Invertebrates

[Nick Bramley]

i have in my tank

1 singapore shrimp
2 amano shrimp
1 nerite snail
2 frogs

do any of these contribute to the bioload considerably (like fish) or do all of these produce relatively little waste?

thank you

Nick

 

[GoldLenny]

This would be better off posted in the Invertebrate forum but maybe one of the mods will move it.

The shrimp and snail create very low bioload... depending on the tank size.

What kind of frogs do you have?

What size tank and do you have a master test kit? The test results are your best indicator of what is happening in your tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've heard a lot of people say shrimps don't count to the bio load as they clean up the tank and produce very little waste.

i have to say from my own experiences with amano shrimp i think that's rubbish, they're poop machines and seem to create a lot of waste.

i don't think frogs are big wate producers, can't speak for the rest as i've not kept them

 

[Orbit887]

i've heard a lot of people say shrimps don't count to the bio load as they clean up the tank and produce very little waste.

i have to say from my own experiences with amano shrimp i think that's rubbish, they're poop machines and seem to create a lot of waste.

i don't think frogs are big wate producers, can't speak for the rest as i've not kept them

I was always under the impression that the amano shrimp added nothing to the bio load, but have also found them to literally poop non-stop.

True - they will scavage food, which stops it breaking down and producing toxins for the water, and also true they will eat quite a few different types of algae that might grow in your aquarium, but if you like clean sand/substrate, do not keep them i large numbers as they poop as if it's going out of fashion so to speak.

I had about 10 in my 29gallon and as a result my water changes were not able to clear up all the mess they produced week by week, so had to do a 'fine syphon' using an air pump tube and picking up all the bits of waste individually once a month, else the tank looked as if I wasn't cleaning it at all.

 

[GoldLenny]

Depending on the frog, they can be heavy or light bioload. ADF's can be kept in rather small tanks... maybe 2.5 to 5G for each frog but ACF's need 10G per frog or more.

One of the reasons fish add to the bioload is not just the poop. Fish put out 80-90% of their ammonia during gill function. The rest is via urine and detritus breaking down. I'm not sure if the gill function of other aquatics put out the same amount of ammonia. The amount of ammonia is based on the body mass of the fish which is why goldfish put out so much... they are big fat fish.

 

[Underwurlde]

Shrimp will generally take up a quarter of the bio-load when compared to fish. In others words, apply a 4" / US Gallon rule for shrimp....

God knows about the others,

Andy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Shrimp will generally take up a quarter of the bio-load when compared to fish. In others words, apply a 4" / US Gallon rule for shrimp....

God knows about the others,

Andy

do you not mean 0.25"/us gallon if the shrimp take a quarter as much as fish. otherwise your saying shrimp produce 4 times the waste of a fish

or am i just being a bit dim today?

 

[three-fingers]

It means you can have 4" of shrimp per gallon, when you can only have 1" of fish per gallon.

So one gallon could have 4 1" shrimp while it could only have 1" of fish.

A 0.25" per gallon rule would mean shrimp are 4x as dirty as fish.

Not dim, just a mix up? .

Nerite snails are pretty low waste producers for snails, I'd compare them to a 2" fish.

It depends what type of frog you are talking about, if you mean African dwarf frogs as opposed to African clawed frogs, then I'd count them as a 2-3" fish, they are pretty messy.

'Singapore shrimp' aren't that messy and would count as a 3" fish, but unfortunately feeding them is. No matter how hard you try, lots of the food will be missed and go uneaten. So taking that into consideration I would personally count them as a 5-6" fish.

Amano shrimp can be likened to small fish like neons in some tanks, because they clean up. But really if you are going to properly be using the x" per gallon rule you should count them the same as fish.

For the record, I don't use the however many inches per gallon rule.

 

[Underwurlde]

Dim.

arf arf.

e.g. A 10 Gallon tank:Think 4 inches of shrimp for every one of those Ten gallons = 40" (max total) of shrimp....

 

[Nick Bramley]

its not the African clawed frog its the much smaller one thats quite peaceful, cant remember the actual name though.

its a 90l tank and im not worried about test kits etc as im reasonably experienced and have used the same testing/water change routine for some time now plus my tank overfiltered.

i simply dont have that much of a knowledge about this particular section of tropicals and just wanted some info, thank you

Nick