# What critters do you have in your tank(s)?



## Egmel (22 Aug 2008)

Just wanted to find out what the most common 'critters' were that people kept.  I know the list is incomplete but the poll is limited to 10 options so I tried to pick the ones that would come up most often.

If you've got something unusual then it'd be great to hear what and maybe see some photos


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## Calum (22 Aug 2008)

I put 5 cherry shrimp and 5 tiger shrimp in one of my tanks but think the angels ate them all


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## Ed Seeley (22 Aug 2008)

I've moved this into the 'Inverts' section as it's all about them Egmel.  

My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp.  I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.


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## Egmel (23 Aug 2008)

Calum said:
			
		

> I put 5 cherry shrimp and 5 tiger shrimp in one of my tanks but think the angels ate them all


That's a shame, were they young shrimp?  If so I'm not suprised, young shrimp will make a tasty snack for most fish.


			
				Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> I've moved this into the 'Inverts' section as it's all about them Egmel.


Cheers Ed


			
				Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp.  I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.


Ooooh, they're the chameleon ones aren't they?  They display different colours depending on their surroundings.  Do you see this behaviour much in your tank?


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## Calum (23 Aug 2008)

yeah they were babies, expensive snack to lol


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## Ed Seeley (23 Aug 2008)

Egmel said:
			
		

> Ed Seeley said:
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I just get a range of colurs in the babies.  To be honest there's one red one and a few that are a greenish colour and the rest are like little amanos.  They don't change colour much.  Nice little shrimp though and breeding well.


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## Wolfenrook (23 Aug 2008)

Ed Seeley said:
			
		

> Egmel said:
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Sounds like caridina .cf babaulti, often known as either rainbow shrimp or malayan shrimp.  There's a similar shimp (also cf. babaulti) that just stays green, oddly enough called green shrimp. lol.

Right, I have some others as well, but will list all of the inverts I have (by accident or deliberate. lol)

Freshwater ostracods (seed shrimp, naturally occuring)
Tadpole snails (pest} [edit. typed shrimp by accident. lol]
'leopard' ramshorn snails (pest)
Apple snails (bridgessi, brown, jade, pink, ivory, blue, gold, red striped and one that just is what it is that cost 1p)
Mahogany trumpet snails
Amano shrimp
Cherry shrimp
Neocaridina palmata
Neocaridina .cf zhangjiajiensis 'white' (snowball shrimp)
Caridina simoni simoni (sri lanka dwarf shrimp)

I used to have macrobrachium lanchesteri as well, but discovered that these are very sensitive to TPN+, and lost all but one to increased dosing of this.  Was left with 1 that either stays hidden or has since died as well.

Ade


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## Egmel (23 Aug 2008)

Hi Ade, Thought you might have some interesting inhabitants.


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Freshwater ostracods (seed shrimp, naturally occuring)


Did you go out hunting for these or did they come in on some plants?


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Tadpole shrimp (pest}


I'm curious, why are these pests?  All I found out about them is that they are a prehistoric species.  How did they get into your tank?


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Neocaridina palmata


There seem to be lots of different colour morphs of these, got any photos of yours?


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Neocaridina .cf zhangjiajiensis 'white' (snowball shrimp)


These look great, they must look lovely in a heavily planted tank, a nice alternative to the cherry shrimp.  Are they easy to keep/breed?


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> I used to have macrobrachium lanchesteri as well, but discovered that these are very sensitive to TPN+, and lost all but one to increased dosing of this.  Was left with 1 that either stays hidden or has since died as well.


Wow, do you know what it was in the TPN+ that they didn't like?


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## Wolfenrook (23 Aug 2008)

Right I'll try to answer. lol

Ostracods tend to show up in most tanks, we just don't see them in tanks with fish as they get eaten.  In invert only tanks they do better.  Odd looking things, like little white round things that swim and crawl around.

I meant tadpole snails, that's what happens when you type too fast without reading what you typed thoroughly before clicking submit. lol

Not got any pics of my palmata, although not for lack of trying!  To describe them mine are a sort of beige colour, with a beige stripe down their backs.  They look a bit like wild type heteropoda really.  Mine (really by middle daughters. lol) were tank bred, so no orange parasites in them.  I'm sure once I have had these longer I will see more colour morphs showing up.

The snowballs are gorgeous, and look great in a planted tank.  They are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, although a little less timid in my experience (more likely to squabble with each other).  Can't be kept with cherry shrimp (probably best not to keep with other neocaridina either) as they hybridise to produce dull and sterile mutts.  Here is a pic of one of my females for you:-





They really are lovely little shrimp as you can see.  Bad news is there are only a few of us breeding them in the UK as yet (not such bad news for those of us breeding them though. lol), I had to import mine from Germany.  I you can keep cherry shrimp though you can keep snowball shrimp.  In Germany (where the white variety was first created, there is a wild variety and a blue variety as well) they are probably more popular than cherry shrimp

I'm reasonably sure that the problem with the TPN+ was a compounded problem between the copper levels in the water around here combined with the copper levels in TPN+.  Separately they aren't a problem, but with the higher dosage of TPN+ I tried the levels just reached the point where the lanchesteri weren't happy with them, my cherry shrimp became touchy (hiding, losing colour and breeding less) as well but didn't lose any of these, lanchesteri would seem to be very intolerant of copper at even trace amounts.  I still use TPN+, but now at 7mls a day instead of 11mls a day, which seems to be enough for my plants without upsetting my shrimp (although I am going to have to dose potassium separately, as the reduced dosage of TPN+ just isn't providing enough K, and I am getting pin holes in the older leaves of my ammania senegalensis, a classic sign of K deficiency).

