• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Amano shrimp

TuvaM

Member
Messages
59
Location
Norway
Hi guys.
I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I could use some help from someone who knows a little about amano shrimp.
I bought 5 of them some time ago, and they don't seem to eat any algea, they only nibble at one of the roots. Also, I only see 1, max 2 of them daily. Are they unhappy? pH about 6.5, kh 0, temp 26 C, no CO2, O2 diffuser on. Tankmates are one male A. borellii and some ember tetras.

Thanks in advance.
 

chappy6107

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
27
I dont have an A. Borellii, but my other apistos hunted down my amanos and kept them in hiding until finally killing them all.
 

Mbkemp

Member
Messages
45
I have Amano shrimp with Bolivian rams and borelli apisto'. The amano are fine, the rcs not so much


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
They might do better with at least little hardness. Raising GH and KH into the 1 to 2 degree range (18 to 35 mg/L) each might help the shrimp without harming softwater fish. Mine are excellent algae eaters, but if the tank gets fish food, they'll gorge on that too and eat less algae. I keep about 6 Amanos in a tank with a pair of Badis, which get mainly live foods, and that tank is my only algae-free tank. If I need to clean algae off a plant (or off anything else) I move it to the Badis tank for a week.
 

TuvaM

Member
Messages
59
Location
Norway
Thanks everyone! I can try to raise the kh a little. I have some Potassium Bicarbonate, does anyone know if I can just add a small amount directly to the tank? Or should I dissolve it first?
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
I would dissolve it first, and also use something with sodium (Na). If your Na is very low, adding K without Na may be toxic to inverts. KCl is used to poison invasive zebra mussels. A better option might be aragonite ("crushed coral") gravel, which will slowly dissolve and release Ca, Mg, and bicarbonate (GH and KH), plus a low dose of plain old NaCl salt (1 teaspoon per 5 gal = 0.3 g/L).
 

bbetta

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
128
Location
Greece
I've got 3 Amano's in a 20 gal with 90% RO water and DIY CO2 and liquid fertilizers . They've been in there for at least 6 years. Once they adapt to your water parameters, they are impossible to kill.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
id also like to point out that amano shrimp are primarily filter feeders(using there fans to pull food out of the water column. Them eating algea is a secondary food and some wont graze on it at all. Just like fish each shrimp may act differently and adjust differently. IME my amanos I find them sitting on my décor higher in the water column fanning away at the water (I sometimes feed them grind flakes as there up there by droping it into the water flow. Mine hardly ever touch algea, mine are in a planted tank alone tho (kinda just for growing some plants) but id imagine weather they get shredded by apistos or not will depend on your apistos. Every fish acts different.
 

bbetta

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
128
Location
Greece
id also like to point out that amano shrimp are primarily filter feeders(using there fans to pull food out of the water column. Them eating algea is a secondary food and some wont graze on it at all. Just like fish each shrimp may act differently and adjust differently. IME my amanos I find them sitting on my décor higher in the water column fanning away at the water (I sometimes feed them grind flakes as there up there by droping it into the water flow. Mine hardly ever touch algea, mine are in a planted tank alone tho (kinda just for growing some plants) but id imagine weather they get shredded by apistos or not will depend on your apistos. Every fish acts different.
Amanos don't have fans. Maybe you are referring to atyopsis moluccensis?
 

Bart Hazes

Active Member
Messages
228
My amanos are perfectly happy in very soft acidic water with 6 Dicrossus filamentosus as company. I got them to eat algae which they didn't (or at least not in noticeable amounts). They do eat oak leafs and the oak leaf half-life is a lot shorter now the amanos are in there, and they just leave the central vein and perhaps a few of the larger side-veins. I also got Siamese algae eaters who do a good job of trimming down the filamentous algae but they are aggressive feeders on anything you throw in and too much of a food competitor for checkerboards or apistos.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
17,916
Messages
116,206
Members
13,028
Latest member
JaconieMalonie

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top