NatureNut

We are not on well water, we're in a village. Our water is typically quite hard, but no water softener in the house. It isn't so hard that we get hard water deposits everywhere or anything, though. Just harder than most municipal water we've used in the past. I will be keeping a close eye on the tank to see if we get a second offspring.

I don't have anything to measure the disolved solids (assuming that's what you meant, and not technical data sheet, or tiny dominant stars haha). No salt is added. They are in a 30g freshwater community tank that is planted with low maintenance green things and gets its (sometimes infrequent ) water changes with H2O from the tap. The only thing that gets added beyond that is Prime. We've always seen the females carrying eggs, but this is the first time we've seen an additional shrimp.

Good thing I don't buy lottery tickets in the first place!

I've had these shrimp for about 4 years, I think, and this is the first time they've succeeded, so I sure wouldn't consider it a breeding plan. LOL Good luck with yours!

I think that one is the smallest, and what must have been born in the tank, yes. They get New life Spectrum surface feeder formula, which gets crushed up and hucked in so some of it sinks. This tank is a community tank, planted, and has several fish as well. The shrimp will come out and grab food, but mostly seems to eat off the plants and wood that are in the tank.

I haven't bred anything They do what they do all on their own. I always thought the amano shrimp we bought were amano shrimp, but maybe you'll tell me otherwise. I'm no shrimp expert, that's for sure! We have 2 in this tank that are ALWAYS carrying eggs, and one that isn't. Now there's a 4th. I can't think of any other way it could have gotten in there, since nothing has come into this tank in a couple of years. Sorry the pics aren't great... Point and shoot and not so cooperative shrimp. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nMOLGFROToNLobnp8m7ecSEFw5cuyHL51aZOFqKqA7U?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/eip5RU0gF4pbXhCepXZwTyEFw5cuyHL51aZOFqKqA7U?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0E-4GWeLbpkTwRepAcl9PiEFw5cuyHL51aZOFqKqA7U?feat=directlink I hope these work. I'm very new to picassa... let me know.

And now there are 4... we had 3, and now there's 3 and a smaller one. They must have some success with reproduction, despite being plain water. Interesting.

I know this post was from ages ago, but thought I'd throw in that they're still kickin'. Also wanted to point out that they're huge scavengers. One night about a year ago I noticed a dead fish on the bottom of my tank. All 3 amanos were on it, feasting. I sat, jaw on the floor watching them. There wasn't much left of the fish when I first saw it, and within an hour it was gone. I snooped around looking for the skeleton, but couldn't even find that. Ultimate cleanup crew, I guess. I was surprised because since they are known for algae eating I figured they wouldn't be so boldly carnivorous! I would guess they would eat eggs as well!

I just realized we've had these amano shrimp for almost 3 years. Does anyone know how long they live? I'm impressed they're still doing their job. Great scavengers for the tank!

Keep us posted on your your journey goes. I finally jumped in head first to canreef after a year of just trying to get a hang of the tank that was given to me. Within a week of posting there I've sunk $200 into livestock and equipment... and that's just for a 20g. LOL Translation? Wave bye bye to $$ (but boy oh boy is SW fun!)

I fishless cycled my planted tanks each time. With a seeded filter it should go quick enough. Patience always pays, I've found. If you're not familiar with the technique I could help you, or you could search it here or on the net. Good luck! It's a beautiful start to a tank!

I'm all for repairing, because of keeping things out of landfills and possibly saving some money, but I just had to throw in here that with ACs being quite cheap at at least a couple of retailers in Calgary, would it maybe be better to pick up a new one? I would just worry about the repair coming undone over time, or the crack spreading somehow. Most of us know how frustrating finding a lake of water on the floor can be... just my 2 cents. I hope you get it solved one way or the other.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard

Shai, I'm glad you got things sorted out and were able to keep your tanks. I hope everything goes well for you with your change of species.

I moved a 20g about a year ago and put everything in buckets of the tank water for transport. I was just careful how I positioned rock/corals etc. We actually left a small amount of water in the tank and left the fish in the tank for transport. We put the tank in a rubbermaid bin so for ease of carrying (Big sturdy bottomed thing). Everything went fine. Only known casualty was an interesting gelatinous blob of who knows what. In the same move we also changed to a new tank and unfortunately did this before I saw a post from someone saying NOT to move the old live sand over... we had a sludgy silt festival in that tank for quite awhile. Doing that again I think I'd set the new one up first with new substrate (and cycle it) before the move, if possible. I didn't have a lot of options because the move had to be done fast. Good luck with your move!

