Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => Invertebrates - Shrimps and Snails => Topic started by: Diz1 on June 22, 2015, 04:46:23 PM
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I've finally got my 10 Micro Rasbora fish and they're now exploring their new home in my 60 litre shrimpery.
I didn't realise just how tiny they are! They're smaller than the adult shrimp.
At the moment, they're all shoaling together nicely and paying no attention at all to their shrimpy friends. I'll keep an eye out over the next few days, but for those of you who are considering putting some fish in with their shrimp, I'd say that these look like a good option. They're so tiny that I don't think they could even eat a shrimplet! :)
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Funny you should say that. I had 9 Sundadanios in with my shrimps; I assume they didn't eat the baby shrimps as I seem to have quite a few. The pygmy cories didn't make any impact on numbers either. The more recent habrosus cories don't seem to be eating baby cories to judge by the newly hatched ones I still have to rescue from the water change bucket.
I say had Sundadanios because they all died with a few days of each other with no apparent cause. One day they'd be fine, the next dead. So in my QT I currently have crystal shrimp and Boraras urophthalmoides. And I agree, they are smaller than adult cherry shrimps and a lot smaller than the crystals.
What species are your micro rasboras? Mine were sold as mosquito rasboras, which is a common name for B. brigittae but looking at photos on Seriously Fish, mine are definitely urophthalmoides.
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Hi Sue,
They were sold as brgittae, but looking at seriously fish, they don't seem as dark red in colour as the pictures there. I'm starting to edge towrads the opinion that they're the same as yours. Is there any definitive way of telling the two species apart.
Also, mine only went into the tank this afternoon, so I won't be feeding them till tomorrow. What are you going to feed yours?
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Going by SF, urophthalmoides (http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-urophthalmoides/) have a larger black spot at the base of the tail while brigittae (http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/boraras-brigittae/) have a much smaller black spot and red on the outer tips of the tail. It also comments that uroph's are often traded as brigittae because the shop can charge more, but mine only cost 85p each, less 10% for buying more than 5.
But I think we'll both have to wait a few weeks as a lot of fish only colour up properly once they've settled in.
I'm currently feeding the QT with finely crushed flakes (New Life Spectrum) and crushed Hikari Shrimp Cuisine. Of course the fish also eat the shrimp food and vice versa. Once they go in their permanent home, crushed sinking pellets, nominally for the cories, will be added to the mix. And I feed the 50 litre with frozen cyclops which the rasboras will be able to eat.
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Thanks Sue. Mine will be staying in the shrimpery. I fed them hikari pellets (crushed very small) this morning. I also feed Hikari shrimp cuisine and snowflakes to the shrimp, so i guess they'll have a go at those if they want it. I have sterbai cories in my main tank and I do feed them sinking pellets, but I probably won't put these in the shrimpery. I'll feed the micro rasboras with frozen cyclops when the other tanks get forzen live food. hoepfully that will give them a varied enough diet. They are really nice little fish though, aren't they? :)
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Mine are colouring up nicely. I have 2 brave ones that come to the front of the tank, the others mainly hide behind a plastic plant. I'll have to see if those are braver once they go in the 50 litre. The only downside is that I bought 10 but have no idea how many I still have. I think I've counted 8 at once but the other two could be hiding too well. With crystal shrimps also in the QT (same shop, tank in same rank) There wouldn't be much left to find if any have died.
Mine are orange rather than red. That could be because they are stressed or because they are indeed urophthalmoides.
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Mine are orange as well, so I'm starting to think they're the same as yours. Like you, I started with 10 and only count 7 this morning, but they're so active it's hard to count them!
On another slightly more serious note, I've just seen and removed what i think must be a leech from the shrimpery. This has cured me of any desire to eat lunch today!
Should I be worried about this? Am i about to have an explosion of fish/shrimp eating nasties in my tank?
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Not having had leeches myself, I get the impression that they come in with plants or live food (as in alive not frozen).
I have found a reference saying that there are parasitic ones and harmless detritivores. It says the parasitic ones tend to be banded with green/yellow bars and the harmless types are brownish.
I would keep an eye out for them and remove any you see. The treatments, which range from salt to pretty nasty chemicals, won't do anything nice to the shrimps.
