Fan/Filter shrimp getting enough food?

plah831

plah831

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Apr 29, 2006
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Monterey Bay, CA
I am very interested in getting a filter-feeding shrimp (e.g. Amano, bamboo, cherry, Singapore). My question is: how will I know if it's getting enough food? I am prepared to supplement with invert food, but how do I know when that is even needed? Would it help if I took out the mechanical filter media to let the shrimp get more of the floating particles?

I used to have a little Amano in a 10 gal that lived for over 1 and 1/2 years, only expiring when he jumped out of the tank one night. It was fun to watch, waving its fans in the filter flow, and molted several times. But that was before I knew what I was doing, so maybe the tank was "dirtier" and had more food available to the shrimpy.
 
i always supplement my bottom feeders with additional food. they are going to get some stuff eating leftovers and such, but it's best to give them some variety and nutrition from sinking wafers and pellets. also depends on the species of fish and size of tank IMO, some fish are voracious eaters and won't leave anything to sink down.

plus, i think its best to leave your mechanical filtration in, a lot of good bacteria live there. not worth the trouble when you can just spend $3-4 for some good sinking pellet food.
 
I do feed my bottom feeders (loaches, ghost shrimp). I have heard that fan shrimps can pick up food off the bottom, but I'd never seen my old one do that.

Is that the best way to supplement a filter-feeding shrimp?
 
I crush my flake food into a powder to make sure mine has stuff to get. Even after all that he still will try to get stuff off the bottom.
 
Amano and cherry shrimp are not filter feeders. The Bamboo and Singapore are more than likely the same shrimp. I've never kept any filter feeders, but this is what www.petshrimp.com has to say about them.

The asian filter shrimp's usual coloration when in stores is brownish. However, when they are fed enough food and are feeling comfortable they turn a nice, dark red and develop a white line down their back. They are a long lived species and live at least 5 years when kept correctly. This shrimp should be kept in community tanks with small, peaceful fish and/or shrimp and sufficient current. This is preferable to a species tank as its tank mates produce the detritus necessary for the microorganisms in the filter to thrive and reproduce. The microorganisms, in turn, are carried by the current to the filter shrimp and filtered out of the water as food. This way, the filter shrimp does not need to be specifically fed. Targeted feeding might actually deteriorate water parameters and harm the tank inhabitants, as it's very hard to gauge how much this shrimp actually needs to be fed.
 
becareful with amanos tho, when they finish cleaning the algaes, they will start eating your plants. they eat anything... they even ate dead oto that i had in my tank...
also, watch out if youre injecting co2, shrimps are very weak when it comes to lack of oxygen in the water and high temperature..
 
Thanks for everyone's input!

My LFS has some filter-feeding shrimp labeled as "Amano" but they must be wrong. I think they're probably Bamboo or Singapore shrimps. That's what I actually wanted.
 
I have read that if you see a filter shrimp picking at the substrate, they are not getting enough food. They will only do that if they're basically starving since it's hard on their filter appendage-things.
 
I got some great advise on this forum previsously- so I'll paraphrase it for you.
How old is your tank? If it's a year old or more, you should be set- it should be able to find what ever it needs in the water as it is. If it's a newer tank, be prepared to suppliment. When I first got mine, it grazed on the substrate- whenever I noticed it doing that- I'd add a little bit of fry food to the water. A few weeks later, I noticed him fanning, but only at night- so I gave it more cover- moved some plants, etc- now it fans almost constantly in it's safe hiding spot.
 
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