School Aquarium
- Thread starter PallasAthena
- Start date
Can you clarify? Who would be eating them? What would the issue be?
I appreciate you being candid, but throw-away statements like that don't really help me acheive a workable balance.
For the Apisto/Blue Ram, from what I've heard, they are a fair bit more sensitive/finicky than your average beginner fish ... it might be easier to just try for some nice guppies and maybe invertebrates without the centrepiece fish - especially because 4-5 guppies will quickly turn into a whole big pile of guppies haha.
Yeah rams would eat a shrimp really fast. If you want shrimp I would suggest shrimp and either guppies or small tetra like cardinals. You want something hardy though, rams are a bad choice as they aren't good beginner fish. Just a word of caution on shrimp though, they don't do well with dirty water and need something established even if it's a plant from another tank or a piece of drift wood. They need to feed off the slime coat on stuff in the aquarium. Something that won't develope for a few months.
I think cherry shrimp is a great choice for a class because you can see the female ovaries in a cherry shrimp and when pregnant you can see them carry eggs and they are born as baby shrimp when hatched and unlike fish will not eat there own young. The only hurdle you would need to get past is getting established aquarium stuff with a slime coat in the tank.
Click on personal gallery just to the left of this post to view my tanks, one is a shrimp tank that shows pregnant females.
I think cherry shrimp is a great choice for a class because you can see the female ovaries in a cherry shrimp and when pregnant you can see them carry eggs and they are born as baby shrimp when hatched and unlike fish will not eat there own young. The only hurdle you would need to get past is getting established aquarium stuff with a slime coat in the tank.
Click on personal gallery just to the left of this post to view my tanks, one is a shrimp tank that shows pregnant females.
I was kind of hoping the centerpiece fish would keep down the fry. Or would the guppies manage that on their own? Would it be possible to do something like get the guppies established in the tank and then add the centerpiece fish later?
Regardless, I think the variety of the snails and the shrimp would be interesting enough even without the centerpiece.
Would the apisto? If so, we can do without it.
Would live plants bought from my LFS already have that slime on it or does that get killed off when you re-cycle? We can stock in stages. That's A-ok, really.
That is unbelievably cool. Problem though: How do you control the shrimp population if the parents don't eat them?
That's why I was thinking something like an apisto/ram might be good. Population control.
There are so many potential lessons here for the kids! I am so excited!
Someone hit my point about ghost, or feeder, shrimp. They are bred for feeding larger fish. Rams/Apistos will hunt them down by nature.
I am curious..What are the water parameters where this tank will be setup?
A 10G tank puts a limit on what #'s you can stock and also what species. If the water is harder and a higher pH I would go with a colony of multies or other shellie.
Thanks. I didn't realize ghost shrimp were a feeder shrimp. Would cherry shrimp have the same issue?
Water is generally pretty hard. I've got a softener at my house, but she doesn't, so that won't be an issue. Will be good for the snails, not so hot for the shrimp. I don't recall the Ph. Things are pretty much stable in my pond these days, so I just test the basics: ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. I don't recall what the Ph tended toward.
What are multies and shellies? Remember, I'm a pondkeeper, so I don't know all the aquarium jargon.
Hm, IMO ghost shrimp are big and fast enough that they may be ok. I think it'd be worth a try, anyway. Heck, I had shrimp survive in a puffer tank. RCS may be too small, but ghosties may be ok.
I think a ram or apisto may be fine. They're a little more delicate maybe, but if they're bought locally they will probably be ok.
ETA: If you do a ram or apisto, I'd add them after the tank has been established a little while. Couldn't hurt. And although they (and some shrimp) prefer softer water, it's more about creating an ideal environment for breeding and such, and less that they just wouldn't be ok living in it.
ETA2: And while muties and shellies are cool, I'm not sure they'd be the most interesting for a classroom. If you're not gonna do a centerpiece I'd say better to just do more guppies, or guppies and neons or something. Much more interesting, IMO.
I think a ram or apisto may be fine. They're a little more delicate maybe, but if they're bought locally they will probably be ok.
ETA: If you do a ram or apisto, I'd add them after the tank has been established a little while. Couldn't hurt. And although they (and some shrimp) prefer softer water, it's more about creating an ideal environment for breeding and such, and less that they just wouldn't be ok living in it.
ETA2: And while muties and shellies are cool, I'm not sure they'd be the most interesting for a classroom. If you're not gonna do a centerpiece I'd say better to just do more guppies, or guppies and neons or something. Much more interesting, IMO.
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Multi's and shellies are tiny african rift lake cichlids that live in the shells of dead snails. They defend there colony of shells and breed in them. They are really cool and cute and lots of attitude but you won't see them out of the shell very often unless your feeding or they happen to be moving a shell or defending territory.
Depending on your water would matter the shrimp. Cherry Shrimp do fine in PH over 7 and hard water, Crystal shrimp do better in ph below 7 and soft water. As for over population if you have guppies they might pick off new hatched shrimp so that would keep the numbers down, but even then shrimp have a very small bio load, I had 6 shrimp that in about 6 months turned into 30. Sell them to a pet store or keep them, a 10 gallon is pretty big for a shrimp tank.
apisto's and rams are cichlids and hunt down and kill shrimp of this size without a problem. Even if established I give it a week before they have eaten every one. I tried putting 8 in my 29 and a few hours later they were all dead.
Depending on your water would matter the shrimp. Cherry Shrimp do fine in PH over 7 and hard water, Crystal shrimp do better in ph below 7 and soft water. As for over population if you have guppies they might pick off new hatched shrimp so that would keep the numbers down, but even then shrimp have a very small bio load, I had 6 shrimp that in about 6 months turned into 30. Sell them to a pet store or keep them, a 10 gallon is pretty big for a shrimp tank.
apisto's and rams are cichlids and hunt down and kill shrimp of this size without a problem. Even if established I give it a week before they have eaten every one. I tried putting 8 in my 29 and a few hours later they were all dead.
