Louie

Ctaylor, Ah the discus people are like a cult lol . There is a guy in the area who went decades ago with Jack Wattley who lives here in Florida to collect discus in the Amazon . He has a couple of Wattley discus strains reddish but not sure of the name. I gave him some cory sterbai not long ago from my pond as had to many .

Very nice , Do they get along with each other if same sex ? I imagine they nibble on your driftwood? I recall when the Calico's came out years ago, they were rather expensive but the price has now come down like 90% on them . We have huge plecos in the area canals but nothing small and cute like bristlenose .

danielt, In a way I find that a plus that they thrive in FW but will only reproduce in salt because I just want a few not the constant brigade of snails that one usually winds up with .

I second java fern . If that doesn't grow than nothing else will. I do find that it grows best either attached to wood or attached to clay flowerpots or pieces .If is for substrate as Chris stated anubias .

Thanks I called the pet store I used today and they said to give them 2 weeks to get them . I intend to pick up 3 or 4 for each 20 gallon. If they climb out than so be it but like you seems most do not have that problem and it is rare.

Do you prefer a F over a M or you are getting another male to breed them? The males have that neat 'bristle' head . A friend has clown plecos (maccus) in a 125 gallon , He rarely if ever see's them but he does find babies .

Thank you both . I am either going to go with Ottos or nerite snails . I just assumed Ottos were 78 degree type fish.

Soothing, Thanks that is what I thought. Shrimphug, Have you ever had any of your nerites climb out of the tank? I ask this because I have been reading about them and some claim they aren't good in open top tanks since they are 'shoreline' snails . It does seem that they a great algae eaters . I thought they were marine but seems several different types of them. thanks

Hello, I get a little bit of algae now and than an my anubias leaves , just a tiny bit no big deal but since my shrimp tank temp is bit to cool for Otto catfish, I was looking at Amano shrimp. Do they actually eat algae or they only eat it if nothing else is available? Thank you

Great bristlenose . Do you see him much or mostly hides?

Fantastic . I was looking into Ottos but my shrimp tanks are 72 at night 76 during the day but the 72 for 10 hours every night I thought to cold for ottos .

This is an interesting Topic because I light my 20 gallon longs with a CRL bulbs suspended about 6 inches off the tank as you can see in my avatar but if the led strips work out bright . I would switch to some type strip light over the 20 gallon tanks which would look nicer than a suspended fixture . Brightness was my concern because as is my plants grow great and 1 single bulb over the middle of each tank lights it up well but if I can get the same or more brightness with led strips will switch , plus I would like uniformed lighting and not such a bright area in middle ,so this thread is interesting .

Great shrimp, the snail section are also breath taking.

feather, What temps did you breed them at ?

Shrimphug, Perhaps it is where you are buying them as far as their water is so different than yours that the shrimp are dying ? I agree with everyone about going slow. I now have 3 - 20gallon planted and a 55 planted (old set up) for shrimp and tiny fish . I waited a few months to add shrimp to my newer 20 galls and even than I only added 10 at a time and waited few weeks before adding other shrimp . My water changes are weekly 10% tank volume but I only change 5% every 3 days. I use dechlorinated tap water , most here use RO.

Very nice shrimp . Those are Will's Tigers? I am waiting for him to grow out some more , love the clear stripes . All your shrimp are very pretty.

The Bumble bee snails are salt are they not?

Hungle, Koi are very big in my area. A family like 4 blocks from here has a big koi pond that extends from the side of their house under their fence and in to the front yard . I would have thought to hot for koi 7 months a year but they seem to fair well .

featherblue, Very nice . A very pretty shrimp . I think they come in several patterns? I have never kept them , have kept cleaner and harlequin but did not breed any as far as raising babies, though the harlequin pair did mate now and than . Do you keep your shrimp with corals or anemones ? I think sexy shrimp in the wild are found in anemones but heard in captivity they do not need it and will fair well even with hardy mushrooms.

Doc, The top shrimp is very pretty , I suspect difficult with them is an under statement , lol. I read about them they seem to have a incredibly high death rate.

Soothing, If you can do freshwater shrimp you can do salt . A friend has a 20 gallon long ,74 degrees (room temp) ,filtered with only an emperor 280 filter and it is thriving with 10lbs live rock flame scallops (they don't like it over 78) assorted Atlantic cucumbers, starfish , hermits , Atlantic local feather dusters , non pointy urchins and shrimp . Like Doc said a skimmer is also great but he just does weekly small water changes . I might do one like his but would add a pair of Catalina gobies. I kept salt years ago the archaic way with UG filters and they did well . The diversity of inverts is what I loved . My harlequins bred a few times but I was never able to get the babies to grow . I know there are articles on breeding other common marine shrimp but that seems like a BIG pain.

I feed diff food 2 to 3 times a week , Tanks are all heavy planted so they eat 'plant stuff' . What I do use is Borneo Wild Shrimp Shield which I use during water changes . I could be wrong but I see a lot more babies due to it .

My first tank was a saltwater tank decades ago . the one thing I was always told be the pet store which I still follow to this day with my freshwater shrimp is after rinsing the chemical media (back in those days they only had chemi-pure) is to than let it sit 24 hours in a container of tank water because most media will change the PH for the first 18 hours . Not much ever slightly but enough to stress some inverts . Granted in a smaller tank worse than larger tank. Reading the posts I see many do not do this and never had any problems but this is the method I use to be safe.

There are a few places here that sell cherry shrimp , they breed them all year long outside and water stays warmer than 76 for most of the year .

Soothing, I see an invert Marine tank in your future . Feather dusters , urchins, assorted shrimp , diff types starfish .