# Bamboo/wood shrimp



## Simmo (11 Mar 2021)

Hi,
I ordered 5 Amanos and received 5 Wood shrimp. Having read about their filter feeding needs it seems unlikely they will all survive in my 200 litre cubish tank due to a lack of suspended food. Initially a couple seemed starving as the started sifting the sand immediately, I’ve added some live brine shrimp and  powdered flake and ordered baby shrimp powder as well as reconfiguring my spraybar to give them more flow and I’ve ordered a Fluval U1 to stick on a corner (can run without any medium for now) I water change 30-40% twice a week and have a Juwel Bioflow with a 1000 lph powerhead, sponges and sintered glass media, tank is planted and about 10 weeks old so suspended solids might be quite low? 
The vendor is sending 5 Amanos and I have corys and 16 neons in the yank.
Looking for advice from experienced wood shrimpists! 😀 Should I try and nurture them or offload to a better home, maybe keep 1.
Cheers
Dave


----------



## dw1305 (11 Mar 2021)

Hi all, 


Simmo said:


> Having read about their filter feeding needs it seems unlikely they will all survive in my 200 litre cubish tank due to a lack of suspended food.


I think you can feed them with very finely powdered flake food etc. and possibly they do better in tanks with leaf litter etc.

cheers Darrel


----------



## Sdogg (11 Mar 2021)

Just as a matter of principle; you wanted Amano shrimp but got lumbered with something else entirely. I'd re-home them.

It's not fair on you, you didn't want them in the first place so now you're having to make comprises that you probably wouldn't need to make with Amano. Also not fair on the wood shrimp because maybe their new home isn't ideal for them.

Get the Amanos you always wanted.


----------



## jameson_uk (11 Mar 2021)

No experience of these but this is a standard reply I see on one of the shrimp groups I belong to.

Can't comment on whether this is accurate or helpful but just in case...



> What you should know before buying these types of shrimp, if any of you are thinking of buying these on impulse they need certain conditions to do well and not recommend for beginners (especially Vampire shrimp ) both types of shrimp are taken from the wild and are nearly impossible to breed in captivity a few manage to get their conditions suitable for mating and get them berried, but only a handful in the world get past this stage so please only buy when you know you can meet their specifications as this is particularly important with the Vampire Shrimp, as it is a fragile timid creature as well as a picky eater. If you are serious about prolonging the lifespan of your Vampire Shrimp, providing it with its ideal conditions is critical .
> Atyopsis moluccensis...
> Bamboo shrimp, Singapore shrimp, flower shrimp, wood-shrimp, fan shrimp, rock shrimp are all names this shrimp go by, bamboos are orange/brown or beige even green in colour they can also have a strip down their back , I’ve also seen mine a purple/brown colour their colour can change based on where they were caught and if they have moulted
> Atya gabonensis ...
> ...


----------



## Sarpijk (11 Mar 2021)

I have two for more than two years now. Previously in high tech setups I could never keep them alive for more than a few months. 

I now have them in a high flow low tech and seem to be right at home. I also feel that should be kept at least in pairs because they seem to like some company and hang out together. A fellow hobbyist even had a berried one , again in a no co2 tank.


----------



## Simmo (11 Mar 2021)

Thanks for the replies folks, certainly not what I ordered but I’d give them a go, it’s an opportunity, but think success is more likely with one or two max. Feeding with a turkey baster 3-4 times a day ain’t going to happen but thats a really useful article thanks. The Amanos are on their way.


Sarpijk said:


> I have two for more than two years now. Previously in high tech setups I could never keep them alive for more than a few months.
> 
> I now have them in a high flow low tech and seem to be right at home. I also feel that should be kept at least in pairs because they seem to like some company and hang out together. A fellow hobbyist even had a berried one , again in a no co2 tank.


Thanks, mine is a planted, pretty natural low tech tank  what do you feed them? Whats your success down to?


----------



## Sarpijk (11 Mar 2021)

I never feed them anything special. This is a 100 litre fully planted tank. I feed the fish grindal and various foods in flake or pellet form so I guess this is more than enough it seems the system is able uo sustain both of them, not sure what would be the case if I had say five! 

Yours is a 200 litre so I guess it is possible that five can be ok. I highly suggest a dedicated wavemaker they can take all the flow you can give them.


----------



## EA James (11 Mar 2021)

I have one in my 330L high tech tank, probably had him about a year or so. I don't feed him anything specific but when i see him perched and fanning for food i sprinkle in some grinded up flake, he likes to sit on the co2 tube in full flow!


----------



## EA James (11 Mar 2021)




----------



## Jack B (11 Mar 2021)

I've got five bamboo shrimp in with a larger group of amanos, and lots of flow. Feeding bloodworm pellets seems to work well: the amanos chew them up, sending clouds of debris into the water column for the bamboos to enjoy.


