Great tank cleaners

R

rachel

Guest
I have my Axie in a 35 gallon planted tank. I use black sand for substrate. I have one mystery snail in there that has been doing a great job of cleaning the algae and dead plant leaves. I recently got 5 freshwater clams and I have to say, they are GREAT tank cleaners! There was some uneaten food in my tank that had been there a while as well as a few axie poops. The morning after I put the clams in, the old food and poops were gone! My substrate was sparkling clean. Axie's won't bother the clams because they live in the substrate. The clams are filter feeders and may have just buried the waste but the tank does look really clean now.
 
Thanks for the info on the fw clams, i was thinking about starting a colony in one of my tanks. Mine are all planted also. As for cleaners i have had sucess with with red cherry shrimp and ghost shrimps and my axies leave them alone also. Red cherries eat the little particles/algae, ghost shrimp eat left over foods, ramshorn snail eat the dead plants and I do the water changes :p

For the clams, about how deep do you have your substrate. I heard they are pretty good at keeping the sand from getting those deadzones.
 
Ah - one problem with freshwater clams are the young - they attach themselves to passing animals - just watch out for that, ok?
 
Sorry to say.... proceed at your own risk. Clams are mentioned in the Species Mixing Disasters page:

Mollusks?
Posted on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:21:

when i was about 15, i had a freshwater mussel with a couple of african dwarf frogs. one day, i found the frogs toes clamped in the mussel. it took 20 minutes of trying to pry the mussel open with a credit card and a butterknife before we got the frog out. they both survived, but i wouldnt keep mussels or clams with anything else after that.
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/8/15121.html?1083000469
}
 
The clams I have are about 1" and my substrate is 3". The person I got them from said they won't breed in captivity, but I'm not sure why. I will definitly be watching out for the larvaes just in case.

I didn't know I could put shrimp with my axie. I thought for sure they would get eaten. There's some glass shrimp at a fish store near me that are pretty cheap. Maybe I'll try a few. If they do get eaten, then at least my axie had a good snack
happy.gif


Please do not post where you got your animals outside of the Testimonial section as this is a form of testimonial.


(Message edited by Ed on October 27, 2006)
 
Deep sand beds like that can also develop local anerobic spots which if stirred up will release hydrogen sulfide into the water which can kill all of the aquatic animals.

Clams can also be a problem if they die as you may miss the evidence of thier death. This can cause rapid and quick increases in ammonia and nitrite which can lead to death of the tank inhabitants.
Most of the freshwater clams are stream and river dwellers that are very sensitive to poor water conditions and usually require high oxygen levels to survive. They also need a high amount of suspended food in the water column or they starve to death with the results mentioned above.

Ed
 
My personal favourite shrimp for Axolotl tanks are Caridina Japonica (now renamed Caridina Multidenta).
They're very good cleaners, nippy and non-aggressive, happy about 19-20C. (on the cold end of the scale - not sure about the high end)

Paleomontes may be slightly bigger and faster, but they fight a lot, and will even wave claws at amphibians. And they are lazy.
 
how do you keep a snail alive in tank with axies. havent found any snails that will surive in water below 65 degrees. keep my water at 64 with a water chiller
 
Apple snails stay alive in mine. They don't eat live plants and lay eggs above the water line so if you don't want more just take the eggs out.
 
I keep an apple snail (aka mystery snail) in with my axies. I think that clams are a really cool idea- good cleaners and they look pretty nice as well. How expensive are they?
 
yeah, Caridina Japonica may be good cleaners but the thing is, they are hard to reproduce in captivity. Their young need brackish water to live. Most other Caridina can reproduce sucessfully in fresh water but require more acidic water, and i am sure axolotl will not be happy.

Neocaridina sp. reproduce fairly easily, so even with the short lifespan of the shrimp will replace each other, plus Neocaridina denticulata sinensis (red) aka cherry shrimp have been known been kept to between 50°F and 86°F and can even survive
temperatures in the 30s°F.

Amber as for your Paleomontes you describe, yes they are a bit more agressive than dwarf shrimp but I have not witnessed agression to the extent you describe. Definately not lazy. You may have a Macrobrachium sp or a more agressive Paleomontes. Also you have a UK tab and Paleomontes usually are not found outside of the USA. Most sold as "ghost" or "glass outside USA maybe local river shrimp or macrobrachium, etc. I been keeping Paleomontese on and off for 10+ years as feeders and as pets.

dwarf shrimp will eat the algae but the Paleomontes will eat leftover food and things of that sort also. Want more information? check out petshrimp.com. Good info/boards on keeping these little guys.
 
Hmm. That is odd. I spent hours scanning the net to check on it as it drives me mad if I only have common names, and I'm 85% sure I've ID'd it correctly as P. paucidens. MAY be nipponese - but her body is quite clear and her claws not as long. Colouring is all wrong for assamensis and the Gambas (I'm not sure that's the right name) is too heavily striped with long claws.
However, I could easily have missed the one she will be, they say it's difficult to distinguish P.specimens anyway. Shame I haven't got a good picture really, but I spend long enough watching her.

The biggest one (just over an inch, I'm farily sure female) is the only one of that sp. I have left now, as they kept snipping at each other. Potted does very little besides steal food from the bowl when I feed Spyyk, and observe the world from her spot on top of the tunnel. She doesn't bother the cardis though, and her antennae are finally growing back properly.

My caridinas appear to enjoy left over bloodworm and brineshrimp too, and a local small store orders them in for me should I need them.
 
Thing with those shrimp is that science has not done a real well job identifying and studying them yet and even in the pet trade even less information/descriptions. As for the Paleomontes sp. well, at the pet stores here most are sold as feeders and can me mixed with anything from local caughts to farm raised to several species to who else knows... I have also seen "ghost shrimp" sold at the chain store as pets rather than feeders. In some I even observed polka dotted specimens and ones with more pronounced red markings on legs/aentenae/tail.Darn petstore and their common names for ID!

But the important thing is they get the job done and are great friends to have.

Have you seen your Spyyk eaten any yet? How does he interact with the shrimp freinds? I have noticed mine live pretty peaceful, I havnt seen nipping at shrimp since the day they were introduced and I am not missing any...I have only seen my guy eat the molt of a ghost shrimp once. The shrimp molted darted a way and my guy swamp up to the molt and ate it.
 
*laughs*
I suspect Spyyk of eating them, as the slower ones go missing (I'm down to 7 of 10 shrimp caridinas), but I've never seen her actually catch one.
She likes to stalk them and have the odd snap at them however, but overall she ignores them.
When Potted and her original friends went in, they were bugging Spyyk a little, getting cheeky and prodding her if she got too close, but after the months of scrapping between themselves, chopping each others antennae off and getting eaten, Potted has settled down nicely.

The caridinas have been FAR more successful, they are much nippier, harder working, and better at keeping out of the way in general - hiding in the mosses and such, unlike the daft paleos.

Haven't tried Cherry shrimp or other Amanos yet, but I fully intend to after christmas. I'll be setting up a teeny tiny nano tank, and stocking it with one or two individuals from a couple of the amano sp (as well as the cardis) - so no doubt I'll pop a couple in Spyyk's too.

I just love the way they can "walk" up the glass.
They're so busy all of the time, little claws going like grabber machines, sifting rubbish and broggling holes in my sand!
 
Mind you, it's good to remember that Spyyk is naturally quiet aggressive for an axolotl - her favourite past time is playing and biting at my fingers, climbing up my hands etc.
She's unusually active for her age (coming up to a year soon), but has always been like that!

She's VERY quick too - which may be a reason why shrimp got eaten.
 
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