BAMBOO SHRIMP

Hi , I have 3 lovley bamboo shrimp in my tank at the moment , but the seem to hide quite alot and are quite shy . but when they do come out the are facinating to watch . I have added some longer plant to the tank to try to get the to sit on them to feed but onl;y one onf the will do that . Has anybody any tips on how to promote them to feed o
penly . By the way they are in with blue /gold rams and cardials . the fish are not bothered with them at all

Mine were pretty active.... They would sit on the vallis leaves by the current feeding away alot of the time.

Try putting the plant beside the current.

added one in last night right in the current so hopefully when I get home they will be on it

how long have you got them dave? i understand you saying the fish don't bother them but how would you feel thrown in a new tank with things 20 times the size of you, give them time to ajust

Rams and cardinals aint that big dar ! but i agree, give some time to settle in.

ok ok i over exaggerated slightly

where is ian wen we need calculations, or is there any weight watcher dieters here that can compare bmi on rams and bamboo shrimp?

lol I see your point dar but the are probably the same size as the rams they are at least 2 inchs each.2 of them seem to be shy and one of them is out a fair bit . They can move when they want to . I do have some red crystals in there and have not seen them at all bar once or twice at night .

Intoduced some apple snails last night as well

Yep they are filter feeders... however mine also ate flake food and scouped up bits of algae tabs.

yes filter feeders , great to watch they have four fans insteed of claws / pincers. And they go to a current display the fans and then suck off any thing they catch , captivating

Ok,Ive kept these for a few years and they are great shrimp in my opinion.
They are filter feeders and while they can be target fed also (turkey baster or syrnge and squirt maybe baby brine shrimp etc towards them),I find they do fine under the flow of a filter. To encourage them to come out you could place a suction cup or two near the outflow of your filter and they will often rest on these.At least thats what I have done in one of my tanks and they use it.(I used a bar from an old heater suction cup and they can rest on that)Other measures for feeding is to put a partially disolved algae tablet in and it will get enough from that if its soft,but again the shrimp are fan filters and as such shouldnt be scouring the bottom looking for food. I wouldnt recommend adding them to a new set up as much of the time there simply wont be enough micro organisms for them to feed off.
They get enough of micro organisms from the water to survive,however on occassions they will search along the bottom of the tank scooping up whatever they can,this tends to be a sign that they are hungry.
The fact only 2 of them are out ,could mean the third is molting at present and theses shrimp leave behind a fantastic perfect complete skeleton once they shed. Expect them to hide for a day or two after molding as well.They are great shrimp.Ive had mine a few years now and never had any problem with them.
Here is a pic of one of mine.

Gavin very kind of you to provide hitching posts for them to sit on, I never thought of that, I will give it a try. I call them remote control shrimp because if you re-direct the filter output they will immediately re-locate to sit in the flow. The things we do for amusement

Yes I used to give them a treat of spirulina powder as I had quite a few in the one tank and there were various sized African Fan Shrimps too so I wanted to make sure they got enough to eat. They should not need to eat off the bottom but they will if they need to.

All the filter feeders are unsuitable for tank with boisterous or larger fish as they are quite nervous and have no defense, especially after molting. Any fin nippers are a definite no no as they would go for their filters.

One reason why the OP's Shrimp maybe shy is the species, there seems to be several varieties available in the shops. I know I have definitely two difference types if not more and one type is definitely more active than the other(s).

I was lucky to see one on the floor of the fish room one night, as he was almost the colour of the floor (OSB) so very lucky not to be squashed, I picked him up and returned him back to his original tank about 3m away and put a condensation tray over the tank. About a week later I spotted him in a tank that was in the direction he was heading when I found him on the floor!! There had never been any fan shrimp in that tank and none in tanks nearby so I am sure it was him. That was about two years ago and he is still there, he seems to be happy with his choice as it is an open top tank and he has not left since - moral of the story - these guys can get out, although I don't think they are regularly known for it.


Daragh

thanks guy when I got up this morning 2 of them were sitting on bogwwod filtering.
I did notice though the have change colour with a much darker stripe along there back .