[stuckintexas]

Niko. Thanks for this awesome shrimp!
they work harder than anything i have in the tank. in 24 hours, they cleaned any and all algae off my driftwood and they are all over the place searching for more to destroy. big thumbs up.

i noticed a few of them are pretty big and probably full grown already. how long do they live?

 

[niko]

Dave,

Glad they are doing fine.

I probably don't feed them enough and they are hungry that's why they attacked your algae so viciously. But hungry or not they eat 24/7 as it seems.

The ones you got are not full grown size. I've seen them 2+ inches long, but that's only after a few years in your tank. I don't know how long they live. If the conditions in the tank are stable I think the oldest I've seen is at least 5 years old. Maybe, just like lobsters, they never get old.

--Nikolay

 

[gravy9]

Hi Dave,

Looks like they live between 2-3 years in captivity as described in LiveAquaria.

Niko: Do you breed them?

regards,
Ravi

 

[niko]

Ravi,

I import them.

--Nikolay

 

[speakerguy]

Niko,

Do you import them for sale? I would be very interested in some.


Mark

 

[stuckintexas]

www.invertzfactory.com

 

[speakerguy]

I'm having a problem with thread/hair algae in my new high light/CO2 50G. Will these guys eat that stuff?

Also, will erythromycin harm them? I am in the middle of an erythro treatment to make sure none of the crud in my tank is cyano-related.

Also, are algae destroyer even a remotely good idea?

The plants are growing FAST, but the algae is too. I have no fish, so I have CO2 up over 30ppm. The Ludwigia that Mike gave me and the Ambulia that Dave gave me are doing gangbusters. The purple cabomba is doing decent too but is more a mix of reddish pink and green.

 

[Tex Gal]

Speakerguy. They eat hair algae great! I had brought some Clado home from the LFS (arrgggg!). They found every bit of it and eradicated it from my tank! They are fantastic. (I don't know about the erythromycin.)

 

[MacFan]

For hair algae you need Butterfly Goodeids or American Flag Fish or some guppies seem to eat it too. Our stock of Goodieds crashed a while back and we're trying to rebuild it so can't supply any right now. Sometimes Fish Gallery has them though. I've seen flag fish at true percula and other places.

 

[milalic]

Amano shrimp will eat hair algae. You just need to get a good qty of them to do the trick.
The erythromicron will not harm them.

Regards,

 

[Tex Gal]

For hair algae you need Butterfly Goodeids or American Flag Fish or some guppies seem to eat it too. Our stock of Goodieds crashed a while back and we're trying to rebuild it so can't supply any right now. Sometimes Fish Gallery has them though. I've seen flag fish at true percula and other places.

I got some Flag Fish. I did not see them eat any algae. I guess mine weren't hungry. I will say they did eat the fins off my poor betta. I ended up catching them and taking them back to the fish store. It's so wierd because in the fish store they were eating all their plants down to the stems. Go figure!

 

[speakerguy]

I have no fish in this tank, it has only ever seen plants and has not had the bio filter cycle (or at least I didn't do one, and I just did an erythromycin treatment to boot). Will 30 amanos or so be fine putting into a tank full of plants that hasn't been cycled? The plants grow FAST so I doubt there is much ammonia in the water at all. I have dialed my CO2 back to 15pmm, 4wpg for 6hrs a day. I also have an exploding snail population, so would adding 30 shrimp be fine?

 

[MacFan]

Generally you shouldn't need to cycle a heavily planted tank, so you should be fine, especially if the plants are growing well. The amanos won't help your snail problem though. For that you need some loaches of from the botia family. I prefer clown loaches, but several others fall in the same family. Make sure to get 4-6, especially if you get clown loaches. Also create some tight spots in the tank for them to hide out in. A piece of PVC pipe or some stacked rocks or some drift wood with grooves or holes are good. They'll be more social and out during the day more if you give them places to hide out. Also, clown loaches have a tendency to just lay on the substrate or a plant leaf... it's normal, they're not dead! And they make a clicking noise sometimes when they're playing. They're one of our favorite fish (as noted by my avatar.)

Michael

 

[speakerguy]

I can grow the plants as fast as I like, it is just that the algae grows fast too! I have stopped adding fertilizers for the moment and it has helped the algae problem but the plants are growing a little slower.

That purple cabomba I got from Jackson will do 1"+ per day if I let it. It's crazy, it even out-grows the Ambulia I got from Dave. The Ludwigia? I got from Mike has really done nicely, it is very bushy and attractive, and the pennywort I got from him is doing well too althout it is not as fast growing as the other stems. The Bacopa grows well but throws out LOTS of roots at every nodule and the leaves get dark green with algae as they get older. The Pennywort seems immune to algae, it's leaves are always a bright light green. I do have GDA on the glass. I'll post a tank pic before this weekend.

Current tank stats are gH 5 kH 5 pH 7.0 CO2 15ppm (via ph controller) with 2x96w PC 6700K for 6hrs/day. I am thinking about getting another ballast for my light setup so I can use just 1 96W bulb at a time.

 

[speakerguy]

This is my tank as photographed last night...