I am a bit mad about inverts, especially shrimp, money and space are my biggest limiting factors.   Given space and funding I would happily fill a room with racking and tanks to breed as many of the harder to obtain species as possible.   

Ade


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## Egmel (23 Aug 2008)

Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Not got any pics of my palmata, although not for lack of trying!  To describe them mine are a sort of beige colour, with a beige stripe down their backs.  They look a bit like wild type heteropoda really.  Mine (really by middle daughters. lol) were tank bred, so no orange parasites in them.  I'm sure once I have had these longer I will see more colour morphs showing up.


Ahh, that would be the funky orange dash I saw in the photos I looked up.


> The snowballs are gorgeous, and look great in a planted tank.  They are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, although a little less timid in my experience (more likely to squabble with each other).  Can't be kept with cherry shrimp (probably best not to keep with other neocaridina either) as they hybridise to produce dull and sterile mutts.


That's a shame that they can't be kept with cherries as the red and white would look really good together.  Though if you can get the blue morphs with the white then they would look very cool 


> money and space are my biggest limiting factors.   Given space and funding I would happily fill a room with racking and tanks to breed as many of the harder to obtain species as possible.


Hmm, add time to that list of limiting factors and you'll have my list! I wouldn't know where to start if I could have everything I wanted, not just inverts but all sorts of things!


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## Wolfenrook (23 Aug 2008)

Ahhh, but there is a partial solution to red and white, and something I am hoping to try!  I have water conditions that should suit cardinal sulawesi shrimp down to the ground (hard and alkaline), and these are red with little blue spots.   I'm just waiting until I have bred and sold enough snowball shrimp to be able to obtain some of these.

Ade


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## Egmel (23 Aug 2008)

Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Ahhh, but there is a partial solution to red and white, and something I am hoping to try!  I have water conditions that should suit cardinal sulawesi shrimp down to the ground (hard and alkaline), and these are red with little blue spots.   I'm just waiting until I have bred and sold enough snowball shrimp to be able to obtain some of these.


I see you are building a shrimp empire!  If I hadn't just filled my tank with many cherries I'd ask how much you sell your snowballs for.  The cardinal sulawesis sound cool, though I guess from the tone of your post that they are not the cheapest or easiest of shrimp to obtain.  Shame as I to have the rock hard water.


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## spaldingaquatics (23 Aug 2008)

I have a fair few critters in my shrimp tank,

Tadpole snails
Ramshorn ect
Sand shrimp

I have a tank just for trumpet snails aswell

All are free if you'd like any


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## Wolfenrook (24 Aug 2008)

Egmel said:
			
		

> I see you are building a shrimp empire!  If I hadn't just filled my tank with many cherries I'd ask how much you sell your snowballs for.  The cardinal sulawesis sound cool, though I guess from the tone of your post that they are not the cheapest or easiest of shrimp to obtain.  Shame as I to have the rock hard water.



It depends upon whether you are one of those lucky folks who live near to one of the few UK stores selling them really, as one place was recently selling them for Â£7 a shrimp.  Otherwise the only European source I have found for them charges 25 euros for shipping and 19.99 euros per shrimp.   They are perfect for those of us with harder more alkaline water though, interaquaristik.de describe their preferred water parameters as: Water quality: pH 7.4 to 8.6 and dGH 10 to 25, which for me is tap water. lol

I don't so much want to build a shrimp empire as breed enough species to make shrimp species that are widely available in Germany more widely available here.  The freshwater shrimp hobby over here is still in the early stages really and could really use more hobbyists trying to breed some of the other species as well as cherry shrimp and CRS.


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## thebullit (25 Aug 2008)

just a few i keep.

Apple snails (blue, golden and ivory)
ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)
MTS
japanese trapdoor snails
pondsnails (pests)
red cherry shrimp army
crystal red shrimp soon/hope to be an army.
red clawed cray fish a breeding pair with many babies.


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## Egmel (27 Aug 2008)

Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> I don't so much want to build a shrimp empire as breed enough species to make shrimp species that are widely available in Germany more widely available here.  The freshwater shrimp hobby over here is still in the early stages really and could really use more hobbyists trying to breed some of the other species as well as cherry shrimp and CRS.


I hope you manage it, I really enjoy my RCS but I just can't afford many of the more 'exotic' species.



			
				thebullit said:
			
		

> ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)


Do these eat your plants?


			
				thebullit said:
			
		

> japanese trapdoor snails


These are new to me, do you have any photos?  Are they plant eaters?  How big do they get?


