I've never kept amanos before so I can't speak exactly to them, however with the cherry shrimp I keep, they need to be fed every couple days not weekly, I actually feed daily because I like to keep a large population. There are ~100 in a 5 gallon and they get 4 mini sinking hikari algae wafers a day. I also feed instead 1 day a week mini sinking bottom feeder pellets (I think hikari as well) to supplement a bit of a meaty diet, though I don't think it's as necessary with amanos and cherry shrimp as it is with ghost.

As to calcium, I have hard water so that's not a concern for me, and within reason they are very hardy as far as water conditions are concerned. That being said, i was also having an issue with my shrimp dying after molting. 1-2 drops per GALLON of iodide, kents same as you have, seems to have helped immensely. I dose with every water change and have seen no issues with that does rate in my community tank or my shrimp tank. I also dose trace, npk iron and 2x recommended dose rate of excel all without issues, so you should do fine with those as well

Good luck

 

Thank you, sounds like they were not being fed enough and possibly the lack of iodide too I appreciate the dose info!

Amano shrimp being that I never see them (always hiding in the dark cave) will be hard to feed. I will try putting some frozen food at the entrance. That variety pack has Freshwater Frenzy™, Emerald Entree™, Bloodworms, and Spirulina Brine Shrimp...however I can not tell them apart lol I am sure they will eat any of those.

 

I hardly every directly feed my Amano and Cherry Shrimps. They are great foragers finding all the food that drops into crevaices and eap up the algae aswell. They even grab food away from the fishes then scurry away to a spot to eat. I feed all my Fishes/Shrimp/Snails/Frogs New Life Spectrum .5 size pellets and once or twice a week i drop in a Hikari Mini Algae wafer or two. To vary their diet I also feed Hikari Frozen Bloodworms twice weekly.

I Use the entire line of Seachems Dosing Schedule biweekly and the shrimp do fine with them. I do however keep my gh (7-9) and kh (0-2) aswell as weekly water changes.

At first they hid in caves every chance they got. After awhile your Amanos will come out and flourish in the light like mine do. Some even like surfing on leaves and hanging onto my floating plants going for a ride around the tank.

 

amano is the most durable badass shrimp there is. you need to literally pee in the aquarium to kill it. in all other events it will kill you first.

 

Targeted feeding isn't really necessary, they will find the food if you put it in the tank, and surprisingly quickly too also I wouldn't worry too much about over feeding (within reason) they take a while to pick at their food so leave it there until it's gone, if it takes until the next day, skip feeding the next day... They'll be fine and it won't hurt your water equality

 

I had three amano shrimp for a few years. They seemed to be the most resilient thing in the tank. They were in my 55 gallon aquarium and outlived every fish I've ever had in there. It seems as if two of them have died recently, though. I had noticed one of them turning pinkish, which means they are dying of old age, right? That's what I've heard anyway. So I just have one left and I moved it to a new tank last night (in which process it escaped its acclimation cup by flinging itself 8 feet across the room). So anyway, I've had it for about 3 years and they seem to be super resilient. I never added extra food for them because they were put in an aged tank that had a lot of stuff for them to forage on.

 

I did notice they are amazing jumpers compared to Ghost shrimp, but I only see 1 at a time since the first night so 2 of them must be hiding in the cave or dead in there lol. I just got my GH/KH kit so I will see where my water is at tonight since nothing else seems to be an issue as far as water chemistry.

Nobody here uses Iodide or Calcium supplements??

 

Didn't you say your water parameters are all zero??

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
0 nitrates

 

I found all 3 Amanos out this evening! They were in this back corner where the filter, heater, and other hardware are hidden. There is only one way into this area and once my Betta gets over here the filter stream hits him and he gets claustrophobic and leaves haha. I did see an Amano molt behind the filter then stay hidden there while his shell hardens while the other two graze under it...let the filter do the work and pull all the debris toward it anything that does not make it in falls under the filter.

Correct. My test kit came in today for GH/KH (API) and I tested both my tap water after conditioned with Prime and my tank water. I am not sure if I am suppose to count the first drop in the conversion chart so I have two numbers/range. My conditioned tap reads 35-54ppm GH & 18-36ppm KH, the tank water read 72-90ppm GH & 36-54ppm KH.

 

Nice! Amano shrimps are masters of hiding, and they are even better at escaping put 3 in 1 tank and they climbed out and ran away! They can survive on land for a bit of time, but will evnetually dry up, especially in a dry environment like a typical house. They were found soon luckily, and were put back in the tank-with extra security measures. They are can 'run' quite fast on land as well as being ept climbers! They are also quite peaceful, so yeah an awesome shrimp! Thety dont climb out any more though. They are fully established.

 

I actually let it go for a long time without vacuuming, none of my plants rot and my only bio-load this whole time has been a single Betta fish that eats all his food. Holding 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite is not hard, if anything it is the nitrate that may be a challenge for some people. My biggest rooting plant at the surface is a bog grass I pulled from a pond myself and the root system is massive I have to continuously trim it back between that and my Peace Lily the roots are always stretching, plus Frogbit loves nutrients as well. I fight myself with other tanks but this one is crazy stable, with that being said I do not see how the Liquid Calcium is going to help since my level on hardness seem fine even the tap water is almost spot on. I am using the Iodide now (1-2 drops per gallon) and a second Amano has now molted, I think with the use of Iodide I may add some Ghost shrimp again and see if they make it...they will clean in the lighted areas that my Amanos do not seem to touch.

 

SAE need aquariums of at leaast 20-25 gallons, and prefers quite a bit of cover, and shud be kept in shoals or at least trios. But if thetank is cycled, amans will be fine in that set up, preferably with more shelter and plants.

 

SAE? Amanos need 20-25+ ?

