Algae Shrimp

[lilfishie]

well saw some Algae shrimp at the LFS today and really liked the look of them, they were only a cm or 2 in size, how many couls i fit in my 15 gal with 5 neons and 5 guppies? really want to go pick some up tomorrow. and any advice on them would be good to, have read there profile

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

I have about 4 in my 20 Gallon, they seem to be happy in there, its hugely planted so i hardly see them, they do turn a lovely shade of blue when they are in good health.

 

[lilfishie]

thats what made it final that i was going to get them, saw a picture of one and then wanted some of my own, how does 3 sound?

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Sounds fine, be careful with them. They will hide away and be very timid for the first few days.

 

[GoldLenny]

I bought 25 cherry shrimp for my 10G planted tank and since then, a couple of batches of fry (sp?) have hatched so I must have well over 50 in there now. Very low bioload and 0.0 ppm nitrates since the plants are sucking them up so well. I still do 25% PWC's weekly to replace the trace elements and moderately hard water that I have so the shrimp have plenty of calcium to grow healthy shells. As far as I can tell, I haven't had a single shrimp die but if one die, I do have a few MTS (snails) that probably gobble up any carcasses.

Anyhow, my point is, you can get more than 3 if you want. They have a very, very low bioload compared to fish.

 

[Rex740]

When they say algae shrimp at the store, they mean in general. There are tons of different kinds of algea shrimp so try to find out what type they are and refer them to there real name so ppl would get a better perspective. You might want to try searching amano shrimp or ghost shrimp images because those 2 are common types of algae shrimp.

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

If you get them from a LFS, make sure they have them labelled correctly. Someone on here was sold (sorry if spelled incorrectly) machrabrachium shrimp, apparently they started to eat his neons.

 

[rfisher]

Hi,

I have 4 Bamboo, 4 Algae and 8 Cherry Shrimp in my 30 Gallon. They all get along really well and the Bamboo shrimp are just beginning to turn a slight shade of red, which I am told they do when they are happy with their environment. It also looks strange when they shed because because the Black substrate seems to be littered with dead shrimp. The first time I saw the shed skin I thought they had died, the skins are an exact replica of the real thing and it was quite spooky.

Richard

 

[lilfishie]

they were labled as japonica? something, i just got the one because i got a betta aswell so the females had to go in the 15, if they show any aggression to him i will remove him, if not i'll probably get a few more, he isn't shy at all he seems to have found a nice cave to call home got a few crappy pics of him too

with 1 of the 4 bettas

 

[chrisdoesntmiss]

Japonica Caridina is the name, they will live about three years and they will breed easily.

Chris, they do turn a lovely shade of blue very soon.

 

[GoldLenny]

When they say algae shrimp at the store, they mean in general. There are tons of different kinds of algea shrimp so try to find out what type they are and refer them to there real name so ppl would get a better perspective. You might want to try searching amano shrimp or ghost shrimp images because those 2 are common types of algae shrimp.

Don't forget Cherry Shrimp!

 

[lilfishie]

cherry shrimp are very beautiful, i would get some if the LFS had them, will defo get some moer of these guys do they do better in groups?

 

[Rex740]

Japonica is there scientific name... i would refer to them as Amano shrimp.

 

[GoldLenny]

I think we discussed this in this forum recently but it could have been on another site.

Even though I'm sure they'll continue to be improperly called Caridina Japonica for a while in the hobby since they've been known as that for so long, their species name changed back in August 2006 due to the fact that another scientist/shrimpologist (??) actually discovered them 33 years sooner than the scientist who named them Caridina Japonica.

Their true scientific name is actually Caridina multidentata.

Reference:
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...m.php?news=1078
Google Scholar article:
http/www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=ge...1651%2FC-2572.1

 

[lilfishie]

well he is still alive, the bettas haven't ate him but then again they seem scared of him, will go pick up a few more at the weekend. love the lil guy already