Indostomus Paradoxus and a shrimp tank

[beastie]

Frankly i bought a two meter tube which is narrow at one end, wide at other end and i used all and they utilize all. They love the cholla wood but be it wide or narrow or be it upright or lying down, they live in all of them.

Also as you can see, tube like leafs also work :))

[nabokovfan87]

I just wanted to chime in because I remembered.... there is a few studies on what live foods shrimp like to eat and how that impacts growth and health for them.  I have them saved and can try to locate links (I can't upload PDFs here) if you wish. 

I wanted to ask about the coolest little shrimp colony buddy, you're feeding them worms and you mentioned a few other things?

How do you feed the shrimp and these guys, is there any chance you can feed them both a powder food?

[beastie]

On 6/27/2023 at 11:14 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I just wanted to chime in because I remembered.... there is a few studies on what live foods shrimp like to eat and how that impacts growth and health for them.  I have them saved and can try to locate links (I can't upload PDFs here) if you wish. 

I wanted to ask about the coolest little shrimp colony buddy, you're feeding them worms and you mentioned a few other things?

How do you feed the shrimp and these guys, is there any chance you can feed them both a powder food?

Well I dont really feed shrimp in this tank, to be honest. There isnt that many of them either and they were not thriving, as something is eating all the youngsters. It could have been the abundance of planaria, it could be the indostomus, hard to tell

In this tank, shrimp are only the cleanup crew, alongside ramshorn snails. I feed daily, sometimes twice a day. Most days I feed microworms (live), and once or twice a week I will feed freshly hatched bbs. I tried feeding tiny mosquito larvae, but they are too quick and hang around in the upper part of the tank and the indostomus didnt catch them, so I had a tank full of mosquito larvaes and had to move few fish there to eat them out. I am always looking for new foods to feed, but I think daphnia are too large and I have no idea how to culture cyclops.

 

Sometimes, if I am feeling generous, I will feed the tank bee pollen or a small amount of some vegetable wafers, like nettle or spirulina ones. If I put a shrimp lollipop in the tank, there is usually no rush to it, no massive feeding frenzy and is mostly untouched even after 24 hours, so they dont seem to miss the vegetables. The (shrimp) eat the leftover bbs and microworms, once those die in the tank, they eat the biofilm on the leaves, on the alder cones and ofcourse plants and algae.

But again, I only have 7 shrimp in there at this very moment. Two females are berried, so will see if the numbers improve. If not, it was not the planaria that was killing them, it was the indostomus, and lets be honest, that works well with me, because that means they (indostomus) have additional food source for periods when I am not around and or they supplement the diet I provide. I plan to buy some more, since all my shrimp are approaching 2nd year now.

 

Regarding powdered food, I would say zero chance. They show no desire to eat frozen either, but it is only my guess. I cant watch them for the two hours it takes them to decide to catch something. I can see them eating microworms and bbs with gusto, and I never saw them glance at frozen food twice, so...

New picture of the new smaller tank (25 liters), last one uploaded upside down, maybe this one will work better.

No lid. Am thinking about maybe one clithon snail, there is starting to be algae on the side where sun shines on the glass.

Edited June 28, 2023 by beastie

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/28/2023 at 1:06 AM, beastie said:

Sometimes, if I am feeling generous, I will feed the tank bee pollen or a small amount of some vegetable wafers, like nettle or spirulina ones. If I put a shrimp lollipop in the tank, there is usually no rush to it, no massive feeding frenzy and is mostly untouched even after 24 hours, so they dont seem to miss the vegetables. The (shrimp) eat the leftover bbs and microworms, once those die in the tank, they eat the biofilm on the leaves, on the alder cones and ofcourse plants and algae.

But again, I only have 7 shrimp in there at this very moment. Two females are berried, so will see if the numbers improve. If not, it was not the planaria that was killing them, it was the indostomus, and lets be honest, that works well with me, because that means they (indostomus) have additional food source for periods when I am not around and or they supplement the diet I provide. I plan to buy some more, since all my shrimp are approaching 2nd year now.

I'd recommend trying to have a dish for them if you can and just feed them 1-2 pieces of food at night.

If you need any help please feel free to DM and we can work on getting the colony thriving with your existing setup and the shrimp you have.

If you do add more be sure to check for parasites and such, QT them would be my recommendation.

Everyone will always tell you, shrimp are good at hiding. I think people forget just how nocturnal they really are. They can be so active during the day, but when the lights are off they do so much that we tend to miss and are zooming all over the place.

If you can also.... Consider a nice piece of dragonstone as a hide for them. It wouldn't take much, but a good piece with holes and cavities like that will really help them to have higher survival rates too!

On 6/28/2023 at 1:06 AM, beastie said:

There isnt that many of them either and they were not thriving, as something is eating all the youngsters. It could have been the abundance of planaria, it could be the indostomus, hard to tell

Yeah, planaria definitely isn't shrimp friendly.  I'd recommend trying to manage that when you can if they are still in the tank.

[beastie]

On 6/28/2023 at 11:43 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yeah, planaria definitely isn't shrimp friendly.  I'd recommend trying to manage that when you can if they are still in the tank.

That is why I moved them to this new tank

I dosed no planaria, and at the third day moved the tubes and fish and shrimp to the new tank. Not even plants. And I rinsed the tubes before adding them to try to minimize contamination. Overfeeding the indostomus leads to the issues of possible hydra or planaria so that will always be there.

 

Doesnt dragon stone increase water hardness? Or am I remembering it wrong 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/28/2023 at 3:26 AM, beastie said:

Doesnt dragon stone increase water hardness? Or am I remembering it wrong 

It does not.