

Regards
Dave

 

[dazkeirle]

Hi David,

I like your setup, looks good!

I actually went seeking Java fern but my LFS didn't have any.

Re: the bee and RCS I had checked previously online and was informed they couldn't cross breed and would be ok together. One of my reasons for picking them up.

I am unfortunately down to 3 now, another casualty this morning. Looks like I may be committing Bee Shrimp genocide however it's too hard to tell on just 5, the other 3 look fine, could be other issues as the RCS are all fine still.

I think my closed setup is less than ideal and am very keen to move this to the main tank asap. I think I'm gonna start trying to fatten Barney up so that he can go in a little sooner

 

[ted22]

I am unfortunately down to 3 now, another casualty this morning. Looks like I may be committing Bee Shrimp genocide however it's too hard to tell on just 5, the other 3 look fine, could be other issues as the RCS are all fine still.

I think my closed setup is less than ideal and am very keen to move this to the main tank asap. I think I'm gonna start trying to fatten Barney up so that he can go in a little sooner

From what ive been reading apart from cherries and amano shrimp the other fancy shrimp are very difficult to keep requiring immaculate water parameters hence why the cheeries and amano shrimp seem most popular, especialy for beggininers! How big is Barney now? It cant be long till you can put em together surely! Cunningham was over a couple of inches smaller than Gomez when I put em together Gomez bout 11-12in and Cunningface was 7-8in and they were fine. If i remember rightly Fred isnt a huge axie so should be okay with a couple of inches difference, feeding time is where the accidents could happen but these will be accidents not signs of aggression, just feed separately! I was concerned about gomez's huge bulk with a little axie, i thought it wouldnt take much for him to do cunningham some damage but he is so gentle with him and always sliding up next to him to have a snuggle! HAHA!

Ed

 

[DavidF]

Have you seen the planetinverts website? I found it a pretty good source of info.

Bee Shrimp .:. Caridina cantonensis sp. "Bee" .:. Freshwater Aquarium Shrimp Species Information Page

Cheers
Dave

 

[dazkeirle]

great find.

damn, looks to be the most inappropriate shrimp for my environment.

I wont hold any hope for the others then

 

[bayhicoach]

Cool! Where did you find that info?
I kind of suspected that elodea must be a really good absorber of everything because it grows so incredibly quickly it must get all that extra mass from somewhere ...

Not to put too fine a point on this but, the majority of the mass of a plant comes from the Carbon Dioxide and Water that the plant uses during photosynthesis.

 

[Ken Worthington]

I've just finished reading Diana Waldstad's "Ecology of the planted aquarium" which looks into the plant/Nitrogen thing extremely well......I can't recommend this book enough!
Here's a link to the reviews; http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1-gen...w-ecology-planted-aquarium-diana-walstad.html ......(sorry, I don't know how to 'shorten' that link!)

I've got half a dozen Glass shrimp ( Palaemonetes ?)living with my Pleurodeles waltl in a 15 gallon (UK) tank. The shrimp are too fast for the newt, and do a good cleaning up job (and are very fascinating, especially watching them shed, hehe).
It's fun to watch the odd shrimp stealing a bloodworm from in front of the newts face!
I hasten to add that I'm against mixing species in a tank in general, for good reason, but I seem to have a situation where the shrimp and the newt have a 'mutual understanding' with each other!
I'm still sorting a 18"x10x10 to raise some red cherry shrimp at the moment....
:happy:
EDIT: I just thought I'd add that 'Glass shrimp' are available at my LFS for £2.50 each/5 for £10.....In the US I believe they are soooo much cheaper.
ie. If you spent US$20 on Glass shrimp, you'd expect to get more than 6, 7 or 8....

As has been pointed out, these shrimp dont breed without brackish water etc, shame, but I can't wait to get my red cherry shrimp colony going !

 

[femme]

I am starting a RCS colony when I get my small tank back from my sister.
They are £3.95 per shrimp and my lfs I am keeping my eyes out for a local fish enthusiast who has some for sale.
Hopefully I can add something useful to this this thread soon instead of just reading and being very jealous

 

[bayhicoach]

I can buy glass shrimp here in St. Louis as feeders for 25 cents a piece. I also have had some luck in a sustaining population in an aquarium that was well established and then left totally undisturbed (no filter at all). I'm going to follow the rules this time to see if I can maximize their breeding rate. The larval stage is very interesting to watch. I'm also going to give the Cherry Shrimp a go. I didn't know they were that easy to maintain. You can always use a good reliable crustacean in a science classroom.

 

[morphyrichards]

Not to put too fine a point on this but, the majority of the mass of a plant comes from the Carbon Dioxide and Water that the plant uses during photosynthesis.

I know. I almost regretted saying that right after I typed it, but elodea grows so unbelievably fast ... I'm no biologist but doesn't water + CO2 + light = 02 and simple sugars? What about the rest of the plant's structure, is it all made of sugar? ... Is it worth starting a new thread on the de-nitrifying benefits of different aquatic vegetation?

 

[dazkeirle]

woop I fixed my Nitrite issue, and it wasn't with the elodea either.

Yesterday I did my first large filter clean of my Rena XP2 from Fred's tank and when I opened the bio tray I spotted a piece of black sponge that I had removed and placed in there from the previous internal filter.

It's no longer needed in there as the bio stars are working fine and the tank fully cycled so plopped it in the shrimp tank.

After water tests the sponge immediately made a difference, the water is now practically cycled.

Unfortunately it was too late for the bee shrimp, all but one were killed so am pessimistic about breeding them but all the red cherrys live on, the hardy devils.