Curious about how your Cherry shrimp do. At one point I had 30 in my tank. I now have 4. They were supposed to be impossible to kill, but somehow mine managed to die off.
Did you get them as juvies or more toward adulthood? I've had very good luck with mine here at home that I got very young (until our Sunfish ate them), but I set up a little 3 gallon tank of adults from a pet store for my sister at my parents house, and of the 10, 6 were dead within 3 days. Adults do not acclimate well to hardness and PH differences well from what I've seen. The other thing is they actually need relatively constant water changes, or else the mineral buildup in the water can cause their shells to harden too much to molt, and they die.
Curious about how your Cherry shrimp do. At one point I had 30 in my tank. I now have 4. They were supposed to be impossible to kill, but somehow mine managed to die off.
Did you get them as juvies or more toward adulthood? I've had very good luck with mine here at home that I got very young (until our Sunfish ate them), but I set up a little 3 gallon tank of adults from a pet store for my sister at my parents house, and of the 10, 6 were dead within 3 days. Adults do not acclimate well to hardness and PH differences well from what I've seen. The other thing is they actually need relatively constant water changes, or else the mineral buildup in the water can cause their shells to harden too much to molt, and they die.
I obtained some adults from a local pet shop, and ordered some juveniles online. I did have a problem with some of the pet shop shrimp dying off within a few days of purchase, but the store was willing to replace them. Then the population was stable for about two months, only to start dropping off again.
I did not know about the molting problem. That is interesting, and I had not read about it online before. Is a weekly water change adequate, or do they need more frequent changes than that?
Curious about how your Cherry shrimp do. At one point I had 30 in my tank. I now have 4. They were supposed to be impossible to kill, but somehow mine managed to die off.
Did you get them as juvies or more toward adulthood? I've had very good luck with mine here at home that I got very young (until our Sunfish ate them), but I set up a little 3 gallon tank of adults from a pet store for my sister at my parents house, and of the 10, 6 were dead within 3 days. Adults do not acclimate well to hardness and PH differences well from what I've seen. The other thing is they actually need relatively constant water changes, or else the mineral buildup in the water can cause their shells to harden too much to molt, and they die.
I obtained some adults from a local pet shop, and ordered some juveniles online. I did have a problem with some of the pet shop shrimp dying off within a few days of purchase, but the store was willing to replace them. Then the population was stable for about two months, only to start dropping off again.
I did not know about the molting problem. That is interesting, and I had not read about it online before. Is a weekly water change adequate, or do they need more frequent changes than that?
Weekly should be fine, so long as you don't have ridiculously hard water. Other than that, I'm not sure what would be killing them off. In my experience, once you have them for a month, you should be good unless something goes terribly wrong. They are also like, incredibly good at hiding.
Do you have access to a copper test? Shrimp (for that matter, just about all invertebrates, but small shrimp most in my experience) hate copper. I barely saved my planted tank after some water main work in my area somehow caused a copper spike that made all my Malaysian trumpet snails come out and die at once. And you never realize how many of those you have until they all die at once.
It's why I've taken the expense of keeping a herd of ghost shrimp in it now even though my petricolas pick them off. They're my coalmine canary.
I had a buttikoferi for a while. They're the most common tilapia in the aquarium trade, and I can tell you with 100% confidence: Find a different species. Buttikoferi are the chupacabra of aquariums, they make life miserable for any tankmates that can't kill (and they're really good at that), and unlike a lot of big aggressive cichlids they have no mercy for potential mates.
A lot of the industrial farms are tight lipped about which actual species they raise, but T. mossambic (a mouthbrooder, but you can strip the eggs and hatch them away from the parents) is probably a good choice. They only kill everything that's not them.
And short of a channel cat or other bottom feeder I probably wouldn't add many tank mates, just use the aquarium as a breeder tank to get fry/fingerling and then grow them out in an above ground pool. I like looking at pretty fish but I like eating and selling them for profit a whole lot more
When I say tankmates, I also mean other buttikoferi. They're bigger assholes than jack dempseys. That guy's got mostly mossambicas and hybrids, though, so that's not much of an issue. I don't know much about the other species in his hybrid colonies, but mossambicas are generally like most big cichlids, as long as there's enough of them and enough space that none of them become dominant over the whole tank, they're good. If one of those colonies loses a couple females I'd probably replace them for fear the weakest survivor will get torn up.
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Did you get them as juvies or more toward adulthood? I've had very good luck with mine here at home that I got very young (until our Sunfish ate them), but I set up a little 3 gallon tank of adults from a pet store for my sister at my parents house, and of the 10, 6 were dead within 3 days. Adults do not acclimate well to hardness and PH differences well from what I've seen. The other thing is they actually need relatively constant water changes, or else the mineral buildup in the water can cause their shells to harden too much to molt, and they die.
I obtained some adults from a local pet shop, and ordered some juveniles online. I did have a problem with some of the pet shop shrimp dying off within a few days of purchase, but the store was willing to replace them. Then the population was stable for about two months, only to start dropping off again.
I did not know about the molting problem. That is interesting, and I had not read about it online before. Is a weekly water change adequate, or do they need more frequent changes than that?
Weekly should be fine, so long as you don't have ridiculously hard water. Other than that, I'm not sure what would be killing them off. In my experience, once you have them for a month, you should be good unless something goes terribly wrong. They are also like, incredibly good at hiding.
Our 100 gallon acrylic tank:
10 gallon glass shrimp tank:
It's why I've taken the expense of keeping a herd of ghost shrimp in it now even though my petricolas pick them off. They're my coalmine canary.
It also helps that I have a girlfriend that doesn't look at me like I've hit my fucking had when I tell her I want to raise fish.
I have done lots of research in the past but need to get back into it. Any one have any experience with tilapia?
A lot of the industrial farms are tight lipped about which actual species they raise, but T. mossambic (a mouthbrooder, but you can strip the eggs and hatch them away from the parents) is probably a good choice. They only kill everything that's not them.
http://www.tilapiafarmingathome.com/Pages/OurProducts.aspx
And short of a channel cat or other bottom feeder I probably wouldn't add many tank mates, just use the aquarium as a breeder tank to get fry/fingerling and then grow them out in an above ground pool. I like looking at pretty fish but I like eating and selling them for profit a whole lot more
need new fishies but ugh cleaning tanks
I don't know if I should glare at you through the internet for the terrible pun, or drop a "D'aww" for baby fish and shrimp.