Tiger shrimp from Jim Powers; my tank

[yaksaredabomb]

A couple days ago Jim and I met at PetSmart in Bloomington, Indiana, and as Keith also discovered Jim is indeed as nice in person as he is online. It felt a bit like we were doing something shady, with a dark car at the back of the sparse lot under a light pole, but that just added to the atmosphere of the shrimp swap haha.

I added them to a two month old 20 gallon long, which already housed 4 brilliant rasboras, 2 fancy guppies, 2 guppy fry, and 2 red wag platies. It typically measures 74-75F (100W heater) and ph tests around 6.2-6.5 (I have a very hard time matching the strip's color to the chart). I do 20-30% water changes every 2-3 weeks (more water if it's been longer). I should probably do them more often, but by many estimates I've seen the tank is only stocked to half capacity so I hope it's alright.

It is planted with 10 wisteria stems (from 4 original) and one anubias with 8 leaves (from 6 original - it grows very slowly). I used a homemade CO2 injector made from a 2L pop bottle (yeast, sugar, etc) for the first 6 weeks with its tube ending at an airstore right under my filter's intake (Penguin 150). This gave the plant growth rate a massive boost, which has slowed back down considerably since removal of the injector. I think I'm okay with that though, as my main intent was to try to spurn the plants to health and new growth after buying them in those tubes with the gel at PetSmart.

Okay, back to the shrimp! They seem to be doing well so far, and were particularly active the first night - making it easier to spot all 5. Now I can rarely find more than 3 at once and I think one may have molted already. I'm hoping whichever 2 that I am not finding are not always the *same* 2 and something bad happened to them.

Alright - onto the part I always like: the pictures!

You probably can't find them all but there are 5 tiger shrimp in here with some plants to keep them happy during transport:


One of the shrimp in comparison to a plastic spoon (used to move the shrimp to the tank so they don't leave the water):


They liked to stay together:



A loner:


I was a little worried about the shrimp getting stuck to the filter intake when I saw one swim near it, but the shrimp didn't seem to mind and soon jumped off and simply swam away:


A shrimp swimming, maybe the same one that got pulled towards the filter intake:


A shrimp is near the window, and circled is one of the guppy fry:


All my fish (except the fry) in one picture with a blurry shrimp circled in the back:


It didn't take the shrimp long to find the plants:



After some initial curiosity it seems like the fish are leaving the shrimp alone. I haven't seen them out in the open much lately though so I wonder if they are still intimidated.

Thanks again Jim!

Jacob

[starsplitter7]

Absolutely beautiful shrimp. Looks like a nice tank for all of them. Hopefully, I can find some in the near future.

I had one of those "shady" deals when I met a friend in petstore parking lot to give away some of my shrimp. Mine was under bright sun and palm trees.

I was incredibly excited to find crystal red shrimp locally.

[Jim Powers]

I'm glad they are doing well. You might want to get a flash light out after the lights have been off for a bit and see if you can spot all five. The reflection of the light on their eyes will help you find them. Keep me posted.

[starsplitter7]

Jim, are you breeding these shrimp?

[Jim Powers]

No, they're doing it themselves.
Yes, I have a few, but not a huge population. I think the panda gara and homaloptera smithi are keeping the population from going wild like the small, clear shrimp I have in my other river tank. I think they prey on the larvae to some degree. They seem to breed fairly easily so if you can find them, you should have no problem.
You might want to check out this site Jacob pointed out to me.
http://www.theshrimpfarm.com/store/

[starsplitter7]

That's a lovely shrimp farm. If I had expendible funds, I would be shopping there. Looks like nice shrimp and a good shipping policy. My red crystals were just under $5 each, and I was happy to have them. They are very pretty.

I say the same thing when people ask me if I breed my BN. No, they do it all by themselves.

I can't believe you have panda garras too. Sigh!

Jacob, sorry for sidetracking your thread. Thank you so much for posting this. I absolutely love your shrimp.

[yaksaredabomb]

Thanks for the complements Starsplitter, and np on the sidetracking! Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's met in the petstore parking lot, lol - sounds like your weather was a lot better though.

Thanks for the tip on finding them, Jim. Hopefully every few weeks I can try to find all 5 at once so I know they're all alright. I'm definitely enjoying them, and have already shown them off to a visiting friend...once we could find one haha. Playing "where's Waldo" is half the fun though.

How much do you feed them, Jim or Starsplitter? I would guess that the natural algae from a 20 gallon might be enough but I haven't really seen them "chowing down" much yet so I wouldn't want them to go hungry. Maybe they just need more time to acclimate.

I did a 35% water change today, which really seemed to stir up some activity. I was a little worried to do one just 2 days after introducing the shrimp but it had been a couple weeks since the last one and I was worried about the shrimp being pickier about the water quality/nitrates. For a couple hours after the change several were swimming all around just like when I first put them in. They seemed to either be enjoying themselves or freaking out, I couldn't tell which, but they've since settled back down into their hiding places.

