gobies et al

That isn't normal behaviour for Cherry Shrimp as they aren't carnivores. I would wonder if you have gotten another species. Occasionally there are contaminants sold. Species such as Macrobrachiums are omnivores and the larger species will try and catch fish. This thread shows one that was sold as a Cherry shrimp. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=26582

BFM - I had Canna's. Their natural diet is living plants as opposed to the Brigg's cleaning up the dying leaves. That is what makes them such a problem in agriculture.

Do you have good water circulation? These shrimp are from high flow waters and need well oxygenated conditions to do well.

Here's a good site for care of Ampullarias. http://www.applesnail.net/ I agree that the snails purchased from the fish stores often do not get the care they need. Ones I have observed are unable to feed, either because of the fish they are put in with or just not offered suitable food. You haven't indicated which species you have. The 2 most common have very different dietary requirements and could easily starve to death. Do you have them in with fish that could be picking at them when they do emerge?

Hi! I'm glad people are developing an interest in shrimp keeping. There is an excellent article on keeping Amano shrimp at this site: http://www.planetinverts.com/Amano%20Shrimp.html I have definitely had Amano's live at least 3 years but since they were still living at the time I sold them, who knows how much longer they'll live. Dan - I wasn't concerned about egg survival so I didn't concern myself with this. I'm guessing they would probably eat eggs if the opportunity presented itself. As for anybody in Calgary raising them, not likely. As far as I am aware, there has been myself and another living in Victoria that has successfully raised them. I gave all my F1's to my son when he took my last tank. There aren't multiple color strains as virtually all of them are wild caught. They are just too much trouble and time consuming to try to develop color strains. From time to time some of the females do color up. One person posted a picture of one that developed a blue black color, and I've had one that became reddish. jvision - from what I've read, it seems there may be a number of species that get sold as Amano's. There are claims of them being bred in fresh water. The true Amano does not. There may be a number of look alike that could only be differentiated using a microscope. Borgy - I think what you are describing as white with red stripes was probably Crystal Red Shrimp.

I had mopani in my brackish tank for 5+ years. The Nerites and the Amano's kept up with the wood's very slow disintegration. Wood beneath the sand layer also disintegrated slowly but that would be cleaned out when I vacuumed the sand. I never had problems that I was aware of with metals leaching out. Then again I did weekly water changes and I did have some carbon matting in my filter.

Good Luck with this tank and it's inhabitants. I thought it made sense to go with the glass lengths instead of metal as you are going with brackish setup. Salt and metal don't go well together unless its brass.

Hi, I was so happy to read you were getting my 'special' fish. Other creatures that I kept successfully with him were Redigobius balteatus (Clown Goby purchased at Big Als in Edmonton), Telmatherina ladigesi (Celebese rainbowfish occupies the top regions, the males get very pretty), Parambassis ranga (Indian Glassfish) and he really enjoyed the attentions of Ghost shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.). Amano Shrimp also did well in that tank. I also looked for Orange Chromides and only found them once, a Petland store in Saskatoon. At that time we were already looking to move, so I didn't pick them up. Here is an informative site by Neal Monks: http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/brackishfaq.html

Congratulations!!! :thumbs:

Fantastic shots! :thumbs:

No, Aquari-sol is not safe for shrimp. It contains copper which will kill shrimp. If used in the tanks, it would be many months, maybe never, suitable for shrimp. See this site: http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4720

Thanks for posting. There is some good information there.

Looking good! I've really enjoyed following this thread and all your hard work! :thumbs:

Thank You for setting the record strait.... you seem to know your shrimp... I read at least a couple of links that say differently, they state that blues and others are from cherries... I think it gets confusing when you just use the common name instead of the scientific. As I said, the blues that they are referring to have to be Neocaridina heteropoda var. blue. Neocaridina heteropoda var. red is what we call Cherries. If a Cherry breeds with any other color of N. heteropoda the next generation will be wild color, brownish with stripes, the following generation will start to produce a variety of colors occasionally seen in the wild population including blues and yellows.