Wood Shrimp

[verdamper]

Hi all

I went to World Of Water near Rugby, West midlands yesterday with the intention of getting two more ottos and some ammino shrimp. At the shop they did not have any ammino shrimp but they had Wood Shrimp which i had read bits about and established that they are filter feeders. There was about 30 shrimp in a small tank not sure exact size no bigger than 7 gal which only had extenral filters all 30 shrimp where hudled together and not feeding. So i felt sorry for them and took two, and now im not sure i have done the right thing?

1,Is my tank(15 gallon) too small for them even though it was bigger than the tank at the shop?

2,My tank has only been established for two months and some info on here says wood shrimp need and established tank of at least six months?

they seem happy at the mo and are wondering round exploring and feeding off the gravel, they have not found the two filters yet but hopefully will do shortly.

the curent in the tank is quite strong but i heard that this is a good thing, they seem much happier than they were in that little tank.





tank

15 US gallon
2 rena internal filters

inhabitants

4 neon tetra
4 rummy nose tetra
6 glowlight tetra
3 otto
2 wood shrimp



thanks

 

[three-fingers]

IMO 15 gallons would be OK if it was mature, but not at 2 months . The fact that they are feeding off the gravel would support that the tank isn't mature enough for them too.

You need to make 100% sure they are getting food, try crushing some flakes down into powder, mixing with tank water and using a syringe/pipette to feed them.

Although be very careful that they are eating, you don't want to spoil the tank water .

 

[Lance76]

I Have had wood shrimp in a 10G befor without any hassels,
owever when it comes to feeding you may have hassels, so what was recomended to me was get a few aglie wafers and some flake food and grind it up into a powder add a little to your feeding,, and give the water a little stir just watch out for over doing it!

and enjoy they are fasinating to watch!

 

[littleme1969]

They should do OK if you supplement their feeding for a while. To cut out the hassel of crushing up food etc, buy a bottle of livebearer fry food. Comes in a little dropper bottle. wait till you see them settled then add a few drops above them. Ive done a fair bit of reaserch into these guys as I want some myself and this method is used often and is a good way of supplementing their diet.
Hope they do well, as they are way cute and great to have in a tank

 

[verdamper]

Thanks for the help guys i think im gonna get some fry food and try feeding them that way.

cheers again

 

[Gankutsuou]

Get an eye dropper.

Crush flake food fine.

take aim across from the filter shrimp.

Fire 8)

 

[PookPook]

ya know, if you guys are agaisnt owning wild caughts, there have been few to none sucessful captive breeding especially for commerical use of these bamboo, wood, marble, whatever they call them today shrimp.
Atyopsis moluccensis is their name, and are called a myriad of things in the store.

 

[verdamper]

update on shrimp

I have bought some fry powder food and been feeding with a dropper and the shrimp seem to be eating! One of them has started to go red which is a good sign i believe!!

Thanks again for the help

pookpook are you against owning wild caught animals? i believe it to be ok as long as i can provided a nice stable enviroment for them to live in. I know that the only reason that these shrimp are sold in the UK is because people like me buy them, but you didnt see all those shrimp in that little tank huddled together.

seems like a bit of a cycle

1,shop buys shrimp/fish

2,people i know and myself buy fish/shrimp (sometimes not all the time but to rescue them from tiny tanks)

3, shop buys more fish


The ammount of topics that i see on this forum about people wanting to rescue fish from shops is enormous, when i reality if we didnt buy the fish then the shops wouldnt restock them. But that whats makes us human and fishkeepers!!

 

[starrynightxxi]

although talking about wild caught animals is getting rather off topic, i thought i'd add that many people on this site are not against owning wild caught animals. I certainly am not, providing they are given a proper and stable environment, that their natural environment isn't damaged by their removal, and in the case of other animals, that they will not become a danger to the public at large (ie: people who have "pet tigers").

Wild caught or not, buying from a reputable dealer is always the best decision, rescuing fish is a largely fruitless endeavor, except from an altruistic standpoint. I guess it's a good way to earn karma points, but it's also a good way to have no money, no room, and a lot of dying fish.

good luck with the shrimp. I had one for a while that seemed to do very well, but then while i was gone it completely disappeared. Never did find it, wasn't in the tank, or the filter, or the ground anywhere, nor was it in with any aggressive fish. I think it may have died trying to moult (I have heard this is a common problem with wood shrimp), and gotten eaten by my horde of ghost shrimp. They are monsters, those ghosties...