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Thanks Sue, This was definitely brownish and not banded.
Hopefully, It's a 'do-more-good-than-harm' type, then. I'll keep any eye out for any others.
I'm a big fan of live and let live for harmless creatures, but it didn't half make my stomach churn!
I've not fed that tank any live or frozen live food, so I guess it must've been the plants it came in on :yikes:
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There are numerous types of leech and a simple colour comparison is meaningless. All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus. Some are fast swimming and may prey on fish and other swimming creatures, while others are much slower and eat things such as snails. Leeches move in a looping motion, they don't slide along, they have a sucker at each end and stretch out, attach the head sucker, then pull up the body, attach the rear sucker and so on. If yours don't move like that they're not leeches.
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Oh no! Just when I'd convinced myself not to worry too much! :yikes:
This one was definitley a leech. It moved exactly as you describe. It was pinkish brown and it was smooth, not banded. In this tank I only have shrimp, micro rasbora (10) and a few pond snails, which I was starting to think i should do something about. The shrimp appear to be thriving, and I have many babies zooming around the tank.
Is there any way of getting rid of the leeches without using chemicals that might harm the shrimp and fish?
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Ughhh. Shudders. Squash 'em ?
I had one tiny detritus worm the other day in the shrimp tank . Freaked me out. Haven't seen any more, even when I stirred up the substrate yesterday when doing a deep clean
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thanks Sanjo, the one I saw is gone, and I'll keep an eye out for any more. I'm not good with parasites (even when I was nursing, I wasn't good with them), just the thought of them does something horrible to my insides. It's enough to put me off fish keeping altogether! :yikes:
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There are numerous types of leech and a simple colour comparison is meaningless. All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus.
I did wonder about that but not being an expert in leeches I wasn't sure. Would the 'brown detritus eaters' be some different type of creature?
It's a long time since I studied zoology (44 years!) and can't remember too much about 'worms' be they annelids, nematodes or whatever :-[
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The thing that makes me think it was a leech was the way it moved. As Richard W said, 'Leeches move in a looping motion, they don't slide along, they have a sucker at each end and stretch out, attach the head sucker, then pull up the body, attach the rear sucker and so on.'
I've been practically glued to the tank all day, and I haven't seen anything else. Some sites seem to recommend leaving a prawn in overnight, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea in a 60 litres tank (water pollution, increase in ammonia, etc.), and I'm not sure how you'd contain the leeches so that you could remove them from the tank the next morning.
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Maybe use a variation of the snail trap? Put the shrimp/prawn in a jar with a lid, and punch holes in the lid from the outside so that the jagged bits point inwards. If any leeches did find their way inside it would make it easier to remove them.
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that's a great idea. I'm definitely going to try that! :)
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All leeches (if that's what you really have) are carnivores, none eat detritus.
Pedants hat firmly on: Some leeches are carnivorous; This does not exclude them from eating detritus or scavenging. Most leeches are haematophagous; They eat blood. Generally, this precludes them from eating detritus.
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It depends what you mean by detritus. Leeches are definitely not vegetarian, they will only eat animal matter. Each species of leech generally specialises in something, my favourite British species is Theromyzon tessulatum which basically gets into the noses of waterfowl and sucks their blood there, very interesting way of life. A few species will sometimes be attracted to carrion, but they generally prey on living things, either sucking their blood or eating them. The common British ones generally feed on snails or small crustaceans etc., the latter would probably be a threat to small shrimp. Of course, any imported on plants would be tropical, but unless they can swim they are hardly likely to be a threat to fish.
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Ugh!! :sick:
How you can find these things interesting or have a favourite type is totally incomprehensible to me! :)
The good news is that I've not see any more. I'm going to try a snail trap as Sue suggested sometime this weekend and will post the results. If there's anything more disgusting in there, I'm giving up on the whole fish keeping thing. There's only so much my stomach can tolerate!
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One reason I like invertebrates is that I get paid for surveying for them, it does make a difference. However, I've always been fascinated by "pond life". I used to go fishing with my father as a boy and would spend most of my time collecting various small creatures that I'd bring home in jam jars and keep in an old metal baby's bath.
