Copper

As I am planning into venturing in to the wonderfull world of shrimp keeping I had a good look at the labels on the various food I feed my fish (don't have shrimp yet:( ) and was wondering about some of the ingredients stated, some clearly state there is copper in it, others don't but I am just thinkin is it under a diffirent name or combo of letters and numbers,
what do I need to look out for.

And another related question, can I put shrimp in a tank in wich the fish have previously been fed copper containing foods?

Thanks for the replies

Hi mrs fishpatrick
don't know to much about these guys but as for cleaning the tank before use i would suggest either lemon juice or vinegar. with tanks i don't know the history of or there was a problem with i use the following method.

when the tank is completely dry i use a cloth to totally wash the tank with the above i do this twice over an hour then rinse

next comes the steradent which i allow to soak over night

a quick rinse

half fill tank with warm water add lemon juice and sodium bicarbonate (bread soda) give it a good old wash rinse clean

and the tank is now ready for use.

it sounds long wined but lemon juice and vinegar are acidic and help remove any limescale build up that may house anything as does the steradent while killing anything bad.

the lemon juice and bread soda deodorises the tank (also very good and safe for bird cages etc).

Thanks for the answer Mickey but this tank is up and running with the aquascape in place since october, it has a few neons in it to keep the cycle going.
Most of what I have been feeding them is the tetra pro crisps, wich doesnt state it has copper, but you never know

don't mind the watermarks

Nice tank, I reckon you will be safe enough, a few cleans of the tank will get rid of the copper remains I would imagine. The traces of copper in the tank will be extremely low if evident at all and the shrimp should be fine. Yes watch out for the foods you feed going forward and if any meds are in the tank of recent times Id use some carbon to eliminate just to be sure. Ive found that some of my shrimp are only after colouring up properly recently.

Gavin

I haven't used any meds in the tank, one of the neons was showing signs of NTD but I culled it because of it being a future shrimp tank and not wanting to use meds.

What shrimp have you got?

Not many Mrs F. Ive some amanno's that I never see in my South American tank, as well as some Woodland shrimp (Fan shrimp, lovely) who are much bigger and able to mind themselves despite being fan shrimp, and some Cherry red shrimp in my community tank also. (Who have coloured up lovely lately)
What type of shrimp are you going to get ?
Gavin

I have my heart set on blue pearl shrimp (neocaridina specie) and if all goes well some CRS, would love to eventually have sulawesi(cardinal) shrimp but I will first try my luck with these.

What fish are in with the red cherries in your community?

Your lucky you can get your hands on those shrimp, in Cork we are limited to what fish never mind what shrimp we can get. The Blue Shrimp are similar to the Cherry reds in terms of behaviour,demands etc!! The Sulawesi are gorgeous, I was trying to see where you would locate them last year but defo didnt come across them in Cork and likely way of getting them was from abroad and planetinverts was receiving bad comments at the time and has since gotten worse so I never got around to ordering some in.
The Cherry red shrimp are kept in a community tank, nothing too exciting, neons,cardinals,guppys,(too many of them, fry etc.),cherry barbs,small molly,bronze corys,endlers and hong kong plecos.I introduced around 7 or 8 of them and think I had about 10 at one stage however I have seen on occassions the odd dead shrimp body (not the exoskelton but the actual body like you'd have in a shrimp cocktail!),which the fish have picked away at but I never actually saw the shrimp being harassed or eaten so put it down to natural causes or possibly a hungry fish spotting an opportunity when it had shed. Ive about 5 of them there now for a good while and they are big enough now to hold their own even though they are a dwarf shrimp. Great red colours also on them esp since I changed the lightening.
Ironically enough I had the filter shrimp(Singapore shrimp x 2) and they have intensified in colour since the move. They sit now under the spray bar outlet in the South Amercan tank and feed constanlty off the current!

Gavin

I can't get them here either, am going to get them myself or get them send over, might be another while before I actually get them.
I am trying to get them through local pet shops but so far no joy.

BUT I AM GOIN TO GET THEM

When you do let me know you source!!!
Heres one of my cherrys, much brighter now but this pic is when he was only newly introduced.


Here is my Singapore Shrimp

They look cool, can't wait till I get my shrimp.
Even the red cherry's are starting to look tempting

Fishowner wrote:

.The Sulawesi are gorgeous, I was trying to see where you would locate them last year but defo didnt come across them in Cork and likely way of getting them was from abroad and planetinverts was receiving bad comments at the time and has since gotten worse so I never got around to ordering some in.
Gavin

Tom in D&m aquatics in Croagh has about 4 different varieties of these in since last week, should still have some they where relatively inexpensive too if i remember correctly, pm him or call the shop he'll hold them for you

Seamus

Where is that shop sheagh?

sorry seen you are on the other side of the island

its outside Adare village in another small village called Croagh, its behind the garden centre in croagh... well worth the visit even if it is on the other side of the island;) contact details for tom are in sponsors section