Sometimes it's better Not to be honest!

[puffermichigan]

Sigh, that shrimp forum must have got to my fiance. Instead of puffer food, I have a cherry shrimp family member named Bubba Gump. I hear:

"Amaris, did you feed Bubba Gump today?"
"Amaris, did you get those algae wafers for Bubba Gump?"
"Amaris, I think Bubba Gump needs more plants in his tank."
"Amaris, do you think Bubba Gump would prefer a 10gallon tank?"
"Amaris, do you think Bubba Gump is lonely?"

Sigh, one of these days I AM going to feed that darn shrimp to the puffers.

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Hahaha!!! We are just down right awful....lol. I had a red claw crab left that my kids wanted to keep but ended up sneakin it to my fahaka. I told them it died but I was getting use to him so I had to turn to the dark side ...lol. Had the same problem many years ago when I use to feed live mice to my snakes I got attached to one and kept him as a pet. Now I only buy frozen rats for my boa. Can't afford getting attached to food items...lol.

[Blaine]

We are all part of the food chain, regardless of our love of animals and puffers in particular. You cannot share your home with a predator for long without giving in to the fact that animals eat other animals.

As long as it is done humanely for feeding purposes...that's life folks!!!

[Srkoe]

LOL!! that would be Fahaka for FW shrimp

Haha!!! Were you referring to my situation? Lol!

[J-P]

I was I was

Too bad you still don't have it. I could definitely use a write up on them on our new site

[Srkoe]

All you need to say is they are huge, ugly and mean to Fahakas...that's all I learned anyways!!! Happy to help...lol!

[luna1580]

before the shrimp people learned of your murderous ways did they give you an answer?

i vote for cherry shrimp. no idea what that is in swedish but it's Neocaridina denticulata sinensis "red", the one in the pic.

i confess that i love watching my shrimp tank: 10g with plants, cherries and ghost shrimp (i have so many shrimp now that they wiped out all of my pond snails by eating the eggs). the ghost shrimp are actually very interesting and active lil' buggers -and mine are breeding, with no special anything from me. i've decided that if you keep them with some snails (they munch the snail waste), particularly the apple snails Pomacea diffusa (formerly Pomacea bridgesii), and actually don't vacuum your gravel obsessively (but keep very good water parameters) it seems to produce enough "micro food" for their basically invisible larval stage without any attention from you. i have at least a dozen visible shrimplets maybe 4 molts out from the larva of 2 berried adults -suspect that there are more very tiny ones too and i have another ghost female about to release her clutch. this ghost experience seems to be very atypical from what i learned on http://www.petshrimp.com/, but cherries breed for everyone. i dumped a ton of captured micro cherry shrimplets in with my GSP today (very low brackish newly acquired) and they are eating up all of my ugly blackish diatom algae too (i can see it in them). bonus!

and i only lurked with the shrimp people, they never knew i was among them!

[luna1580]

oops! just re-read and saw that you did pick cherries. sorry for missing it. i say throw in some ghost shrimp too (it's hard to know what species you've been sold, as we've seen here before @ srkoe) and just observe if they breed, grow into monsters, or whatever

[Srkoe]

Well, that answers my question as to why my snail tail suddenly stopped producing . Gotta get another tank now...

[luna1580]

Well, that answers my question as to why my snail tail suddenly stopped producing . Gotta get another tank now...

i just started a new snails only "tank" when i noticed that they were vanishing in with the shrimp. i'm actually now just using a rubbermaid with 2-3g of water, a homemade "bubble strip" from airline tubing, and a heater. i'm out of spare filters/budget for new ones. i have common pond and ramshorns in the tub-tank and already see micro-babies of the rams which NEVER bred in my shrimp tank. i was shocked as so many people said rams were even more prolific than ponds. after 2 months with 5 rams with the shrimp and zero babies i decided they were being eaten as eggs/micro hatchlings. then i went from literally seeing over 50 small, new hatchling ponds basically bi-weekly to none at all! but i have no clue why my 2 mature apple snails both died after the female laid two clutches though. that is still bugging me (i used to breed them in 2005 and this never happened, but they weren't w/shrimp). i'm trying to hatch out the clutches in another tank, i'll know in a week-week-in-a-half if they're fertile or a lost cause......

all snails are heavy waste-makers, so (big) filters are best, but i have some tank-dwarfed water lettuce in my tub and it's on a windowsill near a sink, so it's very easy for me to just change water every few days. if you do have any apple snails that lay stiff (pink!) above the water clutches they can be removed, floated on a bit of styrofoam and hatched out wherever you want (ask me for details if you keep them and need it).

what kind was "snail tail"?

[luna1580]

Sigh, that shrimp forum must have got to my fiance. Instead of puffer food, I have a cherry shrimp family member named Bubba Gump.

