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What critters do you have in your tank(s)?

What critters do you have in your tank(s)?

  • Trumpet Snails

    Votes: 11 34.4%
  • Apple Snails

    Votes: 5 15.6%
  • Nerite Snails

    Votes: 7 21.9%
  • Ramshorn Snail

    Votes: 11 34.4%
  • Pest Snails (not mentioned above)

    Votes: 12 37.5%
  • Amano Shrimp

    Votes: 17 53.1%
  • Cherry Shrimp

    Votes: 20 62.5%
  • Crystal Red Shrimp

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • Freshwater Clams Mussels

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (Don't forget to let us know what!)

    Votes: 3 9.4%

  • Total voters
    32

Egmel

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2008
Messages
729
Location
Guildford, Surrey, UK
Just wanted to find out what the most common 'critters' were that people kept. I know the list is incomplete but the poll is limited to 10 options so I tried to pick the ones that would come up most often.

If you've got something unusual then it'd be great to hear what and maybe see some photos :)
 
I've moved this into the 'Inverts' section as it's all about them Egmel.

My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp. I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.
 
Calum said:
I put 5 cherry shrimp and 5 tiger shrimp in one of my tanks but think the angels ate them all :(
That's a shame, were they young shrimp? If so I'm not suprised, young shrimp will make a tasty snack for most fish.
Ed Seeley said:
I've moved this into the 'Inverts' section as it's all about them Egmel.
Cheers Ed
Ed Seeley said:
My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp. I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.
Ooooh, they're the chameleon ones aren't they? They display different colours depending on their surroundings. Do you see this behaviour much in your tank?
 
Egmel said:
Ed Seeley said:
My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp. I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.
Ooooh, they're the chameleon ones aren't they? They display different colours depending on their surroundings. Do you see this behaviour much in your tank?

I just get a range of colurs in the babies. To be honest there's one red one and a few that are a greenish colour and the rest are like little amanos. They don't change colour much. Nice little shrimp though and breeding well.
 
Ed Seeley said:
Egmel said:
Ed Seeley said:
My 'other' vote is for my Rainbow shrimp. I think they're some kind of Neocaridina spp.
Ooooh, they're the chameleon ones aren't they? They display different colours depending on their surroundings. Do you see this behaviour much in your tank?

I just get a range of colurs in the babies. To be honest there's one red one and a few that are a greenish colour and the rest are like little amanos. They don't change colour much. Nice little shrimp though and breeding well.

Sounds like caridina .cf babaulti, often known as either rainbow shrimp or malayan shrimp. There's a similar shimp (also cf. babaulti) that just stays green, oddly enough called green shrimp. lol.

Right, I have some others as well, but will list all of the inverts I have (by accident or deliberate. lol)

Freshwater ostracods (seed shrimp, naturally occuring)
Tadpole snails (pest} [edit. typed shrimp by accident. lol]
'leopard' ramshorn snails (pest)
Apple snails (bridgessi, brown, jade, pink, ivory, blue, gold, red striped and one that just is what it is that cost 1p)
Mahogany trumpet snails
Amano shrimp
Cherry shrimp
Neocaridina palmata
Neocaridina .cf zhangjiajiensis 'white' (snowball shrimp)
Caridina simoni simoni (sri lanka dwarf shrimp)

I used to have macrobrachium lanchesteri as well, but discovered that these are very sensitive to TPN+, and lost all but one to increased dosing of this. Was left with 1 that either stays hidden or has since died as well.

Ade
 
Hi Ade, Thought you might have some interesting inhabitants.
Wolfenrook said:
Freshwater ostracods (seed shrimp, naturally occuring)
Did you go out hunting for these or did they come in on some plants?
Wolfenrook said:
Tadpole shrimp (pest}
I'm curious, why are these pests? All I found out about them is that they are a prehistoric species. How did they get into your tank?
Wolfenrook said:
Neocaridina palmata
There seem to be lots of different colour morphs of these, got any photos of yours?
Wolfenrook said:
Neocaridina .cf zhangjiajiensis 'white' (snowball shrimp)
These look great, they must look lovely in a heavily planted tank, a nice alternative to the cherry shrimp. Are they easy to keep/breed?
Wolfenrook said:
I used to have macrobrachium lanchesteri as well, but discovered that these are very sensitive to TPN+, and lost all but one to increased dosing of this. Was left with 1 that either stays hidden or has since died as well.
Wow, do you know what it was in the TPN+ that they didn't like?
 
