Lifesabeach

Hi to everyone.
I would really love to add some invertebrates to my tank, but the more I read, the more I thought I was throwing my money away. I'm advised that my Dollars will have a feed on even the fully grown cherry or ghost shrimps and my Loaches will also have a go. Investing in crabs will put my fish in danger!

My thinking is to invest in ghost shrimp and put them on their own in my 60 litre tank, and being prolific breeders, transfer the mature ones across to the large tank occasionally, effectively becoming feeders if they can't keep out of harms way. At least this way I can keep the population going.

I get the impression they are easy to keep. I can order ghost shrimp for under AUS$1.00 each and I like the idea of them eating up leftovers, apart from adding interest to the tank. Any advice on keeping them at their best would be appreciated by this novice!

kwesdog

The dwarf shimp will be lunch. They dont get big when compared to something like amanos.

My amanos are 2-3 times the size as my RCS and my CRS.

The amanos have no problem living a good life in my main tank that has loaches and gouramis in it.

Bad Wolf

wow ghost shrimp for $1, i live in VIC, AUS, and they are $8.95 each. Do not get yabbies unless they have their own tank, i think they are great but they attack all bottom dwellers, i know this cause i tried it and my kuhli loach died.

i would go with the ghost shrimp, and since they are cheap you can get a few of them, they are also good at eating left overs. i heard
fiddler crabs a peaceful.

hope i helped

Lifesabeach

I haven't seen amanos for sale in Australia. I'm going to take my chances with the ghost shrimp and only place the larger ones in the community tank

Lifesabeach

Check out this site livefish.com.au - pretty good deal

Bad Wolf

that's funny, i just tried that like half an hour ago and no one suggested it to me. it is pretty good but i don't want to buy shrimp online, what i'm really looking for is a common pleco. you know how expensive they are in AUS. they are still just as expensive online.

thanks anyway.

Lifesabeach

I saw common plecos today at LFS for $8.95 each about 3cm long, and one about 7cm long for $50.00! I bought my two as small ones about 2 years ago. They produced two offspring now about 3cm. I lost the mother thru an accident and the father is now more than 7cm.
I know three in my tank is too many - I'll have to do something about it down the track, but I'm banned from getting another tank of any size!

Bad Wolf

are you serious!? i've many multiple threads about plecos and why they cost so much. i found out they are illegal to import to AUS. a 4cm here is about $30 and that's on special, they are really $49.95. the expense might have something to do with the states as well. another person who lived in another state got a pleco for $17.95.

oh well i'm just unlucky.

carlos413

I say get some wood shrimp aka fan shrimp they grow about four inches long and they don't have claws. They are harmless, they are awsome filter feeders and they change colors.

Lifesabeach

I googled wood/fan shrimp and there is plenty of info from overseas but nothing in AUS. Maybe they're not available for us. Certainly would be my preference over what I've seen as been available here so far.
Anything that size here has claws and would have a fish smorgasbord 24/7!