# How to grow a carpet with amano shrimp??



## pitom (1 Jul 2015)

Here's my problem: I think I have introduced amanos too early after start and they uprooted almost all Micranthemum montecarlo carpet before it spread. I have bought some Eleocharis acicularis mini instead - most uprooted and the shrimp particularly love eating roots of this plant. Got new pot of tissue culture Micranthemum montecarlo again with big root system - amanos cut the stems, ate most of it - I have a couple of stems left now only. I think they like eating tissue culture plants in particular - decimated almost all leaves of Heteranthera zosterifolia in a couple of days after planting. The plant seems to survive as the stems were left intact and most of the new growth is not interesting for them. Carpet plants are small with small root system - what plants do you think are not tasty enough for amanos?

The tank is with fish, feeding is 2 times a day, 125 l tank and there are about 12 amano shrimps inside. Are they just underfed or what do you think is going on? Substrate is aquarium soil, not gravel - this makes pulling the plants out very easy.

Piotr


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## Jose (1 Jul 2015)

pitom said:


> Here's my problem: I think I have introduced amanos too early after start and they uprooted almost all Micranthemum montecarlo carpet before it spread. I have bought some Eleocharis acicularis mini instead - most uprooted and the shrimp particularly love eating roots of this plant. Got new pot of tissue culture Micranthemum montecarlo again with big root system - amanos cut the stems, ate most of it - I have a couple of stems left now only. I think they like eating tissue culture plants in particular - decimated almost all leaves of Heteranthera zosterifolia in a couple of days after planting. The plant seems to survive as the stems were left intact and most of the new growth is not interesting for them. Carpet plants are small with small root system - what plants do you think are not tasty enough for amanos?
> 
> The tank is with fish, feeding is 2 times a day, 125 l tank and there are about 12 amano shrimps inside. Are they just underfed or what do you think is going on? Substrate is aquarium soil, not gravel - this makes pulling the plants out very easy.
> 
> Piotr



I never heard of amanos being like that. Hopefully someone can clarify.


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## X3NiTH (1 Jul 2015)

I don't have Amanos only Crystals and Cherries, but like you find that like most shrimp they are voracious plant eaters (they are detrivores so will eat anything that tastes nice enough), they love to eat the stem plants but appear not to like eating crypts and anubias. My shrimp literally went Bananas over a Nymphoides Aquatica and decimated it entirely, they started on the bananas and when they were gone devoured the leaves, once they were done the leave stem runners went, this week it's now gone completely from the tank after a couple of months and they've now taken to digging up the stem plants at the back to eat the roots (no roots seen on them when I replant them). 



I was adding commercial food and getting frustrated that they weren't eating it and still prefered the bananas and the other stem plants and to try and save the plants have now taken to adding a slice of courgette, a button mushroom and a sliver of frozen pork fillet (Tescos Finest! dipped in Aminovita-P for extra goodness), all left in the tank until devoured completely, these three things don't break down like pellet foods which just get crumbled to dust and fall down into the substrate and eventually spoil (or feed the worms down there), they are attractive enough that they always get eaten. The mushroom is my Chitin source and is continually grazed on, the pork fillet never gets left alone until it's gone and the courgette slice goes the same way, once that lot is done they start digging and the plants are in trouble!

Shrimp, the more you feed them the bigger they get, the bigger they get the hungrier they get, then one day they all mature and suddenly there's zillions of them. Thankfully you won't have that problem with Amanos in freshwater.

Fussy creatures they eat whatever they want which invariably ends up being the thing you don't want them to eat despite efforts to distract them away from it (really liked that banana plant and hoped to see it flower  ).


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## Martin in Holland (1 Jul 2015)

Sometimes Amano shrimp can make a mess, not sure why...could be under fed or just the way they are, pant deep into the substrate might help or make your own Wabi-Kusa first with carpet plants in order to let them get good roots and introduce them later in your tank.


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## xim (1 Jul 2015)

I have a lot of Amano shrimp. From my observation, they seem to like eating unhealthy parts of plants (and of course algae) 
and leave the healthy parts alone. Old mushy Vallisneria tips are their favourite. Also struggling hair grass. 

I have a patch of HG in a corner with high water flow. Gravel grains were always swept away when disturbed. 
I had to put the gravel back every week. The shrimp liked to uproot them in this area more than the others. 
Now as I've adjusted the flow, their special interest at the area seems to stop.



pitom said:


> what plants do you think are not tasty enough for amanos?



For the foreground, IME, Tenellus.


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## Paulo Soares (2 Jul 2015)

In my new tank i had to take off the Amano Shrimp also.

They did exactly the same to a small carpet of "MC" inicially introduced and after they eat it all went to my Nymphoides Taiwan.

They kept hours and hours among the leaves of the Nymphoides Taiwan till they finally do a hole.. never saw this behaviour before. By the time they form a hole start to eat the leave..

I introduce 30 Cristal Red and all looks nice now.

Best Regards


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## Tom Raffield (28 Jul 2020)

A bump over 5 years later!

I think I have the same problem with my new tank (see journal: Tank Reborn). I added a load of monte carlo to the foreground and in two weeks it has constantly been found floating the next day.

Last night I observed three large amanos 'pulling up' the lush green leaves to eat the roots or buried growth below. I always attempt to replant but the amount I bought appears to have halved and looks set to continue.

I also tried the blanched courgette treat. They loved it! Do I just need to to permanently feed them courgette to avoid this problem? Once the MC is gone are they likely to go for any of my other brand new plants?

If the MC becomes a no-go and I pull it out, does anyone have a suggestion as to what I could plant right at the front my tank all the way across?


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## Sammy Islam (29 Jul 2020)

I had the same problem, but with all my shrimp (100+cherries and 10amanos). They uprooted my carpet in the early stages and i could never get it going because every time i replanted the portions, within a couple of hours there were 100s of shrimp digging it up.

My solution, swap to dwarf hair grass for my main carpet, they cant uproot that. With the remaining HC i had, i split it up and buried it deep under my soil/gravel area so so it was slightly weighted down and the shrimp wouldn't be able to completely uproot it. If anything they did me a favour by uncovering tiny bits because i completely buried it!😂


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## Tom Raffield (29 Jul 2020)

I'll be looking for a suitable replacement that will cope with my lowish tech setup. That MC has turned out to be a very expensive shrimp treat! Not much left this morning and am now binning the floating bits rather than replanting.


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