LOL Murminator, I was just about to post the same thing!

Wow! Great ideas everyone, and a lovely offer, Tammy! I'll ponder this a bit and get back to you ASAP. I'd like to get everyone settled in the tank before school starts so I can be sure everything is ok before they go to the school. The other thing I wanted to be sure of is that the fish would do fine in our community tanks if there's a problem with the 5g, but I think most of those would work fine with what I have. MUCH appreciated. Ponder ponder ponder...

I've been trying to come up with ideas for how to stock a 5 gallon tank for a classroom. I've tried bettas (went through a couple fast, bad luck, I think, with LFS stock, but it's just too much pressure on one fish in a grade K/1 classroom... when it dies, it's a tragedy), and then I tried white clouds. One was getting bullied, so I pulled them out and put a few Cardinals in it for the last month of school. I don't like the cardinals in there because a. it seems small for them and b. they spend 99% of their time hiding (it's well planted and with wood etc). This is a hexagon filtered tank, and I've ran it without heat since it's been betta free, because the classroom is very warm, and the little submersible heaters made it to warm for the later stock, but I do have a 7.5W if needed. I wondered if anyone has ideas about stock for it? I KNOW I read, and might have even participated in, a forum about this before, but I couldn't find it to save my life. LOL I'd be tempted by a betta if someone has young ones they've raised themselves, or can recommend a good breeder. Otherwise I wondered if guppies are calm enough for this type of tank... any other ideas welcome. I thought I'd throw a couple of Cherry shrimp in there for good measure and interest, if compatibility isn't an issue. On another note, it's been awhile since I've been active here. Was great looking through all the messages and catching up. I've missed you all!

That's JUST the sort of thing that I do... I get a question in my head and have fun calculating the answer. Yep... I'm a math addict. I haven't done it for my tanks because I didn't want to know the answers. LOL Thanks for posting it... mine probably aren't as bad as I thought they'd be.

It might help if someone puts "salt water" or some such thing in their topic when they post it. Then FW people can skip it and SW people can browse away. I know sometimes it might seem obvious, but a lot of people just put "livestock for sale" or the likes. I'm not suggesting this become another rule for the mods to deal with, just that it might be a nice public service if the members did it.

I was just cruising looking at the critters. I hadn't done this in ages. Anyhow... there's 2 fish up for adoption. First I've ever seen this. An Oscar and a Paku (never heard of a Paku, but evidently they get HUGE) are listed on their site. http://www.calgaryhumane.ca/ Go to adoption/search/fish and you'll find them. I hope someone worthy adopts these. I thought I'd post here just in case someone has room in their hearts and home. :-)

Wow! That's really exciting! I hear what you're saying about shaking doing something like that. I'm always afraid I'll mess it up, and I probably cause more problems with my nerves. hehehe I can't wait to see it filled!

I'm wondering if my open brain is normal now. LOL I've never fed it anything solid. I put in liquid invert food 2x a week or so. My open brain has its tentacles out a LOT. It's usually puffed up with water during the day and tentacles out almost all the time. Then at night it sometimes stays out as well. Maybe they're as individualistic as we are? hehehe

This has gone in a different direction than I intended the thread to take when I started it. Can we just assume that rocker did not have the same positive experience that most of us had? I really enjoyed myself, and I will attend an ACE auction if I ever get the chance. I also found that there were less of certain things I was hoping for, but I scored some amazing stuff that I'm REALLY happy with. Just next time could everyone bring their AC filters along to auction off? I need some spare parts. LOL Just to show you what a procrastinator I am, I JUST today got all my plants relocated to the tanks I wanted them in. Most of them inhabited my 5g hex that I bought all week. hehehe My 33g is looking VERY nice. Hubby even said so... and it STILL doesn't have a sunken ship in it. The vals and the fine bottomcover stuff that I got (and forgot the name of AND misplaced the bag) really add to the tank, and it all inspired me to clean things up in there.