new gsp care

[Sploke]

Shrimp are probably fine, although you'll still want to feed snails, as I doubt the shrimp exoskeleton is hard enough to really wear down their teeth, which is the purpose of feeding snails. Mine gets a good assortment of food - pond and ramshorn snails, bloodworms, mysis, brine shrimp, FD krill, and the occasional molly fry.

 

[dixienut]

sploke how big is your gsp? mine just makes a mess out of rams horns yet still kinda small mouthed likes ponds but the shrimp fit in just fine, ha ha ha,..this is why i asked he loves to hunt down, i tried guppy fry but still can't catch them as of yet,..

 

[SpockthePuffer]

My GSP Milton is around 2 inches. I try to give him a snail or two (pond snails the size of his eye) every day and along with his actual meal. He gets shrimp, mussels and clams (from the grocery store) and bloodworms, and sometimes the same pellets that my SW fish get. He also gets ghost shrimp in his tank which he likes to chase around and hunt on occasion. I wouldn't give him a diet of just cherry shrimp and snails, they need something meaty like people shrimp, mussels or clams.

Also, I wouldn't feed fry just because it might get him in the midset that fish are food and if you want to put some tankmates in with him as he becomes full marine it might not work out.

 

[Sploke]

Mine is about 3" or so, it was abou5 1.5" when I got it. I do the same as spock, find 1-2 snails about eye-sized every day, and it makes quick work of them.

 

[dixienut]

well then i must be feeding him too much he just ate 4cherry shrimp 1 1/2 cm size and about 5 tiny ponds, oops

he seems very happy, not pacing just exploring looking for goodies, i have anacharis in there and put snails in it and he hunts them down all day long...

 

[Pufferpunk]

Are you breeeding those shrimp? Because around here, they sell for about $4 ea!

 

[SpockthePuffer]

As you raise the SG keep in mind that the snails won't survive so you will have to specifically feed them to him.

Also you want to feed until his stomach looks round and full but not GIANT.

Thats how much I feed Milton, sometimes smaller than that amount. I also skip one day a week, maybe two some weeks. I've accidentally dropped shrimp in Miltons tank and he gets HUGE, which isn't healthy for them and they can explode, though its very rare.

If you have live plants in there you will have to raise the SG probably by 1.001 a week, verrry slowly and even then the plants won't survive as the GSP moves to high end brackish.

 

[SpockthePuffer]

sorry about the giant picture, didn't realize it was so huge.

 

[dixienut]

yes i raise them been selling them on here have sold over 300,been selling them for under $1 and still have extra,
i'm just feeding extra males which no one needs that many, i have4 tanks of them.
plus i have greens and yellows don't feed them but ocasional strange color morf will get eaten, so he is helping me out..as i don't want to sell them and don't want to breed wrong colors,

i don't care about the plants either just there for security at first, he don't get bigger in the belly than in your pics,

still didn't get answer on which tests to use marine or fresh?

this is my first try at salt anything,
when mixing salt my well water seems to leave white powder looking stuff at bottom, its not salt undisolved its like it seperated the calcium from the water is this normal..
i have well water high calcium and mag (i suspect), very high iron..so says culligan man.. will this be a problem???

i'm out in country so it varies from seasons as per ph, winter is more acidic spring more alkaline..
i'll take any and all info..

 

[SpockthePuffer]

the fresh and marine test kits aren't really that different, at least with AP test kits. There is one of the tests in the kit that has a slight color difference but I can't remember which one. If all you have is fresh it should work fine but as his SG increases I would get the salt just to be safe. I use the salt kit on mine just cause thats what I have for my sw tank.

I always have a bit of whiteness on the bottom too, I don't worry about, I just try and mix as much as I can. I'm not sure if the high iron or calcium is an issue.