----------



## dean (12 Mar 2021)

They will eat most foods that they can catch in their fans even large items such as bloodworms 
A good frozen food that I like to use on them and small fish is cyclops 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Simmo (12 Mar 2021)

Jack B said:


> I've got five bamboo shrimp in with a larger group of amanos, and lots of flow. Feeding bloodworm pellets seems to work well: the amanos chew them up, sending clouds of debris into the water column for the bamboos to enjoy.



Thanks, I was reading that Amano females spawn regularly and that 7 females will support 3 bamboo shrimp as the Amano ova are eaten by the bamboos. Seem possible but not entirely likely?! Anyway, it's good that other folks are having some success.


----------



## Simmo (12 Mar 2021)

Sarpijk said:


> I never feed them anything special. This is a 100 litre fully planted tank. I feed the fish grindal and various foods in flake or pellet form so I guess this is more than enough it seems the system is able uo sustain both of them, not sure what would be the case if I had say five!
> 
> Yours is a 200 litre so I guess it is possible that five can be ok. I highly suggest a dedicated wavemaker they can take all the flow you can give them.


Thanks bought a cheapo wave maker although a couple of them are fanning in the flow from a vertical spraybar, problem is they're very hard to see and it's hard to get food into that flow so a wee adjustable fan should help.


----------



## Sarpijk (12 Mar 2021)

Here's a quick pic of my bamboos conveniently perched on a huge crypt Usteriana leaf. On the right I keep two 500 l/h Aquael circulators so they never leave this place.


----------



## Simmo (12 Mar 2021)

Sarpijk said:


> Here's a quick pic of my bamboos conveniently perched on a huge crypt Usteriana leaf. On the right I keep two 500 l/h Aquael circulators so they never leave this place.


Great photo! Do they ever forage in the substrate too?


----------



## Sarpijk (12 Mar 2021)

Not really. They occasionally dart around but very briefly and always return to the high flow area. They may vanish for a couple days when they hide and shed their costume.


----------



## Cherries (12 Mar 2021)

Wood shrimps are just majestic! I have a gabon shrimp i got for free at P@H after i lost my first i bought for a tenner..

i personally found my little vamp walking around, eating poop and debris (yes, really) and feeding off water column even with no strong current, but my cories move the debris constantly so she feeds constantly too. Now a year or two since i had her 




Sarpijk said:


> Not really. They occasionally dart around but very briefly and always return to the high flow area. They may vanish for a couple days when they hide and shed their costume.


Costume! I love this


----------



## Tropicaltanklover (13 Mar 2021)

Sarpijk said:


> Not really. They occasionally dart around but very briefly and always return to the high flow area. They may vanish for a couple days when they hide and shed their costume.


I wish my 3 Bamboo Shrimp would only vanish for a couple of days. I don't know what I've done to them, but they will vanish for weeks on end, to the point that  I was convinced they had died. They make an occasional appearance and if I am lucky like today and yesterday I have seen them. I expect I won't see them again till May the little divas


----------



## Sarpijk (13 Mar 2021)

Tropicaltanklover said:


> I wish my 3 Bamboo Shrimp would only vanish for a couple of days. I don't know what I've done to them, but they will vanish for weeks on end, to the point that I was convinced they had died. They make an occasional appearance and if I am lucky like today and yesterday I have seen them. I expect I won't see them again till May the little divas


Maybe a dedicated circulator in a visible place will lure them out.


----------



## Simmo (14 Mar 2021)

Still a fair amount of foraging on substrate and in leaf litter, just filtering now and again, maybe the food there is more plentiful than the water column. I was concerned they were starving as this is often cited as the reason for foraging but I had one beautifully back lit by a beam of sunlight yesterday evening as it munched mulm and I could see a full black line through its body so its gut was full and it even defecated for me! So far so good then 👍 once I get a few more bits and pieces to change the flow they might filter more but right now I’ll settle for survival. Had a lovely prawn curry for dinner, the irony didn’t go unnoticed.


----------



## Simmo (18 Mar 2021)

Finally a caution, this Ebay vendor said they’d send Amanos, I offered to return the Bamboo shrimp. Due for despatch Monday it’s now Thurs and nothing sent, ignored my last message. Unfortunately I left feedback before I realised the shrimp were not the species I ordered.


----------



## Courtneybst (18 Mar 2021)

Simmo said:


> Finally a caution, this Ebay vendor said they’d send Amanos, I offered to return the Bamboo shrimp. Due for despatch Monday it’s now Thurs and nothing sent, ignored my last message. Unfortunately I left feedback before I realised the shrimp were not the species I ordered.



You can take up the matter with PayPal. It's normally quickly resolved. Providing you paid with PayPal...


----------



## Simmo (18 Mar 2021)

Yeah thanks, I didn't and it doesn't matter, I'm just peed off with yet another dishonest Ebay seller. The bamboos are actually pretty cool and I'm enjoying keeping them.


----------



## Simmo (23 Mar 2021)

So after some chasing today I received my Amanos from the vendor, on balance they’re probably more disorganised than dishonest.  I drip acclimatised them for a couple of hours and  they now seem right at home. Feisty wee things! 😀


----------