I did notice how the 3 stay together for the most part, I want two more to make 5 and do not want to separate them now that they are used to their new environment plus each other. They will not come out of their back corner though or at least not during the daylight so I am thinking a mix of Ghost shrimp will really help.

 

SAE is Siamese Algae Eater. And amano shrimps dont need 20-25 gallons but SAEs do. Amano shrimp minimum tank size would be like 3 gallons or less. And also I totally agree that amanos are beast algae eaters !! And also, some amanos have blue tints-no idea why.

 

I added some blanched Zucchini for the snails, the Amanos showed some interest in it as well. Since they have adopted this back corner as a long-term base I do not see them venturing very far into the rest of the tank or at least not very often. This is kind of a good thing as far as feeding, I can target feed right next to my filter...shrimp make a mess they tare the food apart and let pieces go flying so at least this way the filter catches any floating debris!

 

Amano shrimp are very hardy. They're tougher to kill then ghost shrimp and have done just fine with german blue rams for me. I kept the rams in practically 100% RO water for breeding and the Amano shrimp lived for years. As they got older and larger they even would compete with my rams for food, going upside down at feeding time and snatching flakes off the surface. I would be very careful with dosing in a smaller body of water.

 

I went back to my LFS that I found these Amano's at to pickup a few more, they did not have any as I expected but they had another variation that was all but the same thing they said only they were $2.50ea instead of $3.00

Usually the tag says Amano, they have the same body build but seems a tad bit smaller with a blue tint. The dots that are usually red on the sides seem black, they do not seem to have any issues schooling with my Amano's and also break off with their own kind as well. I saw cherry shrimp and similar today at the LFS, they are smaller than Amano shrimp they look useless for eating algae...Amano's really are badass! The other difference I think I can see is the vertical spike on the nose of these Japanese shrimp:

 

What are these SAE look-a-likes I see at every LFS? There are always like 20 of them in a 5 gallon tank?

Not only do these two I bought have a blue tint but look at them side by side, one has two blue dots on its tail and the other has just one red/orange dot. I am thinking these are Amanos, but a different breeder sold them to the store and did not want to use the possibly copyrighted Amano name for some reason or something. Now that there are 5, I see them breaking up a bit and venturing into the light and rest of the tank.

 

SAE look alikes? Are those otocinclus? They dont look too similar, but 20 could fit in 5 gallon(I mean PHYSICALLY fit, not properly stocked), unlike 20 SAEs, who would be too active and large for them to even FIT.

 

No they are not otocinclus, the tag always just says "Algae Eater" and they look very similar. The black line is thinner along its side, sometimes broken up into circles or dashes.

 

Looks like wild type chinese algae eaters.

 

I ended up adding 2 Ghost shrimp to "test my waters" now using iodide since it has been over a month and I have not lost any of my Amano shrimp (although I only count 4 of 5 but can not find an orange carcass). They met and I was a bit worried since the Ghosts I found were enormous, but they did not seem to bother each other.

Sadly 2 days later I saw one of them wander out into the open this morning then fall over, as it was turning white. I know they have short lifespans compared to Amanos so maybe I should avoid buying large ones that may be nearing the end of their life. It made for a meal though, I soon found my snails munching on it so I will leave it for a day or two. When it was alive it ate an Amano molt, and I bet the Amanos will now feast on it...ahh the cycle of life haha

 

So I am a bit sad, I thought I was missing Amano shrimp but never saw a "bright orange" carcass but I found a dead on yesterday and another today...this is a bummer because they did so well. Now I am a bit discouraged, I test my water frequently and never have ammonia or nitrite, even nitrate stays at 0. I had to add something for nitrates because my plants were stunting, so I dropped in 2 single pellets of Osmocote Plus in my HOB. They got my nitrate ppm up to 3 or 4 which I was content with, but they also release other fertilizers as well, I had skipped a week vac/water change because I needed more nitrates but it may have allowed other elements to build up as well...I am trying to find out now if Osmocote Plus contains any metals!

EDIT: The analysis breakdown shows 0.05% copper I assume in your substrate this is not an issue but in your water column this can be a huge problem! Two healthy ones emerged later this evening and one that was paralyzed I moved to another tank and it is fighting, goes between standing and dangling legs and laying on its side lol if it will molt it may live. Amanos are tough!

 

I picked up some Ghost shrimp and some are all clear/white and some have two red dots on their tail with red bands on their antenna and red dots where their claw meets their arm. Are these better Ghost shrimp than the all clear/white?

 

I had two Amano shrimp jump out of a tank and I found them over a foot away on the floor, they have been in the tank for several weeks and there is still one in there. I found them both within an inch of one another, I did a water test and everything is fine. I had been feeding NLS, I coincidentally had a Ghost shrimp die in that tank last night too. Any idea what would make a pair do that?

 

If they crawled out their is a high chance that something in the water, or some other livestock has harmed or disrubted the amanos. The betta or the new ghosts might be the problem. I had ghosts&similar shrimps before, and they were fine for a month or so, then they ripped out the belly of a danio. And red dots on the 'ghost' shrimp? That migt not be a ghost shrimp!!! But since the ghost died too, i dont hink thats the prob, probably something in the water that lies udetected??? Amano shrimps are really tough, but like other shrimps, they are on the sensitive side when it comes to water parameters and metals in the water(copper,etc).

 

They are in a basement isolation tank, with nothing but Nerites and Ghost shrimp.

Yes and that is the Ghost that died, red bands on antenna and red dots where claws meet forearms. Google did show them as a Ghost shrimp though, it wasn't a whisker shrimp.

My other theory is they grew an appetite, they cleaned all the algae from my tank it is spotless to the point I started feeding them NLS....I wonder if they thought there was another puddle next to my tank full of algae like when I first introduced them to my tank?