Introducing Freshwater Invertebrates

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chuck8825

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Apr 13, 2006
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I was wondering if anyone has introduced freshwater shrimp and/or clams to a tank. I have a 50 gallon with 2 zebra danios, 3 harlequin rasbora, 10 neon tetras, 1 golden gourami, 3 dwarf rainbowfish, 2 boseman's rainbowfish & 4 apple snails.

I was thinking of adding 3 or 4 shrimp (algae eating rather than filter feeding), as well as a few clams. A few candidates are:

Shrimp
Amano Shrimp (Caridina japonica)
Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis)
Blue Shrimp (Neocaridina sp)
Cherry Fire Shrimp (Caridina serrata)
Singapore Flower Shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis)

Clams
Asian Freshwater Clam (Corbicula Fluminea)

Anyone have any experience with any of the above species? Any thoughts on which might be better or worse in a community tank? If I have a UV sterilizer attached to a canister filter, do you think the tank could support clams? My concern is that the water column will not have much algae or protozoa in it due to the UV sterilization.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
plah831

plah831

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Apr 29, 2006
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Monterey Bay, CA
Yeah, the UV may kill microorganisms that the filter feeding Singapore shrimps feed on. Some people supplement their fan shrimps with invert food or crushed flakes, but mine never needed them. In fact, he/she acted like a UV sterilizer for me, even keeping algae blooms under control. I really liked my guy and can't wait to get another!
 
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Theatre1sm

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Oct 10, 2005
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Olive Branch, MS
While my amano shrimp seem to be doing allright (They are tough to see unless I find them while gravel vaccuming - they've grown to about 1" long) 2 batches of clams haven't made it.

My tank (a 65 gal with olive nerite shrimp, 10 rainbow bosemanii and 10 or 12 platy, 1 common pleco and 2 golden mystery snails) has a Magnum 350 Pro with Bio-Wheels and a Penquin 350 I'm seeding for the next tank. As far as I can tell there simply isn't enough filter food left after the water is cleaned. But when I cut back on the filtration the clams couldn't keep up...
 
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chuck8825

AC Members
Apr 13, 2006
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Thanks for the info on your experience with clams. I sort of suspected that they might not do well if the tank has a poweful filter. The UV sterilizer I have attached would probably make it near impossible for a clam to survive in the tank.
 
nerdyguy83

nerdyguy83

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May 11, 2006
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Erie, PA, US
I keep a couple ghost shrimp in my 10 gallon community tank. I bought 2, had 1 die after about a month. I bought 3 more, had 2 die overnight. I did nothing to help aclimate them to the tank anymore than I do for a regular fish. Ghosts are sold as much for feeders as anything else, so they were probably not in the best of health when I bought them. I don't know anything about the more expensive varieties, but my experience with ghost shrimp is about 50/50 with taking no precautions.
 
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