Some good news is that even with the lower water level the fish took absolutely no interest in them, so I'm really hoping for the shrimp not to be stressed about possible predation.

[Jim Powers]

Mine tend to eat leftover flake food and algae wafers I put in for the hillstream loaches . You might try experimenting a bit with putting a piece or pieces of an algae wafer in sheltered areas of the tank and watch them seek them out. It might help you keep count of them plus see how much they will eat. Even if your fish feed on these pieces (and they will), the shrimp will stay in the area to get the scraps. You just want to make sure you don't feed too much so that the water quality suffers.

[yaksaredabomb]

Thanks Jim, I'll have to pick up some algae wafers next time I'm by the pet store. Also I tried your flashlight-at-night strategy with pretty good success, finding 4 of them wandering around.

[starsplitter7]

My cherries also like par boiled cucumber and zucchini. Mine live with Bristlenoses, so they have to compete for food, and my little 1/2-3/4" cherries think nothing of swarming algae wafers keeping the BNs at bay -- and they are breeding. I also feed algae/spirulina flakes and regular flakes, because cherries are omnivorous. I am not sure about tigers, since I've never owned them, and you guys are really feeding my obsession for shrimp.

[yaksaredabomb]

Thanks for the tip Starsplitter - the vegetables sound like a fun idea to try!

[Jim Powers]

All my shrimp really like the par boiled spinach leaves I put in for the hillstreams. I anchor them under a rock for the hillstreams, but the shrimp often eat most of them.
I'm glad you were able to find four. I'm sure #5 is in there somewhere.

[yaksaredabomb]

Thanks for the tip on anchoring leaves under a rock. There's a sizable dead/detached wisteria leaf I've left in my tank the last few days rather than removing it, hoping maybe the shrimp would like it, but they haven't touched it yet (that I've seen). It's wedged into one of my decorations in a strange way to keep it from floating away, but the shrimp would probably find it more easily if it was pinned to the gravel instead.

In the meantime before I get a chance to pick up some suitable veggies I picked up a bag of "TetraVeggie Algae Wafers eXtreme" at PETCO. I'm not sure what is so "extreme" about them - I doubt they've been skydiving or anything crazy like that - but I couldn't find copper anything on its list of ingredients so hopefully they're alright. For anyone who's curious here are links to the front and back of the package - they're not great but they'll have to do.

Front: http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x42 ... 0001_c.jpg
Back: http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x42 ... 0006_c.jpg

I dropped half a wafer in but the female guppy and platies got to it before the shrimp, so I dropped another bit of a wafer right near the shrimps' hideout. The good news is that two tigers came out to start munching on the second chunk and meanwhile I was able to find 3 other shrimp - all 5 at once! The inconclusive news is that after half an hour or so I still see about half the chunk uneaten with no shrimp around. I'll check again in another hour or so but maybe even half a wafer is too much to feed at once for 5 tigers.

Also, I've been meaning to ask you Jim - could you remind me which plant clippings you put in the container for the shrimp to hang onto? I think you said Java moss or Java fern. Here's the link again http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x42 ... _500PX.jpg. Do you know if the clippings would start growing if I planted them in my tank properly? I've left them in some water and have been making sure the container gets light each day just in case they'd be good to keep. Thanks!

[starsplitter7]

If you mean the plant in the first couple pictures, that the shrimp had during transport, I am pretty sure it is Java moss. Sure looks like java moss. You don't need to plant it. You can tie it to a piece of wood with fishing line, and it will attach itself and start growing. I have buckets of it from a couple small clumps. It is almost indestructable. Mine has thrived under terrible circumstances -- lack of light , high and low temps, stuffed in jars, . . . doesn't seem to bother it. The most import thing is to prevent it from being sucked into your filter, and getting it stopped up. I have about 1/3 of my 55 gallon tank taken up with Java moss. My fish sleep in it, look for food in it, enjoy the subdued lighting from it, . . . Java moss attaches to almost any surface: glass, gravel, rocks, wood, . . . I love it and have it in most of my tanks. My shrimp like it too.

If you don't attach it to a surface, it will float around the tank, and adhere itself to a surface where it settles. I gave up attaching it to surfaces, because between the loaches and the catfish, it always got ripped free. But in my 55, it took up residence opposite the tank from the filter and attached itself to the wood and the bubbler tubing. Works for me and the fish.

[Jim Powers]

There was a clump of java moss and a very small java fern in the container. If I were you, I would let the java fern float a bit until it grows larger and you can do something with it. That was a very immature plant that got caught up in the java moss as I pulled it from the tank.
One thing you have to remember about java moss, is that while its a cool plant, it can become a nuisance. It can spread and cover other plants and get into filter intakes and clog the impellors if its not kept in check. I have it in all my tanks, but it does require trimming or removal on occasion.