Right I'll try to answer. lol

Ostracods tend to show up in most tanks, we just don't see them in tanks with fish as they get eaten. In invert only tanks they do better. Odd looking things, like little white round things that swim and crawl around.

I meant tadpole snails, that's what happens when you type too fast without reading what you typed thoroughly before clicking submit. lol

Not got any pics of my palmata, although not for lack of trying! To describe them mine are a sort of beige colour, with a beige stripe down their backs. They look a bit like wild type heteropoda really. Mine (really by middle daughters. lol) were tank bred, so no orange parasites in them. I'm sure once I have had these longer I will see more colour morphs showing up.

The snowballs are gorgeous, and look great in a planted tank. They are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, although a little less timid in my experience (more likely to squabble with each other). Can't be kept with cherry shrimp (probably best not to keep with other neocaridina either) as they hybridise to produce dull and sterile mutts. Here is a pic of one of my females for you:-



They really are lovely little shrimp as you can see. Bad news is there are only a few of us breeding them in the UK as yet (not such bad news for those of us breeding them though. lol), I had to import mine from Germany. I you can keep cherry shrimp though you can keep snowball shrimp. In Germany (where the white variety was first created, there is a wild variety and a blue variety as well) they are probably more popular than cherry shrimp

I'm reasonably sure that the problem with the TPN+ was a compounded problem between the copper levels in the water around here combined with the copper levels in TPN+. Separately they aren't a problem, but with the higher dosage of TPN+ I tried the levels just reached the point where the lanchesteri weren't happy with them, my cherry shrimp became touchy (hiding, losing colour and breeding less) as well but didn't lose any of these, lanchesteri would seem to be very intolerant of copper at even trace amounts. I still use TPN+, but now at 7mls a day instead of 11mls a day, which seems to be enough for my plants without upsetting my shrimp (although I am going to have to dose potassium separately, as the reduced dosage of TPN+ just isn't providing enough K, and I am getting pin holes in the older leaves of my ammania senegalensis, a classic sign of K deficiency).

I am a bit mad about inverts, especially shrimp, money and space are my biggest limiting factors. :D Given space and funding I would happily fill a room with racking and tanks to breed as many of the harder to obtain species as possible. :D

Ade
 
Wolfenrook said:
Not got any pics of my palmata, although not for lack of trying! To describe them mine are a sort of beige colour, with a beige stripe down their backs. They look a bit like wild type heteropoda really. Mine (really by middle daughters. lol) were tank bred, so no orange parasites in them. I'm sure once I have had these longer I will see more colour morphs showing up.
Ahh, that would be the funky orange dash I saw in the photos I looked up.
The snowballs are gorgeous, and look great in a planted tank. They are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, although a little less timid in my experience (more likely to squabble with each other). Can't be kept with cherry shrimp (probably best not to keep with other neocaridina either) as they hybridise to produce dull and sterile mutts.
That's a shame that they can't be kept with cherries as the red and white would look really good together. Though if you can get the blue morphs with the white then they would look very cool :)
money and space are my biggest limiting factors. :D Given space and funding I would happily fill a room with racking and tanks to breed as many of the harder to obtain species as possible. :D
Hmm, add time to that list of limiting factors and you'll have my list! I wouldn't know where to start if I could have everything I wanted, not just inverts but all sorts of things!
 
Ahhh, but there is a partial solution to red and white, and something I am hoping to try! I have water conditions that should suit cardinal sulawesi shrimp down to the ground (hard and alkaline), and these are red with little blue spots. :D I'm just waiting until I have bred and sold enough snowball shrimp to be able to obtain some of these.

Ade
 
Wolfenrook said:
Ahhh, but there is a partial solution to red and white, and something I am hoping to try! I have water conditions that should suit cardinal sulawesi shrimp down to the ground (hard and alkaline), and these are red with little blue spots. :D I'm just waiting until I have bred and sold enough snowball shrimp to be able to obtain some of these.
I see you are building a shrimp empire! If I hadn't just filled my tank with many cherries I'd ask how much you sell your snowballs for. The cardinal sulawesis sound cool, though I guess from the tone of your post that they are not the cheapest or easiest of shrimp to obtain. Shame as I to have the rock hard water.
 