-wait- you guys have just one single, lonely cherry shrimp? please inform your fiance that they only live 1-2 years, dependent on habitat temp and food quality. 2 years would be an old timer. if bubba is about an inch long he's full grown already......

you should get at least 5-10 new cherries (ask to grab both males and females if in a shop (not online order) and the staff can tell the difference. otherwise this quantity usually assures you'll end up with some of each). then they will start breeding like they know they need to populate your tank ASP!

and if she likes "bubba" how could she not like tons of shrimplets in all different sizes? (babies!) and then you may be able to get her to give up some as feeders. they multiply so fast that in 3 months i went from about 4 females, 3 males to literally more than i can count! an average egg cycle is one month, and they hatch out as "micro shrimplets" that live and eat exactly like adults. breeding them is as easy as getting more than ONE in your tank

[Tonke]

So i can put some Cherry shrimps with my Applesnails without fuzz from the shrimps? i have setup a 30g tank with 10 Apples and im still waiting for that eggclutch
I have 3 Amono ninja shrimps already in the fahakatank but he's hasn't catched them yet, they just keep dodging him when he's propelling around .

But if a get some cherry's then i need to put a filter on my filter... its a fluval 4+ in that tank, so cherry babies will certainly be sucked in

[luna1580]

So i can put some Cherry shrimps with my Applesnails without fuzz from the shrimps? i have setup a 30g tank with 10 Apples and im still waiting for that eggclutch
I have 3 Amono ninja shrimps already in the fahakatank but he's hasn't catched them yet, they just keep dodging him when he's propelling around .

But if a get some cherry's then i need to put a filter on my filter... its a fluval 4+ in that tank, so cherry babies will certainly be sucked in

is your "fluval 4" this?: http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product ... 1750031001

i just want to check because apple snails are SO very messy! they make more poop <i>for their actual mantle size</i> than any fish i've ever had (yeah, including puffs) that said, 10 of them in a 30g with the filter i linked should work fine as long as you also change your water/clean the filter floss, etc. whenever needed.

so are ALL 10 big -like at least 1-2+ inch in diameter? if so, then you might need to clean every 2-3 days as even a 30g can/will be over-stocked with 10 big apples and nobody else.... but if some/most are still more little just think of it like growing fish and filters. if you've had them for a while and test their water/observe their behavior at those times you can tell if they need an urgent filter-clean/water change -or not- by their behavior. these guys can breath air and will crawl out of "bad" ammonia water rather than die, so if you see more than maybe 2/10 crawling out at the same time check your water right then! but do it in a way that doesn't bump or poke them -if the water is all good they might only be crawling up to lay some eggs !

also, do you have any live plants in that tank? and have you ever looked at this site http://www.applesnail.net/? it's really good. it can help you figure out if you have both males and females in your tank (as they are not hermaphrodite snails) if you don't know why they aren't giving you eggs just yet.

but you certainly can put cherry shrimp with the apples in general! it appears that the shrimp of all sizes like to munch the apple snail waste...

i have 30+ cherry and at least 10 ghost shrimplets in my 10g shrimp tank. i feed hikari algae wafers, some random fish flakes, and the odd pinch of bloodworms and such when feeding le punk, the shrimp are so many that they ate all of my pond snail underwater eggs. i use 2 HOB filters on that tank -enough total power for "officially" at least 50g on a ten. but have wrapped both intakes with foam filter sleeves (these things http://www.petco.com/product/2791/Rite- ... agnum.aspx) hand-sewn up to fit like socks and filled with some matrix and crushed coral in the "bag". this prevents both my cherry and ghost shrimplets getting sucked in just fine apparently.

here is a pic of that tank

php63F5RCAM1.jpg

-you can see the wrapped intakes are decidedly "mid-level" in the water too, that may make a difference but i haven't tested it.

also, your apples are more likely to breed if your water is close to 80*F (26-28*C), they have lights on a daily timer for 10-12 hours the same time every day, plenty of algae wafers, live plants with a few "failing" leaves left on, and/or blanched/microwaved veggies, and very good water parameters. so plenty of food -based on what you see them eat, but no extra food to decay-just like our fishies.

but honestly you CAN leave them food longer in tank -snails do naturally eat both dead and slightly decaying stuff, both animal and vegetable, but your tank is not a river. so if you leave them extra food check water parameters with extra diligence.

and make sure apples have a space to lay eggs!

they lay above the water-line. they like 1-3 inches of air space under a tight lid and may crawl up and lay on your lid itself too -also check daily for "hidden" egg clutches if your tank lids are not clear (mine aren't). they also like that laying space to be above-water-yet-humid. humidity and heat are important for helping a fertile clutch develop to hatching. PM me/make an apple-snail thread if you want any more details on my experience of breeding them back in 2005, i'd (obviously) love to talk snails, lol. i didn't mean this as a hi-jack!

-laura

[puffermichigan]

@ luna1580

Yup, we only have the one cherry shrimp (who arrived accidentally when we purchased some plants). I hesitated getting more because right now Bubba's living in our 5gal snail tank, but people have mentioned troubles with the eating of snail eggs. (The tank has a light, heater, filter, quite a few plants) We're working on setting something else up for the snails and getting some more cherries in the 5gal I'm still not sure he'll be ok with the feeding of baby shrimp to the puffers, but maybe . . .

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

All I want to know is where you people find room, time, and does the better half is ok with all these tanks? I know I dont have the room, time, nor does my wife even want another tank set-up and might even have to cut back again. I wish I had ways like most of you...lol. I know back in the older days I had or found ways for muti tanks but now with all the high bills piling up, 3 small children, sick wife, and you name it. I know I should had made a new topic but with these breeding tanks for everything is the reason I ask. Sorry about the rambling.