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Hello all

Ive got tons of questions!!(AS ushaul)

1.I have a Asian Blue shrimp(aka citizen snips, or snips) Who always goes to my anacharis in the back and snips off lots of it, then brings it down to his liar, is this normal? I once saw him with a whole 7 inch peice! He also moves EVERYTHING in my tank around, plants,rocks, and moss.
Is he normal? Ive also noticed that he has grown an inch in about 3 weeks!What should I do? I don't want plastic plants, put it is expensive to keep replacing them. Is there anyway to stop him?

2.I have algea all over my plants, only my plants. Is this also normal? I have 4 ottos who are having a delicious time..but are not really doing anything..Can i take the plants out and wipe them with plain paper towls?

3.Is regular cheaper swapmeet Bamboo the same thing as expernsive perstore kind?

4.Is there a real "limit' to the amount of plants I can have in my tank? I want to line the entire back wall with tons of Anacharis and bamboo.(10 gallon,flurescent lighting)

5.Whats the safest way to change rocks?

THANK YOU ALL!

You probably have a blue crayfish but I've never heard them called asian blue shrimp before. Crayfish are rather destructive tank inhabitants and can do lots of damage to a planted tank. They will also eat any fish you keep in the tank no matter their size. Crayfish have taken chunks off rather large fish before. Anything too big to be food turns them into food. Generally they are best suited to a species tank with solid rock decorations and very hardy plant species.

First step, go here and identify your 'Asian Blue Shrimp'.

For example, does this]http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Photos/FloridaProcambarus.jpg[/link] look like your critter? Or [link=this by any chance? Either of those two are actually Crayfish, and in the case of the latter one, its scientific name tells you a lot about it - Cherax destructor ... !!!

Both of those critters are going to outgrow a 10 gallon in pretty short order, and are also likely to consider your poor Otocinclus as lunch as they get bigger ... I'd check your crustacean's identity FAST ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Ok, let my have a go here...

1. I am not quite sure what that is, sounds more like a crayfish. a picture would help. Ah, a quick google search yielded crayfish of Cambaroides sp. from asia. But I have never heard of these let alone kept them. If we were talking about north american species I would say yes rearranging things is normal.


2.Anacharis has lots of little leaves, as you well know, and it e to collecting debris because of this. Is it a dark blue-green color? More than likely the stuff it is collecting is causing the algae grow, which is why it is mainly isolated on the plants. I gentle shaking in a bucket of water should do the trick.

3.I suppose, just make sure it is clean enough to go in the tank though, don't want any nasty chemicals,animals, etc introduced. Though bamboo should never really be put in an aquarium I have found the best thing to do is to have most of the plants leaves above the surface of the water and strip the leaves that are under the water to prevent them from rotting.

4.Well when the lights go off plants produce CO2 and too much of that is a bad thing for your fish, plus anacharis should not really be crowded as this can lead to massive die off and a massive mess.

5.Are you refering to the gravel? If you want to go ahead just be sure to leave some of the old gravel in container or a filter media bag in the tank for a couple of weeks, to save the bacteria in it.

Aye..tis Snips could not be identified so far. Blue asian shrimp was the name i bought it by, max is 6 inches, guy said a 10 was ok.I might put a picture on tommorow. My ottos will be fine, the LFS where i bought it (*cough* petKo *cough*) was put with much larger fish,making it kind of used to them. I dont think he could catch a otto anyway.I will keep trying to identify this lil booger. THANK YOU ALL~

Aye..tis Snips could not be identified so far. Blue asian shrimp was the name i bought it by, max is 6 inches, guy said a 10 was ok.I might put a picture on tommorow. My ottos will be fine, the LFS where i bought it (*cough* petKo *cough*) was put with much larger fish,making it kind of used to them. I dont think he could catch a otto anyway.I will keep trying to identify this lil booger. THANK YOU ALL~

you have to put a picture up, then more people will be able to help you out

If the max is 6" then unless it's a species of atyopsis which I'm pretty certain don't come in blue then it's going to eat small fish. It's also going to go after large fish. Petstores often keep them in with feeder goldfish and let them pick off the dead ones. They'll also put them in with larger cichlids to keep the crayfish from eating other fish but eventually they will get big enough to do some damage. Crayfish will wait on the bottom or decorations where fish hang out and it may take days, weeks, or months but eventually some fish is going to make a mistake and get caught. Having him used to big fish is not going to make much difference except it might be better if they've never seen big fish. They might be scared of them for awhile. Chances are it is a species that will wreak havoc in any planted tank and have it out with any fish.