I have a fair few critters in my shrimp tank,

Tadpole snails
Ramshorn ect
Sand shrimp

I have a tank just for trumpet snails aswell

All are free if you'd like any :D
 
Egmel said:
I see you are building a shrimp empire! If I hadn't just filled my tank with many cherries I'd ask how much you sell your snowballs for. The cardinal sulawesis sound cool, though I guess from the tone of your post that they are not the cheapest or easiest of shrimp to obtain. Shame as I to have the rock hard water.

It depends upon whether you are one of those lucky folks who live near to one of the few UK stores selling them really, as one place was recently selling them for £7 a shrimp. Otherwise the only European source I have found for them charges 25 euros for shipping and 19.99 euros per shrimp. :( They are perfect for those of us with harder more alkaline water though, interaquaristik.de describe their preferred water parameters as: Water quality: pH 7.4 to 8.6 and dGH 10 to 25, which for me is tap water. lol

I don't so much want to build a shrimp empire as breed enough species to make shrimp species that are widely available in Germany more widely available here. The freshwater shrimp hobby over here is still in the early stages really and could really use more hobbyists trying to breed some of the other species as well as cherry shrimp and CRS.
 
just a few i keep.

Apple snails (blue, golden and ivory)
ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)
MTS
japanese trapdoor snails
pondsnails (pests)
red cherry shrimp army
crystal red shrimp soon/hope to be an army.
red clawed cray fish a breeding pair with many babies.
 
Wolfenrook said:
I don't so much want to build a shrimp empire as breed enough species to make shrimp species that are widely available in Germany more widely available here. The freshwater shrimp hobby over here is still in the early stages really and could really use more hobbyists trying to breed some of the other species as well as cherry shrimp and CRS.
I hope you manage it, I really enjoy my RCS but I just can't afford many of the more 'exotic' species.

thebullit said:
ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)
Do these eat your plants?
thebullit said:
japanese trapdoor snails
These are new to me, do you have any photos? Are they plant eaters? How big do they get?
 
On tuesday I will be picking up a few Harlequin Shrimp Caridina cf. spongicola. Probably going to cost £6-8 each.
Will be also picked up 10 Red Cherry shrimp.
Currently, I only keep Amanos, MTS and Nerites.
 
thebullit said:
ramshorn snails (reds, leopards, albinos and blues)
Do these eat your plants?
thebullit said:
japanese trapdoor snails
These are new to me, do you have any photos? Are they plant eaters? How big do they get?[/quote]

the ramshorn snails only eat dea or decaying plants. they dont eat live an healthy plants.

ile put some some pics up of the trapdoors, will have to put them on photo bucket first.
no not plant eaters and grow to about ping pong ball size.
 
Fred Dulley said:
On tuesday I will be picking up a few Harlequin Shrimp Caridina cf. spongicola. Probably going to cost £6-8 each.
Will be also picked up 10 Red Cherry shrimp.
Currently, I only keep Amanos, MTS and Nerites.

Careful there bud, jumping in with harlequin sulawesi shrimp could kind of be like jumping into the deep end rather. I have heard that cardinal sulawesis are much easier to keep. If you go for them anyway good luck, they are lovely shrimp and would be good if there was somebody breeding these in the UK.

Egmel, I hope I manage it to. One of my aims is to lower the cost a bit of some of the so called 'exotic' species, as many of them are expensive solely because of their been imported rather than been bred in this country. Kind of like the guy who was recently selling 10 snowball shrimp on ebay for £100! Snowballs are as easy to keep and breed as cherry shrimp, and I already have quite a few baby ones walking around in my shrimp tank. :lol: I wont (initially) be selling them as cheaply as cherry shrimp, but I will be selling them for a fair bit less than the cheapest I have seen them go for over here. Once I have funded more tanks and shrimp purchases I will probably reduce their prices even further. Of course at the moment they are teeny tiny babies (no way am I selling the adults), so still a way off before any of this happens. One of the reasons I set up UKShrimp was to try to get more shrimp hobbyists to do the same, and to allow the sharing of species to spread the breeder base so to speak.

Ade
 
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