Welcome Adam Bomb

[Adam Bomb]

Shrimp Keepers Forum welcomes Adam Bomb.

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skfadmin

[Adam Bomb]

Hello everyone! 

I'm pretty new to the hobby (got a 13-gallon tank for Father's Day), but fell in love with it quickly! I've received a lot of bad advice from pet stores near me, so I'm really hoping to learn from experienced keepers.

 

Long story short, I started my tank with some amanos and cherries, and another aquarium place sold me 2 GIANT shrimp (they said they would get along with my neos just fine and not cause trouble) - and ultimately, those shrimp destroyed my population (and tank) over the course of a couple days. I've given the enormous shrimp back to the store, and I'm currently cycling a tank to re-start a pure neocaridina (and snail, perhaps) tank. 

 

My hope is to meet hopefully find some reasonably local folks that I can buy things from (plants, shrimp, moss), since my area seems to be absolutely dry. If anyone is in the Metro-Detroit (MIchigan) area, I'd love to chat!

[sdlTBfanUK]

Wecome to the forum, hooefully you will fnd all the support and advice you want here?

I don't knw what your large shrimps were as bamboo r fan shrimp are usualy ok with cherry shrimps. You can keep a couple of amano with cherry shrimp as well and this is usual if you have an algae problem, but you don't want too may as they are bigger than the cherry shrimp and will out compete them for food etc. You don't need to worry about amanos breeding so the numbers won't grow above what you put in the tank yourself so is easy to control the number. I keep snails in all my tanks butsome type can become an infestation quite quickly so you would probably be better with ones that can't breed in an aquarium so, agan, you can easily control the numbers?

You are in a good position to have success as you are starting fresh. Shrimps are different to fish in their acceptable water parameters and I don't think your average fish/pet shop knows that in general. Cherry shrimps are fairly easy and usually you can keep them in dechlorinated tap water with an inert substrate. Do you know what your parameters are,  PH, GH, KH, TDS?

You will need to cycle the tank well before adding shrimps so you have some time to get everything sorted!

Simon

[Adam Bomb]

@sdlTBfanUK  Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply! 

The large shrimp (I bought 2 of them, and the larger one actually killed and ate the other one the first night) look something like a large freshwater prawn (long claws, etc.). I attached a picture I took of the monster before I gave him back to the store! 

The biggest issue I'm having (in my area of Michigan) is that no stores carry moss of any type (java, Flame, Christmas, Phoenix, etc.) due to shipping issues with the pandemic. I really want my tank to be a thriving environment, so my hope is that I can find some local folks that have mosses I can purchase. I've included a picture of my current setup (not including driftwood hiding spots and Indian Almost leaves, as I'd like to keep the water clear until I'm happy with the design). 

Hopefully I'll be able to get advice as well! 

[jayc]

Welcome Adam. Glad to have you here.

Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself.

 

I guess you have found out the hard way not to trust everything the aquarium shop tells you. The moment you said "Giant" shrimp, I knew it would not have ended well.

What you have/had there is a Macrobrachium of some sort. They are predatory and very territorial, as you have found out.

We have quite a few members from the US. Maybe they can help you out with a small clipping of moss in the mail.

Come one SKFA family, help a brudda out!

Edited August 4, 2020 by jayc

[Crabby]

Woah... that's a big ol' machrobrachium. It's a real shame pet store employees are so commonly misinformed. Glad you've learnt from your mistake though! Definitely won't happen again I'm sure - I've had similar problems, but it all worked out in the end for me, and I'm sure it will for you too. 

[sdlTBfanUK]

Thats one scarey looking shrimp........

You should be able to get plants at any aquarium shop, though as you say they may have difficulty getting supplies currently. The plant/moss you have looks very nice!

Otherwise ebay usually has some (caution though as they may have bugs/snails etc so best quaratine incase until you are sure they are clear) or any online supplier? I looked at Aqua Huna and they don't have any.

https://flipaquatics.com/collections/all-plants

It may take a bit longer to source and get than you were hoping, but it rarely works out if it is rushed.

Simon