Shrimp and a freshwater ?

fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
Hi everybody
i have two ?'s
The first one is that. I have a cleaner shrimp and it started to get white dots on it. The color of the dots is like the reflective white thats on the shrimp. What is it? Is it bad?
The other ? is for you freshwater people out there.
I have a planted aquarium with T-5 lighting and only regular gravel. i seem to have a lot of algae growing all over my plants. So the plants are dieing. This algae is green and has some length to it also. My ? is how could I get rid of it. What is the best invert that would eat it?
 
seattle

seattle

Member
It has Marine White spot disease I think,I just turned in my marine fish care book to the library today so your outta luck,from me anyway.
 
joojoo

joojoo

Member
I can't help you with the shrimp problem. I've heard of shrimp being chemically burned, do you dose anything? Maybe a chunk of salt creep fell on him? I'm not sure.
As for the FW algae, any invert you add to eat the pest algae will most likely eat your decorative plants as well. Try to find an Amano Shrimp, they are herbivores I believe. Can you remove the plants and manually scrub the algae off the plants without disturbing too much gravel, decor, etc? That might be your best bet until the plants can remove most of the excess nutrients in your tank. How long have you had the planted tank?
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
another good plant cleaner is otto cats they are small and wont damage plants when cleaning the alqae off them.
 
fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
i do have 4 Japanese algae eating shrimp and seven ghost shrimp. Its a 20 gal and it's been up for half a year. For scraping off the algae on the plants i might get something to get it off. I tryed just using my hand on one leaf and it was sort of hard to get it off.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Otocinclus catfish are used by some of the best proffesionals in nature aquariums to keep algae from forming on expensive and rare aquatic plants even Takashi Amano reccomends then as they stay small they are great for smaller tanks. (for those that dont know who Takashi Amano is he is a rather well respected writer IMO for TFH magazine) if you've ever seen any of his tanks you wouldnt even think twice about using them.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
For the plants, get a small plecostomus.........aka pleco. Snail will eat your plants. Pleco's are algae eaters. As for the shrimp, inverts don't get ich, only fish.
Just read up this post and otto cats are indeed very effective as well. They are very small and will die without enough algae though. It sounds like you have more than enough to keep them sustained. They just need algae to have a head start on them. Some people buy them for new aquariums and they don't last.
 
fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
White dots came off shrimp after he molted.
I will check at stupid ***** to see what fish they have in their planted tanks.
 
flcandy

flcandy

Member
If you get the cat and the algae dies out you can buy algae wafers, the pleco in my BF's tank loves them. 2 a day keep him going and he is a beast (8 in+).
Good luck with the algae, we had some on a plant we put in out FW dwarf puffer tank and it is kinda fuzzy, hope the ghost shrimp will eat it. She is also carrying eggs by the way (FW Ghost Shrimp) will let you know how that goes. They look heavy and ready to be released. I can see them wriggling around in the eggs now.
 
fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
Originally Posted by FlCandy
If you get the cat and the algae dies out you can buy algae wafers, the pleco in my BF's tank loves them. 2 a day keep him going and he is a beast (8 in+).
Good luck with the algae, we had some on a plant we put in out FW dwarf puffer tank and it is kinda fuzzy, hope the ghost shrimp will eat it. She is also carrying eggs by the way (FW Ghost Shrimp) will let you know how that goes. They look heavy and ready to be released. I can see them wriggling around in the eggs now.

I saw one of my ghosts carrying eggs, but they just disappered.
I really don't want a pleco because they are just too common plus I already have one in my 55 gal thats almost one foot long.
 
flcandy

flcandy

Member
yeah they get huge but if your LFS does trade in for fish you could always do that. I just found one in the area that does this (I have been here a year) and am so happy I could poo. I just got rid of a south american cichlid this way and am looking to be rid of a damsel soon to. :jumping:
I would go with the cat though they are cute and very active without getting to the gargantuan size of the plecos.
I think they are boring fish (plecos) and would love to be rid of him as all he seems to do is poo and sleep.
The shrimp probably spawned and the fish ate them or they got caught by the filter, hope the puffers eat them instead of that ... :thinking:
Good luck!
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
For the plants, get a small plecostomus.........aka pleco. Snail will eat your plants. Pleco's are algae eaters. As for the shrimp, inverts don't get ich, only fish.
Just read up this post and otto cats are indeed very effective as well. They are very small and will die without enough algae though. It sounds like you have more than enough to keep them sustained. They just need algae to have a head start on them. Some people buy them for new aquariums and they don't last.

plecos are effective at eating algae but too many species IMO get too big, and their mouths are far rougher than otto cats so they can damage soft leaf plants (even though they are not eating them the rasping abrades the leaves) the otto cat stays small so can clean the nooks and crannies in the leaves without damaging even the most sensitive plant.
of course if all you have are tough broad leaf plants a pleco will do fine. just dont get a royal or any of the other wood requiring ones because they need to have driftwood to eat, and their mouths are so rough they can trash plants trying to get the algae off them.
random thought, why is it that a pleco always seems to poop more than they eat?
 
andy51632

andy51632

Member
Your problem is you need some form of CO2. With out a form of CO2(seachem excel, pressurized CO2, or DIY yeast co2 reactor) you are really just making a massive algae farm out of your tank. There are specific sites that cover planted aquariums do a search. Dont put anymore money into that tank until you are confident on growing plants. They compare the planted aquarium to a table with three legs. One is lighting, one is CO2, and the last is fertilization. If you are failing in any one of those areas your tank will be a massive algae farm. On the other hand if you get these three things working for you, you can create a beatiful peace of art.
Oto cats, bristlenose plecos(no other they will eat your plants), and there is one fish that I would recommend to anybody just learning how to setup a planted aquarium the Florida flagfish. These guys will eat massive amounts of algae.
 
fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
Originally Posted by andy51632
Your problem is you need some form of CO2. With out a form of CO2(seachem excel, pressurized CO2, or DIY yeast co2 reactor) you are really just making a massive algae farm out of your tank. There are specific sites that cover planted aquariums do a search. Dont put anymore money into that tank until you are confident on growing plants. They compare the planted aquarium to a table with three legs. One is lighting, one is CO2, and the last is fertilization. If you are failing in any one of those areas your tank will be a massive algae farm. On the other hand if you get these three things working for you, you can create a beatiful peace of art.
Oto cats, bristlenose plecos(no other they will eat your plants), and there is one fish that I would recommend to anybody just learning how to setup a planted aquarium the Florida flagfish. These guys will eat massive amounts of algae.

I just don't want to spend a lot of money getting a co2 system, but I really want to get sand because it looks way better and it seems to do the best.
 
joojoo

joojoo

Member
Originally Posted by fishkid2
I just got 4 oto cats for the 20 gal. Do you think thats too much?
If these are the only fish, then no. Depends how heavy the load is.
 
fishkid2

fishkid2

Member
The other fish I have in there is a tiny silver dollar, 3 neons, and 2 molly ballons if you saltwater people know what these are
 
joojoo

joojoo

Member
For now, they will be fine. Depends how much algae they eat over time and if they all will have enough food. But you can always give them some algae chips.
 
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