FrogFan23

That's my best guess is that they are Macrobrachium rosenbergii. I've been eyeing them myself at BA - just can't afford them right now and I don't have a tank available for the moment. I was there last week and spent about ten minutes observing them, watching the aggression displayed between one another. The ones that BA has right now are much smaller than the ones they had last spring. From what I recall from my research, the juveniles do start off with different coloured arms than the adults. I seem to recall something about them having red arms that eventually develop into blue, but I could be wrong. In fact, rosenbergii babies under 1" are often mistaken for ghost shrimp (much to the purchasers regret, I have read). They won't hurt plants but they will hurt the amanos and the betta. Don't know about the pleco. The male long-armed shrimp/prawns are extremely territorial and they will snip off the arms of any other male rosenbergii in the tank, if they don't kill them outright. It was at PetShrimp.com where I learned that it was recommended that this prawn be kept in a species-only tank. One guy used a children's wading pool for his "harem" of rosenbergii. FYI -- I know you don't have it in with one but they don't do well with crayfish ... believe it or not, the long-arm prawns are able to kill a crayfish. Best of luck. Deborah's husband

Thanks. I think I will have to stick with the yo-yo loaches, then. I might not be staying with the guppies but I will definitely be keeping the platies and the bamboo shrimp. The snails seem manageable at this point, any way. Maybe the loaches are doing their job after all ... I'm not experiencing any problems with the bamboo shrimp regarding salinity. I am using a half-dose of salt (1 tbsp / 10 gallons) in this tank. While I'm no where near being a shrimp expert, I do recall reading that the young require brackish water in the wild to properly develop. Presumably, the adults should have some salt tolerance. Mine have molted a number of times already.

My trio of yo-yo's dealt with the first wave of snails immediately after I put them in the tank. The second wave of snails hit a few weeks later and the loaches seemed more interested in fish flakes than the new snails. I'm having more luck reducing the population by squishing the snails myself. I won't use the snail treatments because I keep shrimp in the tank. How well will dwarf puffers do in a community tank of guppies, dwarf platys, yo-yo's and a pair of bamboo shrimp? I can move the yo-yo's if necessary.

Thanks for the warm welcome. It's good to hear that there are other amphibian fans on this board. I have two pigmented/regular male ACFs, one pigmented female that might be a X. borealis cross-breed, and a somewhat rare reticulated albino female that I special-ordered through Ward's Natural Science. No regular albinos so far. The reticulated albino is the mother of my froglets. Sadly, none of them are albino.

As I am sure you can guess by my username, I am a big fan of amphibians. For the moment, my specific interest is in aquatic amphibians. This tends to make my needs a little more unusual than most amphibian keepers, as I need to understand the aquarium management about as much as I need to understand amphibian husbandry. I am not entirely new to the hobby. I was big into terrestrial amphibians about ten years ago and was just trying to get into aquariums at that time. Due to my lack of understanding, it was somewhat of a disasterous first attempt. Life took me in another direction for awhile and I got out of the hobby altogether. I got back into it a little over a year ago after a chance encounter at a pet store renewed my interest in African clawed frogs. I'm doing so much better this time around that I now have twelve froglets that I raised from eggs laid by my adults. (Now, I just have to find them homes ... ) What started out as a single 23Gal aquarium has blossomed into five tanks for myself and one large community tank for my wife. I have four adult ACFs, one juvenile axolotl (that I was so lucky to find), and a guppy colony that I am trying to develop as a eventual food supply for my amphibians. I also have a growing interest in freshwater shrimp, specifically glass shrimp and RCS. I find them very useful for managing hair algae in my amphibian tanks. Finding enough RCS in the pet stores to establish a colony is quite a challenge these days, however. I am very happy to have finally found an aquarium forum for people that live in the same area as I do. Makes it so much easier to discuss dealing with water conditions and such ...