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Well, all boys do like puddling around and looking at the beasties they find in water and on land, I know. Mine are no exception. I tend not to most of the stuff they bring home in jars. I'm happy to look at maggots, spiders, beetles, and various larval stages of things they bring home in jars, but I just can't stand parasites. They make my skin crawl! :sick:
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One reason I like invertebrates is that I get paid for surveying for them, it does make a difference. However, I've always been fascinated by "pond life". I used to go fishing with my father as a boy and would spend most of my time collecting various small creatures that I'd bring home in jam jars and keep in an old metal baby's bath.
55+ years ago when I was a young child our mother would give us tuppence for a screw of sherbet powder, provide an empty R. Whites lemonade bottle (glass - no plastic in those days) which we would fill with water and put the sherbet powder in to make lemondade, a jam sandwich each and possibly, if she was feeling particularly flush, a couple of pennies. She would also provide a couple of jam jars with string round the neck and a net made from a garden cane, and old stocking and a bit of wire.
We would walk from Battersea in South London all the way to South Kensington and fish for sticklebacks which
we would then cart all the way home again and put in the garden in an old galvanised wash tub.
We would be fascinated with them for a while and then, of course, we would forget about them so she would be left with the care/disposal of them.
I remember on one occasion we wanted to go into the V & A museum and they tried to turn us away at the door. They objected to the fishing net, the jam jars and four very grubby kids aged about 6-11!!
I seem to remember they did let us in eventually because one kind man let us leave it all at the desk while we wandered around.
We would be gone the whole day
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That was what my childhood was like (growing up in Lancashire): out all day and only appearing for meals. Matchboxes, jam jars and old pop bottles use to collect anything we found on our travels (animate or inanimate).
You just couldn't do that now. Kids may have their electronic toys and media, but I reckon they miss out on a lot!
However, my youngest ones still do like to go out and get hands-on with nature. Ralfie, my 10-year-old son came in yesterday having patiently collected a load of snails from the garden and back field where we live. He was most disappointed when I explained that they couldn't go in the fish and shrimp tanks – he'd been out there for ages!!
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And mine, also in Lancashire. My father would take my sister and me out walking, and stickleback collecting, when we were considered small enough to drown, then we'd go on our own. Though as we got older it was more climbing trees and generally getting very dirty rather than collecting live things.
I clearly remember the day we visited a friend who lived on the outskirts of the village, who had a pond full of frogspawn. I was fascinated. I must have been under 11 as we ended up at different secondary schools.
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I just can't stand parasites. They make my skin crawl!
Don't read if you are squeamish.
So you don't want to hear about the maggot that made its home under the skin of my back and literally made my skin crawl? Or how it popped out one night leaving a nasty sore, and how I found it crawling around in the bed, caught it, kept it and watched it first turn into a pupa and then a fly. I may still have it somewhere. Or perhaps the jiggers (specialised burrowing fleas) that found my feet a pleasant home? How about squashing a line of bedbugs crawling up the wall and realising that the red splodges they make are actually your blood. Or maybe the tapeworm I had, now you definitely do NOT want to know how I found out I had that ..................
Rest assured none of these happened in this country. But parasites certainly are fascinating, I have a great respect for them. :)
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That's like a script from a horror movie. I'm glad you survived all of that, but I think I've heard enough to put me off eating for a week, thanks! :sick:
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Richard's experience just confirms my desire not to live in exotic places.
Though bedbugs were once common in this country, and perhaps still are. My family history research tells me that my great great grandmother died in the 1860s from typhus, an infection spread by bedbugs in much the same way that mosquitoes spread malaria.
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I'm with you Sue, you won't catch me anywhere exotic – not without full body armour anyway!
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My experiences were more than 30 years ago, I'm definitely past exotic places now. Mind you, I often get lots of tiny itchy red spots after I've been working out in grassy areas. People often blame these on mosquitoes or midges but they are actually caused by harvest mites, so tiny they are practically invisible. Of course, there are also increasing numbers of ticks, which can spread the very unpleasant Lyme disease. So the British countryside isn't always that free of nasties.
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That's very true. It's my husband who has to do the tick check on our dog when she's been out. I can't to it myself. we have one of those special tweezer remover devices which seems to work really well. We've never yet had a tick on ourselves, but I suppose that's not impossible either