I had a dried oak leaf in w/my RCS. It looked funny yesterday, so I pulled it out, and it is a leaf skeleton! They ate all the plant material betwen the veins- how cool- they got another oak leaf.. cute and busy little critters!
BEWARE! When transporting shrimp from bag to tank- they can jump a country mile! Be prepared! They can also jump out of shallow containers w/ no problem.
Thanks for the tip! I'm excited about these shrimp now. I was also leaning toward a couple neon tetras in each side of the divided tank, but would that really mess with the ammonia levels? That would be 4 tetras, 2 bettas and some shrimp to a 5 gallon filtered tank.. I know some advise against it but many have done it, so I'm curious at their outcome. If not, I'll be happy with the bettas and shrimp. Might get a little catfish but I hate that I would have to keep it in one side or the other. Hmm.. decisions, decisions.
Most catfish like to live in groups of 3 at the minimum. They're sociable, unlike our beloved bettas.
I just bought 4 Ocellifer Syndontis. I have the goal that they are going into the 29 gallon. (They're in QT now) They may get to big, but I chose them on the parameters of being able to withstand harder water & higher temps, and they eat a varied diet, but it does include more algae than most. Same with the Oto cat I bouhgt. Problem with them is they're tiny, practically invisible, and they'll never be big enough to make a dent in the 29 gal, so they're headed to my male's tank (divided 10). Add a buch of RCS & snails, & I hope this is the receipe to keep algae down (plus more real plants, of course). I don't kid myself that I won't be scraping algae of the tank walls, but it would be nice to have the leaves of the real plants tended to.
I am getting an amano shrimp. They are the only ones I can find that seem to be pretty successfully kept with bettas in heavily planted tanks, and that actually eat algae and not just detritus. Pretty hardy shrimp, and not a gazillion dollars.
Also, I am getting a nerite snail. Their eggs can only hatch in brackish water, so they don't overpopulate the tank.
Shrimp seem to have a pretty negligible bioload, as long as you are keep under 10 or so. Snails obviously have a much higher bioload.
I think they need brackish water for the babies to hatch. But i an still doing a ton of research on them just to keep them happy and healthy, so don't quote me on that.
I prefer shrimp I can breed easily- I always buy something else when I go to the store for $2 shrimp. I'll come out w/$200 worth of new equipment, but forget the shrimp!
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