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Re: Live Foods Digest V2 #278

I unintentionally cultured the glass shrimp so common in Florida fresh waters.
I set up a 29 gallon tank intending to breed the diamond sunfish. I put two
pairs of these in the tank, and also Heterandria formosa and glass shrimp for
them to eat. The only thing I saw the fish eat for sure was live Daphnia.
However the shrimp would perch atop coconut shells and try to catch the H.
formosa as they went by. Once in a while they'd get one. The failure rate of
their efforts was phenomenally high, but like telemarketers, they never quit
trying. The tank was set up with an undergravel filter plate carefully wrapped
with landscape cloth, and covered with two inches of sand. I observed the
sunfish burying themselves in the wild right up to their eyes, but they never
did this in my tank. I was hoping they would. 

The filter plate was powered by a remote outside power filter. I wanted to cut
down on the noise and vibration our tanks usually have, but it didn't help
much. The vibration was delivered with the water somehow. 

There were lots of plants, Aponogeton bulbs, Vallisneria, and floating Najas
graminea. There were some pieces of driftwood and several coconut shells
broken in half, about. I collected the fish and the shells at the same locale,
the other items were purchased to imitate the habitat I observed, except no
beer cans or McDonald's wrappers. Green eggs formed on several female shrimp,
then there would be tiny shrimp all over and they'd grow. Eventually they
became so numerous and were eating so many of the Hets, that I put them in a
20L which was bare bottom, but filled with Najas graminea and they continued
to breed and grow.

Another club member had success with a different glass shrimp, one from the
Near East. His tanks were filled with driftwood, Java fern, and Java moss. He
kept catfish. I remember his had dots on them. Red definitely, maybe yellow
too. 

The common factors I noticed were lots of live plants, driftwood, lots of live
food offered.