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## Fred Dulley (27 Aug 2008)

On tuesday I will be picking up a few Harlequin Shrimp _Caridina cf. spongicola_. Probably going to cost Â£6-8 each.
Will be also picked up 10 Red Cherry shrimp.
Currently, I only keep Amanos, MTS and Nerites.


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## thebullit (27 Aug 2008)

thebullit said:
			
		

> ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)


Do these eat your plants?


			
				thebullit said:
			
		

> japanese trapdoor snails


These are new to me, do you have any photos?  Are they plant eaters?  How big do they get?[/quote]

the ramshorn snails only eat dea or decaying plants. they dont eat live an healthy plants.

ile put some some pics up of the trapdoors, will have to put them on photo bucket first.
no not plant eaters and grow to about ping pong ball size.


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## thebullit (27 Aug 2008)

heres a link to my trapdoor snails.

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_2009.jpg


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## Wolfenrook (27 Aug 2008)

Fred Dulley said:
			
		

> On tuesday I will be picking up a few Harlequin Shrimp _Caridina cf. spongicola_. Probably going to cost Â£6-8 each.
> Will be also picked up 10 Red Cherry shrimp.
> Currently, I only keep Amanos, MTS and Nerites.



Careful there bud, jumping in with harlequin sulawesi shrimp could kind of be like jumping into the deep end rather.  I have heard that cardinal sulawesis are much easier to keep.  If you go for them anyway good luck, they are lovely shrimp and would be good if there was somebody breeding these in the UK.

Egmel, I hope I manage it to.  One of my aims is to lower the cost a bit of some of the so called 'exotic' species, as many of them are expensive solely because of their been imported rather than been bred in this country.  Kind of like the guy who was recently selling 10 snowball shrimp on ebay for Â£100!  Snowballs are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, and I already have quite a few baby ones walking around in my shrimp tank.   I wont (initially) be selling them as cheaply as cherry shrimp, but I will be selling them for a fair bit less than the cheapest I have seen them go for over here.  Once I have funded more tanks and shrimp purchases I will probably reduce their prices even further.  Of course at the moment they are teeny tiny babies (no way am I selling the adults), so still a way off before any of this happens.  One of the reasons I set up UKShrimp was to try to get more shrimp hobbyists to do the same, and to allow the sharing of species to spread the breeder base so to speak.

Ade


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## Fred Dulley (27 Aug 2008)

Thanks for the heads up. I read on Planet Inverts the conditions needed to keep them. Fortunatly my tap water is spot on for them. Hard water and a ph of no less than 7.0. Most hobbyists set their Sulawesi tanks with a ph oh 8.0. Also the temperature should be atleast 78F. They have a tank to themselves (52litre) equipped with a sponge filter and also a fluval 2plus for a bit more filtration (intakes might be covered with nylon stocking).


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## Wolfenrook (27 Aug 2008)

Cool, if you are planning to breed them definitely cover your intakes.  Baby shrimp are tiny and easily sucked in.

Sounds like you have water similar to mine, which is one of the reasons I currently stay away from bee shrimp and the like.   

Ade


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## Egmel (28 Aug 2008)

thebullit said:
			
		

> heres a link to my trapdoor snails. http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn18 ... G_2009.jpg


They are cool!  Ping pong ball size you say, so similar to apple snails.



			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Egmel, I hope I manage it to.  One of my aims is to lower the cost a bit of some of the so called 'exotic' species, as many of them are expensive solely because of their been imported rather than been bred in this country.  Kind of like the guy who was recently selling 10 snowball shrimp on ebay for Â£100!  Snowballs are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, and I already have quite a few baby ones walking around in my shrimp tank.   I wont (initially) be selling them as cheaply as cherry shrimp, but I will be selling them for a fair bit less than the cheapest I have seen them go for over here.  Once I have funded more tanks and shrimp purchases I will probably reduce their prices even further.  Of course at the moment they are teeny tiny babies (no way am I selling the adults), so still a way off before any of this happens.  One of the reasons I set up UKShrimp was to try to get more shrimp hobbyists to do the same, and to allow the sharing of species to spread the breeder base so to speak.


Well I shall bear this in mind and when I have my next tank set up maybe it'll be with snowballs instead of cherries 


			
				Wolfenrook said:
			
		

> Sounds like you have water similar to mine, which is one of the reasons I currently stay away from bee shrimp and the like.


I thought most shrimp liked hard water so they can build their shells, from this I'm guessing I was wrong, do bee shrimps like softer water then?  How do they build/maintain their shells?


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## Wolfenrook (28 Aug 2008)

Bee shrimp (including CRS) have a preference for water on the soft slightly acidic side rather than hard and alkaline.  This is just a preference for them, and folks have managed to keep them in harder water.  Most dwarf species however do prefer slightly harder water, or water that is soft but slightly alkaline in pH.  There is a fair bit of variation between the conditions that different shrimp prefer.  In soft water supplementing their diet with something that provides calcium is naturally more import for species that prefer these conditions.

Ade


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## thebullit (28 Aug 2008)

yer there like the size of apple snails. thats all. these guys give live bearth and have a gestation period of nine months like woman. you would be looking at about 15 babies max per year from these guys. i was lucky a few days after i bought these i ended up with 13 babies.


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