Experiences with pygmy cory breeding and/or amano shrimp please?

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Nice to see you back.

Want some Aspidoras spilotus to go with your pygmies? I'm being overrun.

Thank you, glad you're still here too! Forum seems pretty quiet right now, maybe because it's the weekend?
I'd never heard of those Aspidoras before, but after googling, reading a bit and seeing a video of them, yes please! They're really nice! Are they breeding freely in your tank too?

How are all your plecos doing?

 

[Gypsum]

I have about forty in a grow-out tank and some number -- the original six adults and yet more offspring -- in the main tank. That's meant to be the L199 breeding tank, but I doubt those will breed with the Aspidoras taking over the world. Thinking of shifting the Aspidoras to another tank and introducing a quieter Corydoras species to the pleco tank, maybe metae or something else from the Orinoco.

The rest of my tanks are just ticking along. No major fish drama to report, which is ideal. How are yours?

 

[ClownLurch]

Are Amanos known for killing RCS?
I had Amanos as the sole shrimp in the tank back in the 80s and they were no trouble. I’ve got a few atm and have attempted adding RCS twice recently and it’s not ended well.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have about forty in a grow-out tank and some number -- the original six adults and yet more offspring -- in the main tank. That's meant to be the L199 breeding tank, but I doubt those will breed with the Aspidoras taking over the world. Thinking of shifting the Aspidoras to another tank and introducing a quieter Corydoras species to the pleco tank, maybe metae or something else from the Orinoco.

The rest of my tanks are just ticking along. No major fish drama to report, which is ideal. How are yours?

No major drama to report here either, thankfully! Just still working away to reduce the total number of livebearers I have, with still many batches of young growing out.

Have had some young guppies being born with swimbladder issues which is a bit odd. Two males and a female that have swam oddly since they were fry, and are now 3-4 months old yet still doing fine apart from swimming upside down or sideways now and again. Separated into male/female tanks and will keep them with me, it's just odd. Also two out of the ten surviving young bronze cories I raised have deformities, so will be keeping those back too. starting to feel as though most of the fish that I'll be keeping myself will be special needs ones! LOL. But, out of the hundreds of livebearer fry I've raised, it really has been a small number that have had issues, so not too bad.

Are the Aspidoras you have rare or expensive? I've never come across them before, and since they don't seem to have a common name either, makes me wonder if you could make some nice cash to contribute towards hobby costs by selling some of the offspring!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Are Amanos known for killing RCS?
I had Amanos as the sole shrimp in the tank back in the 80s and they were no trouble. I’ve got a few atm and have attempted adding RCS twice recently and it’s not ended well.

I don't think they pose much risk to RCS, they're often kept together. I have six amanos with my cherry shrimp colony now, with no noticable interactions or dent in the population. Still seeing tiny shrimplets around too. If you see an amano eating a dead cherry shrimp, try not to blame the amano. Shrimp do eat one another once they're dead, have seen my RCS eat one of their own that has passed away often, they didn't kill it though.

However I did have a very hard time getting the cherry shrimp established in the first place, long before I had any amanos. I think because I only ever introduced five at one time (I was being cheap) and they'd slowly die off one at a time. I tried like three times and for about five months, and was ready to give up thinking I was a shrimp murderer before I finally saw a berried female. Then the breeding took off, and they've been good ever since, even when I accidentally poisoned them by adding plants that had been sprayed, and had to move the survivors to a clean tank.

How many have you been introducing at a time and what do you mean when you say it hasn't ended well?

 

[ClownLurch]

Six at a time. They’ve died over the course of a few days. No Amano deaths at all.


Maybe I should get 20 or so?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Six at a time. They’ve died over the course of a few days. No Amano deaths at all.


Maybe I should get 20 or so?

If your water parameters are suitable and tank is otherwise stable, then I would, yep. Although before you go buy them, I'm gonna tag @Essjay and ask what she thinks, since she's more experienced with shrimp than I am!

 

[Essjay]

When I first started keeping red cherry shrimps, a few years ago now, they all died. I tried several batches with the same results. Some of them had that white band across their backs when they died. On another forum, someone who had kept various species of shrimp asked me a few things.
How hard was my water? At 5 dH she said it was hard enough, and with ClownLurch's tap water being very hard, that shouldn't be the cause here.
She knew I had amano shrimps as well and asked if they were in the same tank. Mine weren't. But she said that amanos can intimidate cherry shrimps.

Eventually she said she thought my shrimps were infected with a shrimp-specific bug and that while there were chemicals that would kill the bug, she thought it was worth using the immunity enhancer beta glucans. I did buy some but I can't say for sure if that helped because I moved my last shrimp, a berried female into my quarantine tank before it arrived (the first pack was lost in the post and I had to wait a couple of weeks before they'd send another). I found her dead shortly afterwards and started to empty the tank only to spot some tiny shrimplets. Most of them survived and they were the start of my current shrimp colony.
I did dose beta G when I finally got some but the shrimplets were doing well and moulting before I added it. Did the beta G actually do anything?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Amanos do not "prey" on other shrimp or fish, but they do scavenge on carcasses, like all shrimp, and many fish.

@AdoraBelle Dearheart , welcome back

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Amanos do not "prey" on other shrimp or fish, but they do scavenge on carcasses, like all shrimp, and many fish.

@AdoraBelle Dearheart , welcome back

Hi, and thank you! So you don't think the amanos would bother with pygmy cory eggs? Or the tiny newly hatched fry?

 

[Slaphppy7]

Hi, and thank you! So you don't think the amanos would bother with pygmy cory eggs? Or the tiny newly hatched fry?

Not at all...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Oh my, the pygmies are spawning again...

They really don't stop once they get going do they? I just hope I can raise a good amount of fry, because they're certainly doing their part

 

[Slaphppy7]

Oh my, the pygmies are spawning again...

They really don't stop once they get going do they? I just hope I can raise a good amount of fry, because they're certainly doing their part

Congrats again....any chance of selling them, either to individuals, or your LFS?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Congrats again....any chance of selling them, either to individuals, or your LFS?

Hopefully!

Not yet, since I only had seven adults and I'd like to around 12 permenant resident pygmies in the school, and so far only three babies are large enough to join the adults. But they've produced so many teeny tiny fry and still laying eggs, so hopefully they'll breed loads, and loads will make it! If I don't see many larger ones making it to a good size soon, I may try syphoning up some newly hatched fry from the gravel and raising them in a smaller container myself.

My LFS definitely wants any I can get them, and would offer store credit. Would be nice to have some of the costs of the hobby offset a little! If someone here in the UK on the forum wanted some, I'd be willing, if enough fry get big enough. Never shipped a fish before, but wouldn't be too hard to figure out.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

EEEKKKK! So excited. On top of the adults spawning again today, I just couldn't resist looking, and lifted the almond leaves in the tank to see how many babies I could see. Spotted at least ten good sized babies, some with adult colours, some large enough that they'll soon have their adult colours. That's not counting all the really tiny fry that are too small to easily spot yet

That's a great sign that they're finding plenty of food to grow to a good age/size. Should have a nice sized school swimming about together in another month or so!