Bamboo Shrimp

[PurpleSmurf]

I can't find much information on these guys, so I decided to ask people who know about them.

What are the basics of care? Are they hard to cater to, picky about water conditions (I only care about amonia and nitrite, I don't have testers for ph, gh, or kh) and will 20gal be enough to hold one with a moderatly populated tank?

I bought one today at Petco becuase I've been looking for shrimp and it was on sale ($3), however, the tank it's currently in is about to run through a mini cycle and I want to make sure it'll survive.

 

[RTR]

In general shrimp are as sensitive or more so to unoxidized metabolites than are fish.

Bamboo/Wood/Singapore shrimp are not good competitors with fish, as they are filter feeders (read as very slow feeders). They also need refuge when they molt. I only have long-tern luck with them as species tanks, where they are easy. I feed micropellets, Cyclopeeze, and very fine powder/flake (i.e., fry foods) foods. They should have some current to keep the food suspended.

 

[PurpleSmurf]

Will they filter the sand for food? He seems to be doing just that currently and picking up more food than I believed I had allowed to drop.

He may have trouble competing with my cories (4 emeralds) but I doubt he'll starve. The shrimp pellets break up in a matter of minutes and the gourami never eats all of his flake, so I think throwing in three pellets for the cories in one corner and one near where the shrimp lurks should work.

Do they eat alge? I have a good collection on some of my grasses and on one sponge.

 

[PurpleSmurf]

I think I'm going to take him back to the store in a day of two. He seems very reclusive and if feeding him is going to be such a challange I'd rather not put him through it. Plus cherry shrimp would add so much more color to the tank!

Edit: I have a package of baby brine in teh freezer... would one cube every two or three or four days provide him with enough avaliable food?