haedra

I haven't had this guy very long yet. But the first day I got him he was out during daylight hours filter feeding from a tall cave in my tank that actually reaches up to right beneath the filter output.. so I "accidentally" managed to have a pretty good perch for him.

However, yesterday he spent all day hiding in the dark recesses of this cave until it was dark in both tank and room; then he came out and when I spied on my tank with a dim flashlight (as I feel the desperate need to do to make sure nothing has escaped), he was again up at the filter output feeding, or trying to.

He was out a bit in the morning, but again hid in the cave after there was light in the tank for maybe an hour or so.

My question is, what would be the best way to make sure he is getting some nutrition, and how often? I feed my corys both sinking shrimp tabs and protein fortified veggie tabs (not wafers), one in the morning and one at night. My thinking was that I possibly would need to supplement both the shrimp and my snails diet; although in the case of the snail, if they eat diatoms, well I got plenty of that. So for just in case, I purchased algae wafers.

Now I should have known this would happen, but I fed the corys at one end of the tank with their standard fare, and dropped the algae wafer in at the other. But the shrimp didn't come out of hiding. And after the corys ate their own food I found out they had devoured the algae wafer as well.

I've read that people have bamboo shrimp that are out during the day, but so far this guy is pretty shy and hides until it's dark. Would the following plan work to make sure he has enough food: wait until lights out and he is out and about, then maybe dissolve a wafer in tank water (will it even do that?).. and use my trusty turkey baster to do a bit of target feeding? Or will so much get left over this way that it will spoil the tank water?

Thanks for any advice, I want to do my best to keep everyone healthy.

agabr123

i think using a turkey baster would be a good idea for feeding him so you can target feed. you may also want to try something like frozen brine shrimp, when you defrost it it will get pretty much everywhere in the tank and he's bound to get plenty

haedra

Oh my.. I felt guilty enough feeding my corys "shrimp" pellets.. lol I can give that a shot.

agabr123

lol, it's okay. i've seen one of my ghost shrimp eat another ghost shrimp!!!

haedra

Well, looks like it is definitely going to be a bit of target feeding, so I can be sure he gets the nutrition he needs. At this point, everything I'm seeing is saying that my tank is too young to support a filter feeder. I don't mind target feeding him if that will be enough for him, but I sure do feel a little like a dummy for having brought him into this situation.

Since I had read of people successfully supplementing them with algae wafers, I gave it one more solid shot. Tonight, after once again peering into my tank a few times and discovering not only that the shrimp was out, but that the corys seemed to be resting; I tried once more dropping in an algae wafer, figuring that he might have a chance of getting to it first.

Well I was wrong. The shrimp never moved, but I also wasn't expecting to see what I did.

I dropped the wafer in and came back a couple minutes later, not wanting to get my hopes up; and expecting to see the corys had woken from their slumber to feast upon the wafer.

Everyone familiar with the story "The Tortoise and the Hare?" Well! What I saw was certainly a visual representation of it. I never would have expected my lumbering snail to get there first, and to be sitting on top of the wafer with excited sniffing corys trying to get underneath it. It's not like they didn't have enough today, with the other algae wafer they stole. But the snail was faster. Geez, and I thought everyone was kinda asleep...

So definitely have to target feed! All I can figure is my shrimp must at least be getting a little nutrition... he has already gotten darker and his back stripe is more intensified, which I have read is an indication of general satisfaction (though I of course don't know how true that is). I'm not sure what's swimming round in the water in a mature tank, but maybe I got lucky. I did have a bout with planaria really early on... but of course my piggy corys ate all of those that I could see.

agabr123

haha, i feel like im reading something i wrote myself! my biggest ghost shrimp took an entire algae wafer away from my cories. i had to break it up a whole lot and try to get a piece near him so my corycats could get the rest

haedra

Adding these two creatures seems to have thrown me into a mini cycle. I'm not sure if it's because of the poop-machine snail, or shrimp, or both. 24 hours after adding both, I got ammonia readings of definitely less than .25, but more than 0 ammonia. Today it was definitely at least .25 (48 hours later). How long should I expect this to continue, and is it "normal" so to speak to experience a mini cycle when adding new creatures to a tank?

And one more question... what exactly are the little things swimming around in a mature tank that can support filter feeders? I'm just wondering specifically what they are.

agabr123

i doubt it was the shrimp, i'm pretty sure that shrimp have either a negative bio load or as close to one as you can get, it's more likely the snail that caused that. however i would go ahead and do a small partial water change since you're in a mini-cycle and continue with those daily until you're back on track

haedra

Not that this will change anything, but just curious...

Could I possibly have made this worse just because I took out that silk plant (which had tons of surface area) when I did a water change yesterday? Like maybe I would have had a mini cycle anyway, but maybe I made it worse?

agabr123

hmm, it's possible that both in combination had something to do with it...i'm not sure that by itself it would have been enough to do it though

haedra

*sigh* back to waking up every morning and hoping for the clear yellow results on my ammonia tests. I hope this doesn't last long because I have already gotten a few more gray hairs due to my inital experience.

agabr123

lol yeah i understand your frustration. good luck!