TwoTankAmin25
Fish Maniac
I basically backed into keeping shrimp. My first ones came former Rachel O"Leary aka msjinkzd about18 years ago. I put them into a 5.5 gal. planted tank which also used to hold a few small fish. I still have that tank filled with the cherry shrimp, It has not held anything else for over a decade. My next variety were the Blue Dreams. I got about 10 from a friend when needed to out them and wanted to find folks who would adopt them. She also had some small fish in the same situation. I took the shrimp and a few of the fish. This was about 5 or 6 years ago
The shrimp and the one species of the fish went into a well planted 15 gal. with a thin layer of sand. It also held a few amano shrimp. I also added a few assassin snails. Maybe 6 months later I added another 5 or 6 blue shrimp I wont at the auction my clubs hold at the end oft the monthly meeting. And then the Blue Neos began to reproduce, They were quite prolific. Over time I expanded the blue into a well planted 29 gal, which began life as A Q tank and then sort of became a permanent tank. It held some assassins and eventually 10 corys, a pair of CPDs and a few Israeli bred Neon Tetras.
I have read a few threads on this site about folks feeding their shrimp Bacter AE. I did not know this food. But I have a lot of food and bever havibg used it but having success with Neos figured I did not need it.
What makes the above get interesting happened about 10 months ago. A member put some Amazon Frogbit from his pond, which he was closing down, into my fish club's monthly auction. I had not done any floaters for a fairly long time and bid on and won them. I put a couple of them into several of my tanks. Gasy forwad and they mulitiplied like crazy. It was not long before almost all of my 9 planted and thena 33L I had kept sort of going but not stocked. (I dose it with ammonia now and then to keep it fairly cycled.) And for the last 4 or 5 meeting O have brought 2 big bags of frogbit for the auction.
I have alsi thrwon out a fair amount in the past few months. One neat part of frogbit is over time it grows roots which get longer. I notice that in tanks where I had some algae issues, they algae seemed to be going away. Obviosly the Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) ws out competeing the algae for nutrients and light causing the algae to reduce it's presence notably.
But what I alway learned because I was removing frogbit was that I often dicovered a few blue shrimp had come along with the frogbit. A bit os sleuthing and I ;learned that the shrimp were all over the roots of the frogbit. There was something on the roots that was food for the shrimp. I assume it was some form opf bio-film similar to what is in bacter AE perhaps?
Some of the Frogbit with the most and longest roots are in the 29. It has been like a srinp facory in that tank. I have been selling 25 blue shrimp for the past 5 months at the club auction. Sometime is is more like 36+. The club does not meet in July but one ot the members came here to buy 50 blue shrimp and 25 of the reds. He left with more like 65 blues and 30 reds. Ii looks like I still have well over 50 blues in the 29. ANd an inlnown number or red in the 5.5. But that tabk has no frogbit but is still a jungle.
I never had any idea that the roots of floating plants like frogbit could produce food for shrimp or could reduce alage levels. This is as clise as I come to raisung or even feeding live foor in any of my tanks. I do use frozen which can includ BBS, rotifers, daphnia, Brine amd Mysis Shrimp. I am really allegic to Bloof Worms and avoid them. I do occasionally use Tubibifex. I also feed Repashy Soilent Green to my shrimp and bristlenose. So, the fish and shrimp do get a varied diet bit none of it has been live until whatever is colonizing the roots of the frohbit. I also assume since I do planted tanks some of the youngsters get infusoria.
The shrimp and the one species of the fish went into a well planted 15 gal. with a thin layer of sand. It also held a few amano shrimp. I also added a few assassin snails. Maybe 6 months later I added another 5 or 6 blue shrimp I wont at the auction my clubs hold at the end oft the monthly meeting. And then the Blue Neos began to reproduce, They were quite prolific. Over time I expanded the blue into a well planted 29 gal, which began life as A Q tank and then sort of became a permanent tank. It held some assassins and eventually 10 corys, a pair of CPDs and a few Israeli bred Neon Tetras.
I have read a few threads on this site about folks feeding their shrimp Bacter AE. I did not know this food. But I have a lot of food and bever havibg used it but having success with Neos figured I did not need it.
What makes the above get interesting happened about 10 months ago. A member put some Amazon Frogbit from his pond, which he was closing down, into my fish club's monthly auction. I had not done any floaters for a fairly long time and bid on and won them. I put a couple of them into several of my tanks. Gasy forwad and they mulitiplied like crazy. It was not long before almost all of my 9 planted and thena 33L I had kept sort of going but not stocked. (I dose it with ammonia now and then to keep it fairly cycled.) And for the last 4 or 5 meeting O have brought 2 big bags of frogbit for the auction.
I have alsi thrwon out a fair amount in the past few months. One neat part of frogbit is over time it grows roots which get longer. I notice that in tanks where I had some algae issues, they algae seemed to be going away. Obviosly the Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum) ws out competeing the algae for nutrients and light causing the algae to reduce it's presence notably.
But what I alway learned because I was removing frogbit was that I often dicovered a few blue shrimp had come along with the frogbit. A bit os sleuthing and I ;learned that the shrimp were all over the roots of the frogbit. There was something on the roots that was food for the shrimp. I assume it was some form opf bio-film similar to what is in bacter AE perhaps?
Some of the Frogbit with the most and longest roots are in the 29. It has been like a srinp facory in that tank. I have been selling 25 blue shrimp for the past 5 months at the club auction. Sometime is is more like 36+. The club does not meet in July but one ot the members came here to buy 50 blue shrimp and 25 of the reds. He left with more like 65 blues and 30 reds. Ii looks like I still have well over 50 blues in the 29. ANd an inlnown number or red in the 5.5. But that tabk has no frogbit but is still a jungle.
I never had any idea that the roots of floating plants like frogbit could produce food for shrimp or could reduce alage levels. This is as clise as I come to raisung or even feeding live foor in any of my tanks. I do use frozen which can includ BBS, rotifers, daphnia, Brine amd Mysis Shrimp. I am really allegic to Bloof Worms and avoid them. I do occasionally use Tubibifex. I also feed Repashy Soilent Green to my shrimp and bristlenose. So, the fish and shrimp do get a varied diet bit none of it has been live until whatever is colonizing the roots of the frohbit. I also assume since I do planted tanks some of the youngsters get infusoria.
