Masters of disguise...

[gatotsu77]

As the thread title implies, I have recently learned just how darn good amano shrimp are at hiding. I thought for sure that my discus had munched down the 2 I put in my 55g tank last month, yet out of the blue, I noticed one of them hiding in my tank this afternoon. It was hiding in a small hole in one of my pieces of driftwood. I was utterly amazed... Perhaps getting a few more might not be such a bad idea after all. Anyone know if they get territorial over their hiding spots?

[thebullit]

oh yes they are great at hiding i have 10 and only see 1 or 2 at any 1 time. more would be good.

[gatotsu77]

Anyone happen to know of anywhere in the LA/Orange County (CA) area that carries amano's for less than $4 each? I really like the little guys, but I'm not sure if I want to spend that much on 'em. I have considered ordering some cherry shrimp instead, as I've read they are also rather adept at eating algae. The only reason I'm even considering something living for eating algae is the brown algae I keep getting on my plants... I don't want to damage them removing it all the time. I do very frequent water changes (50% every other day, frequently do 30% changes between the 50% changes) so I don't believe its organic wastes contributing to it, but I don't have a test kit to determine the level of phosphates in my tap water. I have read up about it somewhat, but haven't really gotten a whole lot of conclusive answers aside from "scrub it off as it shows up." On the glass and driftwood, this is no problem at all. I get in the tank and scrub every weekend... sometimes once through the week too. Like I said, my concern is with the plants, mostly with my pennywort, but with the other plants also. Any suggestions/ideas? I'd like to avoid bleach dips if possible.... I know I can dechlor it and put the plant back in the tank, but I don't want to risk that one... 7 discus = I'm very paranoid about what's going into my tank. What else can I do with delicate plants, that doesn't involve chemicals?

[msjinkzd]

my only concern with adding cherries to deal with the brown algae is that in a tank with discus they will probably hide most of the time and I am not sure how much they would come out to "graze" but they are inexpensive and it may be worth a try.

[Squawkbert]

If you have a nice carpet (HC, HM, Riccia, Moss etc), they may breed fast enough to keep up w/ predation.

[gatotsu77]

my only concern with adding cherries to deal with the brown algae is that in a tank with discus they will probably hide most of the time and I am not sure how much they would come out to "graze" but they are inexpensive and it may be worth a try.

I was affraid of this, based on what my amano shrimp has been doing. (I've only confirmed the presence of one of the two I introduced into the tank a couple weeks ago)

I don't have a huge carpet of plants just yet, but I do have a lot of growth in the plants I've got, and am starting to get an idea of what it may look like in the months to come. I'll have to get a full tank picture up to show you guys what I'm working with. Perhaps I'll take some pics after my water change tonight.

If I do go with the cherries, what would be a good number to start with? 30? 40? I'd like to give them a fighting chance, and I'm hoping my discus don't just eat them all in the first few days. If that happens... I'll be sad. :sad:

[msjinkzd]

well I added 10 cherries to my 36g (in my sig) about 3-4 months ago and now have 150 in a 10g and countless in the 36g. I think if you start with 20 or so it will give them more than a head start especially if you have some moss in the tank for them to hide deep inside when they are berried.

[gatotsu77]

well I added 10 cherries to my 36g (in my sig) about 3-4 months ago and now have 150 in a 10g and countless in the 36g. I think if you start with 20 or so it will give them more than a head start especially if you have some moss in the tank for them to hide deep inside when they are berried.

Wow... prolific little buggers. :p: My gf wants to add a few cherries to her 10g tank, but has a penguin HOB filter. Will all of the offspring end up motor food if she doesn't have a sponge covering the intake? (she does have some java moss, just not a huge pile or anything) I myself don't run pre-filters on either of my filters.. would that be wise to protect the cherry's offspring?

Slightly off-topic, but pertaining to the pre-filter idea, if I was to do a sponge pre-filter, how would I go about cleaning it or removing it without dumping a bunch of junk back into my tank? Just clean it frequently? As it is, I plan to switch my XP3 to mostly bio media and remove the carbon that is in it currently, and I'm still contemplating removing the Emperor 400 and replacing it with a secondary XP3.

[msjinkzd]

I would absolutley recommend a prefilter for a tank with shrimp, and a tank with plants. It keeps the shrimp and moss out of the filter. I use sponges designed for the ac30 and cut them to fit. cheap and efficient. there are some black prefilters available, not sure of the brand as i am too cheap to buy them.
as for cleaning, i just remove the sponge (i just slide them on) and squeeze it in my bucket of tank water. sometimes before i turn off the filter i will manually remove "plant chunks".

[destined_love7]

Glad it made an appearance!


AS for the sponge pre-filter, I just vac it when I'm doing the substrate. Then every couple of weeks I put a bag over it and uplug the filter. That should catch most of the yuck (technical term) and you can rinse it in the old tank water.

[gatotsu77]

I would absolutley recommend a prefilter for a tank with shrimp, and a tank with plants. It keeps the shrimp and moss out of the filter. I use sponges designed for the ac30 and cut them to fit. cheap and efficient. there are some black prefilters available, not sure of the brand as i am too cheap to buy them.
as for cleaning, i just remove the sponge (i just slide them on) and squeeze it in my bucket of tank water. sometimes before i turn off the filter i will manually remove "plant chunks".

Sounds good to me. I was concerned that most (if not all) of the baby shrimp would just end up food for the impellars in my filters, so I figured I would need some form of prefilter. I might end up cutting my own custom prefilter, since I should have some extra foam from my XP3 laying around this weekend.


Glad it made an appearance!


AS for the sponge pre-filter, I just vac it when I'm doing the substrate. Then every couple of weeks I put a bag over it and uplug the filter. That should catch most of the yuck (technical term) and you can rinse it in the old tank water.

Hahaha, I love the bag idea. :D I'll try to keep on top of keeping the prefilters clean, as I'm already doing nearly daily water changes, but if I ever get lazy and leave the prefilter on for a week, I'll remember to grab a ziploc before I go and pull the sponge off. Thanks!

[destined_love7]

LOL. Do it quick, though. Don't want to burn up your motor. I have one hand on the cord and use the other to place the bag. As soon as I have it in place I pull the plug. Kind of hard to do since it's plugged into a strip thing and not screwed to the wall. I have to hold the strip with my feet. I surely hope nobody ever gets a pic of me doing that. ;)

[gatotsu77]

LOL. Do it quick, though. Don't want to burn up your motor. I have one hand on the cord and use the other to place the bag. As soon as I have it in place I pull the plug. Kind of hard to do since it's plugged into a strip thing and not screwed to the wall. I have to hold the strip with my feet. I surely hope nobody ever gets a pic of me doing that. ;)

LMAO! New prerequisite of being a fishkeeper... must be flexible! I've found myself in similar situations, contorting myself into all sorts of shapes to accomplish seemingly simple tasks, until actually diving into them and realizing what a horrible mistake I'd made. I'll have to experiment with the procedure to see what works best for me. I'll be sure to let you know all about it. :silly:

[destined_love7]

LMAO! You should have seen the position I had to get into to unpluf the filter before I got the strip!

[gatotsu77]

LMAO! You should have seen the position I had to get into to unpluf the filter before I got the strip!

I can only imagine... I can't use the outlet for my tank since it just doesn't have enough sockets... I used to use 5, but currently I'm using 4. (one for lights, 2 for filters, and 2 were for heaters, but now I'm running 1 heater) As it is, the tank is 20" high and the power strip is on a shelf inside the stand, so I've got one heck of a reach to try to get from the intake tube to the power cord. Perhaps what I'll do is try using a larger bag, settle it underneath the sponge, and slowly work it off while the filter is still running. Seal that up, pull it out, and rinse it while the filter catches the excess debris. Hopefully I don't lose a whole bunch of baby shrimp in the 3-5 minutes I have the filter opened up like that... I want to see the population grow. :-)

I wish I could just set up an invert only tank, but my folks are tired of me having so much water upstairs. (or anywhere in the house really... I tried REALLY hard to convince them to let me set it up downstairs) I just get my 55g tank and have to manage with what I've got... so if the cherries are a go, excellent. If the discus pick them all off overnight... well, I'll have to wait until I'm living on my own to start up a secondary (or several) tank(s). I'd love to have a 29g invert tank, a 10g pico reef, and maybe even a 29g kribensis breeder. Once I own my own house... 200+ gallon discus tank, 300+ gallon reef tank, and probably several tanks sized 29-75g for various breeding/species tanks. Hahaha... I only have one tank, yet I've got MTS. >_<

[destined_love7]

LOL! You've got MTS tendencies!

Don't feel bad. When I'm apartment hunting I look to see where I would put what tanks and if I don't have room, I don't get it.

[gatotsu77]

LOL! You've got MTS tendencies!

Don't feel bad. When I'm apartment hunting I look to see where I would put what tanks and if I don't have room, I don't get it.

I suspect I'll have to do the same... someone on here mentioned I should look into leasing a house with several people... we'd end up paying perhaps $600 a month each, but have a LOT more room with 4 people living in a house rather than 3-4 people in a small apartment for the same price. If the house has a bedroom on the downstairs floor, its totally MINE so I can have some big tanks. :D I'm just not looking forward to having to move tanks... boy that will be a drag. >_<

[destined_love7]

Yep. That's the only thing keeping me from getting a 55. I know I'll be moving soon.

[gatotsu77]

Yep. That's the only thing keeping me from getting a 55. I know I'll be moving soon.

I live on the 2nd floor of my family's house, but I have a 55g upstairs. I disperse the weight across a larger area using a huge sheet of wood. (its about 7' long by perhaps 2' wide) Rather than dispersing 600+ lbs across approx. 5.5 square feet, (tank footprint is 48" x 14" but the stand footprint is more like 50" x 16") its got 14 square feet. Rather than having 110 lbs per square foot, I have roughly 42. (since there is likely some flexion of the wood past the footprint of the stand, but its quite rigid. Certainly holds well and gave the tank added stability on the carpet)

[plantling]

As the thread title implies, I have recently learned just how darn good amano shrimp are at hiding. I thought for sure that my discus had munched down the 2 I put in my 55g tank last month, yet out of the blue, I noticed one of them hiding in my tank this afternoon. It was hiding in a small hole in one of my pieces of driftwood. I was utterly amazed... Perhaps getting a few more might not be such a bad idea after all. Anyone know if they get territorial over their hiding spots?

LOL, I bought 3 amanos several months ago and had them in my 29 w/2 angels. After a week I never saw them again so figured the angels must have gotten to them but I did some major rescaping and found two today. I put them in the 20 grow out tank and now I can't find them. They must be hiding in the plants somewhere because there is nothing in there that will eat them. I must have spent half an hour peering and looking for them. Perhaps I will see them the next time I do a major rescape.

[gupman]

Mine I see all the time eating algea off the back glass.They eat with the others when i put in fresh veggies.